Wednesday, September 05, 2007

List Catch Up

Ok now it's so long that I've forgotten half the things I wanted to jott down to remember forever and ever. So before the other half have gone, here goes - keeping it short and sweet (well at least trying).



1. Cousins from CT came to visit one weekend in August. I wasn't exactly clear if it was Tyler and Catherine only or if Barry was coming too. I also wasn't exactly clear if they were coming up friday night or on saturday. I was clear that due to the schedule during the week, I had to go grocery shopping on Tuesday and stay up late on Wednesday to clean. In actuallaity, I got the shopping done but the bed won out over cleaning (it always does, especially when tired). So was quickly cleaning friday morning before work (a bit late in as I really haven't cleaned for awhile). And then of course I get the call that they aren't coming until saturday, so instead of finishing I just take a break and put off everything until the last minute. I'm running around saturday morning mopping and vaccuuming and basically doing a spring cleaning. Except I didn't touch the loft area, betting Barry wasn't coming. They arrived - all three, and I had to do a bit more cleaning in the loft area. Moral of the story, I resolved to keep the house a bit cleaner so that this didn't happen again (fast forward several weeks, and although not quite as disasterous, it's on the road back to pre-visitors - no lesson learned).



2. Besides cleaning, we went letter boxing - I'm horrible at entertaining - rather be entertained than figure out what to do. We biked up to the local park and followed the clues. I started my own stamp collecting book. Funny thing was I couldn't find a stamp. I thought I had one of an ant, but nowhere to be found as we were running out the door. Barry suggests I use "one of those". I completely forgot a plaque of architectural stamps a friend gave me from antiquing. If you're interested, check out: www.letterboxing.org. I want to do some near work but most of them have dissappeared. Overall nice and relaxing weekend, just hung out and chilled before they left for camping in Maine.



3. I got to babysit one night. A coworker and his wife were celebrating their anniversary. Jack and I had a great time. They live in this itty bitty apartment in Harvard Square area. I don't know how they do it - must stay neat at all times. After they gave me the run down of all the nighttime ritual stuff they headed off. And it was just me and Jack. Mind you we've played together and hung out before when he's come into visit at work or at other social events. But I was struck after mom and dad left that I was left with this boy who doesn't talk. That didn't stop me from talking though and we had a grand old time playing made up games and splashing in the bath and reading. Granted I did have a pang of "when is it going to be my turn". I wanted to be celebrating the anniversary and having the kid to play with. But sometime. Maybe not exactly that, but something. Patience is a virtue right? That or else I make it happen one way or another.



4. Had dinner with a friend from India that I had met while visiting Nick (she's his friend too) - Swethaa. She is just starting law school at Harvard. It was great to catch up with her and meet her new fiance Jay. I had been working late and was able to meet up with them for dinner - Indian in Harvard Square area. They were kind and kept the spices mild - still a bit hot for me. I remember a funny thing when visiting India is our constant trouble of dinner. We would be famished and ready to eat by 6 pm or so, but most places wouldn't even open until 7 and it didn't get busy until 10 or so. We were always in the restaurants with foreigners as they eat so "early".



5. Last night I had one of my last town committee meetings. I'm on the building committee - we act as the owner and represent the town when building schools and fire stations and what not. I was brought on I think in part because of my environmental background. Except we were working on the tail end of projects so I wasn't really able to do much and now they're about to be closed out. And the town didn't pass the reforendum needed to start the next school renovation project, so we will be on hiatus for awhile. Anyways, it's been really fun - twice a month meeting with this group who are full of local characters - nice thick accents, people who grew up in the town or the next one over. I really enjoyed it as I felt more connected with the community. I wish I could have done more. My major feat was getting them to use low VOC paint for the fire station. Which is such a small small thing in my daily work, but somewhat big for this project - the chief mentioned last night that hte firefighters really appreciated it. Anyways, I'll miss it. ONly one or two meetings left.



6. Speaking of neighborhoods, I noticed another blind person last night on my way to pick up my produce. There's a fellow that I'll see at my bus stop in the mornings. And there was this lady last night crossing my intersection. And funny thing, this morning, there was another fellow on the bus with his dog. Very strange to see so many - at least for me.



7. Speaking of the bus this morning, there was a very annoying person on her cell phone behind me talking fairly loudly. It was annoying. That bad part of it all, as I sat there and knit trying to listen to my podcasts, was that she was also knitting. Very poor representation I think. But I guess I'm reminded that there are all kinds.



8. Can't think of anything else, other then I got to test drive another car thanks to Zipcar. I was impressed too, it was a Nissan Altima. Nothing much to speak about on the outside - form is bland, but inside was nice and luxurious (at least for my standards), and it handeled really nicely. I'm sorry to say, nicer than Sam, my Volvo I favor from Zipcar. Very tight suspenssion and sharp breaks. Also, it had less blind spots. The volvo seemed to have very bulky back corners and small rear window, leaving a lot of the road unviewable.



And that folks is all that this little brain can remember for now.

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