Really, it takes so little to make me happy.
I love this picture of Calvin. Isn't he gorgeous? This picture was taken at the bed and breakfast we stayed at in October '99 on Mission Bay in San Diego. It was for his birthday. I'd made the arrangements in what, February? of that year. I planned on surprising him - you know, throwing a bag of clothes in the truck, telling him to get in early on a Friday morning, and driving off without telling him where we were going. Hah. That plan lasted all of, oh, two months before I just *had* to tell him. I was so excited about it. We had an incredible time. One of those trips where we were always holding hands - visiting the gas lamp district and seeing a great live band, getting buzzed and... well... this is a PG-13 site at the worst, so I'll leave *those* particular details out. We shopped. We went to Sea World. We got tattooed and pierced. We were (still are!) in love. Ahhhh....
My sister took this picture of my grandmother and uncle, the first year that I took Calvin home to visit - so this would be August of 1998. Check out Grammy's bedroom slippers! She wore those suckers everywhere - even to the grocery store, I think. This was during one of Grammy's famous summer lobster bakes. The whole family was over, and we ate lobster and potato salad and corn on the cob and and and... until we were ready to pop. All outdoors - she has a screen house surrounded by trees and hanging plants and flowers - all greeny and shady and fragrant. These functions last from about 1:00 in the afternoon until twilight - and a Maine summer twilight is a long deal. My only disappointment in that evening was the lack of fireflies - we missed 'em by about a month. Uncle F is my mother's older brother, and is basically the "head" of the family. I would be threatened with the wrath of Uncle F if I misbehaved as a child. Fatherless myself, he became the male figure in my life. I would spend summers at his house, playing with/fighting with my younger cousin and being drilled on long division. Shudder. 
No, this isn't a postcard. Calvin took this snap during the same trip to Maine. The Portland Head Light, in Cape Elizabeth. I loved that day - misty and gray. Calvin and I bought kitchy souvenir sweatshirts at the horribly overpriced gift shop, and munched on Italian sandwiches from Amatos. We climbed all over the rocks looking at the tidal pools - ecoscapes trapped like terrariums among the rocks. Sea urchins, starfish, snails, smoothed rocks, sea glass, and crabs were everywhere. Seagulls would hover, swooping down to scoop up clamshells, taking them up high, then dropping them on the rocks below to crack them open. I adore the smell of the ocean. I would stand there for minutes on end, taking in deep breaths of the damp air.Ack. Can you say "homesick"? I knew you could.
Calvin and I took a drive up the coast (Route 1 Scenic) and visited Fort Knox. No, not the one with all the gold, the other one. "During the American Revolution and again during the War of 1812, British naval forces controlled the lower stretch of the Penobscot River. Fort Knox was built during the mid-19th century to thwart a third British invasion that never came." (From the website referenced above.) We were allowed into most areas. I loved the shadows and angles. We took two rolls of pictures at this place. I'm all about stone walls, crumbling ruins and dark places to explore. And cannons! Yeah, baby, yeah!
Here's another shot at Fort Knox. This lead into the armory, with corridors along the battlements. A very long, dark area with niches from which rifles could be fired out into the bay. "Though never fully completed, the main fort was designed to house 64 rifled-muzzle loading guns, with another 69 cannons to cover the lines of defense outside the main building. The largest gun installed at Fort Knox was a 15" Rodman which fired a 302 pound shell over a range of 4,680 yards (over 2 miles!). This contrasts to Fort George (the Citadel), one of Britain's most powerful colonial defenses, which had a total of 70 guns in 1855, the largest of which was an 8" gun." (From "Maine Forts")What a wonderful day that was! Heck, the whole trip was fantastic. I'd waited so long to show Calvin all my old haunts, every second of that trip is etched into my memory. One thing I've realized about moving away from home is that I didn't take advantage of all the cool things to do in Maine while I lived there. So now every time I go back I play "tourist". "No, I'm from here, really!" "Naw, you must be from away. You've got a souvenir lighthouse sweatshirt from the Head Light."
This is one of the few pictures I have of my mother. Lordy, can you tell we're related? Look at those smiles! Look at those eyebrows! Look at those chipmunk cheeks! (Look at that hairdo!) This was at my seventh birthday, the last one before my mother passed away. We're sitting in the kitchen of my childhood home. The cake is in front of us (yellow, with chocolate frosting), and my sister is taking the picture. I got a kitten, whom I named "Tod" after the fox in "The Fox and the Hound". He lived to be a good eighteen years old. I had to send him to my grandmother's because it turned out I was allergic to him.
I took this picture of Michael and Marie at a park near our home. It was for a Father's Day gift for Calvin in 1999. I took a whole role of pictures, with them posed together and individually, and put them in a couple of matte frames for him. The present went over well - Calvin said it was one of the most original Father's Day presents he'd ever received. The pictures didn't turn out half bad, considering I was using a crappy little instant camera. It's all in the film, baby. It also helps that these two kids are ridiculously photogenic. I swear. I even made a double set so I could give copies to X(f), that's what a nice chick I am. 
This picture (me!) was taken during our second trip to Maine, with the kids this time, in August of 1999. This is in the woods (duh) at Bradbury Mountain State Park. The "mountain" has a 460-foot summit achieved by a ten minute hike from the bottom. The view is stunning in the fall, though, when the foliage changes color. Many a year saw me there, for Girl Scout shindigs and school functions. I love the greenery - it's what I miss the most (along with five million other things) about home.Gee - I'm seeing a trend here in the pictures I chose to scan this go-around. Next up is baby pictures of Calvin! And our first lobster Christmas. And our ski trip to Utah. And pictures of the dogs when they were puppies. And camping pictures.
You're all doomed. You know that, don't you?