A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I am notorious for waking up early on weekend mornings... & then promptly falling back to sleep. Quite often, I think, "Today I'm going to get up & go to the farmers' market/brunch/the Unitarian Church/the grocery store/ANYWHERE THAT'S NOT MY COUCH," & then I return to slumber, only to wake up past noon. I've not yet reached that point of adulthood where I consider 9am to be "sleeping in," though I'm still hopeful that such a day will come. Eventually.

This morning, however, was a pleasant anomaly. After two particularly restful evenings, I awoke at 9:30am & decided I would, in fact, get out of bed. AT NINE-THIRTY A.M. This is seriously unheard of. And beyond that, I also decided to leave the house, making today something like one in a gabillion.

It was a gorgeous afternoon, & I spent it wandering downtown Portsmouth, checking out the scenes & enjoying the day. Though I recognize that this post is a bit of a change from my regular hilarity - and humility! - I thought I'd show you how pretty Portsmouth is so that next time I whine that I don't love it here, you can remind me, "BUT, KATE, IT'S REALLY PRETTY!" You don't have to use caps, though, please, or else it will feel like you're yelling at me. Those were just for emphasis on my part.

Without further ado, I present to you "A Taste of Portsmouth: Unfiltered."

It was the perfect day for exploring, 65 & sunny, which made for sweaters-and-sandals weather, my favorite. And of course, I still got sunburned.

After much, much rain, spring has finally arrived! The result of our torrential downpours & near-tornadoes is lush greenery. Nevermind that cement, the prevalence of which has nothing to do with excessive rain.

I don't like boats. But I do like trying to determine what I'd name my boat, if I had one. (Which I wouldn't, because I don't like boats, but still, sometimes I like to entertain Joey & Pacey fantasies, OK?)

And then I stumbled upon this little cemetery, where the oldest gravestone was dated 1652.

 

The engravings on the headstones were just fantastic, really Dia de Los Muertos-esque. When I die, can someone please make sure that I get one of these suckers? Like, maybe the one on the left? I want kids to hold seances around me, "Now & Then"-style.

 

And then I found this:

Say it ain't so, Sam!