A long day. Woke up early and made it to NH, got a new winter jacket, shoes and nice pants. We found a great army/navy store and I got some shirts, gloves and nunchaku because my last ones had to be discarded after the fire. NH is a retail giant since there's no tax and Maine seems to have a lot of the headquarters here. This place is full of these quaint little villages with massive stores by LL Bean, Polo, etc all over the place.

We drove on the Kancamagus Highway and went pretty far up in the hills. Ended up in the middle of a cloud on an overlook. The wind was whipping around, mist was everywhere. It was beautiful. Down in the valley you could see every shade of red, orange, yellow, brown, green...

We spent some time in Jackson and North Conway, two towns in the valley known as vacation areas for the wealthy, the types of places they can go to pretend they're doing something worthwhile with their lives.

Jackson was very tiny. The town hall was a small building on the side of the road. The public library was only one room. It would be great to go there for a while, maybe settle down but I'd go nuts with boredom year round. Not many people there. It looked cut off from time. The main road into town was through a one lane covered bridge. If you don't ski, spend your life in the woods or are an artist it's not the place for you.

We stopped at a little coffee shop/art store in North Conway called the Met. On the tables were these blank books customers were encouraged to write notes in. Most of them were garbage but I was particularly interested in the love notes written by some of the people. I noticed all the women that wrote how much they loved their man always added all the things they did for them. They never mentioned what type of person he is, only all the things they do for them and how happy he makes them.
It got me thinking. Most women are in love as long as things go their way. They appreciate what the man can give them rather than for who they are. Rarely do you hear about a woman staying with a man when he loses what he had; his money, his health, hit hard times, needs support. More often than not the woman is gone whenever he needs her help. Many men do the same but it is epidemic for women. Men are thought of as being the providers and now they are nothing more than making a woman's life easier. If he can't do that they find someone who will, never mind the emotions involved. Society has taught women that she should have all these things and treated as children; they deserve to be happy, a man is there to look after a woman, baby her and pamper her though if the man ever needs any of those things he is thought of as needy, selfish and unmanly. What happened to men and women that that has become accepted? Are men nothing more than another luxury to allow women to become more selfish and materialistic? Are they not expected to put effort into relationships? It's no wonder so many are getting disappointed with who they are finding themselves with. They expect too much and offer too little.