sat.night

Saturday night in boston!

four.languages

A friend just got back from Germany yesterday night. I had forgotten but he is fluent in three languages and can understand at least two more. Spanish, English, German, French, and Italian. I can barely speak English well enough to get by. It's funny but my parents have commented that they wish I would have learned Spanish at least as a child when the language learning centers of the brain are soft and moldable like a lump of clay. Of course I like to remind them that it was probably up to them to find me situations that I could be exposed to other languages. Regardless it is good to see friends returning.

At the same time I had to say farewell to another friend as she heads off to London for two weeks on a trip to spend time with the Muslim women in the city. My prayers are with her and I can't wait to hear stories and see pictures.

roommates.found

I was recently in something of a frustrating housing situation. I realize that this is nothing compared to the standard housing crisis experienced by the average San Franciscan but I'm going to tell the story anyway. First the background.

It was cold and stormy night...No, but I'm sure the weather wasn't all that nice. My friend Tom mentioned that he was planning to by a house much closer to Boston to cut down on commuting and be closer to friends in the city. At the time there were passing remarks that if we we're looking for a place to live we could possibly live with him. Months went by and he announces that he has found a 2 family place in Somerville and that he is going to rent out the 2 bedroom apt and live in the 3 bedroom himself. At this point he mentions that one of my current roommates is planning on renting the other apartment from him. That was news to me.

Meanwhile, Ernie got into Medical School so he was going to be leaving as well. So Rob and I talk to Tom and he says yeah it would be great to live with you guys. And all seems right with the world. Then we begin to realize that Watertown is much more convenient for us in terms of getting to work, parking, not having to move, that sorta thing. So we begin to entertain the idea of staying put and winding two new roommates. Mind you that at this point our lease is up in less that a month and we haven't even decided to start looking.

That just about brings us to the present. With less than a week left to find two people to live with for the next year craig's list comes through and he's not even a psycho. So now my moving weekend will consist of (potentially) changing rooms, helping the new guys move in, and helping Tom and Carrie move into their respective new places. Much nicer since I still get to come home to my house essentially as I left it.

is.it.required

This will now be my second post dedicated to the topic of posting. I logged in just now wondering if I should post something when in fact I had nothing to write. I guess I am now experiencing the other side of the coin. Now that I have several days of back-to-back posts I am feeling somewhat obligated to write something even this drivel about post frequency. Hmm...

new.england.beach.snobbery

So I am sitting at a beach in South Boston called Pleasure Bay which as you can see from the picture is quite a nice place with a couple beaches and a protected cove which keeps the water smooth and clean. Naturally I would prefer some real surf and a SoCal taco stand or two but that isn't possible today. I am astounded by the fact that in my two years of living here nobody has ever brought me to this or the other beaches I have seen today in Southie (as Bostonians like to call it). Let's compare this beach to the beaches I have visited recently.

The beaches I have visited in the past are for the most part: Far away - It is not uncommon for a trip to the beach to require an hour or more just to arrive. Expensive - Yes that is right. Parking has cost between $10 and $25 per car. A long walk - even with paid parking, most of the beaches still require a 10-20 minute walk from the car to get down on the sand. Exclusive - The only people who can apply for a parking pass at many of these beaches are residents of the community and only then can you park nearby. Small - most of these beaches have had miniscule sandy areas packed with people.

Here there is a long curved sandy beach that can accommodate what I estimate to be thousands of people. In addition there is plenty of FREE on street and lot parking. How far away is this wondrous location, you ask. Well it is all of 30 minutes from Watertown and a mere 15 or so from Brookline (where I spend a great deal of time). In fact you can take the T and only have a 5 or so minute walk. Paradise you say? Well, I wouldn't go that far, but it is a very nice place with patrons of all backgrounds enjoying the outdoors just minutes from downtown Boston.

air.traffic

As I sit here enjoying my Sunday afternoon at pleasure bay I found a great spot right under the landing approach of Boston's Logan International Airport I snapped this picture of an arriving plane. At the same time, I pulled up the flight arrival tracker and tried to guess what flight was arriving each time. I doubt I was right and it is quite difficult to tell but I did get to see what I believe was JetBlue flight 466 from Ft. Meyers, FL land. So that was cool.

ministrations.of.moving

If you live somewhere long enough eventually you are called upon to help with a move. At first you just show up at the house to help unload and eat pizza but in no time at all you are practically scheduling the whole procedure.

At this point my roommate and I can tell how easy a move will be as soon as we pull up in front of the apartment. The signs are always there. The size of the moving truck, the number of boxes (in this case more is always better since that means people have already packed most of the stuff), whether the roommates are helping or just standing back, what time the move starts, what food has been procured for the helpers, the number of helpers present - that sort of thing.

So with my wealth of experience and knowledge I offer these tips for your own move:

When reserving a moving truck from U-haul (other truck facilities are exempt from this because they charge more and aren't always overbooked), especially if you are tempted by the online reservation system, go into the local office and get your name on the list (or at the very least call the local office). As it turns out, the online reservations are only printed out the night before and they have no time specified that the truck is to be available. So, if you want the truck in the morning go in and talk to the guy and get your name on the list and then go in to pick it up when the office opens. If all that seems like too much, just rent from budget or something.

Pack up everything you can the day and week before so that there are boxes to load immediately. A good comment to hear is something like, "You don't even need us..." that sort of thing. There is nothing worse than having people stand around while you try to find something for them to put in the truck. Remember they are helping you out and they probably have other things they need to get to eventually.

Big furniture first! Or not. This seems obvious but it is actually too formulaic. If you have people who can lift you probably also have people who can load a few boxes. Be flexible and you will accomplish more with fewer hiccups.

Feed the help! Donuts, bagels, coffee something like that. It gives your friends something to do and an excuse to not tire themselves out. It keeps people who don't have anything to do from being in the way and helps them feel like they aren't wasting time.

Those are a few tips which if followed will help you have a less stressful and more successful move.

confections.and.baking

I am the first to point out that despite my passion for food and cooking I just dabble in baking. My girlfriend, on the other hand, makes a mean lemon pound cake (among other delectible desserts). The irony, therefore, is hardly lost on me that the one request she has made of me for her birthday tomorrow is a chocolate marble cake. The pressure of preparing a cake for someone accomplished in the art of baking is obvious.

Fortunately I have Alton Brown of Good Eats on my side and of course the whole internet thing. At this point I am pleased with the result and all that remains is storage, transport, and service.

trapped.inside

A look out of my window as I lament my current task of job searching.

wagner.under.the.stars

If you've never listened to classical music performed by a professional orchestra conducted by one of the greats like James Levine, I reccomend a trip to Tanglewood. Not only were we able to sit out under the stars and listen to the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform two peices by Richard Wagner the German composer but we did so for less than I have paid to see some local bands in a cramped bar. To add to the experience the music lasted almost 4 hours as compared to the 45 minutes a good set in the bar might offer. Granted I'm comparing apples and oranges here but my point is: If you are in New England on a weekend this summer consider a trip to Tanglewood for the experience of a lifetime.

meet.the.president

So that's my sister meeting the president with her NCAA championship H2O polo team. Sweet! Nice work sister!

philosophy.of.posting

When sitting down to post the question must be asked, "What is better to post once in summary or many times in particular." I often fail even to post once so the question may seem strange. When I do post it seems that I post in bursts several times a day or even hour only to neglect posting for the next month or more. Is this acceptable to me (I ignore here anyone who reads the posts for obvious reasons) or is a daily or semi-daily post scheduled by discipline and duty more desirable than the sporadic postings brought on by a passionate desire to say something? A question for the ages? Perhaps not. Yet there it remains hanging over my head hinting at deeper symptoms or something else entirely.

For what it's worth I will probably post again today.

new.look.time

It is more that time to get a new look for this crazy thing. After all the old look was designed with my previous life path in mind(You know, the whole grad school physics thing leading to a PhD). I suppose the dark look also fits well into my current position of unemployed job seeker wondering what exactly is next. I think the next long-term look will have to coincide with my next job. "And what will that be?" You ask. I don't know, stop asking, I will tell you when I figure it out OK!

Right so all that to say I am hoping to work in some field relating to physics. Possibly: teaching high school, working in a lab, working as a tech for a university. Something like that. In fact I am avoiding working on my resume and cover letters to write this post and some of you (ok, only 2 people ever read this) don't care because now you don't have to remove me from your links section (you know who you are).