MaineCane: Settling in

So last night we took care of the horses, raked up all the droppings in the horse pins, cooked dinner and had a sit down meal. Why is this significant? Well, it was my first normal night since I've gotten here.
When we last met, I was telling you of my early hours, well now I've concluded the early days. In fact, as a sign of having become a tad bit more comfortable with my surroundings, when Emily told me to go feed bugsy and the girls this morning, I knew exactly who she was talking about. And when I led Bugsy to pasture I knew how to put the bridle on. How friggin' cool!!!
Anyway, what have I done recently? Well, I drove a tractor yesterday!! First time ever. So that was pretty cool, but the real highlight is that we spent the last several days at Kineo, which is an "island" on Moosehead Lake inhabited by a number of families with pleasant homes and dominated by a soaring mountain, which was actually sacred to the indians who lived in the area.

It's essentially a great way to get away and explore into the middle sections of Maine.
Anywho, most of the fam was there, save Charlie and Lisa (cousins), and Will, Laurie and their chillins (also cousins).

So there were 12 of us at our largest number and 7 at our smallest, but we filled our days with walks, rides, skips, and (golf) balls. There was an extensive amount of cardplaying (I introduced Spades and E.R.S. [a game that involves slapping and yelling]). Little Elles (sp?) watched toy story about 3 times a day. He is 2 and has tantrums but is like a fish in that within seconds he can forget he was mad. He actually named me by the end of the trip: Tain.
So I'd been to Kineo before, but I got my own room for the first time since I'm usually in the basement. And I was fed like a king.

The walks were incredible, the reading in the morning was great, and the play time was fantastic.
And two things of note come to mind. Some of the play time involved boating and let me tell you what, boating on rough water with 4-foot swells that I swear lifted the boat out of the water at least once, is not a thoroughly enjoyable activity. And at one point we were taking everyone across and Alex had to use expert driving and as we were turning toward land we get nailed by wave after wave and after a bit I look back at uncle Jim and he is sitting there with a grin half full of disbelief and he is completely soaked by water. HAH!! The other thing is that I would sleep in til 8 on most mornings and I felt like I had really enjoyed something nice.
Damnit Emily, I already think that 7 o'clock am is late in the day.

Thoughtful thoughts.
So part of the joy of coming up here was that I could spend time with my God daughter Abby. She actually picked me last year because she thought I was "cool," but I wasn't able to make it up to her christening thing. Well now I get to make up for lost time. She is 10 and awesome and when I first showed up to her house she just came over and gave me a big ole hug. We played cards, watched movies, hung out, it was great.
I had that sense, though, of a parent who really wants their kid to want to hug them all day and tell them everything and all that but who must instead let the kids do as they will and then just be thankful whenever the child does give a hug or a smile.

Thought 2, confidence. So one of the wonders of traveling and going to new places is that you sometimes have this defense mechanism of increased confidence because it allows you to mesh quickly, and then it wears off once you get into the groove. Well, good news is that I've gotten into the groove. Bad news is that that wonderful confidence is diminished. Now, what this means is that I just have my normal confidence, which isn't too shabby, but not quite as intoxicating as the Newcomer's. So tI make up for that is by voicing many of my insecurities so that they don't bubble inside, and just trusting that my fam enjoys my company. I wish I could just be full of confidence all the time, but that would mean that I wasn't a 21-year-old male. So I'm just learning with what I got.