New England Summer Pt. 2

Ok, so I decided I couldn't wait. Installment number 2, coming up. Armed with a bottle of wine and with the tasty Kasteel Donker (I have to thank you, Erica and Molly, for introducing us), I headed up to Tweed River Music Festival, in Stockbridge, Vermont, for the Fourth of July weekend. It was my very first time camping (or pseudo-camping), and my first time seeing a music festival. So, in a grassy field, next to the forest and the beautiful Tweed River, between the high mountains of Vermont, came to me yet another spectacular piece of New England culture.

Emily frolicking in the forest. I think we were continuously frolicking for that entire weekend.

River!

Camping!


Kris Delmhorst. She was pretty great, but I didn't realize how good until I heard her studio albums on Pandora when I got back. Bow Thayer & the Perfect Trainwreck were pretty awesome too, as was Jeff Foucault, who I believe is playing with Kris in this photo. At midnight, they stopped playing because of the neighboring houses, but they just went right on down to the campfire we had going in the field, and played and sang there. The music was live, and alive around the fire. Such good cheer, and such belonging and fellowship, I didn't know how to make my smile go away as my face got sore, nor how to make my self feel less blissful as all thought fled and everything but being ceased to matter.

It was off and on raining all weekend, but it made everything look so much better when the light came out, because everywhere there were rainbows. It was the first time I'd seen a rainbow coming down all the way to the ground, in a field as Emily and I were taking a walk towards Stockbridge proper.

It was a shiny, colorful weekend.

On the way back. So content.


All the land was classic and familiar, and yet, never before had I actually seen such a place. Warm it was, and welcoming, and green with life everywhere you looked. Wholesome, I believe, is the right word.

Well, that was an overabundance of photos, but seeing as how it was the only time I'd actually had my camera on me this summer here in New England, I figured it'd break up the drab dryness of the text to follow.

I have no recollection of anything that happened between that 4th and the 8th, our next stop. I believe I was recovering from all the happiness. Not used to it, you know. But if I had recovered, I went right back to it, on Emily's birthday. After celebrating at Downing for a bit, we went off to Vincent's, a really cool bar right here in Worcester, that I had never known existed. I think this video captures a bit of its spirit, and a lot of the talent of Frank Morey, who lucky for us, was playing that Wednesday, as every Wednesday, but of whom we had never heard. This night was all about hidden gems, as you will see.

So, after the great time we had at Vincent's, we decided to go to a club. This was another first for me, and I have to say, a very surprisingly good one. I believe it was called Club Fusion, down in the canal area, on Water Street. Had tons of fun dancing. And then, instead of going home like sane people, we went to yet another bar, the Dive Bar. Awesome beer, some more dancing, and we found ourselves heading to a diner at 2:30am. I have to say, that when people told me Worcester had basically invented diners, I did not believe them. And I thought I knew what diners were. Oh no. Not at all. It felt like I was in a movie, or a book. Sitting alone (for a few minutes) at the counter of the diner at 3am, getting some food in this trailer they call the Boulevard Diner, felt inexpressibly romantic. Not romantic as in Hollywood movie romantic, but romantic in the truest sense (to me); I quote my friends Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster on this: "marked by the imaginative or
emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized". And then there was the food. And the pleasure of sitting with friends in the booth and sharing it. I shall never forget, or else I will have gone from the world for good and true, even should I still be walking it. And then, at some ridiculous hour, one of those hours of the night I usually live alone while others sleep, we sat down to continue our celebration, and watched George Harrison & Co. perform their concert in Bangladesh. I don't know what time I came home, but I remember that it was dawn. Now that, my friends, is a night. Were it up to me, every one of my nights would be as full. But a prisoner of my society and my biology, I am shackled in the dungeons of sleep, that destroyer of time and killer of opportunity.

Barely had the sights and sounds of that night faded from my eyes and ears, when on the evening of the 11th I made dinner for all those that had given me such memories and stories. We spent half the night cooking together, making blueberry turnovers with Sara, and ma3mool, which are best described in English as walnut sugar cookies. Apparently they taste quite similar to Italian wedding cookies. Mediterranean blood will tell, and all that. We made sbanekh w rozz too, a homely spinach stew with rice and pine nuts, which actually turned out to be quite tasty, especially with the sangria Casey made, and the Lebanese wine (Clos St. Thomas 2004) I brought. The night flew by in pleasant companionship, and the only complaint was that we could not be as we were forever. Honestly, I would have been fine with 5am, but then, I am insane. And potentially, those two things could be related.

A week later, I found myself cooking again, for myself and my roommate Jason and his friend. We had a grand old time, though we might have overdone the eating part of the night, moving from dinner, to ice cream at the Ice Cream Factory (the Clark Cougar ice cream is the best thing in the whole world, by the way), then to grinders and Domino's pasta bowls (oh chicken carbonara how I love you!). All this interspersed with the cloud Rorschach game, a funny little run-in with President Bassett, and Planet Earth. Ah, good times!

My friends Lauren, Helen, Jess, Joe, and Dave, all came to visit me from out of town, and they were all wonderful guests to have. Then, suddenly, it was the 25th, the day before my birthday, and I had no idea how we'd gotten so far along in the month. I had no plans for that weekend, and was quietly resigned to taking the weekend in solitude and quiet. But at 4pm on the 25th, I was invited to go visit Jeremiah, up Watertown way, near Boston, with some friends, who were leaving at 5pm. I think the idea of just taking off appealed to me, and so I did. We ended up all walking around Watertown in matching green shirts that Miah had from his work, with a whale in a Viking hat holding a pitcher of beer in its fin on the front. Pretty ridiculous, granted, but also highly amusing. We went around the town, which had quite more than its fair share of Armenian and Turkish shops and restaurants. And I was finally able to find some arak, and had real Lebanese drink for my birthday night. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely, and a party just sort of happened without anyone ever having planned one, and we were at least 10 people there that night.

Early morning of the 26th, my birthday, found us heading back to Worcester so I could go to lab (like I had gone on the morning of my graduation). If only results would come proportionate to the dedication one puts into our lab. But oh well. Lauren, my American sister, kidnapped me in the afternoon, and took me to the Ecotarium close to Worcester for my birthday, and we got to walk around in beautiful woodland and look at a polar bear, bald eagles (they are ENORMOUS, I never knew!), and river otters, among other things. And my friend Sara made me a wonderful dinner, and the night faded quietly and pleasantly away.

Ok, so its 330 am, about bed-time for me. I believe there's one more part left to this series, but that'll have to wait for tomorrow. I hope this deluge of detail has not bored you. It has been good for me to recollect and dwell on all these good memories. It has given my summer a depth and breadth I had not felt, in thinking only of the present and future. I hope it does something good for you too. Adieu.