So long…

Its been so long since I’ve been here, but I definitely need a place to write and not have people from certain quarters catching on. Its great to be super connected, but I think that there is a tipping point where it becomes more dangerous/worrisome than not.

One problem with my job is that while there are thousands of people who work in my “company” seasonally, the people who are permanent are few and far between and we know each almost every one else if only on the periphery. I can easily play 6 degrees of x with anyone and make the connection in probably 3 jumps.

Makes it hard to have a bad day.

The other problem is that if you HAVE a bad day or are a bit cynical, you are definitely looked down upon. They want chipper people, even if that means that they aren’t the smartest or best qualified for their positions. And I am definitely not that anymore.

Either way, I’ll be back. It is good to have a place to my own. Even if no one else is really listening…

Dry Dock One

Sometimes I get to do really fun stuff because of work…on Saturday, under blue skies and with no wind, I got to go into Dry Dock One at the Charlestown Navy Yard and learn all about its history.  Not only did we get to go into it, we got to spend about an hour wandering around, taking pictures, looking at fish and crabs, and climbing up and down the edges. It was awesome.

We found really interesting objects inside the dry dock (a skull!! How did that get there? Seems to be a prey and not a predator like I originally thought) and saw lots of numbers around us.

Most of these had fallen off of the walls as the epoxy used to secure them to the surface dried and cracked in the heat and cold. I sooo wanted to take a few home with me.

Then, we went into the Caisson…this is the thing that keeps the water out of the dry dock, and I was inside of it. It is actually very clean inside, which was slightly impressive.  It is also impressive that so little metal is keeping the ocean out of that dry dock.

Next field trip may include the Chain Forge and the Rope Walk…and a trip to Lowell to look at their education program. Sometimes I love my job.

Mr. Backwards

Dear Asshat,

Yes…I know that apartheid did not occur during the 1800s. I was trying to tell you all the important events that had been debated in Faneuil Hall over the years.  The list of: apartheid, child labor laws, women’s rights to vote, union rights, religious rights, and others should NOT be met with the reply: “So nothing of significance happened here”.

When I tell you that I love having the right to vote and that my Grandmother, 90 years old this May and on Facebook, loves the fact that she was BORN with the right to vote, you should not reply back with “Stop being defensive. That is the problem. You are a woman and women get defensive”.

You should also not tell me that I am a waste of tax payer money and an embarrassment to civil service everywhere. I am not a civil servant and you are an Ass Hat. Please do not come back to Boston…go back into your hole and back to worrying about the fact that some of our nation’s greatest treasures are in the hands of Massholes like myself.

No cookie for you,
Me

 

Dear Lovely Canadian Men,

I love you. You helped me be able to detach myself from that Ass Hat from somewhere America. Thank you for being the sweet Canadians that I know most are. I hope that you are dating each other because you would make a cute couple. Please come back to Boston anytime you want and bring all your friends.
❤

Me

USS Constitution

I had a great post here about the neighbors who want the USS Constitution to change the way she fires her cannons because they feel lit is too loud.  They want the cannons to be quiet until 9 AM on the weekends and the National Anthem to not be played so loudly and the charges to be smaller.

To which I say: shut up.

This tradition has been going on since before 1800 and the charges have been made smaller over the years already. They barely use any black powder to set the cannons off already and oh yeah, we are at war. These cannons are shot off twice a day in honor of the men and women who are serving and who have served. Many of these sailors will be going off to active duty combat after their 3 years at the Constitution is up and many of the National Park Rangers have also served in some capacity.  This ship is the mascot of the entire Navy and it is only appropriate for her to fire her cannons off as a sign of respect…and its pretty cool to watch them do it, as well.
I was lucky enough to get to take a trip on the Constitution a few years ago with my Dad. It was Armed Forces Day and so there was a 19 gun salute (why are they always odd numbers?) to the men and women of the Armed Forces. While I couldn’t really see over the sides of the ship, I knew enough to get down to the gun deck in time to see them load and fire the charges. Afterwards, I got one of the shells as a souvenier of my trip…it stunk to high heaven for a few weeks, but it is awesome. See:

So, be quiet people living at Flagship Wharf…Nomar would have never been a jerk like you are. Oh, and I hope you enjoy it next summer when they are turning the Yard back into a working one and putting the USS Cassin Young into drydock! That should be exciting…lots of banging and crashing and melting and tearing. Its going to be awesome to see what kind of letter you send to the NPS unit.

From whence they came…

At work, we have some maps up and try to encourage people to mark where they are from with pins. At the end of every week, we take the pins down and “reset” the maps. I took down the old maps the other day because certain areas (like Hartford, CT and the Netherlands) were completely obliterated, but it was really interesting to see the distribution of all the pins. Here are some pictures (and proof, if you’ve ever needed it, that people come from every continent to visit Boston):

Visitors from the South Pacific

Visitors from Europe, Asia Minor, Northern Africa

Visitors from Africa

It will be interesting to see how the map morphs and changes over the next few weeks as most of our visitors will be from New England and Western Europe. Most of our cruise ships are carrying people from the New York/New England area or Britain to Canada and back again, so probably fewer South Africans or people from the South Pacific, but who knows!

Racing to the weekend…

I cannot stand life right now.

Visitors at work keep trying to talk to me about politics or other topics that we aren’t allowed to discuss, they just voted in the concealed weapons bill and its going to the President for approval, one of my co-workers is a close talker, and I’m just exhausted.

I have also had in the last few days multiple people use racist language around me. Today, a woman asked if the people driving the trolleys spoke clear English because they couldn’t understand people with funny accents. Hmm…guess she probably couldn’t understand Bostonian then. And the other day, a man asked me why we are paying attention to and highlighting the Civil Rights movement (which he seemed to indicate meant from the time period that the slaves were freed to the actual CR movement) and the Women’s rights movement instead of just paying attention to dead white men.

In reality, I wanted to go up to him and yell at him. Especially since he was with his son/nephew/friend who was not white and sitting next to his wife. I’m not sure why people feel that they can confide their deepest darkest hatreds. Maybe its the same reason that people come up to me in the subway or on the street when they are lost. I must just send out something that says “Talk to me!”.

I hate it.

Rats

Has anyone in the downtown area recently experienced a larger than normal influx of rats to their buildings?

Since last April, we have been visited by rats of all shapes and sizes. Some are large, others tinier. But all are Boston city rats. Grey, fat, fast city rats. Oh, and they are all weighing in at around 2 pounds.

For some odd reason, I seem to be the only one who sees them. They like to play on our stairs, running up and down in front of people or when no one is there. One time, I saw one come down the stairs so quickly, he flipped tail over nose. It was quite funny to me, though no one else seemed to be amused.

We have killed 21. In our research, we have discovered that they like chocolate over the bait that people generally put out and so to trap this latest one, we have put out Newman’s oreos. I can only hope that this most recent one goes the way of his friends before he gets to make babies. Yuck.

Buy a vowel

Today, I came thisclose to having to kick Vanna White out of Faneuil Hall. They are in Boston filming promos for the shows they will be conducting here later in the year and wanted to do a shot from inside the Great Hall. However, they did not want to pay for it. How cheap can they be?! So, I was sent to my station, prepped to toss Vanna out politely if she dared to come inside.

Faneuil Hall

However, it didn’t matter. They filmed outside the Hall and shall be filming at the Union Oyster House on Thursday. Too bad, though…I like meeting famous people. It is always interesting to see how they react to life.

Only two more days of work left this week and then I have a three day weekend! Thank goodness.