Andy's Auspicious Adventures in Maine || Episode Two: My Backyard

My backyard is a green and magical, if vaguely malevolent expanse. A place, I'm sure where more than a few children have lost their innocence (perhaps lives? CREEEEPY). A place continuously damp and hidden, despite the fact that it is so near the populated and modern world. My backyard is winding trails under trees, over soggy plank bridges, up and down hills, across meadows, and, when it gets around to it, up to a waterfall. I wish I was being hyperbolic, I'm certain I'm being melodramatic, but I'm not making any of this up. My backyard is, quite literally, the Fore River Sanctuary here in Portland Maine, with a trail that leads up to Jewell Falls, Portland's only waterfall! This is all directly across the street from where I live. This is where I can go whenever I feel like it. I saw a wild Turkey the other day! I've never seen one of those things alive! And only very occasionally with feathers and a head still attached. There was an egret, and woodpeckers, and hawks, gigantic slugs, and an incredible variety of mushrooms (none of which I partook of you guys!). I'm sure there will be frogs, snakes, and toads, but I have not discovered any yet. Perhaps they know to keep of the trails at this point. The place feels underused. It feels private. I have, to this point, the three times I've hiked the 5 miles back there, only encountered three other people. If you follow any of the side paths too far you will pop out into someone's yard; just like that, you fall out of the woods and are back in a sub-division. The woods themselves feel so deep and healthy, alive in the life and decay of the forest. There is another trail just up the road the follows along the Stroudwater, another river that puts into the Portland Harbor just behind my house. It's muddy and tight with occasionally breathtaking clearings opening up at certain bends in the river where you can see more than a few feet ahead of you. When I stand on the edge by the water visions from my childhood and the grabbing reach of Jenny Green Teeth and other such aquatic devourers of children from the picture books I used to spend hours studying play in my mind. The waters are a deep brown here from the clay that constitutes most of the land. There are fresh blackberries if you need a snack while stomping around through the mud.

>>> a link to photos of my backyard and also of my apartment: http://flickr.com/photos/rotovator/sets/72157606668197018/

Yesterday marked a week of my being here. It also marked the acquisition of a free but very stinky, and very huge couch. It was/ still is (despite my efforts) covered in thick coarse black dog's hair, and smells like you would expect. It was one of those things where I was already too committed to the exchange before I thought better of it. I had found it online, and spoken briefly to the owner, who I'm sure is still smiling to himself to be rid of the damn thing, but he offered to haul it over to my place, and help me take it up the three flights of stairs. I need a couch, how could I refuse? But now it's stuck in my attic space, filling it with the stink of wet and dead dog. This is after nearly three quarters of a bottle of Fabreeze, which I administer in 15 minute intervals whenever I am at home. But I needed a couch. And for the first time last night in my apartment, I slept on SOMETHING! And I watched movies (Ghostbusters II and Bergman's the Virgin Spring) while sitting (physically comfortable, but mentally not so much) on something other than the floor. But I needed a couch, and I had better make peace with my situation, because it won't be soon changing. We barely got it in the place, and I sure as hell wont be able to manage the disposal of that colossal beast on my own. I actually wrote a short horror story last evening on the subject, so I am practiced in my terrible descriptions of the thing. It really isn't so bad as all that, but I don't have to pretend very hard.

I have two job interviews this week, both of the web design variety, I also got an e-mail back about an administrative assistant position, but I am now thoroughly convinced it is a sham, but I then again, I just tend to disbelieve anyone offering 165,000 a year to work from home! And I should have internet of my own by Thursday, which I will relish. Not that I don't enjoy these mornings at the cafe, I just desire the flexibility. I did however have a minor breakthrough, that quickly degenerated into frustration last evening. I can intercept the wireless from my downstairs neighbor, and had been coveting the idea of it since I moved in. I idly tried last evening to guess her WEP password, and two my amazement and horror struck gold with only my second guess, "jesus", which is less surprising if you consider the sum of her bumper stickers. Still horrific that someone would select that as a password. Even more so that they would have a "W Stands for Women!" sticker on their car, theirself being a woman and presumably knowing what that stands for.

Gray and cool again today. The two days previous had been sunny and beautiful. I took in a local rock n' roll show at what will probably turn into a usual hangout for me on Friday nights. Saw an exciting local band called Hatchetface and the Vipers, along with Confusitron. The headlining local heroes, Covered in Bees, were not my cup of tea, but I actually ran into someone who had left a comment on my website welcoming me to Portland. It was pure chance. I merely mentioned to the frustrated pinball player my similar frustrations with the speed of the "Indiana Jones Adventures" pinball machine. After a brief exchange she realized that there probably weren't many other people who had just arrived to Portland from Chicago, and quickly introduced herself. Otherwise, I have been reading, biking, and exploring all over my still very new town. I have the easy stuff figured out at this point, but there remains much to be discovered. Until the future one and all. I have enjoyed hearing from you. I miss every one of you out here, and wish that I had my close friends to share these adventures with. I suppose that's what these e-mails are all about.