first week in Boston

the first week in Boston was great- mom was here with me, and it still felt like I was on vacation. we stayed in hotels- first in Saugus (about 20 minutes from Boston...because it was the best deal), then at a nicer place on the river in Cambridge, just across the river from downtown.

 As a new Boston citizen, one of my first acts was to get my library card at the Boston Public Library. i know, it's a pretty glamorous life i live. mom thought it would be fun to go on a 2 hour walking tour of the city, which i disagreed with, but ended up really enjoying. we learned lots of stuff about boston...did you know how much history is here? it's crazy!  stuff like, the Back Bay (my 'hood) was all filled in with dirt from some hills and dirt hauled in on trains for 40 years...before that, it was an actual bay, filled with water. also, there's lots of cemeteries in Boston. i even saw Mother Goose's tombstone- you didn't even know she was real, did you? yeah, me either. during our walking tour we learned the story of the Boston Massacre. I learned that a crowd of rowdy protesters armed with snowballs got out of hand and started throwing rock-filled snowballs. This led a man in the back of the crowd to yell, "Fire!", intending to disband the crowd and send them running for safety. 

The unfortunate result was that soilders with guns in the front of the crowd mistook  this outcry for an order from the liutenant General, and they fired into the crowd, killing 5 people. 

the point is not to give a history lesson. 

anyway, a few days later, my mom and i were walking around and I asked her what she thought of Boston. she said something about it being too big for her, yada yada... and I pointed out what a rich history this place has- how cool it was that we stood in the exact spot of the Boston Massacre. to this poignant point, she replied, " Psshh- 5 people died. what kinda massacre is that, anyway?!"  you know that moment when you realize that your parent may not be as compassionate as you always thought- when you learn they have a dark place in their soul...it was kinda like that.  heartless comments aside, i still think she's pretty great. 

when we were walking through Beacon Hill (where the "old money" is in Boston), not far from John Kerry's house, we found some little doors- I think they used to lead to wood cellars or something- that were just her size. 

it was a great week with mom, and she left the morning of my first day at work. we took this picture when I dropped her off at the airport. little did i know the adventures that the next few weeks would hold...

Trading Spaces...it's truly a whole new world

It didn't take long to realize that I'm going to have to adjust to much more than a 3 hour time difference between Portland and Boston. I've been learning lots and am starting to get used to some new ways in my new world. Here is a list of some things I've traded: 

~The tram for the T

~Starbuck's on every corner for Dunkin' Donuts (coffee, that is) on every corner

~NW 23rd for Newbury St.

~ideas for idears

~parking the car for pahking the cah...for that matter, a free driveway for a $200/mo tandem parking spot

~2500 sq ft house with 3 floors for a 600ish sq ft "super studio" and 3 rooms (including the kitchen and bathroom)

~School and work a 5 min walk apart (and on the same campus) for school and work a 4-5 hr bus ride away (in different states)

~Mt Hood for...ok, there's no mountains in Boston. but we've got the Boston Commons.

~the Willamette River for the Charles River

~I-5 for the Mass Pike (I-90)

~Free road travel for toll roads

~everyone i know for about 3 people i knew when i moved here (although there is a place here where everybody knows your name)

~No local sport teams worthy of fanfare for the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the Patriots...championship teams, and we've the the Green Monstah, too!

~The sunset for the sunrise (over the ocean, that is)

~Walking on the Oregon coast wearing a hoodie and jeans (for free) for paying $5 to go to the beach on the Eastern shore in shorts and a swimsuit

~Sunriver for Cape Cod

~"way" for "wicked" (meaning very, as in wicked cold)

~DCH for CHB (aka The Children's Hospital)

This is not a complete list, but you get the picture. I feel I should elaborate on a few of the items listed above...

There's a completely different language here, including some of the examples I noted above... apparently there's not even time to speak in complete words...then there's the Bostonian dialect of English. 

In case I pick up some of the local way of speaking, here are some translations so I will still be understood by my peeps in other parts of the world.

~The tea from the famous Boston tea party is no longer as important to the common day Bostonian as the "T"- which is short for train- the Boston subway system. I take the green line to and from work most days (except when I'm running late...then I take the City Cab). 

~Names of streets and highways are also shortened: Massachusetts Avenue is Mass Ave., Commonwealth Avenue is Comm Ave, and the Massachusetts Turnpike is the Mass Pike. It's amazing how much more free time now that I don't speak in complete words-who knew?!

 ~One of my greatest disappointments in life in Boston, and something that I will never understand, is why lots of people here seem to prefer 

(brace yourselves) Dunkin' Donuts "coffee" to Starbucks... and it's really hard to find a local coffee house around here. it's so weird- and DD coffee totally blows! i did actually try it before i decided it was fair to hate. it's like water compared to the real thing...it's just not right. fortunately, the nearest Starbucks to my house is only 3 blocks away, and

 there's one across the street from the Children's Hospital, and one just across the street from my subway stop at school. so no worries, i can still get my 'Bucks whenever i need a fix.

For the first time in my life, I paid money to go to the beach. My first Boston friend (and one of my favorites), Whitney, and I took a 40 min. ride on the commuter rail to the Singing Beach at the end of August. We walked about a mile before I saw the ocean. Then i saw something else- something i'd never seen before. a girl sitting at a table, charging people $5 to go to the beach- wtf?!

 the first thing i thought was that my mom would be horrified, and would say that it's criminal...i was right about that. apparently this is common along the Eastern Seaboard, but it will take a very long time for me to get used to paying to spend the day on the sand. i moved past it, though, and discovered a few things I really enjoy about the beach here. The sun shines regularly, and people actually swim in the ocean. It wasn't warm, but at least my toes didn't turn blue in the water. 

So, some trades are good, some not so good, and some neither good nor bad... the bottom line is- I know I'm in exactly the space I belong right now, and i wouldn't trade it for anything.

First 100 days (give or take) in office

Well, I'm sure everyone is shocked that I had a 3 month lapse in my blog posting. :) Of course, I had good intentions of posting much more often, but I guess I've been a little busy and the months have flown by. I promised myself that I would post again before the first snow. Luckily, I'm the only flake in sight, but not for long, so it's time to catch you all up on the first 3 months of my life in New England. I'll break it down into a few posts, or it would be one insanely long entry. sorry for the delay....now here's some stories you've all been waiting for............