Friday, April 28, 2006

Babies and Bunnies

The other day when I arrived at my sister's house, Thing 1 looked up, recognized me for the first time ever, and smiled. It was one of the best things that's ever happened to me. :)

The picture here is completely unrelated to this particular story, but it's me & my cutie-pie on Easter. So enjoy his adorable-ness.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

I was browsing a funny website today called "Overheard in New York." (Thanks, Kate D!) I happened upon this, which I think is pretty great.

That's all for now. Back to your regularly scheduled lives!

UPDATE: I lied. Here's another one. :)

Monday, April 24, 2006

Peanut Butter, Mushroom & Cheddar Omelet - Oh My!

I know, I know. I haven't posted in 5 whole days. To the one or two of you who care - I am deeply sorry. At least I was out getting material! I spent a fun weekend in Portland with some college friends. It was (ready for this?) a surprise birthday party with an early '80s theme. Yeah, that spells trouble. Here are the highlights (in approximate chronological order):
  1. T. & J. dancing to Jackson 5 in the car.
  2. The guest of honor got arrested - in a town an hour away. I kid you not. Here is how far Bridgton is from Portland. He called from the police station & his girlfriend and I flew to the rescue. The surprise part, however, was slightly damaged.
  3. Trees! In a Hannafords!
  4. The much younger kids on the other side of the fence were also having a backyard party. We were first made aware of their presence by their chanting: "Chug! Chug! Chug!". Later, when they found out we had s'more fixings, they chanted: "S'mores! S'mores! S'mores!" God bless these kids for being enthusiastic about everything!
  5. The infamous peanut butter, mushroom & cheddar cheese omelet. The seven of us remaining on Sunday morning went out to breakfast, which is one of my favorite things to do - ever. I had 2 eggs scrambled, wheat toast, home fries, a glass of water, an orange juice, and 1.5 cups of coffee. Yum. T., however, ordered the most disgusting thing on the menu - a peanut butter, mushroom & cheddar cheese omelet. Yuck. Seriously, who comes up with this shit?
So that was my fun weekend in Portland. Other fun things happened, too, but I don't exactly remember all of them. You can see the rest of the pictures here and here. Enjoy!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Fenway Fun

Well, after nearly ten years away, I spent the last two nights back at Fenway & had a great time! Here are the highlights:
  • During the 7th inning on Tuesday, everyone in the park was standing, including me, but excluding those in my field box. A guy behind me said, "Will the girl in the black vest either go to the ladies' room or sit down?" While I appreciated his giving me a choice, I chose to remain standing. ;)
  • I love, love, love soft pretzels. I ate something like four last night. At one point, one of the guys sitting next to us asked the other guy if he had a tapeworm. I thought they were talking to me!
  • I always see people from my high school when I'm out in Boston, you guys. Last night, I saw someone in the T station, another person walking down Brookline Ave, and two more after the game!
  • While I confess that I don't completely understand it, I love that you can play Neil Diamond at Fenway Park & get the whole crowd going. I took a video of this (fairly recent) Fenway tradition & posted it to my Myspace page. Check it out!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Watch This Space

Last night was my triumphant return to Fenway. :) Before last night, I hadn't set foot on that hallowed ground since approximately 1996. And what a return it was! Great game, great seats. I'm going again tonight, so I will post tomorrow about the whole two-day experience. In the meantime, check out the view from my seats above.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

A Girl Who Needs A Guide

That's me sometimes. A Girl Who Needs A Guide. And I found one this weekend - The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. I was in Barnes & Noble on Saturday night (with Easter the next day, I was laying low on the social scene) & noticed the book. I'd heard great things from K. about it & since it was marked down to $5.98 from $23.95, I was sold! I finished the entire book that night & am seriously tempted to read it again this week. You know you've hit a note when you close a book & say emphatically to the empty room: "Exactly!"

This book is so wonderfully honest & real. As one of the reviewers said, "I finished the first chapter and said, 'Wait, I know this girl.'" I'd venture to say that we all are this girl at various times in our lives. I know I have been - might be now.

In the final chapters, she is interested in a guy, but nervous because all of her previous relationships have gone to pot. So she gives in to the spectre that all single women have looming over them - The Rules. She buys a book called (I kid you not) "How to Meet and Marry Mr. Right." She internalizes its rules and ends up walking around with two girls twittering inside her head: "Don't be funny! Don't accept a date less than 4 days in the future! Don't be negative! Let him pay! Keep him guessing! Don't call him!" In short, don't be yourself in any way. She nearly loses the guy, but comes to her senses & ditches the "rules girls" in time.

As I mentioned, most single women deal with these rules. They either accept them & use them to their own advantage, or battle them ferociously. I am one of the battlers. My best friend, with all of the best intentions, reminds me that the game is going to be played whether I am playing or not. She thinks that I should go with the flow and make the rules work for me. Try as I might, though, I can't do it. When I like someone, I want to call them and talk to them and hang out with them without checking these activities against a mental checklist of "single girl no-no's" first.

We'll see how that strategy plays out in the long run. ;)

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Taxes, Trucks, Time Passing

I used to promise myself I would never post without having something important to say. I'm about to go back on that promise. ;) I feel like writing tonight and have nothing especially significant to write about. Reader beware: the following post will be a whole lot of me rambling about nothing.

I sold my old pick-up truck today. I've had that truck for 5 years this spring, the longest I ever owned any vehicle. It's a big black Ford dinosaur, 16 years old and 196,000 miles on the odometer. Yet, I'm going to miss it. That was my Colby-Sawyer/moving to New Hampshire truck. It was a symbol of my switch over to a more simple country life for four happy years. However, I got $500 for it and I'm going to use that money to buy a kayak. There's a neat cyclical motion to that equation that makes losing the truck more bearable.

I also filed my taxes this week. Big whoop, right? Since this is only the second year I've filed on my own, I still find it rather fascinating. Plus, the federal government and the state of Massachusetts combined owe me $565, which is going toward a new laptop. Maybe this tax thing isn't so bad . . .

In other news, I'm happy that this is a long weekend. I worked today, but will be off on Monday for Patriot's/Marathon Day. Most Bostonians think of it as the latter, but Lexington & Concord residents (or former residents like myself & my parents) always think of it as Patriot's Day first. Weather permitting, it will be a good day of hamburgers, cotton candy, parade-watching, and nephew-holding. This will be the baby's first Patriot's Day, even though he has no idea. When I was younger, I always loved seeing all of the young couples with their babies in strollers along Mass Ave. Now my sister & brother-in-law will be one of them. Another neat cyclical motion. :)

Monday, April 10, 2006

Tell It Like It Is

It's 2000. I am a freshman in college - 19 years old, innocent, open minded, interested in everything. I'm hanging out with my friend Matt in his dorm room, playing my way through his extensive music playlist (downloading music was still new then & we were all agape with the possibilities). I find a song called "Angel from Montgomery" by an artist named Susan Tedeschi. I press play . . . and fall in love.

Now, from the austere height of 24, the love affair continues. There are three major things that I appreciate about Susan as an artist:
    1. She is a white girl from Massachusetts who sings the blues, and well. That fact in & of itself is amazing.
    2. Her voice is wonderful, but not so ethereal that I can't sing along. It's earthy, bluesy - and I can hit (most of) the same notes.
    3. Somehow, the songs she sings, whether her own creations or selections plucked from blues, R&B, or gospel, always come at just the right time.
I'll expand a bit on that last point. When I was dating a guy, D., in college & noticed him getting more and more distant, Susan was there with her take on Junior Wells' "Little by Little", which goes on to say "oh, I'm losin' you, I can see. Bit by bit, darlin', I see you slippin' away from me."

More recently, I broke up with a guy, C. Susan's lovely version of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" seemed a perfect fit for what I was feeling:
"
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind/You could have done better but I don't mind/You just kinda wasted my precious time/But don't think twice, it's all right." However, now that things have gone downhill & some of that goodwill is gone, I feel more like her take on Lewis Holiday's R&B classic, "Tired of My Tears." The chorus runs: "I'm sick of your lies . . . tired of my tears . . . Boy, if you want me, you better tell it like it is."

Check out a biography, discography, songs, etc. of Susan here. You might want to warn your ex- and current boyfriends, though. ;)

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Self-Consciousness

I've been re-reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek over the past few days. I first read this book four years ago, in a sophomore English course called "Visions of Nature in Literature". The book (and the course) was an awakening. I admire Annie Dillard so much because she plunges herself into life with such ambition & wonder & courage. She's not afraid to suss out the truth, to push the envelope, to confront both fears & joys head on.

In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she focuses a lot on how difficult it is to be fully conscious of the present moment, yet how fulfilling it is when you catch that moment. "Catch it if you can", she challenges the reader. She also talks about self-consciousness, in the sense of being aware of oneself, not in the more commonly used sense of being shy or uncertain of oneself. She says: "Self-consciousness hinder[s] the experience of the present . . . [It] is the curse of the city and all that sophistication implies. It is the glimpse of oneself in the storefront window."

Last night, I was standing on the platform at Park Street, waiting for the green line (Bostonians knows this is a very long wait at rush hour). A couple of men were playing horn instruments nearby - a tuba and I believe a trumpet. They could have been professionals or street performers. I couldn't tell and I loved that I couldn't. I noticed a couple of sparrows flying around near the roof. I let myself lean into the moment, into the music floating around the busy train station and the little birds flitting back & forth. All of a sudden, I felt the glance of a fellow passenger and there it was - self-consciousness. I saw myself as he had seen me, standing on the platform - brown blazer, jeans, plaid scarf - staring up into the rafters. And I was no longer in the moment. I'm going to go live in a field somewhere.