College Town / Yuppie Row

When we moved to Boston, I thought we were moving to one neighborhood (the elegant, brownstoney and supergay South End), but now that we're here, I am realizing we got two for the price of one. In fact, most of our everyday necessities are located in the westerny direction. This includes your basic signposts of modern 30something yuppiedom - namely the Starbucks-Whole Foods-Panera military retail complex. This area could alternately be called Symphony (lovely, delightful, pretentious) or Northeastern University (as in, Northeastern University).

Don't get me wrong, I love me an urban college town. (I went to / lived in Foggy Bottom / George Washington University.) It was just an unexpected perk of our move. Instead of strolling up and down Tremont Street constantly self aware as to whether I am wearing the appropriate jeans, I've been gravitating to the much more laid back atmo of the west. And it's not just so that I might get mistaken for a college student. Not just.

Piano Men

Well, the move to Boston is officially complete-ish. With the significant help of Chad's family, we descended upon our new home - this apartment in a converted piano factory. Except for a few loose items (including our stack of soon-to-be-heavily-debated picture hangings), we're basically there. I have absolutely no complaints thus far. Save for a relatively minor Act of God, the environment has been amazing. It's been all sunshine and warmness, both literally and figuratively. We have properly met half a dozen neighbors, which is more than I can say for all of our nearly 4 year London stint. And the building is easily walkable to all the shops and restaurants we could possibly need. Plus I already found the place with the best steak baguette sandwich in the world. And I've been to France yo!

BBQs & Balloons

Last weekend, I returned back to the Jerz for another family summer BBQ -- this time for my dad's 50something birthday. We laughed, we ate, we drank, we volleyball'd, we pool'd. Per usual. Because both sides of my family were there, it was easy for a first cousin visiting from Indiana to slip into the mix unnoticed. "Landscaping guy or one of my 50 cousins? Either way, come on back!" I spent about an hour blowing up a bucket full of water balloons (natch), but with my brothers either at a bachelor party or engrossed in TV-football, I had to resort to a waterbattle with (gasp!) actual children. It bodes poorly for my future parenting abilities when one of my young cousins asked "How many should we take? Can we throw them now? Where should we throw them?" and I responded "I don't care, let's do this!" Five minutes later and 100 water balloons down, I think it was a great success that only 1 in 6 walked away crying. Ahhh, summer barbequas.

An International Summit for Hull Sunsets

(photo courtesy of Su)

Last weekend, we (to be specific, Chad's parents) were lucky (gracious :-) enough to host a gathering of international friends up in Hull. We had Germans! Italians! Indonesians! Australians! Babies! Carrie Cooper! Across two days, the weather threatened to keep us trapped indoors and then burst into glorious sunshine. Better build up than the best Nirvana song.

Some highlights:

- An almost-FAIL harbour island tour, for which most of us spent time giggling in the background, guessing about the gay-not gay-gay tour ranger.

- A very successful (for me!) Scrabble tourney on Pam's dock, which required that I step it up fast to battle Su's wild, but almost very successful, cheating. Sorry Su. Winner winner chicken dinner.

- A boozey raft-along in the bay, complete with New Yorker for some (read: one) .

- Oh, and of course, this:

Great times with great friends during a great summer with great weather.

The Local Bus Driver Was Really Really Mean To Me

When you have temporarily relocated to a smallish town (and have some time on your hands), it becomes easy to get frustrated really fast by really minor things. The cafe owner scowled at me when I asked to use their public bathroom! The lady leaving her parking space by the beach had a bad attitude! My chicken finger basket was not fried all the way! The waitress at Daddy's (not a typo) forgot to bring me another Diet Coke! But no minor offense has been so massive as the bus driver treatment I have been receiving in this town. The bumpy heat wagon that shuttles people up and down town lacks bike racks and I'm havin none of it. Even when there are 2 other people on the bus and no wheelchairs in the giant open space for wheelchairs in the back, I have been forbidden. Naturally, I'm not taking this sitting down (on a bike or otherwise). Stay tuned... if you dare/care.

Temporary Hullitosis

Welcome! It's taken my a couple months, but I have finally decided to transition into this new permablog following our move back to the U.S. Having landed in the homeland sans any major foreseeable Euroadventures, you can now expect for me to throw up all over Blogger electronic. Take any "Following" decision seriously.

We have set up camp in Chad's hometown of Hull, MA until the lease on our new place starts in mid-August. (Given Hull's proximity to Boston, also expect the percentage of Hull wordplay to be very very high. Don't worry, it will be a Hull of a good time.) There can be no complaints when you spend June, July and August in a beachtown like Hull, so I promise not to make any (unless I have them, of course). Unexpectedly, my earliest Hullonian victory was a quarter page photo spread in the local paper, the Hull Times. (Also also expect numerous mentions of the HT as time goes, particularly for its hilarious Police Blog which features past gems such as "Man reports the knife he keeps under his pillow has gone missing.") My victory was almost certainly due to the fact that we know the paper's photographer, but I'm placing it under "Other Activities" on my resume just the same.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading. Coming soon: Central Jersey!, New York City!, and other places you have certainly been before! (But not with me :-)