On Not Going to Maine

I was supposed to be in Maine this weekend for my annual mental-health mini-vacation. Several months ago when my mother and I were planning my trip, we had a tough time finding a weekend. As a nurse, Mom only gets every other weekend off, a significant limitation. We'd finally settled on this weekend, but before I bought my tickets last month, I found out about several events I didn't want to miss that would be occuring here during the same time. We couldn't settle on an alternate weekend, so I ended up canceling my trip for this year.

One of the things I didn't want to miss was Daniel's graduation program on Friday night. I'm glad I was able to see it in person. Watching it later on video would not have been nearly as moving an experience.

Another event this weekend was a postcard show at Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. I'd had a great time at the show Tab and I attended in Allentown a few months ago. The show this weekend boasted even more vendors than the one in Allentown. It took us more than four hours of working the floor to hit all the vendors.

It was a lot easier when our postcard collection was confined to Skowhegan, Maine, and its environs. We have expanded our focus, however. In addition to Skowhegan, I'm also looking for cards from other places near to my heart: Portland, Maine; Wellesley College, Massachusetts; and Cadwalader Park here in New Jersey. In addition, Tab has become interested in collecting cards from Pennington, his home town. At the show yesterday we stumbled on a card illustrating Walker-Gordon Farm, a childhood memory Tab and I both share, so now we are looking for more of those, too.

I came to esteem highly those vendors who organized their geographical postcards. My least favorite vendors lumped all their Maine cards together. Others, somewhat better organized, grouped their Maine cards in rough alphabetical order: towns beginning with A-I, J-Q, and R-Z, for instance. This was slightly better, but best of all were those who separated them by town. These organized vendors were all too few, unfortunately. Even so, we were able to pick up a significant number of interesting cards to add to our collection.

Earlier this week I was feeling a little blue about missing my getaway trip to Maine this year. Still, I think I made the right decision. I got to see Daniel in a new light on Friday night at his program. And I was able to spend some welcome time with Tab yesterday doing something we both enjoy.

Besides, there's always next year.

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