Fulfillment

The past week has been just lovely, despite my struggles with the transverse abominus.

• I have spent part of every day outside, thanks to fabulous weather.
  
• Last Saturday I got PTO-- we went to a belly-dance performance (the best people-watching experience I have had in months) and out for a drink at the Top of the East.
• Sunday we hiked Mount Cutler in Hiram-- an old favorite.
• Friday we met some old high school friends for a night out in the Old Port. Turns out nothing gets people crazy in Portland like that John Denver classic "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
• Yesterday we hiked Mount Jackson in the White Mountains of NH with Chip, my dear friend Alicia's husband. I have not been on top of a 4,000 foot mountain in a long time. Along the Appalachian Trail in NH are a series of "huts" where you can have a hot meal and a shower at the end of a long hike-- we stopped at one of these for a bit yesterday, and now I think I'd like to make a week-long trip next summer hiking hut-to-hut.