Boston Local

There are so many things going on in Boston, and I just can't keep up with it.With S starting a new job this week, and the commute wearing us out, we'll probably have a couple of low key weekends coming up, but these events, especially the free ones, are tempting.


In addition to getting to the cape for birthday parties and anniversaries, and always heading over to the Blue Hills to practice our mad badminton skills, we've been trying to stay in touch with local culture a bit.


While S is more interested in cheering on the Celtics through the NBA championships (I'm still sad about LeBron not being a part of this series anymore), I got to visit Fenway Park a bit ago with some Hopkins friends. It's a tiny, old park, and very charming, but beware - they charge $6.50 for a cup of hot chocolate!We've headed to some smaller, nearby places too, seeing Babies at the Dedham Community Theater and then checking out the MOBA - The Museum of Bad Art - afterward. I feel like just the fact that there's a MOBA close by is inspiring enough to keep writing, drawing, and painting to my heart's content!This weekend, a colleague is singing in the Mystic Chorale's 20th Anniversary Concert and Sing.


That might be something we attend...in between yoga, video games, and a nice long nap or two.

In Memoriam

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace. -Martin Luther

I wish I had more time to write on about Memorial Day and its significance. But as words will not suffice in any case, my ramblings here will have to do.

Yesterday S and I finished up a series on the 1st through 3rd crusades, as well as we followed along with the breaking news story that international relief workers in international waters were killed for a blockade breach between two nations in a similar type of predicament as those Christian and Muslim peoples at the turn of the last millennium. We also spent our lunch hour talking about why we are thankful for our veterans and our military, from the technological advances wars have yielded, to the brotherhood and sisterhood that can ironically result within and between warring nations and ethnicities who share the common bond of warriors.

Still, especially among those who fight wars based on pure philosophy, I am not sure what convinces us that self-preservation or preservation of a self-interest (like our personal religious faith and the political power that comes by theocracies) is what is righteous to a God who calls us to be sustained only by his/her/its power, a power that, no matter how much impact we can have in human war, is far greater than our own "power" can ever be.

While I do not advocate a physical war of any kind, I do admire those persons who may hold different opinions from me and back up those ideals with action and truly selfless sacrifice. I admire persons whose work may benefit a society or race of people aside from their own family and close circle, such as the work of a military in a diverse nation like the US. I am saddened that we do not reflect more before taking the lives of others, but I am heartened that even in a pursuit as ruthless and distorted as the Crusades, the most well-respected leaders of both Muslim and Christian armies were those who compromised, honored their opponents, and knew the true value of refraining from violence (Salah Ad-din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub/"Saladin" allowed Christians occupying Jerusalem to live when he came to power in the holy city, and later Richard the Lion-Hearted would not allow his depleted army to attempt a siege of Jerusalem, reasoning their imminent fall in such an endeavor.)

If I could ask one thing of all peoples, those who do not claim a faith (which is a form of belief, regardless) and those who do, it would be to reflect, pray, be still, to turn inward prior to blame, and to recognize that all our power, property, and ability to change the world lies within changing ourselves, and only ourselves, to align more and more on the side of peace.

Blogountability (Blog Accountability)

I've got approximately 5 months to read all the classics I said I was going to read this year and to make my yoga passs a financially tenable purchase.

If that means forgoing a second shameful tour of Twilight, never knowing how Ron and Hermione finally get together, and driving to the Healing Tree in Quincy 4-5 times a week for the rest of 2010, so be it.

This Memorial Day Holiday, I propose 9 yoga classes and 9 hours of Wuthering Heights.

Arbitrary personal ambitions, I am your slave!

UPDATE: I completed, from Friday to Monday, 2 yoga classes, one pilates class, and 3 chapters of WH.

An interview with S

1) What do you like most about cats?

- Their eternal wisdom.

2) If you could receive 3 FedEx packages on a deserted island, what would they contain?

- Candy (lots)

- A cat plushie

- A fermentation chamber (for proteins and sugars)

3) What would your "theme song" be?

- The Rocko's Modern Life Theme

4) Which lady of history do you most admire and why?

- Probably Roma. If the creation story is true, she put her foot down, and it turned out to be a great decision (The story goes that the ancient Romans had traveled by sea to many places before setting upon Rome. However, the men of the tribe wanted to sail for new lands, but Roma had had enough, thus Rome was born) ((The other creation story, being that of the brothers Remus and Romulus)).

5) How do you hope to be spending your time in 10 years?

- With a cat. Hang on. Obviously with you too. But at this exact time in ten years, I will be spending time with the cat.

6) In 50 years?

- Happy and fat. Also, with a cat.

It Made My Day...

...To get to template this into my boss' presentation today.

The end of the year is a nice feeling.

Traffic

After much excited, scary thought and consideration, S has decided to take a job!

It's a "scientist" job, that would be his actual title, and he'll be working a lot purifying protein for a variety of different products that his life-sciences-based company manufactures. It's very exciting, and also a job that will require a nearly hour long commute from our lovely south shore home that we've both deemed too economical and pretty an area to relocate from.
So this brings me to the topic of traffic. How long is too long of a commute? My commutes 15 miles from my home to work have ranged, given the interstate I'm forced to travel on, from 17-100 or so minutes one-way. On a typical day, it's a 35-45 minute drive.

Normally, the commutes are kind of fun. I mean, I get "me" time, I love to drive, and here defensive driving is somewhat like a sport. There's always music available or interesting stories on NPR that I just don't have the energy to keep up with after returning home from a long day at work.

But the cons of are kind of obvious too. The potential for car accidents amongst some of the barely functional drivers out there at 8am, the twice weekly trips to the gas station, and the ability of construction, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and boredom to turn one's best self away in lieu of a road-rager always loom.

So we'll see how traffic plays out in this new step in the lives of S & D. What would the ideal commute look like to you? (Today, I am luxuriating in a 10-second transition from my bed to my living room. Working from home once a week makes those highways travel days even more bearable!)

Re-blog

I decided it was time to start re-blogging. I'll be loading up some pictures from the past months, and maybe jotting down some thoughts about experiences that took place then too. I've missed blogging, but it's always a bit of a struggle to distill snapshots of thoughts and moments onto this site, like a theme to a life that is mostly work, eat, sleep, grow. I guess the grow part is something fun to focus on.

These past few months - eating: Has been fun! After the kidney surgery, I didn't have appetite much. Being a classic perpetual snacker, this felt so sad to me! There I was, especially right after surgery, being literal catered to, and my tummy was like, "nuh-uh," and I could only manage about a meal a day. Once I got my hungry back, it's been all about saying money and eating in, or celebrating and eating out. At home, I eat tons of eggs, and have, as of this last shopping trip, become especially partial to cold, raw tofu with bbq sauce. It sounds disgusting, but it's like eating leftover KFC, I swear. I was sharp enough to buy nearly a year's supply of instant coffee with my Christmas money at the beginning of this year, so this allows me to make Starbuck's or Dunkin' Donuts a once-weekly treat, and for the work coffee machine to be my friend during the week. Otherwise, I could easily be whittling my savings away from caffeine. I know there is going to come a day when I want to quit caffeine, and I am trying to figure out when I will be ready for that. New Year's doesn't seem right - It's too cold and coffee is too warm and fuzzy. For now, it is delicious and I'm trying to stay moderate.

The past few months - sleeping: At first, it was hard to wake up even more so than normal. I have had the luxury of choosing me own work hours (the boss man knows I'll work overtime this way), and so I generally, as I was recovering, got to sleep into 9 or 10, and would stay at work until 6, 7, or 8. Nowadays, I vary my start times/i.e. - my mandatory wake up times, trying to get in one or two days of early work, which allows me to actually get stuff done like writing or program development done at the office, and one or two days of coming in a bit later, when H gets into the office from NH, so I can meet with others more at these times. Ideally, I'd like to set a normal working schedule for myself to start at 8:30 or so, but knowing that somedays I'll be workinh 10+ hours like this, I give myself the freedom to call it on a week-by-week basis. One the weekends, I'm still sleeping in, but trying to change that. In order to think of my life is just as full outside of work as inside work, this is the only option. To live more on the weekends for me and S and fun.

The past few months - growing: I've been first dealing with my body re-learning itself a bit, figuring out what not to do work out wise, and when it's okay to push myself. I've been reading more fiction than in awhile, and it's been inspiring just to dive into an imaginary world and think through my own relationship to creativity in this way too. I've been trying to balance work and S, really, trying to never get home too late, to work as much as more as I'm cooked for, to do my part with other chores and to plan fun activities during our free time. We've been going to the library a lot too. He likes modern war history, and I like religious history, and we both like nature documentaries, so we've been watching a lot of videos on WW2, old testament archeology, and seas creatures. I keep exploring my faith from the inside out and from the outside in. I'm going to try a new church this weekend, and I am scared it won't be a good fit, but that's why it's a "TRY." It's all exciting stuff.

I can't wait for it to be summer. Like colleges and schools, since my organization works so much with schools, we are nearing the end of our spring "semester" and will be able to focus more on brainstorming for the next year and less on the day-to-day at work. I am so ready to be innovative instead of reactive to everything happening at work. I am hoping this will de-stress us all a little too. We are all really committed people, and we are such a small organization, our lightened load this summer should really help us relax.

So that's my first re-blog of the year! I'll be pictorially editing some in the near future. Hope everyone has a nice weekend ahead of them to enjoy!!