like the first day of school

I remember going to the store to get school supplies with my mother. Bringing home the new notebooks with blank pages, a brand new eraser, glue, new pencils...


Then there was the trip to get school clothes. We would spend a couple of weeks in Hampton Beach, NH during every summer vacation from the time I was a baby. My parents were brave. They packed up the car when I was about 10 months old for the first one of those vacations - have you travelled with a child that small? It's a wonder they had room for their own clothes! I'll share more memories of summers at the beach in future posts...


At some point during our vacation in Hampton Beach we would head to the nearest mall and I'd try on what felt like every piece of clothing in my size (and sometimes one size up) - editors note: this was before I developed a passion for shopping...

The high point for me? We'd stop at this "cigar store" that sold, among other things: comic books... and I'd get a Wonder Woman comic book. She was my hero and I too wanted to be an Amazon, dammit! A woman who'd wear boots and lasso you if you were being bad... and, wait... nevermind, I've kinda done that once! *giggle*



This new blog kind of feels like the first days of school.

Old friends are still there... your closest friend is at the bus stop with you. And some of your old friends you see on the schoolbus on that first trip back.

And you wonder:

Did anyone move over the summer?

Will there be any new kids?


But the one question I always looked forward to finding out the answer to was:


What will I learn this time around?

Yeah... this is just like the first days of school.

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."
-- Louis L'Amour