In Which I Get Locked Out

On Monday, The Boss and I visited one of my favorite places in the state of Maine, Reid State Park. My family and I frequented the park as a kid, but The Boss had never been. It was a beautiful day to spend some time at the ocean, and although we applied sunscreen, by the time we left we both sported matching sunburns.

Visiting the park again after a number of years brought back a lot of memories, both good and not so good. Like the time I went swimming and didn't rinse off the salt and sand before we left, resulting in a very uncomfortable 2-hour drive home. Or the time I dug in the sand near the beach grass and found an old tourmaline ring that someone had lost long ago. My most unpleasant memory of this beach was the time I got 2nd-degree sunburns on my legs and feet and broke one of my toes by stubbing it against a piece of driftwood.

One of the last times I remember going to Reid State Park with my family was the time my younger sister locked my dads keys in the car. This was before the age of cell phones, and to walk to the nearest payphone would have involved a 13 mile hike. Fortunately, with the use of my dads belt, a leg from our portable grill, a borrowed coat hanger, and the unbelievably fortunate chance that my mother had left her window down a crack, we were able to unlock one of the doors. We left shortly after as the sun was setting, which was just as well. No one was really in the mood to explore nature any further after that stressful ordeal.

I remember when I was pretty young, whenever my parents would pack up the cooler, load us into the car, and tell us we were going to the ocean, I would always ask them which ocean we were going to. Until I was old enough to know better, I thought that each state park we went to was a different ocean. A child's logic only goes so far, I guess.

I brought my camera along, but this was the only picture I took worth sharing, and this one I took with my cell phone. It was very bright that day, and I forgot to compensate for the fact that I was wearing sunglasses when I adjusted the aperture setting. Everything either was washed out or too dark. I'll have to remember that the next time we go.

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I'm going to Boston again tomorrow for yet another appointment with my neurologist. This is just a routine follow-up visit, but I do have some concerns I want to bring up while I am paying to have his attention. I've tried conversing with him via e-mail since my last appointment in January, but as a research professor at Harvard and a neurologist as Massachusetts General, he understandably is limited on his time to return e-mails to his patients.

And of course, I'll fill you all in on the details about my appointment when I get back.