notes from away

Around the bend, originally uploaded by mainegal.

I was down in the Dequindre Cut over the week. A lot of the graffitti has been painted over. The new stuff isn’t as interesting.

Saturday, my team was all excited to play their first game. As a first time coach, I was a little nervous about how to do all the substitutions plus educate my first time players about the game. Sadly, the other team didn’t show. Nothing breaks your heart more than seven and eight years olds asking “Coach, will someone be here to play against us next week?”

We scrimmaged against ourselves and the kids did great. The new players really started to pick up the game and the experienced players showed some amazing skills. Now, if only I can get used to being called “Coach”.

The quilt is coming along. It is taking a little longer than I expected and is slightly crooked (oops, the squares ended up being different sizes), but I am happy with the progress. I have some hand stitching to do this week before finishing the binding over the weekend. My goal is to be completed by Sunday with this one. I have another one planned, plus a request from a co-worker to make a doll quilt for her grand-daughter. It is a nice relaxing activity.

Ever wonder what happened to the friend you lost touch with years ago? My senior year in high school, we had an exchange teacher from Russia. At the time, I was trying to read some Russian novels, so I asked him to help me out. (You try keeping track of all the names/nicknames/titles) With his help, I finished and understood “Crime and Punishiment”, “War and Peace” and “Eugene Onegin”. By the second semester, I was doing a directed study with him on Russian language and culture. It was awesome and I was picking up Russian quickly… quickly enough, that it was even suggested I consider attending Moscow University. If I have one regret, it is that I didn’t take that suggestion more seriously. I’d give just about anything to live overseas now.

Once I went to college and my teacher returned to Russia, we lost touch. On Friday, something made me think of him and wonder how I could get in reconnected. Well, he found me through this site. Neat, huh?

I graduated from high school ten years ago this June. I’ve packed so much into the decade that I definitely don’t think the time flew by. Ten years ago, my expectations of where and who I would be at 27 were so different than the reality that followed it surprises me.

Just the other day I was talking to a friend from my first college. We joked about how even now things turned out so different from what we all expected. I am the only unmarried person in our old set of friends, yet the money was on me being the first one married. Another person who swore off marriage is now happily married. Our jobs have excited, disappointed and amazed us all. What we’ve accomplished is beyond what we imagined.

It is cool where life takes you when you let it drive.

Thanks to my grandfather’s friend, Joseph Beauregard, I’ve been able to identify the majority of the men in the Germany/France photographs.

The men are:

• PFC Wayne Baty
• S/SGT Joseph Beauregard
• T/SGT Albert Carpenter
• PFC Victor Goyette
• 1/SGT Victor Mlodzik
• 1/LT Isidore Pollevoy
• S/SGT Ronald Schoch
• T/SGT James Zanky

Pretty cool.

I will try to link a copy of the book one of these days.

Look to the light, originally uploaded by mainegal.

A calm has started to come over my life. It seems so long ago that life was calm, I almost don’t know how to embrace it. Almost - instead, I am savoring the lingering moments, the peace, the silence and the scent of tangerine in the air.

There is no guarantee it will last, so I will enjoy each second. Then once it is gone again, I will have endless memories.