Random

Boston

Love BostonI just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who checked in with me after what happened on Monday. I’ve not met any of you in person, but the number of you that reached out to me to make sure me and my friends were okay was truly heart warming. I apologize if I didn’t get to respond to everyone individually, but hopefully you saw my message saying I was okay.

I was with friends about 2-3 miles from the finish line around the 24 mile marker and well away from Copley Square. It took a long time to get home that evening, but that was okay; I was safe and everyone I knew was safe. And as much as I love to complain about the MBTA and hate to admit anything great about them, I have to say their response immediately afterward and ability to get things back up and running mostly that evening and 99% the next day was incredible.

The city is slowly getting back to normal, but there are daily reminders, good and bad, that the Boston is dealing with the aftermath. Every morning I go through Copley station and the station is still closed and it’s an eerie reminder of what happened with all of the lights dimmed. There is still a large area cordoned off around the scene, including the historic Boston Public Library. But the worst is how empty the city feels; it is school vacation week, so many families are out of the city, but the lack of people on the T and walking the streets is eerie.

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Updates

March 2013 Recap

And just like that March is over. If possible it went by even faster than February. Part of this comes from how ridiculously busy I was this month, but I think part of it came from the fact that spring looks like it might’ve finally arrived in Boston (but I’m not holding my breath just yet.) From realizing that I’ve been at my job for almost 6 months, to starting CrossFit (I’ll write more about this later) and having a social life for the first time in ages, I’ve been crazy busy.

2013 03-25 Messy Desk at WorkOutside of reading and books, things have been great if hectic, I realized a couple of days ago that on April 15th I will have been at my job for six months and that’s just crazy! I’m still loving it and can’t wait to see what happens over the next six months. My desk is to the right, because no post is complete without pictures. It pretty much will look like that for the next two weeks (if not longer) because I’m right in the middle of a busy period as I’m running phone-a-thon, but I love it because I work with students and they’re hilarious. And things are only going to get busier as we have a lot of events between now and mid-June and my sister graduates from her MA program in May so that just adds to my business.

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Random

SO MUCH SNOW!

As in over 24 inches (61cm)! And they’re saying another 4-8″ during the day today. Wow.

So to the left is me standing next to a snowdrift after the mini-bulldozer cleared the road and the right is Dexter enjoying the snow after we shoveled. The video is Olivia and Dexter going out into the snow before we’d shoveled a path. It’s both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Keep in mind they are LARGE dogs. The picture of Dexter is next to our bin which comes up past my waist. I’m pretty sure Olivia still isn’t happy with me, but we did finally get her out, but I had to coax her the entire way and she still didn’t look happy with us even though we cleared a big area for her.

Books

Book 174: Faitheist – Chris Stedman

Since I decided to read so few challenge books this year, I’m able to pick up books on a whim and this is one of them! I encountered Faitheist through Heather’s great review at Between the Covers and knew I had to read it. So go read her succinct review first and then return to read my ramblings.

I’ll be the first to admit that I wanted to read Faitheist because the author is wicked cute, but the synopsis drew me in because I’m fascinated by how people negotiate identities especially when it comes to sexuality in relation to religion and geography.

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Updates

October 2012 Recap – Part 1

I apologize in advance, this is a doozy! So much happened in October.  I planned on it being one really long post, but after my weekend book purchases, I finally decided to break it into two posts, but there are LOTS of pictures! The five parts of the two posts are: personal update, quick Boston Book Festival recap, Literary Others recap, new books purchased (entirely way too many), and last but not least my regular monthly challenge recap.The first three are in this post and the last two are in the post tomorrow.

But first check out this awesome tweet:

Yes – that is ‘the’ Michael Scott, author of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. Someone tweeted my review to him and he apparently read it and tweeted me. You have to LOVE social media, sometimes. I’m still grinning about this.

Personal Update
As said above, it’s been a hell of a month. First with the happy news, I’m midway through my third week at my new job and I love it. Not only is it in a beautiful part of Boston/Brookline (left), but I’ve been given a lot of freedom and independence to build a student giving and young alumni program and to offer input for other things as well. I’m excited about the next few months and am really looking forward to the future!

I’ve also spent some time volunteering and supporting my local library! We went to a benefit at a local restaurant and I won a $50 LLBean gift card! (Bought a new belt and someone a present with it.) I also volunteered to help set up the book sale (schlepping lots and lots of boxes full of books) and I helped break it down as well. It was great because I got to peruse a lot of the books and I had my eye on a few, but showed some restraint 😀

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