Ballerinas in Boston

I won't pretend that I'm mad for ballerinas. Or that I once was one (hahah). But I saw this project and these images on another blog I follow and I thought they were so stunning and creative! They juxtapose the beautiful and strong lines against gritty, city backdrops from both New York (mostly) and Boston.

The first two are my favorites, I was entranced by the lines. The others are all taken in Boston, how fun!

To learn more about the Ballerina Project, go here.

14th Street-NYC

Manoa Park



Public Gardens



Charles River




Boston-Charles

Witch Ones

It seems that the fates have decide that I should be hit with one idyllic fall weekend after another.

And let me tell you, I'm not complaining! If you haven't already guessed (HA!), fall is my favorite time of year, so much so that sometimes I just think I might burst with how in love with autumn I am!


Ok, so enough with the gushing, I know. As usual, I like to tell me weekend stories in pictures. But I'll give a little context:)

On Saturday some friends and I headed out of the city to Boston Hill Farm in North Andover where we picked apples and pumpkins, ate cider donuts, and foliage peaked our way there and back. It was beautiful and even more fun as we had a friend who has spent the last several years in Hawaii along. She was so excited, and it got me even more so (wait, is that possible??)



Sunday, I headed north once again and met my sister in Salem, MA. Our visit to Witch Central was prompted by a visit from her friend G and G's daughter Sofie from Florida. It was their first
trip experiencing fall in New England, as well! We walked the cobblestone streets, went to a cheesy witch show (actually, Mary-Rose and I were kind of freaked out. . .) and checked out a psychic expo.

Thanks to a friend of mine showing me to it a few years ago, we also visited one of my favorite places in Salem. The Derby Street Bookstore. Piled, packed, and swaying with used books, it's a literature lovers absolute delight.


Sofie loved it as much as me (I think!) and we had fun winding our way around looking at fun books.



(just some light childrens reading)

Live Chat

(Thu Oct 21 2010 21:31:18 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))Rincel

Once again, My name is Rincel and thank you for choosing Comcast.
We value your business like a Diamond.

This is the ending comment I received from the comcast representative I was 'live chatting' with this evening while trying to solve some account problems.

Have you ever chatted online with one of these helpful people for your cable/computer/who knows what else?

It's actually pretty awkward. Are you supposed to respond to their prefab statements? Do they know that you lied to them and told them you'd fill out the survey and then didn't? Are they a man or a woman? Are they even real??

Then, to make matters more ridiculous, my helpful Comcast person ended our conversation with little gem. Uh, pardon the pun, I couldn't resist!

**It should be noted I was partaking of this live chat business because I called the 24/7 customer service line only to be told the office had closed at 9pm?

Ok.

Bachelor Smachelor

Today I got an e-mail from a friend of mine requesting I read some updates of this girls blog.

This girl Faye is from Mississippi and was obsessed with the Bachelorette apparently when it was on TV. I wish I could scoff at this, but in fact V (e-mail sending friend) and I spent each week stressing, panicking, and screaming at the TV/the more obnoxious bachelors right along with her (well, as total strangers. . .in different states).

A month or so ago, V sent me a link to this girls blog with a funny story about how she had ordered a shirt from one of the bachelor's- Chris Lambton - landscaping company and had spoken to him on the phone when she'd failed to notify them of change of address.

Evidently what followed was some giveaway thing, some twitter flirting, etc. etc.

And this past week, Faye ended up making a trip to Boston with her sister and they met up with Chris and some friends.

I'm reading this story, and I'm thinking. . .seriously? Is this a joke?

This random girl from Mississippi get a random phone call about a random shirt and this is the outcome.

Then, I start to think: "Chris, come ON. This girl, she's from MS and apparently gets too drunk to remember hanging out with you. I've got this friend V and she's super sweet and loves dogs and ok she hasn't ordered a shirt from your company yet, but she's from MA"

So Chris Lambton, all I have to say is, you'll probably never read this and I don't have a twitter (nor does V. . .) so we can't show some twitter love, but if you're looking for some fun girls to hang out with. . .you should keep it local.

Also, I believe there was a Bachelor friend of yours named Craig. . .bring him along too.

I mean, it's the least you can do, so I have someone to talk to while your off sweeping V off her feet!

Mousecapades

If only the cockroach at work had been the end of things. . .

Alas, it was not.

Late yesterday evening, I was calmly sitting on the coach working online when I happened to glance up toward my kitchen. There, on sitting just as calmly on the kitchen floor was a tiny brown mouse.

Surprisingly, I remained casual, pointing it out to my roommate just as it took off for the pantry. We both jumped up, and in an extremely brave move I actually entered the kitchen and prowled around to see where it had gone.

In typical ridiculous fashion, Becca and I decided it would be a good idea to vacuum to discourage further mouse invasion. Becca took the proverbial bull by the horns and broke out the vacuum. Then, she headed into the kitchen and started vacuuming. I retreated back to the couch.

From a few feet away, my attention was still focused on Becca. Mere seconds after the vacuuming starting, mousy came flying out of the pantry in a total panic. I wish that words could truly describe the scene that ensued:

As the mouse frantically dashes around, Becca hops from foot to foot shrieking before she manages to climb up on one of our bar stools. My response is to launch myself to a standing position and run back and forth across the couch also screeching in fright. The mouse disappears, more scared of us, no doubt, than we of it (well, that's what Becca keeps saying anyway).

In the wake of the great mouse escapade of 2010, Becca and I threw almost an entire cake and bag of candy corn away, set up two glue traps and contacting some men, lining them up for potential dead mouse disposal services.

We've upped our game today substantially. And as of this afternoon, our arsenal has increased from glue traps to poison and snap traps.

Someone told us last night that naming them makes trapping them all the more sweeter. So, little Hubert. You're going DOWN!

Is it Friday yet?

A list of the more ridiculous events of my day:

1. Technically this began last night when I started baking cupcakes for a coworkers birthday round about 10pm and decided to make buttercream frosting from scratch. I had to finish this morning while also trying to catch an earlier train.



2. Cupcakes frosted, I catch the T but keep smooshing them Then, my pant's zipper breaks, so it basically looked like I just didn't zip my pants. I can't fix them because I'm too busy balancing my cupcakes.

3. After arriving at work, I jerryrig my pant zipper with a paperclip.

4. I arrive home to download, and eventually listen to, Joshua Radin's latest album that came out Tuesday (I've only just had a chance to listen to it). Somehow he's swung from soothing acoustic tunes to some weird alt rock dance mix??

On the bright side, there are only 72 days until Christmas.

If you're thinking that this post makes absolutely no sense. . you may be right. Neither does eating candy corn (which you don't actually like) that you bought because it is so quintessential fall but is now sitting in your jack-o-lantern candy dish in danger of getting dusty.

Think about it.

Apples?

This weekend was spent with a glorious trip to my old home in Western MA. The plan was to have a wonderful fall weekend replete with apple picking, cider drinking, cider donut eating, apple themed baking and visiting lovely friends.

Notice a common thread in most of these activities?

apples.

Seems simple enough, right? Western MA, fall. . .obviously apple picking will ensue. Thus, after a fun visit with a friend and her gorgeous baby daughter, I met up with several friends and headed to Atkins Farm. The only problem was, as we rounded the corner and blew up to the orchard it was surprisingly dead.

A chat with a nearby farm stand person revealed that a hard frost had apparently caused a lack of apples around and a lot of places were no longer having apple picking.

After regrouping we headed to another local orchard, albeit slightly farther away. We arrived still in good spirits and headed over to the booth to get a bag and start picking!

After being completely ignored for several minutes we were finally given a bag and told to pay after which seemed rather strange. It all became clear, however, when we headed into the orchard only to realize there were no apples on the trees.

We literally found 2 1/2 apples. And when we went back and returned the bag, one of our group informed the man that there weren't enough apples to make it worth a bag. His response was a nasty look, and more silence.

In defeat, the gang trudged back to the car defeated only to realize as we got into the car that people were milling around with bags of apples. Probably because there was an entire separate part of the orchard across the street ( which we only realized while driving away).

Thanks hostel orchard worker for failing to tell us about the whole other section of the orchard. It resulted in us leaving in a huff and buying sub par apples from the grocery store. Then, we made mediocre apple crisp for our dinner party that night. It was rather embarrassing.

At least not all of the trip was a bust! Here's a some shots of me indulging in one of Atkins' life changing cider donuts. You have not experienced fall until you have delighted in one of these little treats.

1492

Columbus may have sailed the ocean blue in 1492. But we spent this Columbus day making some delicious, homemade caramel apples.

Not that I'm complaining, but why exactly do we have a holiday dedicated to a man who didn't actually discover our country, didn't know where he was when he landed near it, and was a huge jerk to the people already there?

Oh yea, this weekend was another one of those delightful kind that makes you wish every day was a great weekend day. More on that later, though. I'm getting sick, it seems and work is right around the corner which means bed time for this blogger!

Picture Thursday

So, I've decided this week to implement picture Thursday. It might only happen once, I can't make any promises.

Nonetheless, fall has begun and here are some pictures of my first autumn in Boston:

beautiful morning glories on a walk last Saturday

we do have leaves in Boston, yay!

My new hair. Much more city chic, clearly

and, finally, my ikebana. I'm not too skilled at making unique floral arrangements yet. This was just a test run with some beautiful lilies I got.

The Great Cockroach Caper

"He's back. . ."

Limbs akimbo, I slam into the side of the cubicle, panicked, but trying to stay silent.

"Don't scream, don't scream!" I chant to myself as I start to hop around in panic. Next to me, Jess* points in fright to the culprit she's referring to, sitting only a mere 10 feet (or so) away.

His orange-y brown skin glistens in the light and his antennae are straight in the air. No, folks, this is not another alien sighting per my last blog post.

It's a cockroach. The largest cockroach I've ever had the misfortune to see in real life. Easily 3 inches long. Even now, I want to vomit thinking of it (right, right, TMI, but I want you to have an accurate picture).

I had heard rumors this morning upon returning to my desk after some filing that a cockroach has made an appearance in my corner of the office. I even saw a picture, but it just didn't do this beast justice. I'd even sort of forgotten about it during lunch, until we returned to find it lurking once again.

My coworkers and I all stood as far away as possible, until one of us went to get a man to kill it.

He approached confidently with a tiny paper towel. "Umm, yea, good luck with that buddy!" I thought sarcastically, and then watched in a mix of horror and relief as he smashed our cockroach friend to crunchy bits before our eyes. I spent the next hour or so itching violently, brushing imaginary bugs of my feet, and shooting panicked looks in the direction from whence Roachy came.

(this can't even begin to capture his immense size)

I just have a few things to say about this:

First, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Combating giant cockroaches was definitely not in the job description. And after the event, it was passed down to me that, in fact, this happens occasionally at the office and that sometime they crawl into your purse.

Second, God help anyone that is within my earshot if I'm sitting there and have a cockroach fall/climb/wriggle anywhere near me. My cries of distress will be heard throughout the greater Boston area, at the very least.

And third,


umm, I think I found my Halloween costume. . .

*Some names in this story may be changed for privacy. (AKA, I changed the one name that appears in this story, because I'm under the delusion that this blog is cool enough for it to matter)

The Truth is Out There

If you're wondering why I've been totally MIA this past blog week (besides my few random picture posts) it's because something very strange has been happening.

OK, not really. I just made that up to sound way more exciting.

In case you have any doubts that I'm a total dork, what I'm about to tell you next will remove it completely.

Aside from being busy spending money like it's going out of style (well, not really, but holy smokes to I need to get on my budget this weekend! EEK!) I've discovered an old TV show I used to watch in the early 2000's called Roswell. It's based off a series of books that I religiously read in the late 90s called Roswell High.

The books (and short lived TV series) follow three teenage aliens who have hidden their identity from everyone except three human friends. The story continues in perfect teen fashion: angst, romance, prom, etc. I've been powering my way through the 3 seasons show.

After watching several more "intense" episodes last night, it became clear to me that I was more affected than I realized. I headed to bed after one final episode much later than I should have. Me eyes slumped closed and I was almost asleep when something startled me. a noise. I opened my eyes and saw Becca (my roommate) or someone walk into my room.

"Hello?" I feebly moaned.
Struggling to turn and get a better look. But there didn't seem to be anyone really there. I was confused because I was looking at the light from the door where the person was standing only to suddenly realize that the light was actually my alarm clock.

I became anxious because I couldn't actually find the door to my room as I sluggishly thrashed around my bed. I scanned the room in a panic, by heart began chugging desperately. There was an alien in the room.

Then. . .
"Wait," I finally thought, "an alien. What? There aren't any. . ."

I sat up confused, just as a light switched on for real outside my door. My whole body jolted in concern, and then finally, my sleep fogged brain had cleared.

No Becca in my room. No alien. I've just been watching way to many early 2000s, poorly acted, alien drama Roswell episodes.

Oh yea.

And with that I turned over and went to sleep.