Wow. It's been a long and crazy summer, and I haven't been on the blogs in a loooong time. Well, meesa back! Lots of first experiences, some good, some not so good, but in the end, it's all good, because life is good. And, on that note, here are some interesting things that happened this summer.

- Spent a week taking an 80-ft. yacht from Florida to Maine. Got seasick a couple times, but otherwise I had a good time. I had crab legs for dinner all but two nights of the trip (yummy!).

- For the first time in US history, my grandmother sees ANH-- I think we watched it too late at night, because she got tired and sort of petered out towards the end-- but I think when I get the chance to show her TESB and ROTJ, her Star Wars future will brighten. And that, of course, is good.

- I spend a week painting an icon in Pennsylvania-- and discover someone else who loves Star Wars (and has played Heroes of the Pacific)!

- I spent a few weeks in Maine on a pulling boat. This was probably the most jam-packed two weeks of my entire summer, and I have lots of stories, which I will recap shortly. But first, if you don't know what a pulling boat is, basically imagine a 30-foot open rowboat, with two square sails thrown on for effect. There is no shelter whatsoever from the elements, you spend a lot of time rowing, and there's no privacy. If you can take that, you might have a pretty good time.

- I started working an inconspicuous job, largely involving picking poop out of stalls and moving horses around-- and listening to great music. And getting fat on pastries and chocolates. Horse people have more fun, it's true.

- I met tons of Star Wars fans! One person liked Star Wars and Star Trek, and when I met her she was wearing a Darth Vader shirt. Another person I met at the icon studio, another I met on the pulling boat in Maine (and he passed what I call the EU test-- meaning he knew what EU stands for), and I even met one person who got shown around the set of Bladerunner by Harrison Ford himself! I mean, what a great way to spend a summer!

- After two years of SW fandom, I took my first step into the EU-- I cracked open Betrayal, and also got (but have not yet read) Tales from Jabba's Palace. My experience so far has been very good, so at some point there will probably be a shopping spree in which I go buy the rest of the series. I now eagerly await The Force Unleashed-- and maybe a PS3 for Christmas?

-But what was the best of all? I came home from one of these excursions and discovered, to my surprise, that I am now the proud owner of two orange tabby kittens! Wow.

Well, I said I'd tell some of my pulling boat stories, so here goes. First off, if you don't know what Maine is like (at least out on the open ocean), it's basically 40 degrees and raining most of the time, with occasional storms and occasional sunny days. At least, that was my experience. The pulling boat was 30 feet long, and there were 14 of us on the boat, all totaled. There was simply no such thing as talking about someone behind their back. So, without further ado, here's my first boat story.
Basically, we had 20-knot (basically mph, for those of you unfamiliar with nautical terms) winds and seas between 4-6 feet, and we were in a 30-foot sailboat. Did I mention it was raining, and that it was cold and wet? The winds were good for sailing, at least. Well, at some point in the middle of all this, the rudder caught on a lobster pot. Then we couldn't get the pot off for a long time, so we had to let the sails out and set anchor. In the middle of 6-foot rolling waves. So we sat there for probably an hour, going up and down, stuck on a lobster pot, and with the sail flapping back and forth over my head every few seconds, so I kept having to duck to not get repeatedly slapped in the face or the side of the head. Then we finally got the pot off our rudder and got moving again. Then, either a few hours before or a few hours after this, when seas were much calmer but still cold and wet, I got seasick. I only threw up once, but that was enough, so I went and lied down near the bow. I think I snoozed for about an hour, and by the end of that time my toes had shriveled up and literally turned blue from being cold and wet all day. Everyone else's toes looked similarly nasty. I think I volunteered to row for awhile to warm up a bit.
Later, we discovered that one of the motley crew talked in their sleep. Well, to be more accurate, yelled. See, every night we all took an equal shift at anchor watch, which basically meant being woken up in the middle of the night, sitting up at the bow and being cold for awhile, taking a depth sounding or two, and waking up the next person in line. Well, at some point during one of these lovely nights, someone was heard to randomly yell "cat f a r t s" and "motorboat to port side" in the middle of the night. Another time, the watch was changing, and as the new anchor watch was being woken up, this guy sits up and says, "no, I'll do it, I'll do anchor watch." He was calmly told by the previous bow watch that it was the next person's turn, and to go back to sleep. Nobody in their right minds volunteers for anchor watch-- at least not when they're awake enough to know better...
One time, someone pointed and yelled, "look, it's a distraction!" and the guy he was talking to actually looked. This, along with "cat f a r t s," became the boat's running joke for the remainder of the trip.
Once, we had a tough mooring to pull into, because we were sailing into the wind, so we had to tack back and forth a lot while avoiding lobster pots and nearby rocks. I was captain that day, and I got a lot of compliments. That was a happy moment, especially considering we finally got to go to shore and spend some time off the boat.
Finally, on the second to last day of our trip, we decided to do night sailing, since we'd had a lot of rest the day before and we thought we could do it. Night sailing is interesting, because the whole boat goes almost completely silent, and because the navigators have to pay extra attention to where the boat is and where it's going. Right as dusk was falling that day, it was all cloudy overhead, and I felt like a Viking, rowing the boat with the sails pulled in tight over our heads. It was really cool. So was night sailing, until a storm hit and we had to go to squall drill, which basically meant hunkering down in the bilge of the boat and waiting. I think we sat there for about an hour. Three people fell asleep. I almost did, but the only thing I could really rest my head on was the oar shafts lashed to the middle of the boat, and they don't make a good pillow. Not to mention I was soaking wet, and it was raining. Eventually the storm passed and we were finally able to set up the tarp under which we slept and make dinner, not to mention get some sleep.
In summation of my boat trip, I will say I went through most of it barefoot, and if I ever did I certainly don't now take for granted the value of four solid walls, a roof, and a bed. Not to mention getting to sleep all the way through the night without getting woken up for anchor watch. Proud to say I've been there, done that. Now I get to work in the barn, listen to doo-wop, Enya, Star Wars soundtracks, and other such good stuff, and get fat on pastries while sweating gallons because it's been like Tatooine in summer here. Well, this has been a long and fruitful blog entry, comments are of course welcome, and it's time for me to get to bed.

MTFBWU!