Benefits of working downtown

Having lived in a half dozen cities and states over the years, I have to say I really like where I am. I like the town I live in and I like working in downtown Boston. Case in point being yesterday.



I was heading in to work a little late and instead of having a half empty subway car, it was jammed with red - people coming into the city to celebrate the Red Sox's great victory. One person had even created a World Series crown - it was fantastic! There were a lot of kids who should have been in school, but, hey, how often does your town win the World Series - oh right, once every four years - not bad.



But then I was once more ensconced in the walls of work and somewhat forgot about the celebrations. Although, throughout the morning we had been hearing the periodic roars of the fans. The parade route for the celebrations was just two blocks over.



For some reason, the first day in several weeks I hadn't had time to make my lunch. So a collegue and I ran out, both of us tight on time, to grab a sandwich. The streets were abuzz with people in Sox garb. We discovered the roars had nothing to do with the parade but was actually just the language of fans. As various groups roamed the streets, when they passed another group of fans they would cheer at each other. It was quite wonderful. We were all one group - the winning group.



But we didn't have time to wait around for the parade. So got our sandwiches and as we were heading down the street, we see people running ahead of us. There was ticker tape/confetti raining down on us, and the steady roar of fans. We got caught up in the anticipation and ran to see what people were running after. I got goose bumps as we rounded the corner and the block was packed - it was one of the side streets off the main parade route and the parade was in full force. The street was about 50 people or more deep, but with the duck boats, you could see all the players. The cheers as different players rode by from Lowell to Manny to Dicekay. We even got to see Papelbon do his jig while the Dropkick Murphys' played live on one of the flatbed trucks. It was great - such commradery. I've never been part of something like that. It reminded me what the parades for soldiers returning home from WWII must have been like.



And the amazing thing was that the confetti just kept raining down on us, the whole time. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It added to the surealness of the whole thing. All in all it was a nice 15 minute diversion to share the moment with the other hundreds of thousands of people. It was wicked cool!

Boston Contractors

Real quick, as it's been non-stop go this monday morning at work. I was enjoying my subway ride in - good book, good tunes and realizing that I have the luxury in coming in relatively late if I want too. I'm used to jobs in the past that you have to be in 8 am. And where 8:30 is pushing it. As long as I put in my 40 hours and get in by 10 am, no worries. Granted, I put in more hours than that, and do get in early and stay late. But nice to appreciate what you've got.



So coming up the elevator this morning, I'm in there with our local contractor - who worked on our office rennovation and works on alot of other floors in the building, and one of his crew. So the GC (general contractor) is this born and bred bostonian. The vowels are different, the r's adjusted, the h's manipulated. He's as irish or itlian or whatever, as it gets. Well, his employee is vietanamese, and he has some other crew that are chinese. You know how he talks to them? With an asian accent. At first I thought it was condencending, but than realized, the he figured out, if he talks like they do - with the broken english and accent and all, they understand him much better.



By the time I got off on my floor, I was close to cracking up in front of them. They were talking english the whole time - but I felt like I was next door in china town. Not what you expect, but you have to love Boston!

News and Updates and other goings on

Apologies again for being out of touch for awhile, although frankly, I think I need to get better about that. The apology thing, not the be being busy part. Why should I be apologizing to my blog, but than again I guess it's part my nature or waspiness, or who knows what. (Side note, I remember one time during a summer job working for the government - ok, I worked at the county landfill - but that's county government, right? And it paid well and I was appointed to the position. It was the summer before heading off to college. But that's not improtant, back to the point of the side note. I was with all these older college kids and would apologize every now and then for whatever it was, which might have been more than I realized, because one of the girls pointed it out and said I shouldn't apologize so much. And how did I respond? I apologized. Which was funny because then I wanted to apologize for apologizing. Anyways, this was the time I first really became conscious of the apologizing and tried to filter a bit better. Ok, that's not entirely clear, but hopefully you get the point, if not, sorry.) That would make for some good schtick if I ever did stand up comedy, which a friend actually was suggesting we do together the other day and on my way home I got some great ideas but of course didn't write them down and now have completely forgotten them, except that I remember they were really really really good.

So, I made a list of things I needed to update on my way into work one day, and just came across the list and realized I hadn't posted yet, and now the list is really really really long. So before it get's to daunting and I just give up on this whole blog thing, here goes. In list form of course and in no particular order of course:

1. First, in knitting news, several things. One, I'm a little screwed (pardon my language ma and pa), but I finally got invited to join Ravelry. If you're in already (I'm sukeyknits), you know why, and if you aren't well most likely you're not really into knitting all that much and so it doesn't really mean much to you. But for the outside folks, it's this wonderful central hub for knitters and all things knitterly. I've not really spent much time creating my profile. Still need to do inventory of the yarn stock and grandma's needles and projects (finished, unfinished and those that are itching to be started). The great thing is the database of information (mom, you'll apreciate the ref. librarian aspect of it all). I've been stumbling on some wonderful patterns I want to start, finding projects people have made with some of the yarn I own and frankly just sinking too much time surfing through the site and procrastinating at work, at least the initial couple of visits. On a second note, I don't know why, but I decided to knit a christmas gift this year. I know I'm horrible with deadlines when it comes to knitting, so don't know why, but it was the only thing I could think of giving to the person and I started in the end of september so figured I had months to go. I can't really say what it is, but am already half done, and feeling good about the timeline, so am starting to wane on actually working on it and trying to come up with convincing arguments why I should allow myself to start a new project from the many I've recently seen (also just got the new Webs catalog - need to make a run to Northampton soon - good sales). So I'm holding strong and just working diligently (although the last few days got distracted by a book so my most effective knitting time during commuting was lost, but just finished and am back on track - even knit as I walked to work - it's at the beginning of a new piece so isn't that heavy). Two more things to add to this too long paragraph on knitting: I did finish the birthday present for Cece, a bit late, and finished and blocked (ok just ironed, but that's pretty much the extent of my blocking) at her place the other weekend. I had to knit with my bag in my lap so she couldn't see, but was determined to not let it drag on too long. I don't usually gift knitted gifts as with any gift, people don't always love it as much as you do, and when it's knitted and all that work, it takes more for me to gift as it's more of a gamble. Well, this was great as the yarn was Cece's (left over from a shal and just beautiful - Rowan - my favorite) and the pattern was one she had gifted me for my birthday so felt pretty safe she liked it. She wrote about it here on 10/1, and took a picture - ain't it purty. Love the color but can't wear it myself. The second thing is that an old knitting group of mine got revived. It was with some old coworkers who no longer worker with me. In the end it was a sad showing, but it was me the hostess and another lovely woman - with my name! Hopefully, it'll take off this time. Need to get back into that sort of thing again - it was tons of fun and love the community it creates.

2. Enough with knitting, on to art and culture. Ages ago now, I went and saw my old buddy Garrison speak at Northeastern. The line was long, but we got in and it was free. It was soo strange to be there and hear that familiar voice and it be in person. He is my one constant (that and orion's belt), everytime I moved - comforting. And now I download each week the news from Lake Wobegon to listen on my way into work. It was strange to hear him live that saturday on his show after just seeing him in person several days earlier. Tried not to think about that too much. My friend and I took pictures with our phone of him on stage. Technology has come a long way, but yet neither of us have been successful of getting the photo off hte phone, and regardless, it's a blurry red blob far off on a stage - not very recognizable. That was the culture, the art was attributed to the Lowell art festival Cece and I went to the other weekend. Amanda has a studio in this wonderful old mill, so we confined our journey's just to the building. It reminded me of the old art studios in SF - the old marine base. Anyways, just like then, I was hoping to find some wonderful art at affordable prices. The prices were great, but no art really spoke to me until the very end and I got a wonderful painting from a recent art student (gotta love them) at a killer price. Needless to say Cece and I had a great time perusing and shopping. I got a pair of earrings for myself from Amanda's studio which I've been wearing almost everyday (think I like them a bit). Cece got a bunch of stuff too, which helped me get stuff - nothing like a fellow enabler. Happy with everything.

3. Finances. I've been working on getting back on top of things now that I'm relatively out of debt (still have the student loans - ugh). I took this class for retirement. It's me and these three older women nearing retirement. The class is a bit of disappointment content wise - know most of that stuff already. But it's forced me to bring all this info together and get it up to date. Very useful. Also, been working alot on my job - being more strategic about what I take on as projects and looking at long term development for myself. Much better than just reacting to what needs to be done immediately. I've finally got my salary up to what I should have been hired at - now just need to work on phase II.

4. Entertainment. Not sure why, but realized I needed to straighten out my television viewing, so over labor day weekend, I went out to buy a new tv. But there were none - quite literally the shelves were bare - for the small sized tv I wanted. In the end I got a new HDTV as I didn't want to have to buy a new one a couple of years down the road. It's amazing, which is surprising. I've seen HDTVs before, but didn't think it would effect me as I don't have cable. But the way it works, is if I can pull in the station (i.e. decent reception), than the HD chanel is there - like cable. It's amazing - no more fuzz (well kind of). Plus, they have additional stations. Mostly the PBS (my favorite), so now I just expanded my station repetoire - I think I'm in double digits now. The second thing, partly because of this purchase and I've been thinking about it all year is Netflix. So I signed up for the cheapest version and been enjoying some new movies which has been great as I think I probably saw a total of three movies in total last year.

5. Which leads into my day of hookie. Having worked so much the previous week, I got a bit burnt out by thursday, and with the change in the weather making it harder to get out of bed (is it just me?) and that fact that The Departed (in HD too) had just arrived the day before, I decided to be startegic and work on maintaining good energy level. It was a fun movie being in the Boston area and it being set in Boston. I was able to finally run weekday errands and closed an account I had wanted to close since March and made a deposit of some rolled coins that had been sitting around all summer and in general enjoyed a nice day in my town. While at the bank to close the account, I noticed a painting behind the desk of the busy intersection. And instead of the modern, not so great, church that is there now, was a wonderful old New England church. I wonder what happened - it must have burnt down - will have to find out. I visited my local used book store and picked up a bunch of books after spending two hours perusing. Just finished the quick read "Quite Honestly" by John Mortimer (sp?). Bought primarily because he is the author of the Rumple of the Baily series from my days of growing up. It was ok. Just finished it this morning, on to read the next book.

6. Gotta love my town (more on that next post). But before I forget, I was leaving for work the other morning. Beautiful crisp fall day. And as I walked down my sidewalk, there, across the street, walking down the sidewalk were a pair of what appeared to be tibetan monks - they wore the red and yellow garbs like in the picture (but imagine a new england setting for the back drop). It was strange as we were walking along at the same pace on opposite sides of the street. Not what you expect first thing in the morning in my quiet hamlet. Gotta love it!

7. And finally, the real maple syrup cotton candy. As mentioned in the previous post I was enlisting some family to go to the New England fair to hunt down some of the euphoric aforementioned cotton candy. Had a great time, dad and my cousin Catherine, and I. Although I did get tuckered out the soonest (long week for me). Tons to see and do. And I got not one, nor two, but three bags of the cotton candy. I had brought a canvas bag so as to cut down on trash, but when I mentioned I had my own bag the salesperson scoffed and said it wouldn't do, while simultaneously pulling out a white kitchen trash bag. $3.50!!! That's all it cost for the big bag of cotton candy (each). Dad bought one too and we ended up eating some of that first. I ended up lugging the bag around most of the day, trying to protect the fluffiness from being defluffed. Then, the next week was so busy that most nights I didn't get home until just before bedtime and couldn't really ingest sugar as the sugar high would be counterproductive in the whole going to sleep thing. So it wasn't until Wednesday that I actually opened a bag (4 days later!). I did share some with Cece as her birthday present - she so knows how much I love the stuff she was very hesitent to accept the gift. I assured her I had more. Unfortunately, there was a lesson learned when it came to the cotton candy (which on another side not, funny enough, the purchase of hte cotton candy coincided with being the same week I finally had my first boston visit to a dentist - a little guilt there). The lesson learned, and learned the hard way, is that although it is beneficial to place the big bags of fluffy real maple syrup cotton candy up high so that the cats won't maul the bag apart in the middle of the night like many other items I forget about when I bring home, the storage place for the aforementioned treasures should not include on top of the fridge. Although a useful resting place for many other items, apparently the heat (not evident from short term observations) transforms the light and fluffy cotton candy to a reduced hard (very hard) maple syrup candy. Luckily I made it through a bag of the cotton candy, so this really happened on the last bag. I've tried knawing on it a bit, but now that the roof of my mouth is all torn up, I'm thinking of just melting it and using it on the pancakes saturday - sad but true - lesson learned. Also, note to self, the vermont stand is not the only dispenser of cotton candy at the fair - massachusetts also represents!