Missed Bus

This morning I was slow to get going. So when I finally made it out the door it was late. Late late. I turn the corner and a block down I see my bus. The good bus. The fast bus that will get me into work half the time than the other buses. And I’ve missed it. It was comical as one moment I’m stepping out my door appreciating the wonderful morning fall colors of the light and sky and environs in the strange humidity we currently have and upon seeing my bus and the opportunity missed I instinctively respond with a raised fist in the air and an ‘argh’. I surprised myself with that one but don’t think it was noticed except by the heavens above.

So I wait and wait and wait at my bus stop. Becoming even more late than late. In the end I got in just on time (surprisingly I was the first one in, just barely). This could have been just another morning bummer. But instead it was a nice friendly warm hug from my town. As I’m walking to the bus stop, after my bus has abandoned me, I pass folks unloading from a car. The little girl (about 2) says something to me as I pass and the mother chuckles. She shares that her little girl saw me walking towards her (and must have been enamored with my pretty floral dress) and asked me to hold her. Her mom jokes that she needs to work on ‘stranger danger’ with her. Warm hug number 1. I’m waiting at my stop eating a granola bar, looking at the bus schedule and trying to figure out what time it is with a dead phone in my bag (iphones suck – mine isn’t a year old and it can’t hold a charge for a full day – very frustrating). A honk right near me makes me almost stumble off the curb. I look up and it’s my landlords on their way to work, turning at the corner I’m at, with big smiles and waving. Warm hug number 2.

Fast forward and you find me sitting on the little wall, that is slightly damp, but I don’t care because I’m a sitter. I’m looking down at something, probably my granola bar when I suddenly hear say someone say hello and using my name. I look up and it’s the Assistant Town Manager (we have town managers instead of mayors here). We’re on several committees together, working on projects. We have a nice chat – very pleasant. And then he’s on his way and my bus finally pulls up. Warm hug number 3.

Not a bad morning after all. As I consider different things in my life right now – what I want to do, where I want to be, who I want to be with, I keep coming back to the communities I’m a part of, one of which being my local town. I’ve been considering subscribing to my local town’s newspaper as I keep missing a lot of the goings on in the politics. The problem is the waste accumulation. I’ve cut back on magazines and those I would pass on to the hospital to be reused. Newspapers just get tossed in the recycling – not good. Quick google search and it looks like the paper is just a weekly paper – the Boston Globe must overshadow these smaller papers. In that case I might take the plunge!

Weekend Stats

I love numbers. When I was sitting at home Sunday with a strange feeling I realized it was because I had no where I was scheduled to go and no one I was supposed to see. So just had to do the math. Checking my appointment book which isn’t 100% accurate I ran the numbers. Can’t find an easy way to insert the graph here, but basically:
- The first two months were the lightest, with February seeing the lowest numbers.
- March I was out of town or hosting guests for 75% of the weekends
- July I max with being out of town or hosting guests for 80% of the weekends
- The cumulative tally to date is 54% of my weekends I spend elsewhere (or hosting).
- Projecting for the end of the year, it remains about constant – over half my weekends this year will be spent elsewhere.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do love seeing friends and family and vacationing. And the weekends I am in town and not hosting people, I often find my weekends full - busy with Birthdays or showers or appointments or just getting together with friends. And living in Boston this often means 45 minute drives to get to other neighborhoods where they live. But there is something to be said for having a nice quiet weekend at home with nothing planned. Curled up with the latest knitting project enjoying a good movie. Sunday I spent trying to shrink the project basket. I think I got one thing done, another is half done – but there is a reason those projects are in there – not easy to resolve. And the movies I picked were less than good (has anyone seen 2012? You know what I mean then). But not bad for a rainy Sunday.

I just booked another trip for October twenty minutes ago and this morning got an email from a friend that the movie festival we always go to is coming up later in October. So there goes two more weekends. But instead of wondering where all my time goes, I should be appreciating all the time I’ve been able to spend catching up with friends in person, hanging with family and checking out new sites on my travels. Plus I have to admit, although my mileage is atrocious, I look forward to driving out of town on weekends. I just love my car – sap stains, bad paint job and all.

I dropped off the cable box today. It was just under two years that I had cable. I’ve been cable free the rest of my life (minus the parts I was living with people with cable but that’s small too). It feels weird I have to admit not watching the commercials or channel surfing. I really wish I could get hulu on my Roku (which rumor has it may happen soon) but otherwise I like my current system. It’s only been a week in, so time will tell.

The Wedding Shawl

I had a long weekend up in NH for a friend’s wedding. I killed two birds and stayed at my dad’s in VT – 30 minutes from the orchard where the wedding was being held. Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner and I was weaving in the ends moments before handing over the finished shawl. And of course no pictures. I meant to take a picture before I blocked. I meant to take a picture of the shawl actually blocked. I meant to take a picture when it was done. I meant to take a picture at the wedding. But no pictures. And no one has posted any pictures yet either from the big day (I didn’t post this Monday as intended and since then I’ve found pics for your enjoyment). I just combed facebook and turns out both the bride and groom are socially non-networked. All in all the shawl worked out wonderfully – I got tons of compliments Sunday and everyone was impressed (including myself). I had meant to re-pin the shawl but was just so exhausted lately it didn’t happen. I had kept a grueling pace at the beginning and then found I had an extra week plus so slowed down to a stop but not quite finishing it. I missed pinning one of the points but don’t think you can tell. The strange thing is that I used a lot less yarn than what was called for (I returned a ball Friday) and I was a little timid on the blocking so it’s about 1” less all the way around. But it was nice and cozy and kind of warm for the 70s weather we had this weekend.  And a gorgeous setting up in an apple orchard in NH.

I was driving back yesterday on route 2 that I drive all the time and I was so exhausted. I got about half way and then had to pull over. Found a little parking lot, parked in the shade, reclined the seat and took a 30 minute cat nap. I’ve hardly ever had that happen before – so tired I knew I was going to lose the fight with the eyelids.

Now that I’ve handed over the shawl, I feel at liberty to start a new knitting project. I have three baskets full of projects that need fixing, darning and other not-fun stuff. And nothing that travels yet. Ever since the weather got fall-like I’ve been hankering to cast on. I think I’ll have a go at the Treeline Striped cardigan from purlsoho.com. It eases the guilt as I’m using up yarn stash that is not enough for a full sweater. Still need to do the math tonight. Fingers crossed there is enough yarn.

Since it is now later in the week, I can report that I did indeed print the Treeline pattern, and then proceeded to weed through my yarn. I have an Ikea bookcase that is composed of cubes – 4x4 (idea stolen from Cece). I had the yarn arranged in the cubby holes by color. I stayed up until after midnight Monday night, going through each section of yarn and pulling out the balls of yarn that weren’t enough for one sweater. Trying to find what yarns would go together (by weight and fiber type). It looks so nice, but I’m no where closer to starting the Treeline sweater. Turns out the yarn I had in mind is a different yarn weight than the pattern. But I do have a nice collection of tweeds I may have to make into a Shetland sweater. So no new project on the needles yet. Instead I worked on one of my repair projects and finished it (it has felt so good getting that sweater done and it only took 20 minutes of work), and I’ve picked up a sweater I had started earlier this year – finishing up one of the fronts. It’s a brown cardigan. I’ll provide more info later (maybe). It sure is knitting season again and I’m gearing up to finally finish the repair jobs I’ve got in the basket. There’s got to be at least a half dozen sweaters that out of commission currently. Fine for summer time, but now I’m itching to wear them again. Pressure’s on!

Lunch with Biden

Walked out of my office at lunch and was struck that the busy lunch crowd in the financial district was frozen. There were dozens of uniformed police with their motorcycles all over the place and everyone was just waiting on the sidewalks. I had to go up to someone and ask. It was for Joe. I’m walking along the route, and more cops on bikes come by and pull over on the side. One cop even addressed a gentleman walking along the sidewalk (just like me) and told him to move over and stand by the building. Very strange, although he was carrying a messenger bag.

I’m almost to the end of the block when all of a sudden there’s an influx of vehicles. On point in the front is a handful of more cops on bikes followed by two limos. I look closely in both but no clue who was who with the slightly tinted windows. They were then followed by a bunch of the dark big SUVs – escalade types and then around the corner comes an ambulance with their lights on followed by two police cars. And they all drove by very quickly – it was over within seconds it seemed. Gave me the tingles.

And then it’s like the world was taken off of pause and all the blue shirts and suits start moving again – the sidewalks are swarming with the business folks that had piled up during the wait. It was very surreal. It makes me appreciate working in the heart of a metropolitan city though. To walk out of your door and stumble upon something like this, as if it’s an everyday occurrence. Similar to when I stumbled upon the victory parade by the Sox a few years back.

I enjoy my lunch of Vietnamese sandwiches in the park that is packed full of people enjoying the second showing of summer days, catching up with a friend and discussing our futures and what we want in life. We head back to our offices when again, we come upon a large spattering of uniformed police. They’re in the street directing traffic, along the sidewalks keeping the pedestrians out of the road. I miss Joe this time round as the wait was taking too long. But apparently he was visiting an office down on Arch street. It was very strange and makes you appreciate not having to tote around such a large and burdensome entourage.

Baby Names

I can't believe I found this site after all these years!  Someone showed it to me about 5 years ago and every time I've googled I could never find it.  But it has stayed with me all these years.  And I was referencing it just now.  I said it was pointless searching having had my hopes dashed so many times before.  But I tried one last time and  boom - first on the list.  It's called www.babynamewizard.com and it shows in dynamic form the popularity of names over the decades.  It's just a really cool way to graphically present the data.  Fun to play around with and test names.  Not that I have babies on the brain just now, having spent the weekend with a bunch (and appreciating the freedom from schedule a childless life offers), but I think I have a new favorite for a girls name: Alice.  For the boys, I always lean towards the Oscars and Felix types.  Time will tell what the final choice is...

No More Cable

I did it!  I just got off the phone and I'm happy to say after about 9 months of searching I've finally found cheap internet and locked in the deal.  The technician is coming next Saturday to switch me over. 

My internet/cable monthly charge kept steadily going up.  I'd call periodically and they'd knock off some $$, but then it would creep back up.  No reason - I wasn't adding services, buying on-demand movies or anything.  This summer my cable went out and with traveling and everything I haven't been able to get it fixed yet.  I hooked the rabbit ears back up and found I miss the days of snow.  It's really hard to watch a TV show without the signal dropping out.  Sigh.  But on the upside, most of what I want to watch isn't on TV it's on Netflix or Hulu or other websites. 

This summer I was working up a new budget and wanted to cut my expenses down.  Dropping cable from my current provider saved me something ridiculous like $20 a month.  So I hunted and hunted and hunted and am now switching providers.  I was on the phone for awhile while they tried to hunt the deal down.  It wouldn't register on their website (was double the promotional amount) and I finally got switched over to a special department that was privy to this great deal.  Very strange, but I'm happy with the deal.  And I asked like three times - my monthly bill will be the same each month.  The rate is locked in for the first year and than just goes up slightly to a second rate the second year.  Now fingers crossed the services is the same.

It's been just under two years that I enjoyed my new cable.  Technically it's been about 18 months since it's been out this summer.  I quickly got into my groove - watching specific channels and ignoring the vast sea of other channels out there.  I miss it sometimes when I want to just crash and zone out and flip through channels and watch nothing.  But then that never left me with a good feeling afterwards. Plus the shows I wanted to watch always seemed to be on when I was out.  Internet watching is equivalent to on-demand almost, without the cost.

I'll never be one of those people who say they don't watch TV (personally it annoys me when people say that).  I've discovered and been enriched by so much televisonland provides.  Plus it's part of our culture.  I like being connected or other times, escaping into another world. 

 So my cable is cut, I'm back to life with the old rabbit ears and just bought a Roku Player to stream my Netflix that's scheduled to arrive next week.  I can't wait!

Random Thursday Posting

1. We moved offices last month. I’ve been striking up random conversations with strangers in my new building each day. In the elevator, in the kitchen, who knows where next. It’s been rewarding so far and good practice. The only thing I’m worried is that I’ll forget a face and ignore someone in the future. It used to be just names I couldn’t hold on to. Now it’s faces too. Ah, old age!

2. I was at a bus stop yesterday and this older gentleman walked up to me and randomly asks me what day it was. He is adamant I tell him the day of the week not the date. It was a weird question and he just thanked me and walked away after. The scary thing was that it took me awhile to remember the answer was Wednesday. So maybe not such a bad question after all.

3. I got a ride from a friend last night and got to check out the new 500 series BMW. Some cool new features but I’ve got to say, I’d still choose my little ol’ Infiniti over that car. Plus save a ton of money too!

4. I checked out Ted. Saw it on a white people post. Listening to one of the episodes I learned that the false sleeping patterns we all experience has really come at a cost. I love not using an alarm clock. And thought I had a pretty good natural cycle. And yet I’m dog tired recently. The speaker was saying that people who did not use artificial light would sleep twice a night: from 8 to midnight and than from 2 am to sunrise. And in between there was a quiet meditative time where there was a surge of prolactin (happy mood hormone). The kicker being that they were super invigorated during the day – a completely different person. If only the days weren’t getting so short, I might give it a go.

5. I checked on the shawl yesterday. I got it pretty much blocked and pinned out before I practically passed out from being tired. It looks good. I unpinned a few tips and it stayed the same shape. I missed one spot and kind of want it a little more perfect. So am considering spraying it and re-blocking tomorrow night. We’ll see. Pictures soon, I promise.

6. I was waiting in the park by my office building at lunch for a friend, watching the people go by. When I noticed this lady I see on the bus all the time. Turns out we work in the same building. It was a little strange. My friend asked if I talk with her and I replied that I don’t like to talk with people on the bus much. It’s my time to relax and decompress. Not really up for chit chat.

Police + Wristcutters

Friday I was heading home after a late night of working. I was looking forward to making it home and crashing and knowing I didn’t have anywhere to go the next morning – no work, no trips out of town. I get off the bus and go to cross the busy street. I look left and there is a lone car in the dark that sees me and comes to a stop. Turns out it’s a police car. I was reminded of the experience I had last fall. I look right and see the light had just released a bunch of cars. I’m waiting to see if they’ll stop before proceeding and with this sense of déjà vu I’m also half waiting to see if the blue lights come on from the police car to help stop the traffic for me.

I’m just about to step foot on the sidewalk on the other side when I notice the blue lights flashing out of the corner of my eye. I’m confused for a moment until I turn and look and see that this police car took a different approach. There was one car that didn’t stop and I see the police car had pulled a U-turn and has gone after the driver. I kind of feel badly, for being the cause of a potential ticket, especially since I’m not sure if I wouldn’t have done the same if I was driving. He would have slammed the brakes on. Anyways, sorry dude, if you got a ticket because of me.

Last night I was fighting the pattern I’ve had lately: on way home acquire headache, get home feed cats, and crash only to wake up hours later and drag myself into bed. I’ve been so tired recently. It’s really strange. Until I started talking to others. Looks like it probably has something to do with the sudden change in weather. Pressure drop? So last night, I put on an easy meal (cheese fondue – mmm) and pop in the latest Netflix flick.

Note here that I mainly use the streaming part of Netflix these days so my queue for movies to be mailed is from awhile ago. A long while ago. Sometimes movies arrive and I think, “huh” and that I need to get online and review my queue. But I never do. Last night I watch the previews and they’re alll about horror and thrillers. I get a little worried, as I do love myself a good horror film, but have learned to watch it during the day, not at night home alone. The movie is called, Wristcutters: A Love Story. It’s a sweet strange movie set in the afterlife suicide people live in. A little surreal especially when watching while very tired. But I made it to my regular bed time and enjoyed the movie. Still wondering what led me to stumble upon it in the first place.

Subway Siting – Good Deeds All Around!

Last night I got on a very crowded subway car. It was peak of rush hour and I was in a rush to get home to grab the car to head over to Watertown to pick up my latest craigslist find (forgot to take a picture and it’s no longer posted). It’s a great mid-century hassock that is the perfect size for my “new to me” arm chair (not really as I grew up with it and it’s been at my dad’s). And a steal at $25. It’s seen better days but an easy enough reupholstering job will fix that – good bones. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I get on the subway car and maneuver my way through the crowds to find the last remaining seat. It was next to a blind woman with her seeing eye dog. I sit down and soon after she asks me which door she should use if she wants to go to Lechmere. Now I use the metro daily but I have my route and am pretty bad about the details of the other parts. I carry on a conversation with her trying to figure it out and hoping someone else on the train will pipe in. We get to the next stop and I offer to hop out and read the signs to see if I can find the answer. No luck, so I offer to walk with her and help find it. She’s very appreciative and I know I’m getting more out of it than she is, after hearing about the recent study that shows good deeds make you healthier (here’s an article). I always put it down to adding to my good karma, but turns out there’s more to it!

Well, I’m just about to head off when this other young lady getting off after us says she’s heading to Lechmere and can take the blind woman. The young lady is Hispanic and very quiet with a heavy accent. It was very sweet of her and much appreciated as it would have put me way behind schedule. So there’s the first good deed on the subway from a stranger. All this went down in a matter of a few minutes and I’m able to hop back onto the same subway. I assumed I had long lost my seat as the car had gotten even more crowded. But nope, the gentleman on my other side had put his Wall Street Journal down and save me my seat. So when I pop back on and look around, he sees me and picks up his paper. How sweet was that? And little did he know how much a die-hard sitter I am! So warm fuzzies all around.

On a somewhat different note, I’m still amazed how many blind people I see on my commutes. I think I’ve seen more blind people in a month here than I have in the rest of my life combined. I just googled to see if I could find a reason but not for my town. The Boston area has been a center due to the creation of the celebrated Perkins School for the Blind a few centuries back. I did however accidentally find this local restaurant review, on which note I close this post:


"And that was my first bite at XXX. After reading all the positive reviews on Yelp, we decided to hike it out to XXX to try a new restaurant. This was of course a mistake in itself because (my town) is like the Jan Brady of Boston -- insecure (I saw 4 cop cars in two blocks!) and about as fun as a blind man trying to watch a porno."

August Update

I realize my last posting had “crap” in the title so figured I should update with a new post. I had a nice visit down in Richmond to see my little nephew who is about 8 months old. Of course I left right when the weather was breaking and would be gorgeous and in the 70s/80s and I was flying to a place that was hot and humid. I had been down in March and it’s amazing how fast the little guy has grown. Tons of personality and he’s a zoomer. He can only sit still for so long and then he’s biting at the bit to get down and go off exploring. He’s on a mission while crawling – checking every room and nook and cranny out. Surprisingly, I did rotation with my dad and Barbro and took turns between the air mattress and the guest bed. I’ve come to the conclusion that air mattresses are not my friends. They weren’t ever, but I was younger and the body would forgive more.

The weekend before last I had all to myself. I did end up visiting Cece and the family on Saturday. We had fun at the beach at a local pond and I got a bit of sun. But tons of smile time with Cam and Mags. Cam is starting to talk tons. Not all the words are English, but I can relate to that. Super cute as always. I was going to visit this weekend but forgot they were out of town. So am gearing up to block the lace shawl all on my own. As cece says, just take a deep breath. I’m almost done. Just one more round and then casting off. I’m really worried it’s going to be much smaller than it should. Based on the yardage needed, I should be using three balls of yarn plus a bit more. Instead, I’m using two balls of yarn plus a bit more. That doesn’t sound promising. I’ve been reading up today on how to properly pin it out and one site said alpaca is more delicate so don’t pull too hard. I think the yarn I’m using is alpaca. So stretching the thing into submission may not be the way to go.

Let’s see, what else. I feel like tons have been going on that I mean to blog about. I got two batches of jam from the peaches I bought. Burnt the first batch, but don’t think you can tell too much. Second batch was perfect. How bad is it if I only give away jars from the first batch?

This coming weekend I have a friend’s birthday soiree and a friend’s all day bachelorette party. I did find a dress for the wedding the following weekend (where the shawl will be on display). I’m starting to second guess it as it was a cute little strapless number. Seemed perfect when I was buying it on a hot and humid day, but now, even with a sweater, may be a little cold.

And on that note, so this isn’t yet another photoless post, I provide you with pics from my trip in July. I was bustling along early Saturday morning to check in at the Glasgow airport on my way to Paris for vacation. In the persistent drizzle that defines Glasgow weather, I happen to look up and see this advertisement. Just your normal approach to travel advertisement. Only the start and end points spectacularly match up with my itinerary. That happens once in a million, at least for me. How cool, I thought, so got out of the flurry of travelers and tiptoed my way onto the wet grass and took these pics.

Love JetBlue, Hate Orbitz

Instead of losing $400 because of Orbitz I'm only out $100 thanks to JetBlue. Lesson learned: don't use Orbitz!