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.

Running

And not in the good way. I have been flat out running for the last few weeks. Not only did we have a housewarming party, we participated in a snow covered charity walk that didn’t go as well as we wanted it to. Because of the weather, half the members of our team were not able to walk…which really annoyed my Dad as it was in his honor that we were walking. However, if he had gotten sicker at the event, I would never forgive myself.

I have also had a presentation, 8 page paper (which turned out to be 7), 3-5 page paper (which is at 4 right now), 1 page response paper, lit review, children’s program, registering for my last semester of school and a few other things hanging over my head. People at work have been getting hurt (falling off of a stage, fake appendicitis, staph infection) and others have had family members die.

And I haven’t been able to spend any time on my costume 😦 I ran into Salvation Army today to pick up a “bomber jacket”, really just a red faux-leather jacket (for 6.99) and a Halloween store for a pilots hat and goggles and gun. I have my brown shoes, zip pants, and I might try to make a scarf out of an old t-shirt tomorrow quickly…not sure. I’m slightly annoyed that I’ve tossed out certain things and can’t find other things but whatever.

Paper is done, computer will be plugged in for school tomorrow, costume is mostly together. I didn’t get to make my Guinness cupcakes, but that is fine. I’ll make them on Saturday to eat with our pot roast.

Ghost Town

So, I haven’t been updating here at all lately. This is because of a few things…
* I am taking 2 classes at school, one which meets twice a week for 3 hours and the other meets from 9 till 4. Takes an hour to get there, an hour to get back. Huge time suck.
* I am in the process of trying to buy a home. This is incredibly stressful as part of the basement has a huge asbestos covered oil heater. Arg! And the deck is pulling off of the house.
* Working 3 days a week and getting projects piled on top of me. This is a good thing, but means a lot of work…
* Just plain depression.

So, I will try to be better…I saw an awesome video that anyone interested in preservation should take a gander at and a bunch of cool pictures to come of some archaeology. For now, I shall leave you a picture from somewhere in Boston…

I thought that left when I was 4?

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.

Paul Revere

Tomorrow is the actual Patriot’s Day here in Massachusetts, we just celebrate on the third Monday of April each year. However, tomorrow is also the first day of tours for us and I have the afternoon tour.

I have spent the last hour or so, looking over my notes and books from last year to refresh my memory and hoping that the jerk from Concord who interrupted my talk the other day does not have a cousin who will be walking with me for an hour.

I mean, really, do you think that the tourists care what famous people came from my hometown? I can only name 2 anyways, most of the rest were imported for the private high school and left soon after.

Paul Revere Gets His Horse

Anyways, I have printed up a copy of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere…generally, you have someone on your tour who is about 58-65 who was made to memorize the poem as a younger child. The last paragraph makes a nice ending for our long walk together, though…

“So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you are in the area tomorrow night, the annual Lantern Ceremony is taking place at Old North Church. It is an interesting event to go to as you get to see the Church completely full, including a fife corps, and hear from a variety of people. There is also an event at the Charlestown Navy Yard after the ceremony.

After this weekend, work ramps up, school ramps up, my family situation ramps up, and parties galore are happening. Looks like I won’t get too much sleep till November.

PS GO BRUINS!!!

The Weather

Most of my job involves me talking to visitors from around the world, trying to help them understand Boston and getting around. The other day, we had about 300 people come in and I swear, most of them complained about the weather.

Now, this was Tuesday…so it was in the 40s and a bit windy, but nothing horrible. The sun was shining, no rain or snow. And it just started to get on my nerves.

So, the boy comes to pick me up from work and we go over to Kinkos to photocopy some papers, bitching about work while there and then start the walk back. Just before we got into Government Center, I exclaimed “Its just weather, people! Suck it up!!”

And I guess I said it louder than I meant…because two guys (who looked like construction workers) busted out laughing.

At least I was able to amuse someone that day.

Oh, and I saw a woman with mittens, a scarf, and winter hat on yesterday. When it was 60. So glad today is my Saturday.

Busy Bee

School started last week…only 14 more meetings till the end of the semester! So far, I have been extremely busy. I’m actually going to do all the reading for both classes this semester (last semester I didn’t, they didn’t seem to care) and I already have a paper due on Friday by 5 PM.

Add to that, my internship is already in its second week. Its been interesting. Sarah Jessica Parker was at there last week, Ken Burns was there the next day, the 54th Regiment was there today…not sure if anything else is going on but they have been busy!

And, I’m probably going to add more hours at work since a co-worker got a new job. Tours start again soon and I have to remember it so that I don’t feel like a total jackass on my first one.  Maybe just a little bit of a jackass. They also want to use some of my photography for the website, partly because they don’t have to pay me for the photos. But it would look good on my resume, so I’ll probably do it.

Also!!! Seek the Peak registration opened up! I have to work on my sponsorship letters!

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!

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.