I love the F word

I couldn't let this article pertaining to the protesters present at the DNC pass everyone by. Good fuckin' job, guys.

My Aching Head

Started the weekend with a quiet drink to Kristie at Brasserie Jo's. I hope she was looking down from that great bar in the sky, raising her gimlet and smiling at all the stories we shared.

Then on to Connecticut for the bachelorette party of my friend Erin.  Things of note:

*Bridal showers will never be fun even when bridal shower bingo is whipped out.  Ohhhh, nice serving bowl. Really.
*Margaritas do taste better after 3 glasses of wine and 5 beers. Oh, and doing shots of Jack Daniels is a great idea after 3 glasses of wine, 5 beers, 2 margaritas and 4 more beers. Well done, Jill.
*Dancing with the girls never gets old.
*I am not ready for babies, particularly the morning after bachelorette parties.
*Erin & Manny are meant for one another and will be pretty damn happy together, right Honeybeans?

Now, I am gearing up to run my friend Jen's bachelorette party this coming weekend (does it ever end). Kate and I are stocking up on penis paraphernalia and devising ways to torture Jen one final time before she settles down to a life of Charlie, which is reward enough for the pain she may feel the morning after.

The DNC hoopla has turned into a benign and quiet reality. Bryan and I and the newts are happy to be in Brookline for the week, though. The commute is easy, the conditions are comfy, and the company is gooood.

Boston, the DNC, and Oreo Cookies

As everyone probably knows, Boston is hosting the Democratic National Convention, or the DNC to those of us on the inside. This is occurring next week from Monday through Thursday. The DNC is causing quite a stir here in Boston. I have personally felt the effects of this massive media event in the following ways:

Sat in traffic for an hour at 11am on Thursday so that 85 work-release cons could clear trash from the sides of the Mass Pike.

Sat on the commuter rail this morning with nothing to read because the Metro newspaper dispensers aren't "incendiary-device-proofed". They were removed from all commuter and T stations last Friday and won't return until early August. I was definitely worried about reaching in for a free community newspaper and pulling out a bomb.

Home displacement: I will not be living at my home next week due to the fear of travelling back and forth from Framingham to Boston. Not fear of death or maiming. Fear of getting onto a train or highway at 8am and not getting off of said train or road until 2pm. Oh, and of having my bag searched in case I am carrying an incendiary device (with no Metro dispenser to put it in, I will carry it on me instead). I don't actually mind the home displacement because I have a happy alternative. But the hold-ups and privacy violations - crappy.

Anger at the jackass pizza seller across from the FleetCenter who put up a pro-Bush sign and then whinily refused to open for business next week because he already knows that no one will eat there due to the DNC. The story is on the
Boston Channel. I know that I will never eat at Halftime Pizza (not that I do now, but now I never will).

Added work aggravation. The Library is in Boston, near the Hynes Convention Center, Newbury Street and other possible sites and areas of interest to delegates and politicians. Not that I believe that more people will visit our Library, but management feels certain that droves of people will be induced to enter our doors simply because they are in Boston and we are in Boston. So, we have to be on the alert and ready for anything. Being on a heightened state of readiness just doesn't sound conducive to getting work done, but it might not end up being that bad.

In oreo cookie news, I had an Oreo McFlurry and it was delicious.

I am off to have a drink in Kristie's honor after work. Then to CT tomorrow for my friend Erin's bridal shower and bachelorette party - should be a great time.

This is a cousin (distant) of Snake and Pokey 

New Newts

At the risk of completely double journaling (Bryan and I tend to write about the same things since we do a lot of stuff together), I will instead direct you to his blog to find out about our new pets. I will just post a picture of a rough-skinned newt above so that you have an idea what they look like (ours are WAY cuter, of course).

Grateful Me

The beauty of having a blog is being able to "publicly" thank people.  So, thank you to Bryan and Sheri for breaking your backs stripping off the wallpaper in my new bedroom and for spackling and painting and accompanying me to the most terrifying place on the Earth: The Home Depot.
 
I will digress here to say that I love having a house, but I fear Home Depot in a way that is irrational and total.  It is an imposing building from the outside, a hulking, enormous warehouse with people carrying measuring tapes and levels and pencils!  And the inside does nothing to embrace and nurture - huge aisles of every kind of imaginable screw and bolt and plank.  I guess that the beauty of the place lies in the possibilities within.  You walk in to buy pieces of a 'home-improvement' project and there is the possibility that you will know what you need, what you are doing and that it will be accomplished in a timely and correct manner.  I am still working on that.  Anyway, I have owned a home for exactly 12 days and I have been to The Home Depot 5 of those days.  My therapist says that I am making progress (haha). 
 
Back to thanking:
Thanks to Shannon and Frank for getting married on Friday and throwing one heck of a fun wedding.  And for choosing to have it in the most amazing inn that I have ever been to.  And thanks, again, to Bryan for trekking to NH with me to celebrate a total stranger's wedding with me, and for dancing to all of the right songs.
Thanks, again, to Sheri for helping me pick out a room color and for leaving that adorable kid for a night to help me home-improve (she apparently has no such Home Depot fears - wow). 
Thanks to Joe and Rich for moving our new big-ass sectional from Brighton to Framingham.  It sure will be nice to relax on that. 
Thanks to Chris for the thoughtfulness and the beautiful box of wine.  We have yet to crack open a celebratory bottle in the new home, but yours will be the first.  Should we let you know when that is? 
Thanks to my mom for helping us with the house and for feeding us Sunday dinner.  Mmmmm...ham.
 
I am going home to continue to sand and paint and paint and paint.  Home Depot actually sounds good.

 

Sometimes the world is an f'ed up place.

Richard has a lovely friend, Addie, who is 88 years young. She has a son who is a bad man and he took her away from her home in Framingham, MA (sold it out from under her after getting power of attorney over her estate) and brought her to live in Muskegon County, Michigan. He sold almost all of her things, put her in a van and drove 20+ hours to go and live in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. She agreed to all of this because he is her son and he sold her house so where else was she gonna live. As if that were not enough of a dick move, once in Michigan, he started verbally and physically abusing her, so much so that she ran away and was found by the local police walking along a highway. The police brought her to a hospital, she refused to go back to the trailer (she's no dummy), called Richard, who flew to Michigan and brought her back home to Framingham. She is now in my mom's guest room where she is quietly reading today's paper after finishing off an ice cream sundae. Tomorrow she will go to a lawyer's office and sue her son's lawyer to get some of her $$ back and maybe even to prevent the douchebag from getting any at all. Hopefully justice will prevail...

Goodbye

I haven't posted in a few days (6 to be exact) and a lot has happened. Unfortunately, one of the things that has happened has overshadowed the rest of my thoughts about the last 6 days. We found out at work yesterday that our friend and colleague Kristie Ley had passed away. She had been suffering from a tumor in her stomach and was out of work while being advised about some of her treatment options. She went to the doctor last Wednesday, was admitted to the hospital and left this world early yesterday morning. It was quite a shock for us at work and for her family - she was supposed to have many more years.

Some things that stick out in my mind about Kristie are her love of cats and Chadwick's, her wicked and cynical sense of humor, her smoky voice, her determination to finish her museum studies degree and her pride in having done so, and her excellent contest entry, "The Passion of the Kristie". She was a lovely person and she will be missed.
We will raise a glass to her the next time we gather.

Other stuff that happened:
Thursday - closed on my house. Yay.
Friday - Happy Birthday Richard and Laura! Began cleaning the new house during the day; Kate's last day of work happened and we celebrated at a local pub at night. I made her a vest of flair and provided her with a 'new and improved' S&H.
Saturday - the scraping, sanding, washing, painting of walls in the kitchen & bathroom.
Sunday - dinner with the entire family (to celebrate the wonderful Richard's b-day), the highlights of which were reading Where the Wild Things Are over and over to my nephew, Noah, and watching Bryan read it to him another 3 times, then getting an impromptu concert of classic children's songs like "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" during dinner from said nephew. I also now believe that the question "Why?" should be banned from a two-year old's vocabulary.

Home Games and Home Closing

The Red Sox are in town for a 6 game stretch and Bryan scored some tickets for last night's series' opener with Oakland. Wakefield vs. Zito on the pitcher's mound, and Sox offense vs. absolutely nothing as the Beantown Boys crushed the "Swingin' A's" 11-0. There are not many better ways to spend a night than with a Cuban sandwich, a cold beer, my favorite tall guy in a Pokey shirt by my side, and a win at home.

Tomorrow, Joe and I close on our house. To do this, we will have in our possession for about 20 minutes a sum closer to half a million dollars than I've ever come before. [Should I let you all know exactly where we will be for those 20 minutes?] It is amazing the cost and the details involved in closing on a home. Luckily, this has been a relatively painless process since our sellers are so pleasant and I am looking forward to cleaning, redecorating and movin' in.

Happy Birthday Colleen!

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Fourth of July festivities were smashing! The 47 School Street BBQ on Saturday was a smash hit, especially the ice luge, Dave Matthews impersonations and dancing.

The Maine BBQ involved less drinking and zero dancing, but was an excellent time, especially the good conversation, yummy pork chops and raging bonfire. I got to meet two adorable cats, two even more adorable parents and a whole lot of crickets!

The drive back to Boston on Monday was traffic-filled, but pleasant thanks to word games and Papa Ginos.

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Fourth of July brings the 7th Annual Muzzle Awards from the Boston Phoenix. These awards are bestowed upon 10 people or organizations in the Boston and New England who/that have surpressed freedom of speech and personal liberties during the previous year. Read 'em and smolder.

Movie List is Compiled

Firstly, Happy B-day to Dr. Charlie (6/30), Happy Birthday Uncle Steve (7/2). congratulations to Colleen for finishing up with school, and Happy Fourth of July!

Secondly, The Movie List has been compiled. This link will bring you to Bryan's explanation of the impetus for the creation and the stats of the list.

I have some stats of my own. Primarily, I have been looking into how many of the top 100 movies are based on literary works. When I started researching this, I didn't think that it would be a huge number. Well, I am working backward and at #70 I realized that 11 are based on literary works - this is a third of the list. If this number is true for the entire list, the research is more than I can do while at work on the Friday before a holiday weekend. So, I will post stats next Mon or Tues.

Funny, we have been watching and talking about so many movies and today Marlon Brando died. He was a great character actor and I am sure that the Academy Awards tribute will be beautiful. RIP Stanley Kowalski.

In other news, I can't possibly be more disheartened about my most favorite sport and my most favorite team in that sport because said team just can't win in clutch situations, or with a lead or, well, at all, it seems. Boston fans are a bit tortured and we have become somewhat melodramatic, but really, could NY suck any worse (and by suck I mean could they kick our asses any worse?) Please Theo, trade us some healthy players who don't drop fly balls and commit so many fielding errors that fans wince when a ball is thrown across the infield...

Looking forward to some BBQing fun this weekend and to not working for the next few days.