Dryden Is Home

ML and Joe

ML and Joe
Originally uploaded by dmakar

Early last Friday afternoon Arjan and I departed our home in Dryden for a mini-vacation on Cape Cod. It was my third (and probably final) trip of the season to "The Cape". My good friend Joe was getting married on Saturday and my parent's invited us to stay at their place in Eastham.

I first met ML when Joe and I were working for the host committee for the 2004 convention. Sometime after the convention ended Joe and ML got together. They lived in Charlestown and worked on Boston and Massachusetts campaigns. They got jobs and got engaged. They started planning a wedding and on Saturday they invited us to share in their day.

I met Joe in 1994 and we became better friends when he started his freshman year at Northeastern in 1996. I was starting my "middler" year and for three years a friend from my high school era (and camp era) was just a few blocks away.

Arjan and I were able to make a weekend out of the trip - eating with my college roommate Joe and his wife Sandy Friday night for dinner in Providence, visiting with my travel buddy Arthur (who is recovering from cancer) Monday afternoon at his house in Charlton, and introducing Arjan to Danny, Kathy and Matt - friends from camp that I wish lived closer.

We also spent a lot of time with my buddy Phil and his girlfriend Amy including a clamming and quahogging expedition. More on that soon.

Pictures from the wedding here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157601729510972/

A weekend of Driving and Flying

When you are 5 and you go on a trip to New Hampshire the world seems huge. You remember just enough to be able to say you remember. Maybe a sign or a tree or a person, but probably not a conversation in detail.

When you are 9 and you return to the place you remember it for the week away from home. A week at camp in a tent. A hike in a lightning storm and singing songs with your best friend.

When you are 14 and you show up to work at camp a crazy man with a condiment name glares and listens and teaches. You meet some people that will be the bridge to friends that you will keep for the rest of you life. You make mistakes, you learn, you have fun.

When you are 18 and you are in charge of a small camp department you answer a lot of questions. You teach a little and learn more about yourself than the subjects you are teaching. You find your strengths and your weaknesses. You hide and search. You get up early and swim. You get to know a few people better.

When you are 22 and return as a staff member of another camp you battle on the ballfield and you find that the home team is the one you are on. The people that have replaced you are different. The people who have stayed behind are stronger and have learned to delegate.

When you are 30 and return as a guest you find that the people that were campers are now in charge. The people that taught you almost everything are long gone. The few in between, John and Dan, bridge a gap between generations. You wonder if there is a way to do it all - and then you drive home realizing that the world is still a huge place and there are a lot of things to do.

A couple days ago I showed up on the doorstep of Camp Wanocksett and relived a few moments of my camp days - tonight I will be attending the Dryden Democratic Caucus where I will be nominated for a four year term on the Dryden Town Board. Everything I've learned so far prepares me for what I will do next.

(The guy floating above is now in charge)

There's no going back now!

I had a dream last Monday morning, on May 15th.

I was floating around the bedroom of my parent's house in Berlin, Massachusetts. I heard the click of the light in the upstairs hallway. The light is on a chain and makes a distinct sound that can only be heard in that house in that fixture. Part of growing up was first being able to reach the chain and then to be able to know exactly how much power you needed to pull on the chain to make the light turn on and off and on and off and on. Then I heard my dad's footsteps and I saw him dressed in his three piece suit. He had on a dress shirt and the vest and had the suit coat over one arm and in the opposite hand a Pfaltzgraff yorktowne blue footed coffee cup. Then he descended the steps to the first floor of the house. Those paces down the stairs. Every school day from the time I was old enough to listen I heard those footfalls echo.

I floated around the house listening to the creak of the front door which we only opened on Halloween and then to the cellar door that had its own distinctive creak and slam. Sounds that only that house in Berlin could make.

I got up that morning and thought I have 9 days left to figure out how to save the house. Maybe I could raise all of the money somehow. I know now I will never hear those sounds again. I will never go back. Today, May 24th, my parent's passed papers, closed the deal, sold the house. Right now, at 11:12am my parents are signing away the home I grew up in. I want to call them when it is all over. For all of the kids that have been born these last few years to my friends and family, the news I'm most interested in is how it felt to pass those keys off and to lose the chance to hear the house and its sounds. Was it a relief? Was it satisfying? Did it hurt? Did they laugh? How long did they hold that check for before running to the bank to make the deposit?

Florida Recap

I got back last night from my trip to Florida. I left last Tuesday morning from Ithaca, drove to Binghamton for a meeting and then to Blackstone, Massachusetts (near Providence, RI) to my sister's and then grandmother's house. Wednesday my sister dropped my grandmother (Baba or Babca) off at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island (Providence Airport) and we traveled on an 8:30am flight to Fort Myers. It was probably about my 100th or 200th flight (who keeps track?) and it was my grandmother's first time on an airplane (she's 86!).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/tags/floridatrip/

All kinds of pictures are on the flickr pages, here's a few notes (I hope to add more later):

• We watched movies just about every night: Pirates of the Carribean, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Incredibles and King Kong
• My dad and my mom's cousin Frank and I went to the Devil Rays / Orioles game Monday night in Tampa
• I went boating three times
• I went fishing two of those three times
• I caught six fish (and tossed them back)
• We went to a Ukrainian Bazaar, Polish Deli and European Deli
• We (mom, dad and me) played three complete rounds of Disc Golf (frisbee golf)
• I wrote a couple business proposals
• I took about 700MB of pictures with my camera
• My mom and grandmother made about 140 perogies!
• I attended a BNI meeting in Venice, Florida
• I went for a bike ride

We had a busy and restful week and I look forward to returning next winter!

House on Boston.com

60Pleasant_Boston-com
Originally uploaded by dmakar.

This just in! If you go to Boston.com right now you can see a picture of my parent's house (that is for sale) on the very front of Boston.com! Check it out!

http://www.boston.com

House Listing:
http://www.homes.com/Content/ListingDetail.cfm?PropId=27421097&MMId=50994390&mtype=I&City=BERLIN&State=MA&FirstRec=1&Radius=0&Bedrooms=&FullBaths=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PriceRange=&AmenitiesList=&PropType=%20&TotalRecs=5&PropIdList=32753150,27421097,31315932,29559297,32753149