crossingponds

well .... here we go!

2008-01-24T04:44:00.000-05:00

my last week of work is nearly finished. it's actually quite hard to believe. it's all starting to feel real now. the management 'handover' and training week went really well. they've got a great new team in place, a team with much more enthusiasm and energy than i've been able to give these last few months. so i'm really excited for the direction of the company, and oddly enough, excited to let go of it and pass the baton. i did have a sad moment last weekend when putting together a little slideshow i want to leave with them and writing my farewell email to my colleagues (not sent yet), reminding myself of all the fun i've had with them and what i've gained and how much responsibility i've been given over the years. it really is tremendous. and i really am truly grateful. tony is taking me to lunch on tuesday - anywhere i want in london - no restrictions he says, except availability.

and my african blog is now up and running! from here on out, i will most likely use that site only - at least until i return. i know it seems silly to start a second blog, but this crossingponds blog is not one that everyone has. and part of me wants to keep it that way. which is ridiculous seeing that anyone can stumble upon a blog, or link to it, or share it - it's not REALLY that private, but somehow, this one feels that way, so it allows me a little more freedom in my writing.

not that i won't be free in my next blog - but that is going to be more purely about the experience itself, what i'm doing, how i'm feeling about it. and less about life in general (like, oh, say, the condo we just put an offer on in milwaukee!)

eventually, i'd imagine i'd switch back to this blog - but there are a few more people i'd like to share my gambia experience with. so ... here goes! from here on out, you can find me at continentalcrossings for my ramblings from the gambia! enjoy!

10 days and counting!

2008-01-20T11:46:00.000-05:00

sitting in an internet cafe below the flat i'm staying ... limited internet access this week, hence the lack of posts. but it's been a great week. working some, playing some, enjoying london, and also appreciating where i'm heading.

exciting news in brief:
* gambian high commission returned my visa in 24 hours! i keep hearing about 'gambian maybe time' GMT - so i was impressed
* jason bought his ticket for the gambia and got his visa too!
* i'll be in dublin for work this wed-friday
* saw lots of old friends at the pub last night for a catch up! (lovely fun - though feeling a bit groggy today)
* jason bought us tickets for AFRIKA AFRIKA on friday night so went to a great performance of african dance and circus-like acts - got me VERY excited about this continent i'll be living on for 3 months!
* got a much clearer picture what it is i'll be doing in africa via an email from the country manager and former volunteer. i'll get the info up, but i really want to put it on my new african blog, so watch this space!
* lots of good food and friends here in the UK, as always.

anyhow, i'll try to get back on the blog later this week when i've got internet again and i'm not on a public terminal. love to all!

made it to london

2008-01-12T12:33:00.000-05:00

after a long flight from o'hare, we are in london, for anyone charting our progress. i woke up with a kink in my neck on thursday and can't seem to shake it, it feels like a pinched nerve, so the plane ride was relatively uncomfortable. my newly acquired 'gold' status with american airlines advantage club didn't seem to get us any perks that might make the journey more comfortable. ah well.

tonight we're off to dinner at a favorite brixton haunt, and then possibly into town to watch the packers game at an american sports bar. we had a nearly 4 hour nap this afternoon, so i think we'll make it into the wee hours.

next week is work for me, training the woman who will take over part of my position, and a few days in the office. tomorrow, hopefully wandering around spittalfields. we shall see. i've no real plan.

leaving in less than 3 weeks for the gambia. crazy! i'll get that african blog up soon!

when you fall, you get right back up, OR ...

2008-01-04T15:59:00.000-05:00

you head to the bar for a few pints of fat tire amber ale. which is exactly what i did yesterday after throwing a tantrum on the hill at A-basin ski resort in keystone, colorado. it wasn't a tantrum, per se, though i did collapse half way down the mountain in sheer frustration (and fear) while poor jason waited patiently for me to pull myself up. i shimmied my way down the mountain sideways until the slope felt more manageable and then skied myself straight to the bar where i sat with the other frustrated souls for the rest of the afternoon. fortunately, we'd gotten a bargain on the lift tickets - only $40/day - so i didn't feel too bad for only going down one (green!) run. but i think it was the best $40 i spent the whole trip because it helped me to admit to myself, and to poor jason, that i am not, dear readers, a skier. and i'm ok with that now. (hands up if that surprises you. cold weather, effort in outfitting, exercise on a vacation, hmmmm.) actually, to be fair, i did have one enjoyable day of skiing greens at copper mountain. but i think one day of skiing on a ski trip is enough for me. i've decided on our next trip, i'll be the designated cook, babysitter, or spa-goer. fine by me!

but apart from the skiing, it's been a great trip. jason and i spent two days driving to colorado from madison, crossing illinois, iowa and nebraska and stopping frequently for food and drink (and loos). we stayed in grand island nebraska at a comfort inn. and made it to keystone where his friends had organized a condo for 10. a few beers in and it was time to watch the ball drop, which we did before turning in relatively early for a day of skiing. i ended up not skiing the first day, knowing i wasn't going to ski all four days anyway, and that was a good choice as apparently it was freezing on the mountain. instead i hung around the house getting myself ready for africa and my US departure next friday. (for london first, then africa on feb 1).

speaking of which, i'm getting my african blog sorted and will post a link soon enough. watch this space. we bought my mosquito net, deet, sunscreen, first aid kit and other essentials for three months in a village.

and saving the best news for last .... i've been ACCEPTED at marquette! woo hoo! i'm in! this means i'll start the masters in counseling (school counseling emphasis) next august! a great feeling to know i'm sorted upon my return from the gambia. so all in all, off to a great start in 2008. i hope everyone else can say the same!

sand to snow

2007-12-29T20:12:00.001-05:00

i just got back from a five mile run in the snow. it's not actually snowing, but the streets were covered from yesterday's downfall, so we crunched along through the powder and slush. it was actually quite invigorating and running at night with the blanket of white and the moon lighting the way was beautiful. i'm trying to get used to snow being a part of my winter reality. so far so good! yesterday we were out and about in milwaukee and the snow was coming down in flurries. i had my new puffer jacket (see previous post) and my new christmas scarf so was sufficiently warm!

we were out with jason's mother for the day and she took us to the Pabst Mansion. this is the 'pabst' of 'pabst blue ribbon' beer. she's a tour guide for the mansion so we really got the inside scoop - it was very interesting! she's a serious milwaukee-phile, volunteering at the mansion, the ballet, the theatre, and lots of other local treasures, so i think i'll be in good hands as i'm trying to get to know the city!

we also found a place we liked in the third ward district. but after getting home, crunching numbers and looking at the stats for the US housing market, we're still debating whether it makes sense to buy vs rent. we shall see. we're in no hurry. i've got to get to africa and back before we need to get really serious!

and tomorrow we're setting off on our 18 hour drive to denver to get some skiing in over the new years holiday. we should be there by monday night around 8ish. in time to watch the ball drop.

happy new years to you and yours wherever you are.

(oh, my mom said that blogger was forcing people to log in in order to leave comments. i think you can still tick 'nickname' and just type your name, without logging in, to leave a comment. can someone try this and let me know if it works?)

a christmas letter

2007-12-25T15:58:00.001-05:00

i got this letter from a traveling friend and thought it was too good not to share!
merry christmas to all:

Hey all - happy holidays. Or, what I guess I really want to say is, whether you've celebrated Hannukah or Ramadan, Christmas or nothing at all - on your own in some fly-by-night town or in a living room strewn with kids and parents and a rogue aunt...I hope it's good. I hope it is really good.

One of the many inspiring people I met in Asia over the last couple of months said something that is going to stick with me. As a teacher, when he talks to his students about what they are going to do, he tells them: "Hey, it's your life. It is your choice. If this is the book of your life - when you are old - make it one you want to read."

Whether you eschew the holidays and would rather be running through the jungle, or if you've come full circle to land on your parents' couch, don't let the moment pass. It might be so much more convenient to talk about the past or rattle on about the future, but we are all laying down the story of our lives. And anyway, I've learned that all the crappy, unforeseen subplots sure make people laugh later.

Live that happiness they always talk about. Isn't that such a strange Western idea? We have so much material wealth, yet happiness always seems so elusively around the corner. Travelling helps you see that many people in the world, despite threats to their livelihoods, grinding poverty or imminent conflict, do not seek it - they live it. It can be as simple as a warm fire or a balled-up plastic bag football. The human connection, the communion with nature, the knowledge that there is a roof over one's head and some food in the belly - these bring the idea of happiness back home.

Some of you have had kids this year - hey - if that's not scary, I really don't know what is. It may be easy for some of us to jump on a plane, but harder for some of us to fall in love. It might be harder for others to wind up in a strange town, surrounded by foreign voices and suspect food, and easier for others to get on a tank and cross borders under the guise of night. None of matters, really in the end, what we do. It is really how we do it, and why.

So this is an email to toast all of you (virtually, I guess, with a whiskey somewhere around here...), and to say cheers for all of it. For keeping in touch when you can, for letting me know that you're still alive, for sending me strange pictures of babies in utero, for sending me stranger pictures of you at work, for making the impossible possible and most importantly - for never hesitating to show me - in your own way - that you are navigating the treacherous waters of this insane, beautiful and complicated world.

We're all going to be dust someday, so what better way to evade death for the moment than live?

Thanks for making this ride worth it.

merry christmas!

2007-12-24T19:56:00.000-05:00

merry christmas from santa cruz!

it's been a great week here in california the sun is out and it's been in the 60's all week - absolutely gorgeous, the way christmas should be. (i know, i know, there are those who will argue for a white christmas - i'll get that later this week when i fly to wisconsin.) we've had a lot of jam-packed fun with the family. dinner and wine tasting at soif, a night with dan hicks and the christmas jug band, a walk through the redwoods, a few runs on west cliff drive, a santa stumble dive bar crawl through downtown santa cruz, moonrise watching party over capitola, dwight's famous BBQ ribs. a fantastic time!

here are a few pics - enjoy! and happy holidays wherever you are!

back to london

2007-12-12T18:41:00.000-05:00

...on this whirlwind trip.
dublin was a success - a nice three days of training for my colleague who will take over most of what i do. i think (hope) she found it useful. how do i pass on everything i've learned in seven years? fortunately, she's been around for five of them, so it's not going to be too difficult.

i'm working on a new blog for my african experience. this will be a blog open to everyone i know who's interested, including people who do not (purposefully) have access to this blog. i'll link to it from this one, but i won't link the other way. so this one may become defunct for the three months i'm in the gambia. we'll see, i'm still deciding how to play this. it's so strange sometimes to have everything so open. i mean, i think i edit myself down fairly well, but sometimes it gets tricky remembering just how tactful or cautious i need to be in my writings. in any case, watch this space for the link to the new blog, if i get it up and running soon. i'd rather start my pre-african ramblings from there!

only three more full days in the UK. i leave sunday morning for SF. very very excited about seeing my family and jason. it's been a long time here this time, and bed-hopping from hotel to bunk beds to hotel to couches is getting a little tiring. not to mention the crink in my neck. tomorrow night is my official farewell party with the company ... so i expect it'll be a crazy night. and friday is my farewell with friends at the sun and doves, so probably another crazy night. i can't imagine friday day being very productive. but what the heck. tis the season!

some geographical context

2007-12-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

in case you were wondering the size of the gambia ... i believe i'll be stationed in the south western yellow bit - but i'm waiting on final confirmation. watch this space for more info.

into africa ...

2007-12-07T06:28:00.000-05:00

i haven't yet reported on my meeting with mondochallenge last week. i met with anthony in a cafe near the train station as he was only in town for the afternoon. it was an interesting, albeit brief, meeting where he proposed another village where i might work. this one, called darsilami, has never had a volunteer in their school. so i would be the first. intriguing, daunting, challenging, scary, but thrilling all at the same time. apparently there is a direct link from the nearest town with electricity (brikama) and it's a larger village (2000, as opposed to 300). the only small (?) issue is that the village is near the border of senegal where there has been some fighting in the past (cassamance). he assured me that it was fine now, he was in the village a few months ago to see for himself and that there wasn't anything to worry about. he also said the peace corps has a volunteer in the neighboring village - and they are the first to react and pull volunteers for safety - so i shouldn't worry.

i suppose i'm not really worried, though i must admit i've started to think about what i'm ACTUALLY doing. (what AM I actually doing?) and all the questions i should've perhaps asked before signing up are starting to niggle. i STILL don't have the guidebook for the gambia. what will i teach? how will i teach? how to manage a class of 50? 100? how not to offend, upset or frustrate local villagers. (thinking of the recent teddy bear scandal, funny, but not.)

in any case, i have a bit more research to do before i accept this new assignment, and i don't have to accept. but the other village will have 3 volunteers - so a bit redundant, and perhaps not as necessary. we shall see. i'll keep you posted when i decide. here are the pics they sent me of darsilami (you can click on the pics to see them larger):

bon jour!

2007-12-05T05:39:00.000-05:00

my last day in paris.
it's been a huge success with work - a great two days of meetings with the site directors. and they clubbed in and bought me a camcorder that runs on AA batteries and plugs right into my computer! it should be great for gambia, if i can get the batteries to last longer than one night! in any case, i've enjoyed paris, eaten well and had plenty of nice french wine. and this morning there was a great french market just outside my hotel, blocks of fresh vegetables, meats, fruits, cheeses, breads and other knick knacks. i wish i had more time just to wander. i'm meeting a friend from highschool who found me on facebook for the afternoon, and last night i strolled down the length of the champs de elysees. it was a beautiful night!

tonight i head back to london on the eurostar, and tomorrow and friday i'll work from our london offices. on monday i fly to dublin for another three days of work. the handover is beginning and i'm training the woman who will take the bulk of my work when i leave. the end is nigh!

and thanksgiving last weekend was wonderful. so nice to see everyone and catch up. though as often happens, the red wine caught up with me a little too early and the night went rather quickly! but the food was delicious and the hospitality was brilliant. if only i hadn't had to leave quite so early on sunday morning to catch the train. that was painful.

i must find somewhere to have a delicious french lunch now. au revoir!

safe and sound across the pond

2007-11-29T05:19:00.000-05:00

i've arrived ... for those of you tracking my whereabouts. i got in last night at 9ish and got a taxi back to our student dormitories where they've got a room for me. it's a quad with four bunk beds, perfect for one, but not sure how they actually fit four in, very close quarters. i had a restful 7 1/2 hours sleep and woke to go for a 40 minute run in hyde park and around south kensington. it's a beautiful winter day here.

i'm having a coffee this afternoon with anthony lunch,the director of mondochallenge, the organization i'll be going to the gambia with this spring. he's just been to the gambia so will have a lot to report, i'm sure, and i'll get all of my questions answered. i feel a bit guilty because to be honest, i've not had much time to think about the gambia at all. i STILL don't have my guidebook yet, so i know nothing about the country. i'll spend the tube journey over preparing a list of questions. sometimes i wish i was someone who got nervous about things instead of leaving things till the last minute to figure out. but that just seems to be the way i roll.

on to start my day!

adios! ciao! auf wiedersehen!さようなら (sayounara) BOSTON!

2007-11-28T07:41:00.000-05:00

sitting at logan airport waiting for my flight to board, i closed the door to 7th street for the last time this morning - a very clean, very empty apartment. apart from the air mattress, filing cabinet and TV stand i left behind. i got all my stuff into two suitcases (yet again!). the bigger one weighed in at 52 pounds and luckily she didn't ask me to repack 2 pounds of my life. i really wasn't in the mood to reshuffle! i'll have a taxi waiting for me on the other end to take me to south kensington where i'll be staying in a student dorm/flat in the building next to work. very convenient this trip!

yesterday, i realized at 1:30pm that I still had my trusty bike in my possession.

so i quickly took a picture and posted a FOR IMMEDIATE SALE posting on craigslist saying that i was leaving town and needed someone to come and collect the bike (http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bik/491094058.html) - and i had someone at the office with $20 by 3:30! so my cab to logan was paid for by my trusty friend. it was actually a little sad to part with her. she's been good to me.

so now they are calling my rows and i must board the plane.
thanks boston. and goodbye!

a good day ... and more to come!

2007-11-26T16:45:00.000-05:00

despite the gray and rain, today has been great! i've only time for a list at this point, so here goes.

top 10 reasons meagan is happy today:

1. i ROCKED my psych test after studying for about 8 hours (only) yesterday!

2. i had a great weekend and am still feeling the effects of lovely family time.

3. i'll be in london in two days where i'll get to see my wonderful friends!

4. i've discovered a song that makes me very very happy by ingrid michaelson called 'the way i am' and have had that on repeat and smiling inanely all the while.

5. i've been given THREE new mixed cd's in the last week which i love -(thank you jordan, jenny/eric!) so feel like music is coming back into my life!

6. i have one more day of work in the boston EUSA office.

7. they are having goodbye drinks for me tonight.

8. at a place known for their margaritas!

9. i've cleaned out my filing cabinet at work and it is empty (that feels good!)

10. end of an era is near ... and a new one is beginning!

can't ... eat ... another ... bite ...

2007-11-24T14:57:00.001-05:00

ok, maybe just ONE more helping of stuffing.

had a great thanksgiving at aunt judy's house in CT. she prepared an AMAZING feast for 21 people on thursday (kudos kudos!) it was delicious, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy (that was ME and suzen!), cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. lots of love went into that meal. it always seems a shame to eat it so quickly after so much time was spent preparing. though i suppose we've been eating it ever since ... and the turkey soup will last at least a few more days!

jimmy's brother and his family were in town from chicago. i hope she won't mind that i relay my perspective here, but his brother has ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease., a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. i didn't know anything about it when i arrived, though i'd heard the name, and certainly never met anyone who had it. tom sat on a recliner in the living room, hardly able to move much. if i'm honest, i found it a little hard at first. i didn't know what to do, how to act, what to say, how to respond, what he needed, what he could understand or couldn't. i imagine this paralysis in others is probably just as frustrating for him as his own paralysis. but i sat to talk with him a little later in the night and he had me laughing about old stories of his wife and his younger, crazier years. he has four beautiful children and an amazing wife who equally as witty with boundless energy. where she finds it, i don't know. i suppose when life throws you a pitch you just step up to the plate and give it a really good whack.

i found myself oscillating between being angry at whomever-i-should-be-angry-at for such a thing happening to such an amazing family, and being in awe of their resiliance and spirit in the face of something so unfair. it reminds me of this quote hanging on the door of the little girl's room i slept in while i was here: 'when life throws you lemons, you want to throw them back and scream 'i asked for limes!!'' ... i'm SURE they did not ask for lemons but it hardly seems like that's what they've got. you'd never know it from the way they live and love. it was very powerful and i am grateful to have shared thanksgiving with them this year.

it reminded me, i suppose, that lows will come, that lows are inevitable in life, i know there have certainly been a fair share of lows this year and i know there will be more to come. so i gave thanks for the highs that come, also thankfully inevitably, that make the lows bearable. may 2008 bring far more highs than lows!

lucky socks!

2007-11-20T18:50:00.000-05:00

what a day today was!
i'm sitting at home, on my floor because i've no chairs left, everything is gone. waiting for my celebratory fruschetta pizza to warm in the oven because i have no pots and pans with which to cook. it's kind of sad. but i couldn't be happier.

because i ROCKED the GREs!

it started this morning around 7 when i biked to funkin donuts for my good luck cup of coffee (did i mention i have no coffee maker either) and got a large cup of joe with cream and proceeded to spend the next four hours capriciously alternating between work and last minute cramming. (GRE word, don'tcha know. my mnemonic device? - 'capri's, are they pants or are they shorts? they can't decide') but honestly, i couldn't bring myself to study THAT hard because if i didn't know it yesterday, and i don't know it today, how will i know it in two hours. still, a few last vocab drills and it was time to go.

but when i looked out the window (which clearly i hadn't done all morning) - i realized there was a torrential snowstorm whirling outside my window. i'd given myself plenty of time for the bike ride over, but not enough time for the T if i didn't want to be panicking the whole ride there. plus i was looking forward to working off some nerves and that very large, very caffeinated coffee, with a long ride. so i threw an extra pair of pants in my bag (as it turns out, my new brown cords, which i fancy as rather more academic than my jeans, even if my jeans are 'lucky' brand and were going to be my lucky jeans that matched my lucky underwear and my lucky 'sconnie' sweatshirt). it was a good thing because after pedalling only five minutes from my house, i was soaked, and there was still another 20 minutes to go.

(for the record, lucky underwear = not gray or baggy, i don't really have 'lucky' underwear!)

anyhow, because i'd given myself plenty of time for the bike ride, i arrived a half hour early, in time to pop into walgreens and get myself a pair of lucky socks! (taken from my camera phone).

my feet were soaked and i didn't really want to sit for four hours with cold wet feet. fortunately for my new 100% waterproof jacket (see earlier entry) the upper half of my body was entirely water-free apart from the sweat i'd worked up. (ok, so it wasn't THE most comfortable test taking outfit ever).

so when i got there, i had to put all of my belongings into a locker. i got number 32. my age. which i took as a fortuitous sign of all things good. (lots of symbolism today!) and i had about 5 minutes to wait and sit quietly and just take a deep breath and pray to the GREat god of standardized computer adaptive testing. ('please let me get the first question right, and please let the second be difficult, so i know i got it right, but not so difficult that i can't answer it, and another difficult one next, and so on and so forth')

they took me to my computer station and i took my time reading the instructions (before the clock begins), taking deep breaths and reminding myself that i could, indeed, do this. and then it began.

my first essay question had to argue over the statement something along the lines of 'formal education exists only to encourage the ideas a culture likes and discourage the ones it doesn't like or is fearful of.' (paraphrased, obviously) - it didn't matter which way you chose to argue, you just had to have a sound argument and analysis. i argued against it though. and the second question i had to analyze an argument for spending on computers/technology in a school district based on a few flimsy facts provided.

i FREAKED out for about 30 seconds when i got the first question. one of those freakouts where you forget where you are and what you're supposed to be doing and how to read a sentence. but after i calmed myself down and began jotting down notes, i was fine. i finished both essays with ample time to read and re-read, but i was pretty happy with them both when i hit submit. they get scored on a 1-6 scale. and if i don't get 5s or 6s, i'll be bummed.

the rest of the test flew by. 1 verbal, 2 math sections - one of which won't count because it's just the educational testing service trying out new questions for future exams. (THANKS A LOT) ... but in fact, i'm pretty sure it was the second one that counted because i saw a few new questions on the first. which was much better since i had more time to get my math groove on.

in any case, at the end of the test, the computer asks you whether you want your scores to count or not. i suppose if at that point you feel you've really blown it, you can not have them count and they won't go down on record. (though the fact that you took the test will appear, so isn't that kind of being a ninny about it?) anyway ... it's not like i'm taking THIS test again, so i hit yes please.

and was i surprised!! honestly, i was expecting somewhere between 900-1000 (out of 1600, 800 for each section, excluding essays which get graded separately). all my practice tests had given me a score somewhere in that range. but when i hit 'show me the money'...

wait for it. wait for it.

i scored a 1260!!

i don't like to think of myself as truculent - but i BEAT THAT mo'fo's ass!

(truculent - fierce and cruel, eager to fight)

woo hooo. please don't consider me a braggart. i'm not really competitive about this with anyone except myself. i honestly could care less about this test as long as it gets me into marquette. but i'm pretty darn chuffed with the score. maybe i could even look for some scholarships! woo hoo.

so now it's back to packing up the flat, eating my celebratory pizza for one, and enjoying the last few days here in boston. although i'm leaving tomorrow to spend thanksgiving in CT with my fam. i'm going to be one wild turkey this year.

thanks to all who sent vibes my way - i definitely got them!

and happy thanksgiving to everyone. i'll be giving thanks for all of you!
xoxo

dog walkers

2007-11-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

dog walkers are the bane of my existence tonight, dear readers. not LEAST because i am not a dog person. if you know me well, you know this. but because of ridiculous questions like this:

Of the 24 people walking their dogs in Golden Gate Park, 25% are not on the phone. If the dog walkers are outnumbered 4 to 1 by people not walking dogs, and if one fourth of the people in Golden Gate Park are on the phone, how many people in Golden Gate Park are on the phone but not walking dogs?

try it. go on, see if you can figure it out.

i am going to guess my cousin sara, who MAJORED IN MATH is quite possibly the only one who will get this. i'll reveal the answer in the comments section.

THESE are the kinds of questions i will be forced to answer in a 4 hour exam on tuesday afternoon. if you could all please say a few prayers, or send a few vibes, or think a few good thoughts for me on tuesday, i'd be grateful. i have the GRE at 12:30pm where i'll have to answer 2 essay questions (45 minutes each) 1 verbal section (30 minutes) and 1 math section (45 minutes). urgh urgh urgh.

how can my knowing the answer to that question about dog walkers make a difference in whether i will one day be a good counselor and student at marquette. i have NO idea. standardized testing makes me angry sometimes.

in any case, i'm sitting in a pub trying to study, on my third blueberry beer, so the vocab section is beginning to slur .... but the blueberries sure are nice. did i say slur, i meant blur.

bring on the grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrE

a special occasion

2007-11-14T21:14:00.000-05:00

wow. so here it is. my 200th post. i'd like to take this opportunity to thank my dear readers, for following along this journey, back and forth across the ponds. of course i'd like to thank my mother, for making me write one-page essays before i could get my allowance - only AFTER scrubbing the toilets - all those saturdays of my youth. and to all of those who have been subject to and subjects OF my postings week after week, year after year (I started this in october 2005)!

so since it is my 200th post, i thought perhaps i should do something special, write something requiring exra thought or consideration. a musing on life post-200, a profound gem of wisdom.

instead, i think i'll share a picture of my new beau. (that's pretty exciting, isn't it?) a new character in the life of meagan. someone i'm excited about crossing the ponds with. (sorry mom, ending in prepositions never correct, i know, but love knows no grammar).

you can't see it in this picture, but we're both wearing our wisconsin (UW) red (freezing our respective bits off) at the football game. he got me a 'sconnie' sweatshirt and i wore it with the kind of naive pride only a newbie can have. he attempted to fill me in on the rules of the game between plays, and i have a slightly better idea of how it's played, though will still look forward to peaceful sunday afternoons on my own during the season. (who knew i could live with seasons?)

but happy to learn the rules of the game.

only 2 more weeks in boston. i leave for london exactly 2 weeks from today and i couldn't be more excited. for one - i'll see the gang again - long overdue. and for two - i'll be OUT of boston for good. i'm packing up, moving house, jumping ship and setting sail from beantown. most of my stuff i've moved to wisconsin, and the rest i'll carry with me in two suitcases (i'm used to this, i pack lightly). i've sold the furniture and given away what wasn't important. downsized for - quite possibly - the last time! i must admit, i'm looking forward to the final crossing of ponds. i'm ready to start collecting, and stop letting go!

so hooray for football, and wisconsin, and cheeseheads, and boston, and lessons learned, and old friends, and new love, and fond memories, and 200th posts!

keep on reading!

here to stay

2007-11-07T15:11:00.000-05:00

i bought myself a jacket yesterday. it's a much needed every-day jacket since my others are either too formal, too long, too hot, too ragged or too something-not-quite-right. it's a nice one from patagonia bought in part on their environmental principles of recycling their materials but also in part because of the lifetime warranty that comes with their products.

in my usual way of imbibing symbolism into just about everything i own, this jacket is no exception. because while it's very stylish as ski/snowboarding jackets go - it's still a puff jacket - and still an active (oh, can i say 'american'??) style jacket. and i love it. not something i would have bought five years ago when i was all about the hip and trendy - but definitely something i can live with now. warm. cozy. practical. comfortable. just how life feels right now.

bedposts and notches

2007-11-04T15:40:00.000-05:00

so if last week's entry was my ode to boston, this week's is an ode to milwaukee.

i spent this weekend wandering around town (or really, i should say driving, because it's not particularly a wandering town and it was quite cold) and exploring the different neighborhoods, the universities, the condo market, the restaurants and shops. why would i be doing this? i hear you ask. (and WHERE is milwaukee?, i hear my friends across the pond asking)

and so now i must come clean. this 'great city on a great lake' is where i'll find myself after the gambia next year.

and why milwaukee? (and really, where IS milwaukee??)

milwaukee for those of you not familiar with US geography is to the west of lake michigan in the state of wisconsin. and i'll be moving here because i've met someone very special and together we're heading to middle america for an adventure. i'm thinking of it as a stop along the way out west, because one day we'll get west. but it's a beautiful stop to make, and i'm enthralled by the city after this weekend.

the city itself is relatively industrial - historically a blue collar factory town - but the rejuvenation effort, especially downtown, is strong, and the pride for all things milwaukee is contagious. we went to see a movie on friday night at the oriental theatre - an old school theatre on the east side of town - and there was a man playing an ORGAN on the stage as we arrived, and enormous genie-like cross-legged statues lit up in florescent pinks, purples and oranges. it was like walking into the 1930s - very glamorous. when the movie began, the organ slowly disappeared into the stage while he continued banging out the last few notes which were quickly swallowed by the velvet curtains.

they've got a market downtown in a section of town we like - 'the historic third ward' - called the milwaukee public market and walking inside is like walking into foodie heaven. (it's supposedly meant to mimic pike market - of seattle fame, and it's perhaps a bit like the new part of spittalfields market in london). it's an indoor market the size of a football field with specialty stalls of cheeses, fresh fruit and veg, ethnic cuisines, nuts, dairy, candies, coffee, a delicatessen, raw juice bar, pastries and bread and anything and everything in between. a top mark green grocer and definitely a selling point for this area of town.

i read somewhere today that milwaukee is very much like chicago without the crowds - it has museums, a symphony and theatre, the ballet, sports teams (brewers and bucks), festivals and a relatively small financial district. it also is ON lake michigan, so has the views and esplanades of a coastal town. i'm excited to explore yet another notch on my bedpost of cities.

i also spent friday talking with professors at the two local universities and fell in love with the program at marquette university. i met with the chair of the department for over an hour and he told me that if i got my application into him ASAP, he would see what he could do about expediting the process to get me an early decision before i leave for the gambia. (which leads me to believe that i rather impressed him and that the outcome would be favorable to me!) - which is excellent considering i was completely unimpressed with the other university i visited (uwm). i think marquette will give me the kind of experience i hoped for in my undergraduate career - personal, intimate and involved - and i am incredibly grateful to be in a position to take advantage of this at this point in my life.

all in all, things are moving along nicely and i couldn't be happier. watch this space for updates!

forgive me boston

2007-10-30T08:30:00.001-05:00

so i'm beginning to feel slightly ashamed at the way i've treated boston. the way i've talked about her behind her back, flashed my angry eyes and sighed in frustrtion at her shortcomings. it's not really her fault. she's actually a beautiful city. it's only my perception of her that's been so ugly. today, for example, is a glorious, crisp autumn day. the sun is shining on the church across from my house, the air is fresh and the birds are chirping outside. the red and orange leaves are cascading to the ground and swirling in the small breeze. it's the first day that i've turned the heater on since the weather has chilled and i'm actually enjoying the warmth of inside and the gurgling of the pipes. there's something cozy about today.

i was just in the laudromat talking with a bolivian woman about boston. she loves the city but hates the weather. i told her i was going to africa in the spring and she smiled, saying she always wanted to go to africa, her doctor is african and he is such a nice man. (i told her i was looking forward to being a minority for awhile, and she looked at me as though i'd said i was looking forward to getting cancer, perhaps that was indulging her in a little too much). i also spoke to a 38 year old woman who already had 7 kids, her oldest being 22 and youngest being 12. she's looking forward to grandkids this year. imagine that. but that's what you get when you work from home and do laundry in the mornings - a smattering of locals with stories. and there are all sorts of locals like that in this neighborhood. a small part of me might miss that when i leave. but only a small part.

i've also been enjoying the boston skyline of late. i've been running near the charles 4-5 times in the last few weeks and i bike over the harvard bridge every day on my way to work. i'm trying to remember to look up and take in the views. especially on my way home with the pinks and yellows of the sunset reflecting on the river. she really does have a spectacular skyline - the prudential, john hancock, the gold dome of the capital and beacon hill neighborhood ... all of the buildings that make boston unique. i wonder if i'll miss the skyline.

so this is my ode to boston. a catalyst in my pond crossings. a bridge connecting me to the west (or will it be the middle west next? stay tuned, dear readers!) but the city that taught me about my own american history and my own personal american revolution.

how can it be the end of october already?

2007-10-22T13:42:00.000-05:00

wasn't it just early september?

and now the leaves are changing into glorious reds and oranges and yellows. i've been walking all over town this weekend, most of the time, forgetting to look up and around, but every so often, i see a tree whose color just stops me in my tracks and forces me to acknowledge the changing seasons. and it's amazing every time. a picture wouldn't do it justice.

my sister has been here since thursday - and we've had a fun time kicking around boston, doing some shopping, watching movies, and eating a ton of food. we may head over to try some yoga tonight, she's never done hot yoga before. (and then we'll get a burrito on the way home!)

it's all happening!

2007-10-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

i booked my tickets today to the gambia. so it's really happening! i leave from london on feb 1, and return to london on may 2. yipee! i have yet to get a guidebook and can't tell you the name of the currency or really all that much more - but i'm super excited! i've got my vaccinations booked for november, and am reading a book called 'shadow of the sun' by a polish author who was an african correspondent for years. so it's a start! any suggestions for how to prepare for a) africa and b) teaching small children math and english would be MUCH appreciated!

another friday

2007-10-12T11:34:00.000-05:00

has a week passed already? where is the time going? before you know it, i'll be out of boston (hooray!) and beginning the next adventure. i got my briefing pack for the gambia last week and it sounds amazing. scary and challenging and uncomfortable, at times, but amazing, nontheless. i haven't really thought much about the actual day-to-day experience of teaching 4-8 year olds - and that part has me slightly nervous as i've not taught before. but i think i've got enough ideas and creative games in my head to last a few months!

last weekend i went to chicago ... and got to see my cousins while there. it was lovely to catch up. and looking forward to seeing them both again at thanksgiving (no pressure, ha ha - GET your ticket sum!) here's a pic:

summer was in town to watch her friend run the chicago marathon - which sadly got cancelled half way through because it was such an unexpectedly hot day and the city wasn't prepared for the number of casualties of the race. a shame for all the runners that spent months preparing, no doubt. and jenny lives in chicago - so came to meet us for a drink.

and here we are again at friday - this week has gone by quickly. and another fun weekend ahead.
but more on that on monday.
happy weekend!

village life

2007-10-05T15:55:00.001-05:00

so i've just found a few videos of the village i'll be going to this spring. they sent through my packet of information, so i need to find some time to settle in and read through all of the prep materials they've sent. i'm getting excited about this - doesn't quite feel like reality because it's not till february that i'll be going - but time is flying by. check out the you tube video of the classroom where i'll be teaching. the woman i met in SF who put me in touch with this organisation was teaching in this video. and here's another one of the classroom under the mango trees. i still think it's mad that i'm going to be there - and it's probably one of those things that i won't properly think about until i'm on the plane ride over - that has been my travel style of late. book the ticket and think later.

i've also decided that i'm going to be leaving boston at the end of november. with a possible return in january, but then again, possibly not. i'm giving up the apartment at the end of nov when i head to london for 2 weeks, and then going straight to california for christmas in mid-december. and there's really no need for me to go back to boston - apart from to hang with my office here - but that's hardly a need when the cost of living and subletting for 2-3 weeks would be silly. i think i'll propose working from CA, maybe spending some last minute time with my colleague in our SF office, and then head to london (and then the gambia) from mid-jan. all speculation at the moment, and need approval first, but those are the latest thoughts.

and off to chicago tomorrow morning. yipee! hope you all enjoy the weekend as well! happy friday!

carbon footprints across the pond

2007-10-03T12:50:00.001-05:00

so i've been leaving my fair share of carbon footprints of late.
i've got a new character to introduce to my blog, but not QUITE ready yet. in any case, this character lives somewhere in middle america and i've been back and forth several times to say hello. hence the inactivity on this blog. but take note, dear readers, i am very happy.

apart from that-which-is-all-consuming these days, i'm working to wrap things up with EUSA, to make sure i leave them in as good a state as when i found them. (ha, they didn't exist when i found them!) and also doing some volunteer work for this organization called the posse foundation. they award scholarships to highschool kids and i'm helping them with the process of widdling down the students from 1100 to 60. the kids come for an afternoon of 'interviewing' where they participate in team building exercises, skits and exercises while 10 volunteers wander around the room taking notes on how well they cooperate, listen, lead, and encourage. it's been very inspiring and a good reminder that i am doing the right thing by going back to school to work with kids this age. although it's a hard task, because all of the kids are deserving.

i'm back to chicago this weekend where i'll see my cousin summer, and hopefully my other cousins as well. already can't wait. the miles are racking up - which is a good thing on one hand because it takes quite a few of them to get to africa!

decisions decisions

2007-09-29T17:36:00.000-05:00

so ... one of the big things that this last month has taught me is that decisions are actually REALLY easy to make. the decision, in and of itself, is simply that, a decision. a yes or no. a 'should i' or 'shouldn't i', a 'will i' or 'won't i' ... so why is it sometimes so difficult for people to make them? (and by people, i mean, ME). at least it used to be difficult, when i let fear paralyze me and keep me running the treadmill - not going backwards, but certainly not getting further ahead. but i feel like this month i've had a breakthrough. and now, instead of pounding the treadmill, i'm off and running. and how much nicer is it to run outside with the wind pushing me forward from behind. but even if the bracing wind is blowing head on, at least it reminds me that i am alive. not stagnating. it makes my cheeks red and my eyes water and sometimes stings my kneecaps.

(ha, look at me writing as if i'm a runner. it's a METAPHOR folks, don't get excited. although that said, i have gone for two runs in the last two weeks!)

anyhow, i am going to attempt to live my life without fretting over decisions - big or small. without over-thinking decisions, analyzing possible consequences, wondering about the regrest or 'what-if's.'

in the words of frank zappa, 'it's better to have something to remember, than nothing to regret.' genius.

so i plan on living the decision-making process we call life creating things to remember.

wheels in motion

2007-09-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

so the wheels are in motion ... it's all happening. it's all real. i've told my bosses i'm leaving and this week is the first time i'm telling my colleagues. most are shocked because i keep things to close to my heart, so this is the first they've heard. but everyone is really happy for me, very congratulatory, which is wonderful. not that i thought they'd be anything else. but it's nice to have that affirmation.

to give a recap of what my life will look like over the course of the next twelve months (in theory anyway) here goes:

now-january ... finish up with EUSA. this includes a trip to london towards the end of nov - mid-december. christmas in california, back to boston briefly in january before one last trip/meetings to london at the end of jan for work. and since i'm on that side of the world, i'll go straight to the gambia for my volunteer experience where i'll work in a school in the village of kunkujang. apparently there is no running water or electricity and classes are sometimes held under the mango trees. the woman i know who did this same program last year told me that it was 50% absolutely amazing and 50% pure shit. i'm hoping i can skew the percentages towards the amazing and away from the shit. though with a hole in the ground for a toilet, that could be tough!

i'm looking forward to getting away and being removed from reality as i know it. NOT at the end of a computer, or a phone or an email or an IM - although admittedly i'm sure i'll go through withdrawals. the fact that it's only going to three months is absolutely a perfect amount of time to get away - knowing that i'll return. so i think i will probably embrace every moment (even the shit ones!) i'm looking into all the shots i have to get now, while i'm still covered by insurance. and i know i'll have to take malaria pills. but i think i can handle it. apparently the gambia is known for bird watching ... and has amazing sunsets and beaches. so if anyone is looking for a holiday next spring ... the invite is open!

after the gambia, i'll head back to the states. i had thought about returning to boston, buying a car and driving across country. but i suppose that depends on when i need to be back to california to start some classes over the summer. classes that are pre-requisites for the masters program i'll (hopefully!) be attending at san francisco state in school counseling. i have to apply for that in january and will find out sometime in april whether i've been accepted.

so it's all happening. like i said the wheels are in motion and the bus is on its way! who knows where it'll end up but i sure am looking forward to the journey. watch this space for more exciting news soon!

(the jack johnson song 'upside down' is the soundtrack to my life at the moment. buy it on iTunes and i guarantee it'll make you smile!)

been meaning to write this for years ...

2007-09-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

so a lot has happened in the last two days.

i think i'll start with the mundane and work my way up. i made soup yesterday. i was actually very proud of myself for doing so because i was nursing the aunt of all hangovers (not quite as close to me as the mother, but same genes). and even more proud because it was one of those soup packages with everything in one bag. you know, the kind you get as a present from a rustic country store that sits at the very top shelf WAY in the back between the canned kidney beans and the baking soda. OR if you don't get it as a present, someone gives it to you, because THEY got it as a present, and now their moving house and have to clear THEIR pantry. that's what happened in my case. my friend joanna moved to italy and left me a bag of black bean soup. and i'm not sure what inspired me to think that making a 5 hour soup would be a good idea when i was looking to feed the bottomless pit that was my stomach. but once you start, it's kind of a process, so you have to finish. and finish i did. and it was delicious. moral of the story: don't be afraid to make the soup you've been given. moral of the story is not: meagan might like those soups as a present. once was enough, thank you.

i also went to church yesterday. there is a student mass during the academic year at st. cecilia's church in boston and i just love it. it is such a nice vibe and the priest is amazing. quite possibly the most inspiring priest i've ever heard - mainly because he is so REAL. he admits he's not perfect, that just because he's wearing the cloth that doesn't make him holier than anyone in his church, that life is hard, that we make mistakes, and (what i liked most of all last night) that yankees fans were most welcome in his church. (the sox were playing the yankees last night at fenway... the rivalry of all rivalries). he's the kind of guy that shakes hands with you and really looks you in the eye, and really cares to remember your name. not that i've introduced myself, but if i did. anyway, he inspires me the way the church used to inspire me when i was young and part of the youth group at HC. like there is hope in the world and all is not lost - and that it's not about religion. it's about love and forgiveness and being a good person. for a minute there in church, i forgot about my aunt and felt inspired. though she returned on the way home!

and finally, the bit i've been meaning to write for years ...

i resigned today. yes. i did. i told my boss that i would be leaving, because life is taking me elsewhere. no. scratch that. because i am taking life elsewhere. he was shocked. it was, afterall, completely out of the blue to him, even though i've been thinking about it for awhile now. i can't say much more because i can't recall who knows about this blog and who doesn't from my work. so i've got to keep it on the DL for a little longer. but it feels good. it feels like i am in control, in the drivers seat. taking charge of my own destiny instead of letting it happen to me. i think this might be the first time in my life that i've done this. and dammit, i think i'm going to do it more often. it feels good.

so now onto africa for some volunteering, a drive across the US maybe, a masters out in california ... or wherever else along the way i might decide to stop and find inspiration. bring it on.

so after yesterday's black bean, the soup du jour?
3 part unknown
2 part confidence
1 part unbridled excitement
1 tbsp serendipity
1/2 tsp hope
and a pinch of moderation or rationale (to taste - but really, you can leave this out, and be careful, too much can spoil it)

what kind of soup are YOU making today?

back from the islands

2007-09-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

and back to reality

i arrived to thunderstorms and rain in boston. yuck. but today is lovely, if a bit fall-like. the rest of my time in the bahamas was just as amazing as the first 24 hours. it really is a lovely life down there. here are a few pics of jasmin and myself:

it was exactly what i needed, the best birthday present i've given myself in a long while. i had a lot of time to think and talk and ponder life and where we're all headed. a lot has happened this month. if you know me, you'll know what that is. some of it is much too personal for a blog, and some is not really mine to share so publicly. but suffice it to say, there has been much to think about of late.

apart from my trip, things are moving quickly in boston. i've started an online human development course. which really just means i read a book and turn in homework assignments every so often, and that there are a group of people on an online chatroom like website that i can get together and study with if i need to. it's really a self-directed course. and i'm studying for the GRE which i am going to attempt to take at the end of october - giving me an 8-week self-directed study plan. so i'm doing quite a lot of self-directing these days. i suppose that's a good thing. a very good thing.

thank you to my aunt lynne who sent me 'eat, love, pray' - which i am thoroughly enjoying.

and thank you to everyone else who sent me cards, notes, texts and calls on my birthday. i feel very loved.

one more thing ...

2007-09-07T20:03:00.000-05:00

just back from the beach at sunset, and would like to mention that the water was 87 degrees.

that's all.

greetings from the island

2007-09-07T16:10:00.000-05:00

it is absolutely amazing here. this picture doesn't do it justice - but the is the view i have right sitting with my laptop in jasmin's house in the bahamas. (nassau). this has been an incredible 24 hours.

jasmin picked me up from the airport and we drove to a restaurant ON the water, just in time for a beautiful sunset. we sat for nearly four hours, drinking beer and catching up, and i had the most delicious fish i've had in ages. grouper covered in roased almonds and lemon butter. superb. and a chocolate birthday cake with a candle that wouldn't light for the wind. it was a perfect birthday night.

and today we woke early with the sun streaming through the windows and sat at the table you can see in the picture, drinking lattes and listening to music. drove into town to wander through the touristy streets of the center, spent hours shopping for perfumes (she=channel, me=vera wang), had lunch at another restaurant on the water, this time mahi-mahi for me. and now are back napping for the afternoon because the sun is just a tad too hot to sit in. but we will head out to the beach shortly where we'll swim in the warm water and drink beers quickly from the bottle before they get too warm. can you imagine a more perfect day?

i want for absolutely nothing right now. and feel quite content. which is a nice feeling and makes a change from the tumultous weeks of late. she's made me an orange soda, i've got my book, and i'm about to kick my feet up and snooze for a few minutes before we drive to the shores.

why would anyone choose to live anywhere else but here? it's amazing.

miracles

2007-09-04T07:40:00.000-05:00

i've been a bit remiss on the old blog lately. too much is happening of late to write much more - and i'll get to it soon - but not quite ready yet. just a quick post to ask for people to pray for miracles. not for me - but for a friend. maybe you need one too? go for it. ask! miracles in general. they're good things - so just stop for a sec and ask for one. what have you got to lose?

thanks!

birthday treat for myself

2007-08-27T13:21:00.000-05:00

i've just booked a weekend to the bahamas for myself.

i've got a friend there who is staying for the autumn, and i thought what better treat for myself than to visit her and enjoy some relaxing time in the sun. i'll work on labor day here and take friday off instead, and take my birthday as a holiday!

i've been a mean green spending machine of late with a crown for my tooth, a class at a community college, a book to go with it (i forgot about these!), and now a flight ... but all worth it.

my quote for today

2007-08-25T17:04:00.000-05:00

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Marianne Williamson (from her book, A Return to Love)

back to the books

2007-08-23T07:55:00.001-05:00

i am officially a student again!
i signed up for an online course through a local community college here. psych 123, human growth and development. i've not taken an online course before, but it should be interesting. not least because it will talk about development from birth so i can get a handle on what all my friends are going through. (babies - they're all the rage now, everyone's doing it!)

in other news, alex and i went to ikea earlier this week to buy frames for pictures we've been meaning to hang up for AGES. as we've renewed our lease for another 6 months, i thought we might as well make it cozy. i've had my 'work hard and be nice to people' poster that i got from mike for my 30th in a tube for 2 years now.

actually, we ended up getting the frame at michael's - but did walk out of ikea with 5 hot dogs. isn't that disgusting? oh but they tasted so good! (until i weighed myself the next day at the doctor's office. no more hot dogs for awhile!)

have car, will call!

2007-08-20T09:52:00.000-05:00

i'm slowly convincing myself i should get a car. not because i necessarily need one, mind you, but because i'm sure i would:

a) listen to more music
b) catch up with friends
c) find alone time

all of which are great! especially b. i've had two calls out of the blue this week from friends who only have the peace and quiet time to call when they are driving. sans kids and sans other daily distractions. (apart from the road, of course!). not that i will ever own a gas guzzler (i'm thinking a toyota or a mazda) ... but it sure is difficult to call people from the bike. i'm harboring a secret desire to buy a car and drive across the country. so perhaps in 2008, i can make that happen. we shall see.

back to beantown

2007-08-17T10:00:00.001-05:00

sorry i've been incommunicado as of late. it always takes me a few days to get back into life, over jetlag, unpacked, and ready to go again. i must admit, this time i'm rather excited because i'm not on an airplane again until december! (or possibly november for thanksgiving - as yet undecided). i'm now in boston for the entire fall season! it feels like i've been traveling somewhere every two weeks since march. i'm happy to be home. alex and i renewed the lease on our little apartment for another six months, so i'm here for the autumn.

london was brilliant. it was so nice to see all of my friends again! and vicky and mike's wedding was absolutely amazing. they are so creative, as you might imagine, so everything was well thought out, and beautifully designed, and imbibed with love. here are a few pics from the day.

i'll put the rest of my pics on ofoto - so let me know if you want the link.

apparently england has had the rainest summer since sometime in the 1700's - and vix and mike had the most perfect day for their wedding, with not a cloud in the sky! it was absolutely beautiful.

and when we weren't talking about weddings, we were talking about babies!! isla and chris have the most beautiful daughter, eliza mae:

and of course, my beautiful friend anna is pregnant with twins and has a fine bump to show for it:

it's all very exciting over in the UK. everyone is growing up. strange but exciting. the rest of the time in the UK i worked, visited other friends, caught up on sleep (though not much), ate well, drank well, and otherwise had a restful time.

hope you are enjoying the summer wherever you are!

having a blast

2007-08-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

had today off ... so had lunch with isla and her new baby eliza, cat and tom. lovely to catch up and see her new little one, who is adorable. then on an impulse, stopped into a hairdresser and got a bob! i'll get pictures up after the wedding. spent the last three days working and then catching up with friends in the evening. today i also went to my old flat where tom had repainted the entryway and organized new carpet on the stairs. they installed it today and it looks great. brand new again. i just need to sand the floorboards and then it'll look even better - and probably up the sale price when i'm ready to sell. tomorrow we drive down to dorset to begin the wedding festivities ... more next week when we're back!

enjoy the weekend!

landed safely

2007-08-03T04:46:00.000-05:00

just in case anyone is following me from this blog. i landed at 4.53 this morning and got a cab back to anna's where i've slept for the last 3 hours. now out to lunch with my boss in soho. and with sporadic email / website access for the next week or so. luckily the sun is shining (the first day all summer, apparently) so i've timed this trip perfectly. that's all for now ...

trip pics ... just a few

2007-07-30T19:48:00.001-05:00

here's a few pics of the trip from my camera - my mom really took most of them with hers - but you get the idea! the ocean water in the grand cayman was amazingly blue - the one pic with the rope in front is from the deck of the patio where we ate lunch, the other (with me) is the private beach we found. if only we had a few more days ...

back in the saddle

2007-07-30T08:49:00.000-05:00

but only for a few days before i'm off again.
far far too much has happened since my last posting to report properly, so you may have to call me for a proper catch up if you want one. but in short, it's been a great month.

spain ended up going amazingly well - the conference was a huge success for me personally and professionally - it rejuvinated me and gave me the much-needed energy to carry on with what i'm doing. i also found it gave me more direction with my role in the company and what i want to do for it. and then i got to hang with anna - who is pregnant with twins - and lounge around madrid in cool cafes and rooftop terraces catching up (and feeling the twins move around!!)

and then back for a few days of work before taking off on a cruise with the family! my grandparents took the entire basilius clan on a week's vacation to jamaica and the grand cayman islands, and then for a few days down in key largo at my uncle's place. a few of the highlights for me:

* buffets buffets buffets - all the food you could eat, anytime you like. we did surprisingly well, eating pretty healthily ... just MORE of the healthy stuff than i'd normally eat!
* lounging by the pool
* sitting on the deck chairs facing the vast and endless ocean
* yoga on the high seas
* running around the 'track' (10th floor deck) at 7am watching the sunrise over the ocean
* bingo with my grampa!
* buffets, did i mention the buffets?
* grooving with my sister in 'da club' late at night
* family dinners together (these not buffets, but with a fine selection)
* kareoke contests ... no, sadly, didn't get the boots out for walking - but definitely should have!
* getting to know my cousins better
* touring through ocho rios jamaica with our personal chauffeur (real name Lloyd - 'but you can call me Mr Cool')
* 90 degree ocean water
* renting bikes on cayman with alex and finding a private resort beach to swim for the day
* and then cycling to hell and back. (literally!)
* snorkeling the reefs in key largo
* lobster dinner at brian's house
* deep sea fishing
* and then eating what we caught that night

there are SO many things it would be impossible to get them all down in one blog. i'll get some pictures up as soon as i get them off my camera! it was a great vacation ...

but now i'm back in boston and exhausted. needing a vacation from my vacation!

a big shout out to my grama and grampa for such a wonderful week!

when in rome ...

2007-07-09T04:11:00.000-05:00

landed in rome but sadly missed my connection, which means i won't get to madrid until around 4pm. but fortunately, i have this priority pass which lets me into the airline lounges. so i've just taken a luxurious shower here and feel refreshed, if a little sleepy. i've got another two hours so i can wander through the duty free and apply enough makeup samples and perfume to look and smell relatively normal.

there's a new term out there for parents who are WAY too overprotective of their kids, who do everything for them, who cater to their every whim to make sure they succeed, etc. they're called helicopter parents. because they hover. i sat next to a woman on the flight over who was on her way to pick up her 17 year old daughter who was not enjoying her 'teen tour' of europe. it was the daughter's graduation present to be sent to europe on an organized tour for three weeks and apparently she wasn't really liking it and wasn't meshing well with the other kids, and she missed her boyfriend. so this mother bought a ticket yesterday to fly over to pick her up. i happened to see the receipt and it cost her $1800 - and they're coming back in less than 48 hours. yowsers. it's going to be a sad state when these kids are adults and can't do much for themselves.

so now i have a few hours in rome to catch up on some work before my battery runs out. must dash.

oh - but a BIG SHOUT OUT to my sister and my cousin summer - both whose birthdays are today! even though i know my sister will never read this because she never gets to a computer. to be 23 again!

24 hours of good stuff

2007-07-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

i've had a very interesting 24 hours.

1. bought a book called 'the paradox of choice' ....about how some choice is liberating (obviously, freedom, self-determination, etc) but about how too much choice can be debilitating. (think 285 choices of cereal in your local grocery store). i bought that in the afternoon and sat by the charles on a warm hazy afternoon reading.

2. in homage to my friend anna, i made a delicious dhal and brown rice supper. recipe: cook some healthy brown rice for about an hour. in a separate saucepan, boil some lentils until they are mushy, brown garlic and spring onions, add the lentils, olive oil, yellow spices (i used cumin and paprika) and salt and pepper and cilantro (corriander), then mush together until it becomes a lovely paste. spoon the rice onto a plate, and spoon the dhal onto the rice. chop a tomato and add that with a dollop of non-fat plain yoghurt. delicious!

3. i went to see Sick-O. michael moore's latest flick. horrifying. yes, he can be one-sided at times, to his own detriment - but you can't argue with some of his fact. it's about the US healthcare system and how it fails us - a plea for universal health coverage. go to his website http://www.michaelmoore.com to see a letter that was written by the VP of communications of blueshield (an insurance company he attacked) to see how they are telling their staff to handle the reaction to the movie. interesting. i would hate to work in the insurance industry now.

4. woke up and went to a 9am kickboxing class (on a SUNDAY!)

5. alex and i got to a 10:30 unitarian service. he grew up unitarian and i'd never been. it was very interesting. and i think i'll give it a second try. though must admit, did miss some of the sacredness of the mass. nevertheless, got us talking about religion and spent about an hour talking about the merits, the shams (and shames), the good and the evil in it. in the end, i think we agreed we were on the same page, even if we approached it different because of our backgrounds.

6. went to a lovely sunday brunch and stuffed myself!

and now i'm on my way to the airport to catch an alitalia flight to madrid via rome.
and so begins a week of hard work and hard play!
adios amigos!

rioja, chorizo, paella, mas y mas tapas!

2007-07-06T15:22:00.000-05:00

can you guess where i'm going?

off to spain on sunday for a week of work. i am actually looking forward to it because it is our annual conference and the culmination of the last two months of my focus at work. i'm co-leading the conference but have done quite a bit of the background work on it, so i'm excited to finally run with it. we are bringing 30 EUSANs to spain to gather for 3 days of intense work and play.

then i'm back for 4 days and then off for a HOLIDAY cruise with the basilius clan. can't wait for that either - fun in the sun! then back for another 4 days and off to london for mike and vicky's wedding! hooray! great fun, even if it means i'm only actually in my apartment in my own bed for 10 nights in the next month and a half. (actually, that's not quite as nice a thought)

in any case, this may be my last update for awhile as i'm going to be busy next week in madrid. not much new to report from boston. it poured on the evening of the fourth of july, so we stayed in and watched a movie instead. neither of us are big on fireworks anyway, so no huge loss to us. we were able to make it up to the beach earlier in the day and stayed till it clouded over. wouldn't it be great if all weeks had wednesday off. makes such a difference.

a big shout out to my sister who turns 23 on monday! (july 9) wish i was there to go crazy with her and her girlfriends. ah well, it'll have to wait until we're on the cruise.

love to all!

muffin tops?

2007-07-03T16:26:00.000-05:00

is anyone else growing muffin tops now that they're over 30?

no matter how many side sit ups i do, i can't seem to get rid of them. thank goodness the babydoll fashion is in style! bring on the baggy dresses! although alex and i were at six flags this weekend (an amusement park in western mass) and i can't believe how many girls i saw with muffin tops and VERY very tight tank tops. they looked painfully stuffed into their shorts. (short shorts, i might add).

ah well. seeing as i gave up bikinis last summer, i'm not all that bothered. bring on those fourth of july bbqs! happy independence day!

stars out last night

2007-06-29T08:10:00.001-05:00

i went to see wilco last night in concert. actually, it was supposed to be alex going but he had to work late so i got his ticket instead. very cool show in an outdoor pavilion on the waterfront. they have a song called 'jesus, etc' and i'd never really listened to the lyrics. not that i could hear them very clearly last night, but i heard part of the chorus that says 'you were right about the stars, each one like a setting sun.' and i'm not really sure what that means in the context of the song (since i couldn't understand the rest of the lyrics) but it got me thinking - as i was swaying to the lovely melody - about stars.

and how my friends and family in the UK and california can look up at night and see the same stars that i see here in boston. well, maybe not exactly the same stars (i forget how this all works, astronomy 101 was a long time ago) but they can see the same sky, the same universe out there. and i also happen to know that quite a few of my friends in the UK just went to see wilco a month or so ago. and there i was last night looking at the same 'stars' ... wondering if they enjoyed it as much as i was right then.

i'd never really thought about why we call celebrities stars. but now it made sense. and then i got to wondering if we all weren't stars in a small way. if someone in california is thinking about me and knows me and loves me. and someone in the UK is also thinking about me, and remembering me, and even someone in boston ... then maybe i'm a small star as well? and we all have people all over thinking about us - even if our ears don't itch and burn at the time.

anyway, it was a lovely concert on a warm summer's night!

the sun is shining!

2007-06-25T09:14:00.000-05:00

it's a beautiful day in boston! in fact, it was a beautiful weekend. perfect weather. not too hot, not too humid, but nicely warm and sunny! it's easy to forget how dreadful the winters are when the summers are so nice. i say that today, and it's supposed to get up into the 90's tomorrow with high humidity - we'll see if i'm still singing the summer's praises!

alex and i had a very chilled out afternoon yesterday. i'm still on california time, so my sleep patterns are not back to normal yet. he had a whiffleball game with a few guys and i sat in the park and read the paper while he played. we took our time getting back - stopping off at trader joe's for some two buck chuck - and then home for laundry, our weekly shop (i'd returned to a bachelor's fridge with rotten strawberries and decaying mushrooms!) and a yummy dinner of braised lentils with ginger and lemon. (from the SF cookbook - try it if you have it - delicious!)

i could use one more weekend day to get myself organized - but nevermind. i'm now back in the thick of it and work is very busy planning for our annual EUSA conference. to be hosted this year in madrid in mid-july. sam and i are planning (and effectively leading) the two day conference, and this is her last week in the office, so we have much to do!

and as such, i must get back to work!
love to all!

apologies apologies!

2007-06-21T16:37:00.000-05:00

it's been so long since i've updated this site, you're probably bored of checking back and have forgotten about it altogether! i've been in california since last tuesday (12th) and it's so hard to stick to my routine when i travel. that goes for my food and alcohol consumption, aerobic exercise AND blogging. needlesstosay, i've done a TON of eating and drinking and very little exercising or blogging. surprised?

i didn't think so!

i was in san diego last week for some leadership development training. what did i learn? so much! it was a great 2 1/2 days, where i had the opportunity to hear feedback from my colleagues at EUSA who had done a 360 review on my skills and ability to deal with conflict. i also got the results of my own tests (myers-briggs and FIRO-B). very interesting. of interest:

* i have a strong need for structure and control
* i have a strong need for affection and inclusion
* my myers briggs, if anyone knows or cares, was ESFJ - but only slightly on most things except for feeling where i was strong.
* putting all those things together was like reading a horoscope - suddenly, things i've been doing, my reasoning behind behaviors and decisions i've made (or not made) make sense! i had some great revelations that week.
* it was also interesting to see that on some things, my colleagues rate me higher than i rate myself. (on some they rate me lower - also a surprise!)

we also learned an excellent technique for dealing with conflict. not rocket-science, but a technique called SBI - situation, behavior, impact. so for example, instead of saying 'you were a real jerk in that meeting yesterday, you might say 'yesterday morning when we were meeting with the team (situation) and you interrupted me five times (behavior), i was really frustrated (impact). you get the point.

the biggest thing that did for me was reframe the concept of conflict. where conflict, then, doesn't become a negative thing in and of itself, or something to fear or avoid (as i do). the idea of telling someone they've really 'messed up' or done a bad job or ruined something is scary to me. but reframing it as an expression of impact on their *behavior* and not their *person* is much easier!

and probably pretty easy to try in my personal life as well as professional!

phew - that was only 2 1/2 days.

the rest of the days in CA have been full of food and drink and family and fun! notably:

* dad's BBQ (surf and turf tacos!)
* margaritas margaritas margaritas
* sunshine and (ouch) sunburns
* father's day!!
* lovely massage from auntie lynne
* walks by the beach with an old friend
* boccie ball and red wine
(who knew it was such a good combination?)
* eyebrow waxings and manicures with my sister and her friends
* kickboxing in malika's class at 8am, and drinking margaritas with her by 8pm!

even though it doesn't sound like i'd have time for it, i also worked the whole time! i swear! conference calls at 6am and lots of emails. i'm planning our big conference in madrid next month, so lots of work to be done!

anyhow, i'm now in berkeley with devon and have to get to a session he is giving to our first group of students in the bay area. he's done an excellent job (which means i did an excellent job in hiring him!) hooray for us both!

it's a beautiful sunny day here, perfect weather. hope it's nice where you are!

lazy saturday

2007-06-09T11:16:00.000-05:00

it's a grey day in boston today so we're taking full advantage. alex and i are going to see 'knocked up' which i've heard is really funny - so looking forward to a good chuckle in the cinema. we've spent the morning watching phantom gourmet - a local area show that highlights local restaurants. this morning's edition was on the best place to get lobster. lobster rolls, lobster pie, fresh lobster, fried lobster, lobster bisque, etc etc etc. it had us drooling on the couch.

it's such a lazy day i can hardly think of anything else to write. off to enjoy the day!

by the water ...

2007-06-04T19:20:00.000-05:00

a glimpse into the peacefulness of my retreat this weekend, written on saturday:

sitting by the pond at this retreat listening to the symphony of frogs. a chorus of rubber bands, plinging and plonking. with birds in the background, twittling and twerping. occasionally i'm lucky enough to witness a spash of water and a leaping frog. and i look at the geese who sit still as a postcard. i am lucky to be here. exactly where i am. this is the peadcefulness i had hoped for.

amid the cacophony of nature, i find peace. the questions no longer seem important. if, as brother john said this morning, you ask a question, you already have the answer, then asking the question just doesn't seem the thing to do. i already know. it may not be apparent. but somewhere inside, i know. and if, also as he said, i am a servant of reality, then i will find out soon enough. no need for the anxiety, stress, worry, concern, it will happen, just as it will, just as it does, just as it is.

again, i am reminded i am exactly where i need to be, doing exactly what i need to do in order to become. become. come to be. show up to be, arrive to be. perhaps that is a nicer way of looking at the word. instead of the idea that something, somewhere, somehow will happen and i will magically 'become' - i just need to 'come to be', i need to 'show up' to be, i need to 'be present' to be.

that i can do.

new york, new york ...

2007-05-31T22:28:00.000-05:00

i'm sitting in my hotel room that overlooks times square. literally, the lights are blinking and flashing, and you'd never know it was night time in new york city. it really is the city that never sleeps. fortunately, i do. i'm here at a conference for work. my colleague and i had a booth here, so we were behind that, inside a windowless room for most of the week. tonight they had a 'party in times square' dance for the conference - and while we went to show our spirit, it was a bit like being at a wedding of someone you know well enough to have a drink with but not well enough to misbehave. so needlesstosay, i've not scoped out the after party.

which is fine because i found one by accident on tuesday night when we met ja rule's producer/friend who took us back to his studio to show us around. apparently it's where he and j-lo recorded their song together, and it had all sorts of recording studios, mixing decks, sound-proofed rooms, and couch after couch for the tag-a-long'ers who - from what i could see - just sat around drinking, smoking and watching videos. we didn't stay too long (frankly, i don't think we were cool enough) - but it was nice of him to give us a tour.

my sister really would have loved it. shame she left that day.

but we definitely had a great weekend together with my dad when they were both in boston last week. lots of great food, drink (of course), red sox game, day at the beach, long walks through boston, fred eaglesmith show by chance, shoe shopping (dad LOVED that) and just hanging out. it was nice to show them the little place we've got here, and our part of the city.

but from tomorrow, june 1, i am going to detox. it helps that i leave on a retreat just after i get back from new york. 'finding life's hidden direction' is the theme, which is perfect for me. it's right on the beach near cape cod. so until next week ... happy weekend to all.

pain in the tooth

2007-05-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

i had an appointment for two fillings this morning. bad enough in and of itself, until she found out that the decay in tooth number 3 is at the nerve. so guess what folks, i need a root canal. not to mention that i already have an appointment for a root canal retreat in june. no, that's not retreat as in mediatation in the mountains, that's re-treat, as in re-doing an old root canal. yuck yuck yuck. PLUS another crown. PLUS the other fillings. so all in all, what started as a trip for a cleaning is going to wipe me out of nearly 3k and that's AFTER insurance. urgh urgh urgh. i suppose my mouth is worth it. but it seems a bit of a scam to me. i bet they're all in this together. a ploy for the dental industry to make a lot of money. grrrrrrrr.

well, enough about that.

in other news it's a beautiful day and i'm working from home with the back door open and the breeze blowing in. lovely.

can someone turn on the AC?

2007-05-21T20:29:00.000-05:00

i just got back from a yoga class. i haven't been to yoga in years. and i've NEVER been to a hot yoga class. i can't remember what it's called, though the place is called baptiste. but they've got the heat on full blast the whole time. so i was literally dripping with sweat for an hour and half. thankfully i remembered most of the poses. and most of the time, i was really into it. there were a few moments when the heat pissed me off and i wished that it was cooler. but in those times, i tried to calm my mind and focus on the breathing.

what did i discover?

* it's about the breath and the gaze. i never thought much about the gaze.
* i never knew your thighs were supposed to come off the ground in up dog. (or is it down dog, i forget)
* the woman next to me must've been having a really stressful day. she was really letting it out.
* it's a strange sensation to have sweat drip INTO your nose from an upside down position.
* i am lucky to be alive and with the ability to have so many sensations.

i had this thought while i was in the final stretching positions (i know you're not supposed to think but i'm not very practiced yet). and the thought was that i am exactly where i am supposed to be. and the things i'm going through now, the frustrations and the inspirations, are exactly the things i am supposed to be going through because one day they'll help me to understand a bit more. in the same way that living in london and being such a part of a big group of friends has helped me to understand how wonderful it is to feel welcome. and now being in boston with only a handful of friends has made me sensitive to how it must feel to be on the outside and without that group. so i had this thought that whatever i end up doing, i hope it has something to do with making people feel welcome, and included, and safe, and comfortable with themselves. so that was a nice thought to end the yoga class with.

and now i'm showered and clean and calm.

and i wish i could tell you that i was going to sit and meditate, or write in my journal, or pick up the guitar. but i'm sorry to say it's the finale of the bachelor, so i'm going to watch and see who he chooses. pathetic i know. but small steps. i'm taking small steps.

namaste.

life is not a rubik's cube

2007-05-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

alex bought a rubik's cube and it's been sitting in our living room for months. every night he picks it up and turns the corners, mixing the sides. usually he gets one side, sometimes almost all of a second. the other night, he said to me, 'one of these days i'm going to sit down and really figure out the trick to this and stop hoping that it's going to magically come together, because there is a science behind this.' (ok, i'm paraphrasing a bit, but it was something like that). i thought that was really interesting, and was trying to think of that as a metaphor for life. like maybe if we just sat down to think about things, we could figure it out, put two and two together and make that equal four, like science. i really wanted the metaphor to work and sat for probably 20 minutes trying to think of a way to force it. but i just couldn't. because life is not a rubik's cube. it can't be forced. it would be nice if everything lined up neatly and nicely, like a rubik's cube in the package at the toy store. but once you take out and mix it up for the first time, you're basically a jumbled rainbow of colors. but maybe that's better.

let things line up every once in a while, get one side sorted, maybe even part of the second, and then mix it all up and start again. maybe that's the fun of the cube. wouldn't it be boring if you could solve it every time?

another gorgeous day!

2007-05-14T08:38:00.000-05:00

thankfully, it looks like summer may be here to stay. it was another gorgeous weekend in boston. on friday night, we went to see a friend of his who was in town with his new little boy. (EVERYONE is having babies!) he was a cute little babs (as my sister would say) and it was fun to meet some of the people that alex went to highschool with. on saturday, he and i rode out to the deCordova sculpture park in lincoln, ma. it's about 18 miles or so outside of boston. we left the house at 10:45 and got to lincoln around 1:15 or so, got a sandwich at the whistlestop cafe and then went out to the sculpture park for a wander through the gardens. we were exhausted by the end of the wander and just lay on the grass soaking up the sun. not looking forward to the 2 1/2 hour bike ride home. but we told ourselves we'd stop at baskin robbins half way home. (sadly for me they were out of mint chip).

on the way back, i got a message from anna saying that isla and chris had had a baby girl, eliza. congrats to them!

i fell asleep at 7pm on saturday i was so exhausted, and couldn't motivate to get out to a party like we'd planned. the couch was just too comfortable and my legs were numb. and yesterday was another lovely day, so we packed a picnic and read the sunday papers. nothing eventful - but relaxing.

all in all, a restful weekend.

bring on the summer!

2007-05-09T08:18:00.000-05:00

it's a beautiful summer day here in boston ... early summer. the first day i've worn a skirt to work, hooray! hopefully the first of many, though my cartoon weather predictor shows rain tomorrow and friday. hopefully the warm sticky rain. i'm done with the cold. sorry i've been a little slow on the blog front. getting back to boston after the UK trip took it out of me.

i've been to the doctor and the dentist since i've been back for routine check ups ... and as they do, they found things that i'll need to fix. yuck. two fillings next week (plus re-treating my old root canal, urgh!), and my blood test results came back yesterday and said i had mildly low blood sugar. not really sure what that means except they said to make sure i eat three meals a day at regular intervals. clearly they don't know me well if they have to tell me to EAT! i think i would have been happy if they'd said FIVE meals a day! :) in any case, that's probably enough gory details from my check ups. (perhaps unnecessary!)

i've been working from home a lot since i've been back which is great. i tend to get up earlier (7ish) and start working by 7:30-8ish, and it's easier to get my head down and get stuck right into work. and then i don't feel guilty when i finish around 4ish for a nice afternoon. my office at home is right next to the back stairwell, so i can open the door and pretend i have a garden and let the breeze in. such a nice atmosphere to work in, even if it is a bit unsocial.

in other news, my dad and sister will be coming for the last weekend in may and i can't wait to see them. we're already planning lots of fun things to do - both in and out of boston. should be a fun weekend!

i am actually in the office today, so must put my head down and start working!
love to all.

london / wedding pics

2007-05-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

want to get these up while i can! in no particular order - enjoy!

happy birthday to my mom!

2007-04-19T03:23:00.000-05:00

since we're 8 hours ahead and calling may be difficult, i thought i'd hop online quickly to wish my mom a happy birthday! i'm sure i don't have to tell her to have a margarita for me. she's having a little cocktail party at the house tonight, or so she tells me. enjoy! (she hardly seems 55 does she?) (sorry mom!)

alex and i made it in last night around 11. and it's a glorious day here so i don't want to spend a minute more in front of the computer. we're going to get out and walk all over town. i'm excited to show him my old haunts.

happy wandering to us.
happy birthday to my mom!
love you!

crossingponds crosses ponds

2007-04-17T21:23:00.000-05:00

heading off to the UK tomorrow and i CAN'T WAIT!
i don't think i've been so excited in a long time! hooray!
so looking forward to seeing everyone! and alex is coming too, so he'll get to meet everyone as well.
hooray for new friends (for him) and old friends (for me!)

i was interviewed by a reporter from US News and World Reports today.
i think i might be in their next edition of colleges for undergrads - it was a report on study abroad, and colleges that offer that, with internships being a new and exciting focus of study abroad. clearly not new, but the rest of the world is catching on to how important work experience is. though i think she was more interested in talking to me about my opinions of americans abroad, and what we do to help get rid of the ugly american stereotype! we shall see what she says i said. i'll keep you posted so you can browse through the latest report when it hits the stand!

send ruth your wedding wishes on saturday - that's her wedding day!
i'll post some pictures when i return!

in other news, the electric and gas wires that hang from the church across the street to the pole in front of our house just blew up. there was a huge bang and spark and the next thing we know, there's fire trucks outside (again) and the Nstar truck outside repairing the lines. fortunately, it hasn't affected us or our electricity. but i don't know about this neighborhood. it needs a serious revamp. and here i worry that i left the coffeepot on all day so the coffee burns to the bottom.

oh wait, i did that too today.

doh!

more from london if i have a chance to get on the computer!

baltimore, MD

2007-04-12T20:59:00.000-05:00

in balimore for a conference.
i presented today, which went relatively well. we only had an hour for four people to cover quite a few different topics, so we definitely had to whiz through, but a few people came up afterwards and i think we got some interest. i think this conference will have been worthwhile.

i think i had a sign from god today. seriously.

we were listenting to the end of day keynote speaker, 200 people or so in the room, and she got to the end of her talk and remembered that she had a book to give away. she went on and on about how wonderful this book was (she'd co-authored it, clearly) and how useful it could be. the winner? ME. the title: 'how to find your next employer.' seriously.

watch this space for how meagan acts on that sign.

in other news, i've figured out how to video conference on skype ... so if you don't have skype, get it now! it's free to download http://www.skype.com. vix and i had a conversation today and she could SEE me online. hooray for technology!

off to DC tomorrow afternoon to see some old friends! can't wait - it's been ages! i understand i missed the cherry blossoms, which is a shame, but hopefully the weather will be nice enough for wandering around the capitol!

and next wednesday i'm off to london for the wedding weekend! can't believe it's already that time. can't WAIT to see everyone again!

more later .. it's time for bed! (did i mention i'm in the penthouse suite on the 37th floor overlooking the city? brilliant!)

happy easter (a day late)

2007-04-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

i had a whole blog typed up and must not have hit 'publish' ... so my weekend ramblings are lost.
hope everyone had a nice easter with ham and chocolate and all the good fixin's.

i dragged alex to church with me yesterday. thankfully, i've found a nice church with a really young and modern priest who gives inspiring homilies. and the music was nice - so i think alex was ok. though i don't know that he'll be back anytime soon. we wanted to go for brunch afterwards and thought we'd try a new area of boston, so we headed to brookline, the jewish neighborhood. (is that ironic, jesus was a jew, no?) but the jewish deli/cafe was full so we went for sushi instead. alleluia!

along with the easter theme (death, resurrection, new life) - i've been trying to think of the areas in my life that could do with a rebirth. or perhaps the parts of me that are fizzling and in need of some new life. as usual, i've got a list of things and am working through them - slowly but surely. at the top of the list is probably figuring out where i'll be one year from now. but i'm hatching some plans. (i've decided not to spout off about them because that is usually recipe for defeat ... so i'll let you know when i'm a bit more certain!)

in other news, i am in baltimore this week presenting at a conference, and then visiting a girlfriend of mine down in DC. and then i'm back for 3 days, and then off to LONDON for ruth and charlie's wedding. i CAN'T WAIT!

grrrr....hoodlums

2007-04-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

alex and i have both had our back bike tires slashed.
no idea why - except that we seem to live in a neighborhood of hoodlums.
alex thinks that there is a small possibility that the kids in the apartment next door could have heard us talking to the neighbor about the fire situation over the weekend. but i doubt that. we were pretty far from their window.
that is so annoying. just when i was ready to ride again.
and alex JUST got a new tire on saturday.
what a nuisance.

a beautiful sunday

2007-04-01T08:40:00.000-05:00

i was asleep by 9 last night (went out friday night, was a little tired yesterday) but consequently was up at 8am this morning and reading the paper with coffee in our living room with the sunshine streaming in the windows and joni mitchell on the iPod. exactly what sunday mornings should be. i've taken to calmer nights with a preference for enjoying the next day rather than suffering through with a headache and a distaste for sunlight. does that mean i'm getting old. maybe so.

sundays always seem to be the day when i set about wondering what i'll do with the rest of my life. getting somewhat enthused by a new idea each week. grad school, counselling, running my own company, property mogel, etc etc. i'm not any closer to the decision, but i suppose at least i'm thinking about it. there's been a rash of shootings/murders in dorchester - an area of boston - and they've brought in the guardian angels (a volunteer police force that started up in NYC in the early 80s) to sort it out. but i can't help but wonder what makes these kids so angry? what kind of influences must they have had to provoke such violence and hatred. it's sad. but food for thought for me - what might i be able to do to make a difference? getting out of the little bubble i live in might be a start.

though that said, our little bubble was penetrated slightly yesterday when we woke to firetrucks outside our window. the building kittycorner (?) to our house burnt down on saturday morning. we actually slept through the big bang, but i guess around 7am the flames were pouring out the windows across the street. our neighbor who called 911 said that that apartment/condo had always had issues, and that there was a known crack addict who lived there with his mother. he thinks that he was probably smoking on the porch when it caught the rest of the house on fire. very sad. i guess there has been some action on this street and the police are aware and are keeping an eye on this area. scary, yet secure, i suppose. the neighbors have some unruly kids who are always hangout out on our back porch, so we'll be careful. but after living in cambrerwell and brixton, i guess these things don't really phase me. as long as they leave my bike alone!

anyway, on to my sunday. it's supposed to reach 60 today! hooray!

bring on the bikes!

2007-03-24T09:18:00.000-05:00

yesterday was the FIRST day this year i got on my bike!
i was afraid that she'd seen her last days after being left outside all winter, but i took her to a bmx specialty shop in our neighborhood and the friendly guy there lubed her up and gave her some air and she's fit as a fiddle! the rust was just superficial, so she's really fine to ride again. alex and i rode into central square last night for dinner and it was a GREAT feeling to be so mobile again! despite the low 40s and snow predicted, i'm going to ride again this morning. i've got a day long training for this 'big sister' program from 10-4. i can't imagine what kind of training they have planned for an entire day - but hopefully it will be fun and the other 'big sisters' might be nice. we shall see.

what is your bike? what makes you happy? hope you can ride it today!!

a southern treat

2007-03-21T18:51:00.000-05:00

chapel hill north carolina is quite possibly one of the cutest little towns i've seen in ages. today is the first day of spring and it's definitely here - cherry blossoms budding, green leaves sprouting in the trees that line the street, and the smell of freshly cut lawns. everything is so slow here, in a peaceful way. the people are so friendly, helpful and loyal to the community. speaking with a student today, she told me that 85% of admissions to UNC chapel hill come from north carolina. (she said when they meet someone from out of state their first thought is always 'wow, you must be REALLY smart').

i was walking down the street, looking at the rows and rows of antebellum houses (now frat houses), the manicured gardens, local bars and boutique shops wondering whether i could live in a small town like this. i think i probably could. but on the way back up the same street, on the other side, i couldn't help wondering if i'd get bored here after awhile. would it be like living with the stepford wives? what kind of music passes through chapel hill? would they have museums with monet? and what about theatre?

funny how i rate a city with 'culture' if it has museums, theatre, music. let me think about the last time i was in a museum, saw a play or caught some music. well, i suppose i've seen live music recently - but haven't steped into a theatre or gallery in months (years?)

i think though (and realizing it more and more with time) - that the best thing a city can have going for it is the people. i can go without a museum ... but it's tough to go without good people!

and drink green beer we did ...

2007-03-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

after the blizzard we weathered on friday, saturday was a relatively nice day in boston, albeit cold. i took the girls to a few local bars, had a few mojitos, dirty girlscouts, green beers, and magners ciders. sounds like a lot, but over the course of ten hours (and that with a plate of calamari, onion rings, and peshwari nan) - made for a relatively safe evening. although i must admit, my stomach was growling around 3am, wishing i'd left the last onion ring on the plate.

washed that all down with coffee and eggs benedict the next morning at a south end diner and now i am officially on a detox until i can fit back into my favorite jeans.

i am in north carolina and believe me - not a good place to begin a detox. i've had two all-you-can-eat buffets (salad, of course) and a steak dinner. it's hard to detox when people are showing you around campus and around their town. you can hardly refuse southern hospitality. (clearly the people at the next table with five empty plates ready for second, third, fourth and fifth trips to the buffet felt the same).

for some reason, i couldn't get to sleep until 4am last night - having to wake at 7 today - so i am utterly exhausted, and hoping i'm making sense to the students i'm interviewing. 4 more to go and i'm outta here and on my way to chapel hill where i'll collapse at the best western for the night. i ended up tossing and turning - thinking about FAR too much - watching a crap movie with antonio banderas teaching some innercity kids how to dance the tango, attempting to work, and punching the pillow against the wall trying to get rid of some nervous energy. no idea where this came from.

maybe the hollandaise, the steak, the buttery mashed potatos, the onion rings, the green beer, the pizza, the coffee .... and everything else i've been cramming down my throat the last few days.

bring on the salads.

(but don't hold the cheese, ranch, eggs, bacon bits, olives and croutons)

does that count on a detox???
it does in north carolina!

spoke WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too soon

2007-03-16T20:35:00.000-05:00

and now there are 12 inches of snow on the ground.
RIDICULOUS.
actually, today is the good day - the first day - where it's easy to walk because it's crunchy. tomorrow it will be icy and slushy and grey and yucky. and tomorrow is st patrick's day - though i doubt the snow will put a damper on it.

my cousin is in town from michigan and was planning a girls weekend with 5 of her friends - but sadly, because of this storm, only 2 of the 5 have made it thus far. and it's unlikely the weather will permit the others to land tomorrow. so they've got two hotel rooms between 3 girls. we spent the afternoon on a pub crawl - starting at cheers - where everybody knows your name (a must for visitors) - and then down charles street, ducking in and out of bars to stay warm.

and tomorrow we're going to do it all again.
happy st paddy's day.
drink your green beer.

no more tantrums

2007-03-14T11:33:00.000-05:00

i slipped and fell flat on my back last week when it was raining and snowing and the streets were full of ice and dirty slush. i was furious. i HATE boston and this stupid weather this SUCKS - i shouted to the passing cars as i threw my umbrella down. i picked it back up two seconds later when (of course) i needed it to shield me from the rain. but i was soaked anyway, so it didn't really make a difference.

that was last week.

today i walked to work in the beautiful sunshine and the gorgeous 50+ degree weather, through kendall square and along the banks of the charles with the boston skyline in full view. and today, boston is wonderful. it would have taken me about 35 minutes on the train, and instead, took me 45 minutes to walk. bring on the spring!

happy wednesday

music at the middle east ...

2007-03-11T11:36:00.000-05:00

i was out last night with a few girls from work and went to see some live music. i've not done that in awhile, in fact, it's become quite far removed from my reality of late - so it was nice to get out and hear some new stuff. the first band, the mystery tramps were great. they looked about twelve, and honestly couldn't have been more than 18 - but they had such energy about them. and their tunes were so varied for such young musicians. ska to rock, pop to bossanova. you could just tell that they were on the cusp of a very fun decade. and their moms were bopping around in the front row, the dad's in the back with their arms folded and feet tapping. it reminded me of early chlorine gigs.

the second band, much and the mires, were a bit more like your dad's garage band, playing songs you know you've heard before, even though they claim to be originals.

and the last band, the figgs, were great. i guess they've been going awhile - clearly they were very tight - and their songs were fun and catchy. probably worthy of a purchase next time i'm on amazon. i guess they play with graham parker when he tours.

it was one of those nights i could have easily stayed home and watched a video on the couch, but was glad i made the effort to hear some new music.

in other news, we bought a vacuum and a blender yesterday (exciting) with some best buy vouchers we'd gotten by signing up for comcast. i also took alex back to the place i ate last weekend (shabu-zen) with the girls. i don't think i mentioned it in my blog - it's a japanese restaurant shabu shabu style ... where you get steaming hot pots of broth on a stove in front of you and you dip your meats and vegetables and cook them yourself before you eat them. DELICIOUS and quite possibly my new favorite restaurant in boston. we also had seaweed salad, dumplings, and boiled fish paste. sounds gross but it's absolutely amazing. i think i could eat their every night, except for the sodium from all the soy sauce.

speaking of eating out, we were all set to go out to red lobster yesterday, when we realized that the closest one to us is 93 miles away in connecticut. we've been joking since last spring that we were going to go to a red lobster for the lobster-fest that we continually see advertised on TV with fresh cracked lobster practically bouncing out of the frying pan into bowls of melted butter the color of dandylions. sadly, that dream won't become a reality until our next road trip. there are FAR better places to get lobster in boston, without a doubt, but there's something disgustingly hilarious about our fascination with red lobster, so we'll get there one day.

the weather seems to be turning, which is nice. going from the single to the double digits, thankfully. january was quite possibly the worst time to relocate to boston - and i'm anxious for the spring and summer. i feel i've paid my dues already - bring on the warm weather.

ok, enough. happy sunday

it's 6 degrees in boston!

2007-03-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

and the wind is whipping outside the window.
this house shakes every so often, like the earthquakes i remember from california.

i was at the gym last night in a kickboxing class. most of the girls were red with sweat and exhaustion. i was positively green from being so WHITE and not having any color in my face. bring on the spring i say! sadly my bike has been left outside in the cold the entire winter, so it's rusted and will probably cost more to replace the chains than to buy a new one. i don't know WHY i didn't put her away, but now it would just be too little too late.

more when my fingers aren't so numb with cold. (kidding - we have heat in the house!)

it's casual friday

2007-03-02T08:45:00.000-05:00

such a funny term - every day is pretty much casual for me. thankfully. and the days that i work from home will be even more casual. sweats and t-shirts. that's the life! i've negotiated working from home if i need to, a few days/week from now on. it's really a necessity since i share an open plan office with two other people and occasionally need to make private calls. but nice that it's officially recognized as OK.

nothing urgent to share, so i thought i'd share a few random thoughts or things i've picked up this week:

* i seem to always end up at the end of the line, so to speak, when it comes to public transportation. brixton, elephant and now lechmere. something continues to draw me to the parts of town that are not quite as fancy as the rest.

* the automatic millionaire book tells me to save an hour of my wages per day (2 hours if you're starting late) ... try working that out for yourself and see if you could manage.

* i just read this week that you should only condition the ENDS of your hair, instead of starting with the scalp. oil be gone!

* the fancy 'taste of thai' cup of soups are actually very good.

* mixing nutmeg into a tomato sauce sometimes works (and sometimes doesn't)

ok. that's all for me today!

happy weekend!

happy monday!

2007-02-26T13:17:00.000-05:00

we woke this morning to a winter wonderland. snow flurries and peaceful white streets. lovely. and not too cold for walking. tomorrow it will be painfully frustrating with ice and grey slush, but today it is beautiful. it's supposed to snow for the next few days ... it appears winter arrived late this year.

i had a very very lazy weekend. the only reason i got off the couch yesterday was to get to the store to buy ingredients for dinner. i made a thai green curry paste from scratch. (delicious) otherwise, we just lounged around, flipping between college basketball and crap sunday afternoon tv (mrs doubtfire, pros vs joes, etc). though of course, sat through the entire academy awards ceremony - despite not having seen half the movies this year. (but did you SEE gwenyth paltrow's dress? gorgeous). still, it's nice having lazy sundays. and we've taken to cooking a nice meal as well - something that requires opening a cookbook and that (usually) doesn't involve pasta. alex got the joy of cooking for christmas and i'm rediscovering cookbooks without pictures.

happy monday to all!

letters from inmates

2007-02-21T16:59:00.000-05:00

i spent last night at a volunteer project called books for prisoners. it took me 45 minutes to get out to quincy after work to find a unitarian parish church that has a library of used books in its basement. to call it a library is too grand. a hot, stuffy, windowless room full of shelves and boxes of books hastily organized into sections: westerns, romance, classic fiction, hobbies, psychology, self-help, new, dictionaries, sci-fi, GLBT, black history, native american history, US history, religion, the occult, etc etc.

every day they get dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of letters from inmates around the country asking for books to be delivered. some of the requests vague: the first letter i read said 'i like historical romance and westerns' to very specific requests: 'i would like the 'The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson' ... hardly ever would they have a perfect match - but often could get somewhat close. one of the only letters from a woman i received said she liked anything by mary higgins clark - and thankfully, there were two on the shelf. she got them both.

so the first two hours we spent reading letters and chosing books - getting as close as we could to their requests. and the final hour i spent packing the books. they get a postcard first, so that they know exactly what to look for in the post. the books are sent 3rd class, so come a few weeks later.

it was a shame that we couldn't write any personal messages, but i suppose there were just too many books to pack to be personal. and perhaps there are rules against it. i don't know.

the man who requested historical romance novels i sent lolita - but wondered whether that was the sort of romance he spoke of. (actually, he also mentioned erotica ... so i thought, what the heck!) i desperately wanted to stick a note in there that said something like 'stick with it ... it takes awhile but you'll love it' or something of the sort.

the jails had all sorts of rules as well. some inmates could only get paperbacks, some had to be brand new books, others weren't allowed dictionaries (apparently the jails have some kind of profiteering going on with the dictionary industry), others could only have 2 books, others had to include an invoice so the could track exactly what should have been in there, others couldn't contain wire or spiral bound books - for obvious reasons.

the books, i suppose, are donated from all sorts of places and people - because there really were all sorts of books. no bibles - as apparently there is another organization that gives strictly bibles. but other free books from buddhists and other religious groups. there was a spanish version of a course in miracles that i was tempted to give away to one of the inmates looking to learn spanish ... but it's hard enough to grasp in english. i wasn't sure the spanish version would help.

and i wondered how long 'do what you love and the money will follow' would sit on the shelf. hard to imagine a request for that from an inmate.

it was inspiring yet sad. but nice to work on a project with such tangible results. knowing that in 3 weeks, someone will be reading himself to sleep with lolita because of me. (perhaps he'll hate me for that one!)

in any case, it made me think of how many books i have sitting on my shelf (or had in the UK) that i had absolutely no need for. and what a great way to get rid of them. think about it if you've got some books on your shelf!

trouble seeing? try here

2007-02-12T14:59:00.000-05:00

let's see what happens - this should take you to the youtube video!

check it out!

2007-02-12T11:48:00.000-05:00

OK - i've made a video of our new apartment and put it up on my podcast page. it's a small little window into life in cambridge!

i've got the week off - so i'm catching up on ALL the random things i've been meaning to do for AGES. (if i owe you something - a letter, an email, a phone call - now's the time to let me know!) equally, it would be a great time to call me to catch up! what are you waiting for?

alex and i went for a really long walk yesterday which was great - through central square to harvard square. i really like living on this side of the river. and hopefully i'll have some time to explore this week as well. might even pop down to the science museum - just at the end of the street!

hope all are well!

TGIF

2007-02-09T07:52:00.000-05:00

another week come and gone - how fast they are moving these days! not such a bad thing i suppose if warmer weather is around the corner. for the last three days in a row i've worn nylons under my pants (trousers) to work. yuck yuck yuck. i hate them. i hate to feel so restricted. but it's too cold to let it all hang out!

i am taking next week off work ... as a continuation of the christmas holiday i didn't really take. we usually get 3 weeks off, i only took about a week and a half. i'm going to laze around boston, get a massage, finish fixing up the house (though really, it's nearly finished), and most importantly, sort out my finances once and for all. i've got the month of feb to get myself back into the US system with taxes, etc etc. boring, but necessary work.

alex and i went to see pan's labyrinth last night - great great movie - highly recommended. it was described at a sci-fi fantasy - my two least favorite genres - or so i thought - but it was a fantastic spanish movie, around the time of franco. brilliantly shot.

and now i must get to work for 8 more hours until the holiday begins!

whole lotta nothing ... and fixing up!

2007-02-05T08:06:00.000-05:00

didn't do much at all this weekend.
which was perfectly fine by me. it means the apartment looks great and everything is in its place. we were given a coffee table and a TV stand, and we went back to ikea (urgh-enough!) for a chair to go in the living room and a bookshelf for the office. so now, the only thing we really need is a dresser. we'll find one soon enough, and then we'll pretty much be sorted here. everything is coming together very nicely. getting cozier by the day. really, someone should come visit!

went to a celtics game on friday and watched the guys lose from the nosebleed section. apparently their 14th straight loss - the worst in the league. but nevermind, the fans were excited. we chatted with a older woman and her granddaughter after the game, waiting for the T, who had been coming to the garden for 42 years to watch them play. her granddaughter seemed poised to carry the tradition.

and i went to a kickboxing class at my new gym which was great - i could see myself getting back into classes (finally) after a year and a half hiatus. and i also went to church - but obviously picked the wrong mass to go to because there were only about 40 people in the building, clearly the catholic church is in decline (or everyone is dying) and pretty dull music. i'll try the 9am mass next time, though that means getting up early on a sunday.

and that's all for my weekend report. one more week of work and then i'm taking some time off. mainly to sort through finances and make some important decisions about what i'm doing (selling up in london, renting, paying taxes, etc etc)

fun.

hope you're well wherever you're at!

i love convenience

2007-02-01T07:45:00.000-05:00

is that terrible? (or terribly american?)
i don't mind. i have a grocery store (a nice one) at the end of my street. 3 blocks away. nearby i also have a gold's gym, which i joined yesterday (i know what you're thinking - yuck - no-necked muscle men. but wait - they have a women's only section which i will use and some great classes which i will attempt AND what's more, it's 39 dollars/month with NO joining fee and NO contract. how could i refuse?) there is also a pharmacy, a marshalls (east coast ross?), a supercuts, a liquor store, a dollar store, a bar at the end of the street (only 1 block) - full of great east boston locals, a wonderful bakery that makes really fancy quinceniera cakes and the like, a fresh fish store, a butcher, and several small convenience stores. i love it. this is a great neighborhood. very different from the posh south end or beacon hill i was at before. but very cool.

really, you should come visit! there's a spot on the couch!

pictures pictures

2007-01-31T10:01:00.000-05:00

so we're in. i'm rested, though busy so no time to type too much. it was GREAT to wake up in our new place. actually, we are DIRECTLY across the street from a catholic church - so i woke up to bells chiming. and when i say directly, i mean, i can see the stained glass windows above the alter from my window. it's a towering church that may end up blocking some sunlight from our front room - but the bells make up for that. it's a quiet street that has a real 'old boston' neighborhood feel to it. on 7th between otis and thorndike if anyone wants to mapquest it.

we spent the day making trips to his old apartment to collect our things, to target to pick up coat hangers, shoe racks, coffee makers, etc. then to home depot to get hooks and work horses (to make legs for the gigantic table we'll have in our office - an old door that the builders didn't want. the couch was delivered in the morning and comcast came in the afternoon to install internet, phone and cable. i have a landline now. (ask me for it if you're interested)

and at the end of the day, we moved his antique bed. (from 1653!!) it's a great bed, but it's a pain in the *ss to move. the kind of bed that could cause the demise of a relationship if it had to be moved more than 4 times in one year (we're on number 3). a real hum-dinger of a maneuvering job. we got it down in record time, and thankfully, it seemed to fit nicely into our new place - so we're ok and on track.

and now we can relax and focus on getting things organized - the fun bit!

here are a few pics ... i'll try to get a movie up shortly!

we're in!

2007-01-30T22:14:00.000-05:00

can't type much more because i've been moving since 6.30am and it's now 10pm. i'm exhausted!

but we're in. the place is adorable, my knives are great (thanks dad!), the bed is up and i'm off to sleep. more from 7th street in my next blog.

i'm alive, i'm here, it's snowing!

2007-01-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

dusted out the snowboots this morning to get to work, and looking out the window I face to see the flurries. it's a beautiful sunny day with snow that doesn't seem to stick. which is fine by me!

back in the office yesterday, and it's almost like i never left.

and still living with alex in his current apartment - and apartment hunting like crazy this week so we can get out of there.

and my job looks to be doing a 180 this week, with new roles, new responsibilities and new direction - all very exciting. (i think) PLUS - i won a scholarship to a 'foundations of leadership' 3 day training course in san diego in june - offered by the center for creative leadership. so i'm VERY excited about that. i've told the bosses that i want to get into more of a managerial/leadership role here (the soft side of HR, in a sense) so that will be a very helpful course.

i should have more of an update by the weekend, when hopefully i'll not be living out of a suitcase ANY LONGER!

so long, farewell

2007-01-18T02:12:00.000-05:00

last night in san francisco.
i had one of those let's-use-everything-we-possibly-can-so-as-not-to-waste-it dinners. you can imagine. a broccoli, tomato, onion, black olive, jalepeno jack cheese, tuna, pasta dish. actually quite tasty, though i'd never serve it to guests. with a side of curly fries and a stella. (thanks whoever bought those last weekend!) not my healthiest meal.

then proceeded to pack up the apartment with american idol in the background. that really is a terrible show. and simon cowell seems to get ruder and ruder with each season. tonight he told a young kid that he looked like 'one of those big eyed animals hanging from trees in the jungle.' imagine the life of that kid now - humiliated like that on tv. 'you can't sing' is one thing. 'you look like a monkey' is an entirely different insult - totally unacceptable. for the same reason part of me cringed at borat - i am also disgusted by this. in protest, i'll not watch it anymore. that's 34 million viewers less one. start small.

and then another show about morbid obesity. oh god. my last night in the city and i'm really living it up.

so all in all - a reminder that TV is bad and a waste of time!

apart from that, i had a nice massage after work today at my gym. i had one free coupon left so i used it for that! slightly annoying that her phone rang during the massage and she answered it (!) - but for that, she gave me an extra 5 minutes, so it was OK in the end.

so long san francisco!

M minus 8

2007-01-12T20:01:00.000-05:00

M being the move date.
back to boston a week from tomorrow. well, technically sunday since i'm catching a redeye so won't arrive until 5 am on sunday morning. i'm headed down to santa cruz this weekend - so not going to spend the last weekend in the city. i'm ok with that - i'd rather hang with family and friends down there anyway. there is part of me that feels like i checked out of san francisco weeks ago. maybe even months ago - since i've not really been here for 2 full weeks since october. i'm very grateful for the chance this work out in SF has afforded me to live out here. but now i'm ready to be in one place for awhile. i don't have any trips planned until april when i'm back to the UK for a wedding. (unless i get pulled into presenting a paper at a conference in dallas in march) - but otherwise, i'm looking forward to a few months away from security checkpoints, baggage claims and hotel soaps.

i know i keep harping on about how much i'm looking forward to being in one place and investing. but it dawned on me the other day ... i've set this little home/office space up here in SF, and i've been sitting at this same little square table day in and day out facing the cement wall of the building next door for the last few months (when i've been here). and WHY didn't i think to move the table so it was facing the window so i could look out on the city below? even if just to catch the sunrise in the reflection of the windows across the street? and WHY didn't i hang any of my own pictures up, even if it was only temporary? there's a great spot in her bathroom, next to the mirror that would've been a perfect spot for a daily reminder of my friends far and wide. so i guess i'm looking forward to making deliberate choices again. getting an empty slate and starting fresh. so many choices!

it's hit freezing temperatures here in the city. i guess that freakishly warm weather is over, and winter is really here. still, after the (mild, they tell me) winter in boston last year, this seems like nothing.

hope you're warm wherever you are!

another year, another list

2007-01-08T13:59:00.000-05:00

it's a beautiful morning here in SF, despite the fact that i woke up feeling a bit sick. (run down, may be more like it) had a somewhat crazy night out with the girls on saturday night - so spent most of yesterday feeling very hung over. naan and curry sorted me out for lunch, and then my sister and i spent about 30 minutes wandering the aisles of safeway wondering what we should eat for dinner. we decided on a bag of instant stir fry (chicken terryaki) and a bag of seasoned curly fries. oh - and a 12 pack of diet coke, 2 bananas and the latest issue of 'in touch' magazine. (cam and JT are over, dontchaknow)

so what have i done in these first 8 days of 2007? another year, another list:

1. gym 4 times! i'm getting up to 45 minutes on the eliptical machine as the norm, which makes me happy.
2. shopping at my local corner store where i picked up the SAME ingredients for the SAME food - really i must branch out this year, cooking for 1 is so dull. (jalepeno jack cheese, spring onions, egg noodles, yogurt, granola, bananas, strawberries, brocolli, zuccini, half and half and milk) dull dull dull. perhaps i need rachel ray in my life?
3. decided i will become an automatic home-owner millionaire after reading david bach's book of the same name. it's so easy. property mogel-dom here i come. i might read his other books too (start late, finish rich) ha ha. it's all so easy.
4. also decided 2007 is the year of volunteering - so have signed myself up for orientations to Boston Cares - the local volunteer-matching organisation in boston, and also for an orientation at 'Big Sisters' - to be paired with a local kid for mentoring.
5. drank far too many margaritas on saturday night, combined with sake and saporo ... a bad mix!
6. went to glide but (my stomach) was not feeling it so left a little before the end. (or rather, my stomach was feeling it a little too much!)

all in all, it's been a pretty good year so far! hope you're experience has been the same!

'stuck at the airport' blog

2007-01-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

yep, here it is. stuck in dallas.
i missed my connector last night because the flight from raleigh was delayed, so they put me up in a hotel near the airport and i'm now back at the airport, waiting for the final leg of my flight to SF. as long as they haven't lost my baggage, i'll be ok. i wasn't in a real rush to get back anyway, and was considering volunteering if they needed more seats. so no real harm done, apart from hassle.

got a nice reality check yesterday when i went to the ticket counter to attempt to get some food vouchers (they'd only given hotel) and began to make a small, but polite, stink about the hassle. the guy next to me was in the same situation, only he was in the service and needed to get back to base camp somewhere by midnight or else he lost a day of leave which meant he could not leave afganistan to get back to see his family. i must admit i felt very foolish arguing for a dinner at chili's. certainly put things in perspective. i hope he got where he was going!

so the new year starts today. it's january 3rd after all. i just remembered that right this minute so i'm not going to finish the cinnamon scone i got from starbucks. i'll get a salad with the rest of my voucher and get back to the gym as soon as i touch down.

hope YOUR resolutions are sticking so far!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-01-01T18:23:00.000-05:00

happy new year from north carolina!
hope all of you celebrated the midnight hour in style. wherever you may have been (lapland, berlin, cornwall, majorca, london, brighton, toledo, san francisco, santa cruz, boston, etc etc)i've been down here in the south for the last 5 days just chilling out with alex and his family. very peaceful and enjoyable - just what i was hoping for.

and i spent christmas in toledo with my grandparents and dad's extended family. i had a great time with them but ate FAR FAR too much. but i suppose that's what christmas is for! over the last week and a bit, i've ingested ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, saurkraut, kielbasa (polish sausages), shrimp cocktail, stuffing and gravy, pizza, sloppy joes, dudley's hotdog, iceburg salad, more ham, more turkey, cranberry sauce, lasagna, tortellinis, more pizza, eggs florentine, over-easy eggs and bacon, cookies, pies, fudge, ice cream, reindeer droppings (chex mix in chocolate) and copious amounts of coffee. i suppose this is what christmas is for - though thank goodness for new years and the resolutions i'll never stick to. at least i can try for a week! i have 2 1/2 weeks left in san francisco and i'm determined to get to the gym every single day. believe it or not, i was actually doing quite well before the holiday season.

they really ought to allow the new year to start on january 3rd. because it's nearly impossible to start resolutions on january 1. most people need a fry up to soak up the alcohol of the night before. hardly a way to start.

i did find the time, as usual, to sit with my journal and write out a few of my new years resolutions. the theme seems to be pretty consistent for me from year to year - be nicer, do more for others, join more things, get active, be happy, live in the moment. so i will continue to attempt those things (starting january 3rd).

so if you need anything from me before the 3rd, you'll have to call! after that, you should expect me to keep up with my correspondence, call regularly, send photos and otherwise be the very best friend one could ever imagine.

ha. here's hoping!

ho ho ho

2006-12-23T10:52:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
happy hannahah, kwanza, or whatever you celebrate.
hooray for the holidays! i am checking out now - turning off the computer and not turning it back on for at least a week. or that's my goal anyway. so if it's slow on the blog front, apologies. it's because i'm eating, sleeping, or otherwise engaged in a some sort of lazy activity. tomorrow i'm off to toledo to spend christmas with the basilius', and then over to north carolina to spend new years with alex and his family. my poor family here feel somewhat abandoned ... but we're having our 'christmas' day here today. in fact, i need to wake my sister so we can sit a the top of the stairs and hollar and mom and dad to wake up so we can come down! we're really hoping santa came early this year.

happy christmas to all!

a few pics

2006-12-18T17:21:00.000-05:00

as promised ... a few pics from the santa stumble.

i'm thinking of going back to my natural color ... that is to say, a dirty blonde. what do you think? any votes based on the pic? ha ha. speak now, my appointment is this week if they'll squeeze me in!

stumbling santas

2006-12-18T10:50:00.000-05:00

well, we certainly did a bit of stumbling over the weekend. pictures to follow once i get them from my mother. everyone met at 4pm on saturday afternoon in the tenderloin and we walked up to our first pub in santa hats and festive gear (dad in a red hawaian shirt, chuck in his white beard, our very own LIVE santa). after a huge indian lunch in 'naan and curry' - the 24-hour indian restaurant up the street from my house - my stomach was a little queasy - so i was looking forward to a beer to calm it down. (ha!) it really took 3 beers to settle the saag paneer, but after that, i was good to go.

we stumbled across polk street to the smallest bar in san francisco via big foot's tavern. and then moved to the haight where we dined at cha cha cha's, then listened to some gypsy jazz (v.cool) and then tumbled to the tornado for a nightcap and a gigantic pizza. we got home around midnight, which seems relatively early, but we'd been drinking for 8 hours.

you can imagine my christmas shopping on sunday was somewhat difficult and mostly unproductive. i'll get back out again tonight at some point. and likely tomorrow, and the next day and the next. why i don't start earlier is beyond me. next year...

i've got 3 solid days of work here in the city, and then i'm heading down to SC. i'll still work from SC, but mostly in the mornings and mostly on email. next week, i plan to stay off my computer altogether and really try to break from work. i hope i can do this!

and now, i must start my day!

see me make an elf of myself

tottenham 5, charlton 1

2006-12-10T06:43:00.000-05:00

anna took me for my FIRST EVER football game! and premiership league too! (that's soccer to us americans) - it was brilliant! a christmas surprise - she told me to dress up warm because we'd be outside all day. i had no idea what she was up to. (i wondered if it was a decoy and she was secretly taking me to a luxurious spa for the day) but we ended up in north london surrounded by 40,000 fanatical spurs fans singing songs and chants and shouting for their team. a much different experience than watching on the telly - and i found myself making all sorts of gutteral noises i didn't think possible coming from a lady. (i don't think the men in front of us did either!) her dad has been a spurs fan all his life and he met us at liverpool street and took us to the game - a brilliant day out!

and the rest of the week has gone very well - if a bit manic.

wednesday and thursday were spent in interviews for 2 positions we have going in london ... and also a meeting with the estate agents to show them my house and get a new valuation ... the idea of selling is becoming more and more appealing ... but we shall see, i have some serious thinking to do.

and friday night we all went out to the pub in brixton so got a nice chance to catch up with everyone. everyone changes but ultimately, stays the same. nice to see!

and for those curious - the tornado here was in north london ... i've been in south and west london - so untouched.

anyway, i leave tomorrow (monday) and will be back in time for dinner. i'll be back on the old 617 number by then, so change your phones! love to all!

in london ... exhausted!

2006-12-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

just a quick post to say i am alive and well, if exhausted, and in london! i've JUST finished my two days of database training - the project that my colleague and i have been working on since MAY. it was the revealing and unveiling of what we have been living and breathing for the last six months ... and fortunately, everything went very well, everyone was very impressed and very appreciative.

but now i am exhausted. i've not slept well because of the 8 hour time difference (i forget how FAR california is!) so i have no plans tonight except to sleep and watch tv in the luxurious bed in my hotel room with feather pillows plush blankets. a terrible waste of a precious night in this city, but i cannot find the energy for everything else.

it's been so nice to see the gang. anna had a party on saturday night and no one apart from she and tom and cat knew i was coming - so it was fun to surprise everyone, answering the door with a 'ho ho ho.' they bought a christmas tree and everyone chipped in to decorate, bringing ornaments and home-made tokens of christmas for the branches. we played the 'thanks' game - though after several glasses of mulled wine - and got sappy as we do about our friendships and how wonderful and more importantly, how lucky we all are. we really are so lucky.

anyhow, my brain is not functioning properly, so i must end this and will continue when i my eyelids are not sagging below my knees.

brrrrrrrrrr

2006-11-28T14:41:00.000-05:00

it's FREEZING here ... and i mean that quite literally! it's 39 degrees! i'm sitting at my computer with a blanket over my legs, two sweatshirts and a scarf. the annoying thing about supposedly 'not being here' (attempting to keep my stay in this apartment on the hush) is that i can't ask the buiding manager to turn the heat up! so i have the oven on with the door open and am hoping that it seeps its way into the living room soon. the sun outside the window is deceptive today!

had my last volunteering session last night with kyle. same kid i worked with last week. he was writing a paper on nelson mandela (damn, i wished i'd read the biography i bought a few years ago) - and i'm not sure i was much help to him, but we worked on structure and came up with a few more ideas. he had to relate mandela's work to the principles of his jesuit school. he would get a sentence out, and then get totally distracted. there were a few times when he actually left the room for 5 minute intervals. i seriously thought about leaving ... but then, i'm sure he expected that. so i stayed. and when we finished, he shook my hand and i got a tiny glimpse of appreciation, even if it was somewhat muted. it's a shame they can't have volunteers with more consistency. ah well, hopefully i helped him a tiny bit.

i'm including yet another table picture ... another great one from market street! one for the collection! that's 5 i have now - can't wait to get them framed and on the walls of my new place in boston, wherever that may be!

...and now, i am stuffed

2006-11-26T12:13:00.000-05:00

the sunday after thanksgiving and i am stuffed. no more turkey or leftovers for me for awhile. (at least until christmas!) i've had a lovely weekend down in santa cruz. hardly did a thing - which was exactly what i wanted to do. actually, that's not entirely true. i spent most of yesterday taking down boxes from the garage to help dwight 'can you please get your shit out of here' basilius make more room for other stuff. this seems to be the year of de-junking - which is fine with me. i threw out tons and tons of paper, old photos, class notes from college, random toys and posters that once held meaning for me but now are only yellowed and tattered. there were a few boxes i could have cleared out even further, but i just haven't the time to read every single card or note passed in secrecy in the 7th grade - so i kept them. one day, i'll drag these out again an look through them. or maybe my kids will. or (more likely) maybe my dad will just throw them out. to be honest, i wouldn't really know the difference. there are only a few things i really value - a book of fairytales from my childhood, highschool yearbooks, old diaries from the mid-eighties, the baby blanket my mother made me, my holy cross uniform.

i really am paring my life down to the basics - so that what i carry with me, is pretty much what i own and care about. 5 plastic tubs in my dad's garage, 7 boxes in my attic in the UK - 3 suitcases of clothes in san francisco - and that's ME. of course there's my butcher block and my couches ... but slowly i'm removing myself from those, so that, once again, they are simply objects. no more. no less.

but i am looking forward to getting back to boston and investing again. not in the materialistic sense, although of course, with the sales of this weekend, and 'black friday' who can miss the bargains that await? (linens and towels and blenders OH MY) ... but more for the opportunity to be somewhere for a longer haul. perhaps the butcher block was less of the 'adulthood' symbol i once thought and more of a symbol of 'permanence'.

so now back up to the city. to get back into the routine ... to get to the gym to get rid of this gravy boat floating just above my hips.

hope thanksgiving was wonderful whereever you were ... including the brits, who so kindly celebrated the holiday in my absence!

happy thanksgiving to all!

2006-11-22T12:51:00.000-05:00

a quick blog before i head home to SC to spend thanksgiving with the family!
i understand there will be a small contingent of brits celebrating with a meal tomorrow ... we'll raise a glass to you as well! gobble gobble.

i had a really interesting experience on monday night volunteering with 'hands on bay area' at a boys home called 'boys hope' ... it's a home for 6 boys who have learning difficulties, or are on probation or for whatever reason, are somewhat excluded from (what we might call) normal teenage life. i worked with the coordinator of the project and a boy named kyle. he was working on sophomore spanish and had to come up with some dialogue for a role play he would be doing in class that week. his vocab words were all about a wedding and he was supposed to be the bridegroom discussing his expectations of marriage with the priest. (at 14!!)

it was really interesting to see his thought process, or lack thereof, and his attention span. it took us 30 minutes to come up with 4 bullet points for discussion and then 4 sentences to match in spanish. we had to keep bringing him back to focus because he would flip through his book mindlessly, delete sentences from the word document on the computer (just for fun), tap on the keys incessantly, etc etc. i can't really say i've had much interaction with kids with ADD (i'm assuming, though could be wrong here) and it was really interesting.

(on a side note: it was quite funny to be discussing marriage with a 14 year old and i found myself throwing out ideas of topics for him that were far too existential and that he SURELY had no vocabulary for ... 'so how will you deal with arguements, what will you do when things go wrong? and morals with your children? what will you instill in them?' .... i think to humor me he attempted to think about those for a minute or two, but then settled on sentences like 'it is necessary that our children dress themselves in the morning' and 'i want that we live in a big house in the country with goats.' ) two indicators of a successful marriage, surely.

i walked down to the BART station with the volunteer coordinator and she told me she was really impressed by how much kyle opened up with me - apparently he is the most difficult kid there. i was flattered. we also talked a lot about volunteerism and what she does (helps kids 16-24 get jobs!!) and what i do and what i want to do. she was very sweet and very encouraging and actually made me think about how i need to volunteer much more to try out all sorts of things before i make any major life decisions. so i feel much less stressed about having to decide something NOW and more relaxed about taking the next year or so to try out all sorts of opportunities. she said something i thought was REALLY interesting about how when you are really excited about something in life and really want something, the hurdles to getting there don't really seem like hurdles at all. or if they do, you're happy to do what it takes to jump them. i thought that was a brilliant thing to say. and a helpful way to think about determining what is right.

in any case, i must return to work ... happy turkey day to all!
gobble gobble!

weeks whizzing by ...

2006-11-19T12:12:00.000-05:00

it's hard to believe that it's nearly thanksgiving already - and it's going to be 2007 soon. where is the time going? i can literally count the number of weekends i have left in the city on one hand. (with christmas and thanksgiving and holidays, etc) a return to boston is immenent. so to those of you who said 'great, you'll be in california for awhile, we'll see you all the time' - GET ON UP HERE!

actually, speaking of, my dad and i are organizing a 'santa stumble' of our own the weekend of the 16th of december - so bring a red hat and join us for a pub crawl in the city. i'll get an evite out soon.

it's been yet another week of meeting really interesting people here (when i leave my apartment!) i had three parties/networking opportunities this week and two lectures at the commonwealth. one of which was on alzheimers which was really encouraging. it was given by one of the nations leading experts/researchers on the disease. i didn't know much about it scientifically, and he explained that very well, and also talked about the future of the disease. i will attach the link when it is available to listen to and download in their podcasts and i would encourage ALL of the toerne's to listen to it. (and everyone else who might be interested). i was sorry no one else was there with me. one of the things he said that i thought was very interesting was that the government is reallocating funding at the moment and that alzheimer's studies/research may not be getting an increase in funding. so he encouraged everyone to contact their government officials to stress the importance of funding for this. he said, sure eating healthily and doing crossword puzzles to keep your mind active was a good idea - but to REALLY make a difference, more research is needed - so to do what you can to contribute and get your local officials involved. he also suggested that local research centers need volunteers for studies ... so to consider volunteering your time as well to participate in trials. food for thought!

i also went along to two networking events. one hosted by the full circle fund - a socially philanthropic venture capital fund started in the late 90s by kids in the tech boom with way too much money who wanted to do something good - so the room was filled with hundreds of young people in their 20s/30s who really wanted to make a difference in the community. very cool people. very inspiring.

and another networking event on thursday hosted by women who run their own businesses where i ran into several of the ladies i'd met at previous events - i think SF is actually quite small.

and last night, i was invited to a party of a friend i'd met at glide last month. it was at a bar in chinatown/north beach and they host this 'harvest' party every year. it was a bittersweet evening because they'd invited over 300 people (6 girlfriends co-hosted it, so it was an amalgamation of all their friends) and it really reminded me of the sort of thing i would do in london (theme parties, friends, bars, drinks, food, etc) but at the same time, the sort of thing i could not do here (yet anyway) because my circle of friends is just NOT that wide. which is OK in and of itself, i'll get there, but starting over in your 30s is tough. her friends were very welcoming and very friendly - but with my impending move to boston, it's hard to attempt to make real friends knowing i'll be packing up soon enough and heading out. i ducked out early though definitely enjoyed the evening. i'm really looking forward to being in one place again.

it's sunday and i'm off to glide for some inspiration!

well, we missed the leaves

2006-11-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

i'm not really sure what i was thinking ... leaves in NOVEMBER?
i don't think so!

oh well, it was a great weekend anyway. we stayed at this cute little b&b in chester vermont and wandered through little tea rooms, antique stores, vermont country stores, and other artisan cutsie shops. it was so relaxing to just get out of the city and be in the country - with fresh air, and no smog. it didn't start raining until the drive home on sunday, so we were lucky.

and now i'm back in san francisco. for one week, until i get home to santa cruz for thanksgiving. can't wait for turkey day!!! it's been YEARS since i've been back and i'm so excited. i've had some wonderful thanksgivings in the UK with friends - both american and british - but it's not quite the same as being on market street - with people coming and going all day, wild turkey flowing, cranberry margaritas and of course, all the fixings!

it was a great week in boston and even though it was cold, it was still nice to be there. i'm beginning to get excited about getting back in the new year - to have a sense of settlement, to be somewhere for awhile, to invest again. can't wait to get some pictures up on a wall that is mine! i'm tired of living on top of everyone. i want my space back.

speaking of, i spoke to an estate agent in the UK today and made an appointment to discuss selling my place. or alternatively, having it managed. it's just such a hassle from abroad to try to do this. the boiler is on the fritz this week, and what can i do from san francisco. it's frustrating! the idea of letting that go sounds so liberating right now. we shall see what he says!

anyhow, hope all are well! must carry on with work!

happy friday from beantown

2006-11-10T10:46:00.000-05:00

it's a gorgeous day here in beantown.
i'm not sure if we should be grateful for that or worried because of global warming - i have a feeling 60 degree weather in november is NOT normal. but it sure is nice. this week has been great. it's been nice to be back to the office and to be around people during the day - i'd forgotten how nice interaction can be. :) and my conference presentation on wednesday went very well - much better than i thought it would - lots of discussion and interaction. and quite a few nice complements afterwards, which is always nice.

and now it's friday ... and tomorrow i'm off to chester, vermont to stay in a b&b for the night and to meander around the town and enjoy the last of the fallen leaves. sadly, it's supposed to rain, so i'm not sure how much meandering we'll actually get around to. but the b&b has a fireplace - so i imagine we'll sit in front of that for most of the day/night!

i'm reminded how nice boston is. and in the last week i've met quite a few really neat people - people who i will make an effort with when i'm back in january. so all is not lost in the transition back from SF. i'm sure california will be in my future ... and SF has been a nice taste to lure me back at a later stage, i'm sure!

enjoy the weekend!

the cold wind in the east

2006-11-06T08:38:00.000-05:00

brrrrrrrrr ... it is cold in boston!
i got in on saturday morning. fortunately it was a glorious weekend - the sun shining and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. but it is definitely autumn/winter here. i don't actually mind it yet. there's no snow. it's just crisp with a small bite in the air.

i had a great weekend. alex and i went to brunch with some really nice friends of his. then walked around newbury street on saturday and got him into verizon (hooray, he's IN) and then had some pizza. and then i went out with the girls from work for a birthday party of one of their friends. and i sat next to a really nice girl who was very sweet and could certainly be a new friend when i return. except for the fact that she lives in new hampshire ... but she's in boston for work every day, and obviously understands that she needs to make the effort to get into boston. and sunday alex and i went to the gym and then cooked a roast chicken and caught some of the pats game at his friend's house out in newton. i chatted with his girlfriend while the guys watched football. i don't understand football and i don't think i will ever really care to.

well, it's monday morning and i'm at the bagel shop next to work waiting for someone to arrive and let me in because i stupidly forgot my keys. i must get preparing for a meeting i have in 25 minutes!

happy monday!

back in the air again ...

2006-11-03T19:56:00.000-05:00

i'm off to boston tonight until the 13th. can't wait!
i've actually got a really busy week next week with work - we're bringing the new hire to boston for some training with the team (better than starting his first day working from my living room! wanted to show him we're legit!) and i'm presenting at a conference next wednesday in rhode island.

this week has been really fun. tuesday night, i drove down to santa cruz with my sister and her friend to surprise my parents for halloween and see my little cousins trick-or-treat. we drove back that same night - imagine - being an hour away from santa cruz! i have to take advantage of this while i can. my mom kept saying she was so happy we were down and not at a party in san francisco. i guess there were some gang-related shootings in the castro (where the big party happens) so i can see why she was relieved.

and wednesday i went to a lecture at the commonwealth club by malika oufkir, a woman who had been adopted by the king of morocco at the age of 5, and then her father tried to kill the king in a coup and she was thrown in prison with her mother and sibings (her father was killed) for TWENTY FOUR YEARS ... so she came out at the age of 45. imagine, being locked up for twenty four years. i would like to read her book. i just can't imagine.

and yesterday i went to another lecture by deepak chopra, who talked about life after death, and got very existential and theoretical about how our thoughts are always either choices or interpretations ... very miracles like (i can see why he always writes the intros for a lot of the miracles books) and the space/time continuum and lots of other stuff i had to think VERY hard about in order to understand. he's a really good speaker, so it was entertaining as well as intellectual. i wished i had someone to debrief with afterwards, because i'm not sure how much of it i'll retain.

and then last night i went with my aunt lynne's friend carol and her friend willie to dia de los muertos celebration in the mission. VERY VERY COOL - although carol was totally underwhelmed in comparison to years passed. apparently this is the day that people traditionally dress up like skeletons to confuse the dead souls so that they don't change their minds and decide to stay and inhabit the earth - rather than going onto the afterlife. so there was a parade of people dancing and singing and beating drums and playing horns, all dressed in skeletons with white faces and black teeth and eyes. and the procession led to a park where people had placed hundreds of alters to the people they love who had gone. suitcases were laid out and packed for their journey to the afterlife with momentos and pictures and candles and food. it was AMAZING. really neat to see such tradition, and so many people getting into it. (although a skeleton in a top hat we met at the bar said that it had turned a little political this year and that people were protesting the war, etc which kind of ruined it for him) in any case, it was great. and then carol and willie and i went to dinner at a tapas place which was delicious.

i got home around 11 and fell straight to sleep after the red wine. apparently i had a little too much because the building manager knocked on my door this morning and kindly told me it probably wasn't a good idea to leave my keys in my door overnight! doh!

anyhow, a few more hours of work and i am off to boston!