The Ocean

One of my favorite Dar Williams songs is “The Ocean”…it seemed especially relevant to me when we moved near Belle Isle Marsh and the Harbor. While I adore mountains, the ocean has always been a constant in some way throughout my life. We’ve been going to Cape Cod for over 25 years now, one of my first memories is getting bitten by a crab while splashing into the Atlantic Ocean…and every time I go over the Sagamore bridge, I visibly relax.

Now, living near the water, I’ve begun to appreciate other things. Today, the most important was that there was almost no ice to navigate while getting to the car. It stayed warm enough here, probably because of the ocean, to not hard freeze everywhere. There is literally no ice in front of my house…nor is there any salt melt put down. I love it.

I also love the fact that on some nights, foggy ones especially, I can smell the ocean at our house. There is nothing like going out onto your back porch with a drink and some good conversation, smelling the ocean and watching planes fly over your house.

Unfortunately, I do not have time to go walk by the water today 😦 Our teacher gave us 3 chapters of reading! 3! In the first week! Geez 🙂 and I have to clean up the house. Its amazing how much dirt gets tracked in with boots.

Back Again

We made it back alive and without any fights! 🙂

I am not a great teacher for skiing as I had to remember how to actually ski, so every once in a while I would tell him a new nugget as it popped back into my head from the back of my brain.

Overall, the mountain was pretty good. A few people were real big idiots, 2 snowboarders who were just lying across the steepest part of the main trail and a woman and her daughter standing at the end of the ramp for the ski lift. We actually ran into them because they wouldn’t move.

However, ending the day with a warm waffle dipped in maple syrup was a stroke of brilliance! So tasty and hot and sugary. Just what I needed.

Skiing

I’m going skiing today…AHHH!

I haven’t skied since high school and my boyfriend has never skied. Should be an interesting day.

Hopefully, I won’t try to run anyone over!

Things

Flower

This is what happens when I get bored at work and happen to have my camera 🙂

Got to watch the inauguration yesterday with about 20 other federal employees. It wasn’t a great feed, kept pixelating but the sound was just fine. I also finally got acces to the internet, but possibly not to the company email. If it isn’t one thing, its another.

Tomorrow, I go for an interview for my internship. It would involve working with Presidential papers and helping to create an exhibit to be on display later. Hopefully it will all come together and I’ll have my internship all put together and be able to start getting my hours done earlier than later. AND I’ll have a great project to put onto my resume, which is always nice.

Pete

This video had me in tears yesterday. David Weinberger explains it all perfectly here.

Can’t wait to get a new boss at noon today!

Idiot

Some person copied my last entry and has it up on their blogspot, word for word. He even has the links to my pictures the same, which is totally stupid because he doesn’t look a thing like me or my boyfriend.

Why would someone do that? Totally stupid.

ARG!

Mount Washington

Here it is, in the negative temperatures in Boston and all I can think about is the next time I get to climb Mount Washington. Its become a bit of an obsession for me. I’ve been up 4 times, twice on a charity hike for a women’s shelter here in Boston (each one 20 miles long), once on a 20 mile hike with my boyfriend, and the last time with my boy again hiking to raise funds for the Observatory.

It took me 4 tries, 2 of them sleeping over at Lakes of the Clouds Hut, to see anything from the summit. And it was totally worth it.

We’ve already planned at least one trip back up to the summit together this year, probably for Seek the Peak (The charity hike for the Observatory), and the boy is going sledding down Tuckerman’s Ravine again this April for the Inferno. But, National Geographic just put out a beautiful 12 photo spread about the Obs and has a huge article on it in the Feb. issue about the mountain and the Obs. Cannot wait to pick up a copy and drool over the photos. My favorite is below…the landscape there in the summer is so weird at times, in the winter its even more stunning.

Mount Washington At Night

Flying

Today has just flown by…I looked down at the clock at 9 and now suddenly it is 2:10 and I haven’t done much of anything today besides halfway doing some laundry.

So glad that I’m not at work today, but tomorrow is not going to be fun. We have a huge number of homeless people who come in and use our facilities and generally, it is fine. They are mostly quiet people who just want to clean up a bit, get a little warm, and maybe sit for a few moments out of the wind.

However, a few do drugs in our bathroom, others hit on me and the other women, and some fall asleep or eat in our area. I do not look forward to having to call our security people to help us out tomorrow.

I still need to apply for new jobs, finish the laundry, put clothes away, sweep the bedroom, go through my clothes and toss stuff, and make dinner.

Anyone know a replacement for cream cheese? I sooo want to make cinnamon rolls but all the good looking recipes have cream cheese in the frosting.

Newman

Last night, three friends and I trekked out to The Warren Tavern to participate in their trivia there.

Because we are big dorks, we named ourselves after Robert Newman, the sextant who placed the lanterns in the tower of Old North Church on April 18, 1775.

We didn’t do as well as we thought we should…missed a few really easy questions here and there, but we put up a strong fight and came in second! Robert would be so proud 🙂

Next time, the Elephant and Castle will be our trivia place…I think going to a bunch of them might be the most fun since each host is different and the questions probably vary.

bleck

1. I am still sick after probably a week or so of sniffles and body aches and just plain ickness. No idea what it is beyond a cold that I can’t shake.
2. We have two birds who have begun living on our porch. They come around 4 PM each day and leave by 6 or so. Cute sparrows 🙂 Too bad I’ll have to get rid of their nests in the spring.
3. The snow was not as much of a bust as I thought it was going to be. We had about 5 inches and work was canceled, but the car drove through it very easily when we moved it back in front of the house.
4. I think the medicine I took is taking effect, yuck.
5. Thank god I don’t have to work tomorrow. I’m in no shape to go outside much less direct people around and keep them out of the Hall.