Today it rained heavily for the entire day, a first in my Maine book. I didn’t go in to the office at all today. Rather, I drove down for a 10 o’clock meeting in Portland. My supervisor, MT, likes to organize, and one of her things is a “regional roundtable.” This is not one of her duties, rather something that she has brought to the position in her gushingly outward and inspiring style. It was held at the University of New England’s Westbrook campus. UNE, like many of the schools at which my VISTAs work, has multiple campuses; in UNE’s case, Biddeford and Westbrook (really just an outer streetcar suburb of Portland.)

Biddeford is the “down and out former mill city” of Southern Maine, just as Lewiston is to to the “Lakes and Mountains” region. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. While both Biddeford and Lewiston can be easily accessed from I-95, Biddeford is south of Portland therefore placing it in more of a seasonal influx area. Lewiston and Auburn (the twin mill-towns/cities sitting directly across the heavily polluted Androscoggin river,) are more off the beaten track.

To explain, to get off for Biddeford when driving up I-95 from Boston, you will be on the Maine Turnpike, the effective yet uninspired template later used for the Eisenhower Interstate System. At this point the highway is three lanes on each side. However, as you approach Portland, the three lane highway ends and what’s left is a branch in the system. Before 2004, I-95 would continue up through Portland and Brunswick to Augusta, the state capital. It should be noted, however, that the original Maine Turnpike consisted of a route up to Auburn/Lewiston before reaching Augusta. In essence, when interstate highways were Federalized and numerated, the Auburn/Lewiston section was designated as a spur. In 2004, however, this was changed/rectified [PDF], and now I-95 goes through Auburn/Lewiston, thereby holding faithful to the original post-War route.

Now, given all this, you might think that the Auburn/Lewiston area would get more traffic, but that’s just not true, largely due to the inescapable fact that Portland is an active deep-water port. Portland, a once crucial Canadian/New England freight/rail hub which rivaled Boston, is still active, thanks in no small part to the cruise industry. So what does this social/historical engineering lesson suggest? Well, the result is that I-95 to Lewiston is less traveled than the road to Portland. This is Lewiston’s great drawback, even though, if refurbished, it would be a respectable, if not spectacular city in a charming Maine kind of way.

Anyway, what this had to do about my meeting today is that it was held at UNE’s Portland campus. My VISTA and her supervisor who work on the Biddeford campus had never been to the Portland campus… yet they reserved a nice conference room there. Now I’m not familiar with colleges having multiple physical campuses, because I went to a self-contained little liberal arts college (thank you very much.) UNE’s Biddeford campus the liberal-arts / homeopathic medicine / marine science hub. The newly revived Portland campus (thanks to the new Dean,) is focused on the college’s more scientific mission, in this case, “undergraduate programs in dental hygiene and nursing and graduate programs in nurse anesthesia, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant, and social work.” The liberal arts campus, (Biddeford,) doesn’t know what to think and is pissed that the liberal-arts mission of the institution is not being pushed. That’s the situation one of my VISTAs is working in… interesting. She, however, is amazingly ambitious and has a a fantastic counterpart; it is readily apparent that the two work well together and feed off of one another’s different but related energies.

It was a fruitful meeting, and although I didn’t contribute too much, I was pleased to see MT’s project go over so well. Finishing at around 3 I decided to swing through Portland before returning to Lewiston. Mind you that it was still pouring. While driving through Portland a store caught my eye so I drove down to the water, parked and walked up Exchange street, the hip/yuppy center to find Simply Scandinavian Foods. The store carries some Swedish a staples, offers Swedish bakery items to order (in addition to the few on display) and interestingly sports a prominent Jewish component (think about that one.) Right in the front of the store, well placed if I may say, is a large display of Bilar. Bilar is a famous Swedish candy that has been around for over 50 years (read about it here if you wish) and something I haven’t had since my flight back from Stockholm on SAS. 4 dollars seemed about right for the Sweedish made English version. (n.b. I just ran to get them now.)

Back to Lewiston, soggy, I tuned into the local hate radio station, WLOB 96.3. Hannity bored me so I scanned and landed on a Jesus station broadcasting a rousing bleat extolling the value of goin’ to church on Sunday. After that, some more scanning brought me to a recording of a Midwestern twanged woman delivering a reactionary anti-feminist screed berating those of the female sex who chose to focus on anything other than solely “pleasing their man, raising a family, and loving the lord.” I have never heard this message as intensely and clearly broadcast; the Christian right is either taking over or in its last gasps.

After forcing myself to the gym (and seeing boi dude there, interestingly,) I prepared buffalo and asparagus on the recently purchased stovetop grill. A bath was on tap and I figured out how to listen to music and control iTunes without moving the computer into the bathroom (hint, because I have a PC it involves lots of cables… though I’m sure it could be done over Bluetooth.) Some atmosphere, writing and endless pedantic editing. Here I grind to the present and can do little more but speculate. I’ll try to enjoy my caramel apple and Bilar as I do.