My Store Is Closing

" People are always saying that change is a good thing. But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all.... has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It's a lovely store, and in a week it'll be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it'll be just a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that's the sort of thing I'm always saying. But the truth is.... I'm heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again, and no one can ever make it right."

Kathleen Kelly-You've Got Mail

Yes, I know. You've Got Mail is about the small bookstore driven out the the big bad box store but I've had the exact opposite experience. During and after college, I worked for a small Maine owned book store chain and to tell the blunt truth-they were a**holes. I don't have many good memories of my time there. I was actually driven to quit one day out of the blue with no other backup plan in sight. Somehow that's okay when you're 22. I took off for a 2 week trip to England and then came home unemployed and had to figure that out. Out of the blue, it was announced that a Border Books was opening their first Maine store. Myself and some other Bookland refugees, went to their job fair and we were all hired on the spot. For some reason, the general manager zeroed in on me and offered my the job of Special Orders Clerk. I would get to work at my own desk in the back office and I really wouldn't have to deal with the customers. Score for me! Have you ever watched Clerks? It's very true to life. This was before Amazon and EBay and people still ordered books they couldn't find on our shelves. I started working right away while the store was still being built around us. They sent me away on my first and only business trip to beautiful Pittsburgh! I went through training there for a week and came back to finish helping setting up the store. We opened to huge crowds and I enjoyed my job there for 2 years. I only quit because Tim and I got married and were moving.

Fast forward 14 years and now Borders is going out of business mostly due to their bad business choices. I thought I was ready to go in to the store for the liquidation sale. We had been reporting the story at work and I had even called the store a few times about the story. Declan was dying to go to the sale. I think he thought all the Lego sets were going to be a dollar which was far from the reality. We got out of the car and I was crying by the time we made it to the sidewalk.
Borders remains my favorite job. I loved the people and the job. I loved all the free books and the $200 free credit account they gave all the employees. I loved the cafe and my free Cherry Cokes in the largest glass I could find. I loved my newspapers from around the world. I loved all the stuffed animals in the children's department. I loved the Lindt chocolates at the register that I would sneak off with. I loved to volunteer at the free gift wrapping table at Christmas. I loved hiding at my desk.

The death of books scares me but I'm as much a part of the problem as anyone. I mostly buy books off Amazon or get them at the library. Even when I went into the sale, I mostly used my phone to take pictures of the books I wanted and then I looked them up at the library. I will say one thing I am very firm on. I will never own a Kindle or whatever else they come up with. I don't care if it means getting books at an antique store.

If You Give A Girl A Camera

Declan spent his days last week at Boy Scout Camp which left Grace and Tim to find new ways to pass the day. He took her downtown to walk around and she took my camera along with her. She came back with 58 pictures. As I was downloading them, I realized they reminded me of something. My high school photography class took a field trip to Portland and we just wandered around downtown too. The pictures were very similar in tone. I won't subject you to all 58 of them but here are some I liked.

Free newspaper with scary Governor on it.
A Middle St. landmark-a store that actually sells music and books and is managing to stay in business.
Very elegant garbage can. I wonder how much of my tax money this took?
Many shots of bicycles. I like the convertible Mini and the sign in the back about Tiger Blood.
Perfectly framed Doritos delivery truck.
Post Office Park-Can you guess where it got its name.
An actual pay phone. I always point these out to the kids. I should make them use one. Declan knows enough to always check them for change.
Police car with a Dunkin Donuts in the background. Tired old joke but I thought it was funny because Grace doesn't know it.
Monument Square Farmers Market-I love this old truck. I think we used to have a truck like this.
The Lobsterman statue. Tourists love to take pictures of this guy.
Grace's pictures also reminded me of this Facebook page. When it was published last year, we wasted a whole day at work looking at it. Or at least, I did. I'm going to send Grace out with my camera more often and hopefully I can go along with them.

Alexander Graham Bell 2011 Style

See this very dark picture? Wow, that is too dark isn't it? Anyway, I'm announcing that my family has come kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Tim got me at a weak moment and we are now IPhone users. I've gone from a Tracfone to an IPhone which is like going from a Pinto to a Porsche. We are also going to cut off our land line which makes me slightly nervous. The fact is, I've had this phone for a week and I haven't been without it once. Grace has used up most of my Internet time for the month so I haven't really explored that part of it yet. I have mostly been texting and checking the weather. Is it geeky that as soon as I got it, I couldn't wait to get on Etsy and buy a case for it? I totally bought this one! Tim has never had a cell before and it is so nice to be able to contact him whenever I want. I'm not sure how he feels about that. I'm getting a little addicted to the texting. With our opposite schedules, I haven't talked this much to my husband in years.

Going To Clam Fest

The kids and I made our first trip to the Yarmouth Clam Festival this year. It's one of those things I mean to go to every year but then the thought of the traffic and all the people keeps me home. I got braver this year.
The whole point of the festival is to celebrate clams I guess but I had no interest in buying seafood on a 90 degree day. I meant to buy myself from fried dough but I forgot. Now I'll have to go to the Topsham Fair to get that. We headed immediately for the midway. $20 in tickets bought the kids two rides each. Such a bargain! Who says the carnies rip off people? I used to love this swinging chair ride when I was little and it seemed safer to me then the gigantic Ferris Wheel. I got them both on it and would have gone myself if the chairs weren't kiddie sized.

The Tilt-A-Whirl had me concerned. The kids would flash past me and they would be laughing and on the next pass, they would look like they were going to puke. I was glad I waited to feed them lunch until after the rides.

This was a first for me and the kids. There was a Titanic slide there. It even had different sections for First, Second and Third Class passengers to slide down. Declan was fascinated by it but didn't want to go on it for some reason. I wanted to go on it. I guess there's always next year.

Don't Leave Your Camera Hanging Around

I hadn't downloaded my camera in over a week. I emptied it today but there were all sorts of pictures on it that I didn't take. It seems that Declan helped himself to my camera and left me some pictures to enjoy.

He loves to take pictures of himself. He gets this from his father. He starts out okay in this one..

...then the silliness starts to take over...
...and then it hits its peak.

He also took one of what our summer is looking like around here. There is Grace on the other couch playing video games. You can also see how everything from the porch project is piled into the dining room. I purposly put it all in there so it would drive me crazy and I would get the floor done. Right now, we just look like a Hoarders house.

Birthday Tween

I forbid her from doing it but Grace went ahead and turned 11 years old. I officially have a Tween living in my house and don't we know it.
She had such a good time at her brothers birthday party at the USM Planetarium that we went there again for her party. As you can see, she was very excited about it.

Lately, she has been working on developing a "glare". She will let us take her picture as she practices it. She's smiling a little in this one. Usually, it's much more of a stern glare. As you can see behind her on the table, the theme to her party was space and puppies.

It's a 2 hour party and 1 hour of it is spent learning about the stars and watching a film. I love this part because it's dark in there and I can take a little nap.
I went with the store bought cake for the party. I made cupcakes for her actual birthday at home. She thinks a store bought cake is very fancy so I'm going with that.

One problem for her was her brother was the only boy there and he was bouncing off the walls because of it. He was a little over involved in opening her presents.

My favorite present? Someone gave her a headband which she put on immediately. We saw her face for the first time in 2 years. We can't let her know that we like it or she will never wear it again. So, now that she's 11, she officially forbidden from turning 12. I think I said the same thing last year though.

Extreme Porch Makeover

It seems like every year we tackle in a room in this old house. Now we have been here so long, we are revisiting rooms we already did. This year, I had to do something about the front porch. We originally did it back when Declan was a baby so it's time. It might have something to do with my obsession with this website- Young House Love.

Now, I know it looks rough in these pictures. You have to realize that when we moved in, this porch had green AstroTurf on the floor and I think the walls were pink. I know some people like the worn floor paint look but I'm not one of them. Frankly, the whole porch needs to be ripped off the house and rebuilt. Since that won't be happening, I just need to attack it with paint and organization. And new curtains.
The wooden floor was beyond saving at the time so I painted it this cream and blue. I had big plans to paint it in squares or diamonds like Martha would but then I realized the amount of work and taping that would take and so I went with the big rectangle in the middle. I'm just going to repaint it with the same pattern and colors because I still have a lot of the very expensive porch paint in the basement. Our wheelchair also ended up out here because we ran out of room for it in the house. I'm going to replace it with our old futon so I'll have to figure out where it's going to end up next. The floor isn't exactly level so the wheelchair moves around on its own a lot.

I also need to see about replacing this light fixture. It's just a paper lantern I got at Pier One. I was never in love with it but the fixture is weird and we can't put up a regular one. This was the best option for disguising it. I think I'm going to look for a round white one. I also don't love the curtains. The curtains themselves aren't so bad but the color is. I want something more neutral. Frankly, I want Roman shades but for some reason, they are way too expensive. I'm thinking about dyeing them if I can't find ones I like.

The shoes also need to be brought under control. Another shoe rack is in order. Plus, I need to do something to that little table and maybe paint the front door. Have I mentioned that painting is not my favorite thing? The floor is the major project so once that's done, the rest should come together much easier.

4th Of The July On The Off Ramp

Our Fourth of July plans always are to go to Rangeley for the fireworks. The Rangeley fireworks are really the only ones I ever remember. I've been going to them since birth. My fathers hospital stay understandably changed our plans for the 4th. We decided to go to the Portland fireworks. I did go to them once when I first moved to Portland and I made a vow to never go back. Too many people and too much walking through not great neighborhoods. We might have skipped the whole holiday but Declan was too excited about them to disappoint him.

About 50,ooo people cram onto Munjoy Hill where they can sit right underneath them. I couldn't see dragging 2 kids up the Hill especially since Grace wanted nothing to do with them. There is an area called Martins Point where you can go and still get a pretty good view. It sounded like the best option so off we went. It was crowded too and that is why we ended up spending our Fourth on the Off Ramp. We were actually sitting on the small strip of grass that is the 295 Falmouth off ramp. This was not the fireworks I expected.

Declan didn't care but we did have to keep him from running off into the middle of Route 1. Sparklers kept him busy. See the approaching cars in the background? I kept waiting for one of them to hit us.
Grace declared that she was scared of fireworks and spent most of her time under her blanket. I did see her peeking out during them and smiling but I didn't let her know I saw.

Tim could tell I was unhappy but there really wasn't anything we could do about it. The drunk teenagers right next to us just made the evening better. I found myself hoping that one of them would get hit by a car so they would leave.

I did discover that my camera had a fireworks setting. This is the best I got so I was obviously doing something wrong. We ended up leaving before they were done so we could avoid the traffic and Tim could get to work on time. I know I'm coming off as whiny but I think I'm only supposed to go to the Rangeley fireworks so were going next year no matter what.

Where Have I Been?

I was doing so good keeping up with posts on here but life got in the way again. My 82 year old father went out for a walk alone and without the cane that he is supposed to have but refuses to use. I guess only old people use canes. Anyway, he is shakier than he used to be and while he was out, he fell over backwards and hit his head. You might remember that he did the exact same thing 2 years ago only it was winter and he hit his head on solid ice. This time, he did less damage but he was taken on a 100 mile ambulance ride down to Maine Medical Center so they could check him out. Turns out, he needed surgery again to drain the accumulated blood. My mother has been down here the whole time too. She got a hotel room and has spent every day with him in his room. I hate and feel guilty that we don't have a room at my house for her. So now, he will be going to a nursing home closer to home for a month or so of rehab work to help him recover and get steadier on his feet. Like I said, we'll all been through this before but it is still scary.