Happy Cuties: July 2011

hello from montpelier vermont!

i arrived here yesterday, so i guess today is technically day 2 of my 4th major road jaunt. i'm tired now because i've been sunning and swimming for 2 days straight, but i am going to try to remember some of the plethora of lovely thoughts i've been having.

yesterday i left albany around 1, and headed north on the.....northway to bolton landing on lake george. i went to summer camp on the lake for nearly 10 years, so its a place filled to the brim with only excellent memories, and somehow i just can't have a bad time there even if i eat bad pizza or swallow too much lake water or get a sunburn or whatever. anyways, i arrived at the sagamore, which is this fancy old hotel in bolton, but the secret is, they have a great dock and swimming area and you can kinda just walk in? at least, they've never said anything to me, but you know, i do have this face working for me. wink wink. so i sunned and it was HOT, so much so that brisk lake george was kinda warm? i mean not WARM, but warm for lg at least. and it was perfect as per usual. so i layed in my deck chair and looked out over that clear lake and those perfect green carpet mountains and thought about my youth and what a nice life i have and i cried a few times and then i'd swim and flip around like a fish and then i'd sun again. i changed in the bathroom and snapped a picture of my peach face and then ate a slice of shitty pizza in downtown bolton where i made nice conversation with the pizza chef and scored a free refill on my diet pop.

buckled up and headed north on 9 following the lake, snaking around, taking so many pictures, running into the shoulder, stopping to look for moose, and really my arms were out the windows more than they were on the wheel and i was maybe possibly yelping because dont you know that this is my heaven? this is my meditation. this is my therapy. whatever else you want to say, whatever catharsis or revelation or whoever you pray to, this is mine. so i just feel good, and you should know i feel good. i wanted to drive my car off a cliff into that lake into those mountains, but only with joy? you know? throw myself onto those carpet mountains, cover the whole earth. buy all the buildings and live in all of them at once. and everything is for sale and everything is closed and i still love america and i still love you too.

so 9 snakes the lake and you get these glimpses of water through trees and old 50s lake camps and the mountains break and there are grey rocks and you just love everything and then lady gaga plays incessantly and you probably cry a few times because everything is happening at once. so after you pass through the historic town of ticonderoga you continue on 9, which becomes 22, and when you reach the town of crown point the bridge will be closed so you'll have to take a ferry across this river into vermont and it will be a surprise and you will be so happy to be on a car on a boat. then you deboard and you will be on 17 and you will be in the state of VERMONT and it will smell like cows immediately and you won't even care because you like cows anyways. you'll drive through tiny towns with names like addison, charlotte and shelburne, and they'll have quaint victorian-esque downtowns and you'll see so many white church spires reaching into that blue blue sky. when you reach burlington and catch a few glimpses of lake champlain you'll be so happy and so ready to get on the highway and shut the windows and drive FAST. and after 30 minutes of driving south on i-89 you'll be in the capital of vermont and there will be a sign that says 'bienvenue' and there will be radio stations in french and there will be a state building with a GOLD dome that is just shining shining shining for you!

downtown montpelier is so sweet and old fashioned and there are cute shops and things to eat and you can eat salad and it will have local cheese on it because you're in vermont and things are about cheese and maple syrup and everything here is SO GREEN. its like a bath for your eyes.

today we drove north in the convertible and found a swimming hole and swam in it and there is nothing at all bad about being alive. i want to hug everyone, even the townies who are clearly on methamphetamine.

so here are pictures and know that tomorrow i will be on a boat on a lake and monday i will go to new hampshire because everyone should live free and if you can't i'll take your share.

love is pouring out of me all the time every second, let it run all over me.

hello!

this quite overdue post comes to you from the green hinterlands of albany, ny. its so alive here and everything just seems the best its ever been.

J4 weekend was at the top of the tops, as per usual. i'm hard pressed to think of another holiday that has never let me down the way J4 has. anyways, we red-white-and-blue'd for essentially 4 days straight, which led to such little sleeps that i am still recovering. not mad about it.

this five albany days has not been enough, and its times like this i wish i could pull a multiplicity move. imagine swimming in lake george, sunning in rockaway, and dancing on a roof at the same time!

i think i might be too braindead still to make any of this sound remotely intelligent, or, at the very least, entertaining, so i think i'll just picture you all and be done with the whole mess for a while (the way its been going, you'll hear from me in august). in 2 weeks i'm off to nova scotia with just myself for company (its good i'm such good company), and i've yet to plan any piece of this mini-major jaunt. i ain't worried though because it always works out somehow. i keep thinking about all those places with names you just want to say outloud like pensacola, saginaw, indianapolis, lake winnipesaukee, even nova scotia. NOVA SCOTIA. even though they're just words, somehow they make it feel like its all really happening. at the end of the day, i guess it really is all happening.

glad to happen with you,
bb