Cop state

She didn't need the huge roadside sign to know she'd left West Virginia. It was clear as day she was now driving in Virginia. Exactly four seconds after driving past the welcome sign, she saw her first cop of the so-far-eleven-hour trip, pulled over on the Interstate shoulder behind a blue van. Two minutes later she saw another, hidden behind a slight hill in the median. "I hate driving in this state," she exclaimed after spotting a third cop car three more miles down the road. "Someone else better get ready to drive cause I'm done. I'm pulling into that rest stop up ahead. Virginia's the worst place for cops. Well, after Collegedale, that is."

Maine beaches

I love beaches of any kind. Ocean ones. Lake ones. Even river ones if it's a big enough river to have a beach. Today we went to a place called Land's End at the end of a finger of land about 45 minutes from Jonathan's house. I loved it. Just beyond a village of small houses, the siding paint peeling off from years of being battered by ocean winds, was a small public beach surrounded on three sides by water. The first thing I did after walking to the beach was plunge my hand in the chilly water and lick my fingers. "Yep, it's salty," I exclaimed. I'm not sure why I feel the need to taste the water whenever I'm at the ocean, but I always do. It always tastes salty. I guess I'm just not a believer until I taste the water, that I'm actually at the ocean. I so very seldom am. I guess I'm just a lake girl. I live in a valley of a thousand (that might be a hyperbole, but not by much) lakes so when I'm actually at the ocean I just can't believe there's that much water in the world that tastes like salt.

After the water-tasting and many pictures, we drove to Fort Popham, which was closed for the season. We found a way to check it out even though it was locked and then, after exploring that a bit, went to Popham Beach, which is a state park. Jonathan and I walked out to a rocky island between the probably incoming tide on one side and a fast-moving river on the other. We made it to the island but chose not to stay too long because we thought the tide might be coming in and we didn't fancy a cold swim back to shore. As a lake girl, I'm also rather ignorant of tides. If I had been by myself I probably wouldn't even have given the tides one thought. Other than getting higher in the early spring with the spring runoff from the mountain snow and lower as the summer progresses, lakes stay at a relatively constant height. I'm especially glad I had a Maine-er with me to remind me of the fact that, with oceans the water goes in and comes out, unlike the typical lake that I'm familiar with.

In any case, I love the ocean almost as much as my lakes. I definitely wouldn't be unhappy living near an ocean instead of a lake. It would just take a little getting used to. And I might consume a fair amount of salt.

Maine skiing

We went skiing today. Jonathan took Bryn, Ty and I, along with one of his friends, Lauren, up to Saddleback Mountain two hours north of his house. We found snow along the way, which we Canadians welcomed. I was astounded by how much that area looked like BC. The only thing that was different was the prevalence of deciduous trees on the mountainsides when I looked down from the top of the ski runs. One thing I found particularly interesting about the runs at that ski hill was that the ratings seemed to be a step down from the ratings on our runs in the west. I'm not sure that made any sense, so I'll try to explain. It seemed like the east coast blue runs were about the rating of our green runs, the black diamond runs were about what our blue runs are, and their double black runs were about on par with our black diamond runs. I hope that's a little more clear now. I'm not sure if my assessment is completely true, but that's just what it seemed like to me. I would never, EVER go on a double black diamond run at home, but I went on one at Saddleback and didn't do too horribly. I have to say that this ski experience was, by far, the most fun one I've ever had going with just friends. I love skiing with my family, but usually can't stand going with friends (yeah, I know, it's so backward, but it's true). But this time, I had a blast. Maybe the mild weather and not getting cold after two runs had something to do with that though. Hmm, I'm just not sure, but at any rate, it was a fun day.

Derby Square Bookstore

"Oh no, a bookstore. Don't let me go in there," I turned to Jonathan who was walking beside me.

"OK, he responded and grabbed my arm as we started walking by the bookstore on the corner of Essex St. and Derby Square in Salem, Massachusetts.

But the lure of the quaint-looking brick building was too much for me. As we neared the store, I slipped my arm from Jonathan's grasp and ran up the steps to peer inside the window in the front door. The sight that met my eyes shocked me. "Umm, maybe we shouldn't actually go in there," I said, stepping backward down the stairs, my eyes still round from what I'd seen through the window.

"Why? What's wrong?" Jonathan asked.

"Just look," I responded.

Jonathan's brother David decided to check out the store. "Whoa, that's crazy!" he exclaimed, staring through the window. "We have to go in there!" David pulled open the door and disappeared inside the store.

With David already inside, I decided maybe we should investigate further. I climbed the steps again and followed David into the store. Jonathan, Bryn and Ty were right behind me. Inside the store was even more impressive, or maybe the word was intimidating, than it had looked through the glass. Books, thousands of them, were stacked from floor to ceiling, filling the entire store. Thin walkways between the walls of books let browsers move from the front to the back, but every other surface was entirely filled with books. I wondered how often the whole lot came crashing down around poor unsuspecting shoppers as they tried to reach a must-have read they had spotted near the top of a stack.

"Whoa, this place is awesome!" Ty walked behind me between two book-walls, gazing at the spines covered with titles and authors. "Did you hear what the guy at the front desk said when we came in?" I didn't have time to answer before Ty continued. "He said that every book in here is 50 percent off!" That's amazing. I'm going to find some books to buy."

I agreed. Despite my misgivings about being buried in an avalanche of books, this place was amazing.

For the next 15 minutes, the five of us, as well as various other customers who ambled into the store, crowded the small store, looking for books to buy for cheap. David had a chat with the owner, a short man wearing dirty clothes who had long yellow fingernails that looked as wrinkled as prunes and was almost completely hidden by more stacks of books towering above the front counter. The man said that he goes to large bookstores that are going out of business and buys as many of their books as he can. That's the reason he can afford to sell each book for half price. Many of the books in the store looked quite new and even the ones that were obviously used weren't in terrible condition. In the end I found five books to purchase, but wasn't sure if I had enough money to buy all five.

"Can I just leave this one out until the end to see if I have enough money?" I asked the owner as I passed four of the books through the small opening between the book stacks on the counter.

He motioned for me to pass the fifth book to him as well. "Didn't you know? If you buy four books you get the fifth one free."

I blinked. "Is that a real thing?" Wow, that was about the dumbest thing I could have said I thought. Before I had a chance to reword my sentence, he nodded. "OK," I said, still a little unbelieving at this new deal as I handed the last book to him.

He flipped each book over, reading the price on the back cover and then using a calculator to figure out the half-price cost. He wrote down each price then crossed out the cheapest book, added the figures together, included tax, and jotted down my total. Then he handed the handwritten receipt back through the stacks of books to me. I gave him my bill and he returned my change and gave me my bag of books.

Tyler and David finally made their choices and went through the same process. Bryn, Jonathan and I went outside to wait. Inside was a getting a little too mildew-y smelling.

"Good thing I got out of your grasp and went to look in the window," I grinned up at Jonathan. "Look at the great deals I got."

"Yeah, but just remember that you'll have to find a way to get all your books home at the end of this semester," he grinned back.

Not even the thought of packing up my apartment could pull my spirits down from their book-buying induced high. What can I say? I just love books.

Roma Smoothies

His frazzled hair stood up on end like a mad scientist. He tossed ingredients into the blender: peanut butter, soy milk, roma. The perfect smoothie, so he thought. He poured the mixture into glasses and passed them around the table. The smoothie testers lifted the glasses to their mouths to drink the strangest, most bitter smoothie ever made.

*Inspired by David's smoothie-making experiments tonight.