End of Summer and On Call Blues.

Summer is the best season and I always have a hard time when I see the end of August. Fall in New England is great but, in my humble opinion, nothing compares to heat and sunshine. Despite what happened, I had a pretty decent summer. I spent time at the little town beach on Mascoma Lake and got a pretty decent tan...for me anyways. I have come pretty far with my running; my pace is slow (9.5-10 minute miles) but I can do 6 miles and feel like I can go farther if I wanted to. Last week, I was asked by one of the residents I work with to join her Reach the Beach relay team. This event is a 200 mile relay race from Cannon Mountain to Hampton beach done by teams of 12 doing 3 legs of varying distances. It's next Friday and Saturday. A youtube video sent to me by my mom's boss sums up the experience really well so I won't go into much detail here. I'm nervous but excited and really hoping my knee cooperates. I will be beefing up my running playlist with a lot of the NIN songs I've recently acquired to keep me going. It'll be challenging but a lot of fun.

Betsy and Cort got married at the top of Burke Mountain on August 10th and I went to their reception that afternoon at the base lodge with Connie and Kevin. I made crockpot meatballs (the first wedding I've been to where I was asked to contribute food) and in my haste to get out the door, I ended up spilling some on the dress I bought in San Francisco for this event. Good thing the dress was primarily black and Connie got most of it out with dish detergent and a paper towel. Frustrating. It was a lot of fun and I ended up drinking and dancing a lot. Good times had by all. I've seen her at DHMC a couple times since then because she's doing a cardiac rotation and I'm supposed to have a sushi date with her one of these days...

The next day, we had a family get together in Ludlow for pizza with my Caligram. My mom, Ray, Sherry, Heather, Dave and Simone were there. Since flying in on the 29th, this was the second and last time I saw her before she went back to California. On the 6th, Diane had my mom, Jeff and myself over for corn chowder and we all just visited for the evening. Cora is in pretty rough shape between her spine and breathing...I'm afraid she doesn't have a lot of time left on this Earth. Caligram is good with the exception of her shoulder that she fell on a few days prior to flying east. I'm dreading getting older.

The following day, I headed to Claremont in the evening to go to Maddy's soccer game. Afterwards, she and Emilee came home with me to spend the night...with a little pit stop at the Swirl & Pearl. The plan was to go to the waterpark the following day but they did not open due to the anticipated poor weather. So, instead, we did some shopping, they got pedicures, we had lunch at Molly's and went back to the Swirl & Pearl.

On the 17th, Jeff and I went to the Goss family BBQ (the only nonfamily members invited because we're awesome and loved). We just hung out, ate a lot of food, and played games. On the 19th, I had dinner in Claremont at Kendall's house with her dad and aunt. It was really nice to spend time with her girl talking before she headed to Kenyon College for her freshman year. It's really hard to believe that she was in diapers when I met her and now she's a young woman heading to college. It's crazy and sad but I'm excited her. Faith too, she headed to the University of Maine in Orono for her freshman year on the 30th. We had a family dinner on the 24th consisting of some of her fave eats to send her off. She's doing well also and I'm happy for her. It doesn't seem so long ago that she was toddling down the hall...so crazy.

On the 23rd, Puffles and Simone met me in Hanover and we headed to Stinson's to introduce her to Sheila. It's always good to see Sheila, tears included lol. We had lunch at Molly's and dessert at the Swirl & Pearl then we headed for the green so Simone could burn some energy. Laura came up to NH for the first time since our graduation on the 25th to spend the day with me as a belated birthday celebration because she wasn't able to on my actual birthday. She got me a really pretty bracelet; I'm normally not a bracelet person but I love it and am excited to wear it on my days of. We had breakfast at Lou's, walked around Hanover and spent some time chatting on a park bench on the green. A trip to CSC was a must and we walked around campus, going into any buildings that were unlocked, sipping iced coffee. The weather was great...it was a really nice day, period. We headed back north and finished the day with Zeppo at Lui Luis.

Well, I suppose I ought to try to get some sleep. I have 6.5 more hours of call...hopefully I can get an early start to my road trip to Maine. A short one night visit for Addi's 3rd birthday party on Sunday. I missed her 1st and 2nd and only being away one night means I can leave Meester Barnaby at home. Speaking of my sleeping love, he is doing better. His appetite, energy, and playfulness is back although he does still sneeze and have the occasional snot rocket. I was really worried about him for a while and I hope he stays this way if not continues to improve. I plan on spending several more years with my sweet baby bear. He can be a pain in my ass but I can't imagine my life without him. It's always going to be just Xander and me.