Like a Kid Waiting For Santa
Thursday, 08 June 2006
Every step of this move to Portland, Maine has been defined by delay and wait over the period of a year and the Fates, apparently, see no reason to let up on this long-term test of my patience, even at the last moment:
The closing on the new apartment is not until 4PM today.
It’s still raining here and will continue until Sunday. There’s nothing much to do while waiting except watch the seagulls. I’ve always liked them. I know, I know. Seagulls are just rats with wings, but they are so perfectly proportioned, wing to body, and so pleasing in their command of the air. Surely it must have been seagulls the ancients were watching when they first dreamed of human flight.
As to the Mainer/Maineiac discussion yesterday, Mainer works for me. The other smacks too much of self-satisfaction which lifelong Mainers may be entitled to for reasons I haven’t discovered yet, but couldn’t apply to me. And, not to step on local toes on my second day in town, but Maineiac is amusing the first time you hear it; after that, it becomes cloying, don’t you think?
The real estate agent and I walked through the new digs yesterday for a final look before the formal purchase today. The living room is smaller than I remembered, the deck is larger and there is still no more wall space for bookshelves than there was when I made the decision to buy.
As with all the other questions of what goes where, it will be fun to decide what to do with the all the books, and I’m ready to get started.
Maineiac is just used as a joke. Mainer is the regular term, as far as I have heard.
And someone from New Hampshire is a "Granite Stater". There's no simple way to say someone from new Hampshire.
Posted by: zuleme | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 04:05 AM
Ronni, I prepared a housewarming present to welcome you in your new digs.
Welcome home.
Posted by: Claude | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 05:27 AM
Ronni:
Stop by my place
http://www.driftwoodinspiration.blogspot.com/
for an Irish Blessing for your new home.
Posted by: Chancy | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 05:56 AM
www.driftwoodinspiration.blogspot.com
Posted by: Chancy | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 06:01 AM
Sounds delightful and I love to watch seagulls, listen to them. It is one of the most relaxing sounds I know-- especially whe there are some waves crashing or rolling in.
Hope your share pictures when you get settled. New starts are very exciting.
Posted by: Rain | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 07:17 AM
Belated best wishes on your successful relocation, Ronni. But (speaking as someone who's never been there) I'm confused about the correct term for residents of your new home state: I have always been told that people from Maine were called "Down Easters." Is that incorrect?
Posted by: Deejay | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 07:37 AM
Ronni--You wrote, "Surely it must have been seagulls the ancients were watching when they first dreamed of human flight." Of course they were watching a seagull. Didn't they teach you about Jonathan Livingston? (Sorry--couldn't help myself.) Hmmm...when my aunt was in Maine, she wrote "Mainiacs". And, Zuleme, have I not heard people in NH refer to themselves as "New Hampshire-ites"? We from Kansas as called "Far-Right Wing Nuts"!! *sigh*
Posted by: Cop Car | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 07:41 AM
Ronni:
I am still thinking about "your seagulls" and how beautiful they must be
I have to snicker at myself when I remember a trip to Dublin some years ago with husband, daughter and son in law. We were strolling around the city and had just visited St. Patrick's Cathedral,where Jonathan Swift was once the dean
As we came out into the bright sunlight I looked up and saw on every one of the tall, antique lamp posts lining the street, the biggest birds ever.
I pointed them out to my family and said." "Those are the biggest "PIGEONS" I have ever seen"
Jet lagged, I had forgotten we were so close to the Irish Sea..and of course the birds were seagulls. :)
Posted by: Chancy | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 08:18 AM
Ronni after you are settled in your new Maine digs I have a book that you must read. I am a poet and highly recommend it to you. The title is "I'm Too Young to Be Seventy" by Judith Viorst. I am 57 and I love it. The poems are good and very meaningfull. :)
Posted by: Paul | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 10:26 AM
That will be so enjoyable for you Ronni to figure out where you want everything to go in your new digs...then decorating it to suit your special spirit. It's almost 4pm EST by my clock, so I imagine you are really getting antsy to get the closing done and move into your new home! Can't wait to hear further news! Enjoy and Congratulations!
Posted by: Melinda | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 11:39 AM
When we built, we gave up one foot of the bedroom so that we could build bookshelves in the hallway. I'll NEVER have enough bookshelves. There's a floor to ceiling bookcase in the kitchen with seven shelves that are just cookbooks. Books are friends. Somehow you just have to make room for them. Good luck as you unpack!
Posted by: buffy | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 06:04 PM
The suspense is killing me! I was hoping when I read this post today you would be writing about the closing on your new abode as being accomplished. But, seems, I'm all caught up in this waiting game along with you.
Then, all that's left for me to sweat out with you is the delivery, intact, of your possessions. Does this saga never end? ;-)
Must get you settled in, the books on the shelves, so you can begin to focus on not only all that will be new about your Maine experience, but pertinent issues of the day.
I've lost track of the issues myself over the last several weeks, but today continued gradually letting back in the outside world.
I read a blurb that said Congress has begun to debate matters pertaining to the Internet. I expect you're going to want us all up to date, ready to comment on that topic when you're ready to address it, Ronni.
Posted by: joared | Thursday, 08 June 2006 at 08:36 PM
By the time Ronni gets settled in and ready to address the topic, it may be too late for saving the Internet as we know it. The House last night passed the pro-corporate legislation being pushed by the phone companies, and the Senate is our last chance to stop it. To read more on the topic, go to:
http://savetheinternet.com/
Posted by: Deejay | Friday, 09 June 2006 at 10:58 AM