Measi's Musings

Archive for the ‘New England’ Category

Spring peeking
Originally uploaded by measi

Even though the snow is blowing today, I have proof that springtime is, in fact, right around the corner. I found these little pop-ups in the beds of the new parkland that divides Atlantic Avenue.

For those who’ve been to Boston, but not for a few years… this park is where the elevated portion of I-93 used to be downtown… the highway was put underground during the Big Dig, and a long stretch of parkland now runs the city from North Station/Hanover Street all the way to South Station. It’s fantastic.

Anyway… I’m thrilled. They’re only about an inch tall so far, but there are tons of them – and since Mother Nature knows best, I know that warmer weather is only a few short weeks away.

Plymouth Rock – Plymouth, MA
Originally uploaded by measi

[Charlie Brown] I got a rock… [/Charlie Brown]

On Saturday, I met up with for a day of S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement eXperience) in Plymouth, Mass (approx. 50 minutes drive from my house). Lots of stitchy stash was had, as well as a short experience in a scary towny bar, followed by a much nicer experience in a better bar. It was a good, relaxing afternoon. Only thing we didn’t manage to do was fit in high tea and scones (with real clotted cream!!!) at the tea room on Court Street.

On my way out of town, since it’s not tourist season, plus it was dark and quiet and cold and a perfect solitary time, I swung around the corner to go look at the rock.

Yeah… THAT rock.

So here ya go… here’s Plymouth Rock, in the… quartz… as it were.

It’s really nothing exciting, sadly. It’s a big ol’ rock with 1620 stamped into it, and a repaired crack running through it. It’s on the beach, covered with a nicely lit little stone pavillion thingy.

I think the glorified American history I was taught as a child made it feel like it was supposed to be a cliff or something. It’s funny how those far-away places we’re taught about as children seem so much smaller and tangible when you see them up close. Sometimes the illusion is a far better picture.

But still – it does exist, which is kinda cool when you think about it.

Fishing boat on its way out
Originally uploaded by measi

I’m a bit late starting mine due to some work craziness, but this was a project kalleah suggested. I think I’ll do mine on Friday nights, just to make it a bit easier on myself. Starting next week, I’ll be doing new photos.

Galilee, Rhode Island is a teeny little village within the town of Narrangansett. It’s a very active fishing port with boats coming in and out of the harbor all of the time. As you’d expect – great, fresh seafood restaurants – and foodstores.

During the first weekend of May 2009, Rhode Island was having an absolutely perfect spring stretch. We were craving fried clams (of which there is in abundance in RI… but not all are worthy of long drives!), and decided to head down to Champlin’s Seafood for a good feast. Afterward, we wandered down onto the beach for a bit – even daring to wade a bit into the water (which was numbingly cold).

We watched many fishing boats like this one leave the harbor, heading out into Long Island Sound – or, in some cases, out into the open Atlantic. It was a picture perfect day at the seashore – and I’m looking forward to springtime when we can go back there without freezing.

Goofing around, having a laugh? Yeah, that’s us.

It’s still underway, but overnight we received a large dumping of snow: (photos will pop larger when clicked)

My plan for today is to stay curled up and stitch.

I have a lot to get done this weekend. Some of it’s holiday related (getting a tree, putting lights up outside, cards), some of it’s belated autumn stuff (cleaning up the yard before they stop picking up yard waste for the year), and some of it’s stuff I’d planned to do over Thanksgiving weekend but just didn’t get done for one reason or the other (laundry). I’d also like to find some time to relax – play some WoW, maybe do some stitching.

Stitching is going great since I started. I have two slots left on my rotation once I finish my hours on Floral Bellpull tonight. I may actually finish my rotation before the end of 2009!

Here’s where Floral Bellpull started on November 18th:

I started my rotation during our Cape Cod weekend – but also wound up doing a whole lot of frogging (UGH). I’m not sure whether the problems were all present when I took this photo, but I know for certain that small batch of green stitches close to the middle were misplaced (they were a row too high), and caused a whole mess of alignment problems.

I didn’t feel like I was making a lot of progress on this piece, but looking at this photo versus what I have done now, I realize I really have done a nice amount… and all I’ve been doing are leaves. Lots and lots of green!

So tomorrow morning I’ll post the end-of-rotation photo for this piece before moving onto Apache Wedding Blessing, which was meant for Ivanna’s 1st anniversary. At this point, I’m figuring maybe I should plan for an early 10th anniversary present with the rate it’s stitching! I expect to make some good progress on it, though. I seem to be in a good stitching zone lately, so hopefully I can make a push on it.

South Station in Boston is prepping for the holidays this week. The Nutcracker banners are up in full force, as they are every year. This week the annual electric train display has been going up. In years past, it was done on a weekend so I never got to see the building of it. But this year I’ve been able to get the progress pics.

Here’s Tuesday’s shot as they set the supports up:

The black poles are supports for the plastic clear boards (think hockey rink glass) that will surround the display so people can get right up close to look at things.

Here’s yesterday’s shot, with the ground and the train tracks laid:

They were beginning to put the actual trains and the buildings on the display last night, so I imagine by tonight it will be completed. I’ll take another photo on my way out of town tonight.

Off to work – lots of typing to get done today.

I’ve been on vacation all week – a much needed one to get my head in order, relax, and just catch up on things that I’ve been wanting to do.

On Monday night, Erich and I went to Gillette Stadium to see U2 in concert with a couple of our friends. It was absolutely fantastic! I’d seen them before back in 1997 (also in Foxboro… at the old stadium) during their Popmart tour. The current 360 tour, with its monsterous claw spaceship stage, is completely different. Only a few songs overlap… although granted, there have been a few albums since then!

Wednesday was our wedding anniversary – 2 years already (eep!). We went down to Mystic, CT for the afternoon to just get out of the house for a while. Mystic’s only about an hour way, so a nice and easy day trip. We went to Mystic Pizza (and like in the movie, it quite possibly is a little slice of heaven), then out to the point to relax for a few minutes, followed by shopping. Later in the evening, we tried a new Hibachi/sushi restaurant in Warwick (excellent). Overall, just a fun day.

I spent most of today getting things done and getting organized – laundry, getting a new calendar, catching up on email. Tomorrow will be much of the same. I’m getting the stitching bug again, so I’m planning to pull all of the projects out and set up a rotation. I’d love to get a few of them out of the trunk and onto the wall one of these days!

All for me… probably more chattering tomorrow as I get this stuff organized.

Anyone still reading out there? I’m guessing no, but meh, worth asking.

New England sees a snowstorm and goes OMGWTFBBQ!!!!! and does nothing to plow the roads, salt the roads, or you know… anything sane in an area that does, in fact, get snow fairly steadily on a yearly basis.

*forehead smack*

Needless to say, travel plans to masquedbunny‘s home are scrapped. Way too slick out there, and with the temps dropping, it’s only going to get worse.

Add stupid New England drivers.

Add additional stupid drunk New England drivers.

yeah, no. Staying home.

*sigh*

Boston, in its stupidity, tickets private citizens who don’t shovel the walkways in front of their buildings within a certain number of hours.

However, when it comes to Boston shoveling public walkways not in front of a building in a proper fashion, yeah… not so much. They used one of those bulldozer-ey things (I know, because there are tread marks), but no salt, no sand. And therefore, the whole thing is now ice. Solid ice, rippled with tread marks.

I went boom on my ass at lunch. I am fine – there are some situations, like this one, where being a fat woman is actually a blessing. Unfortunately, the corner of my brand new laptop hit the ice (inside my padded backpack), and bent. *sigh* Computer works fine as far as I can tell – I didn’t even notice the ding through my lunch hour as I played some WoW and surfed the net… until I pulled it back out here at the office.

However, apparently it is off to the Apple Store this week. Just in time for Christmas. Great. *sigh*

Good thing this is a Mac, because Apple Care = the awesome. But still. *flails*

It’s 18 degrees. Balmy to those in the Upper Midwest, I realize, but it’s the coldest air of the season here so far, so it’s a bit of a jolt to the cold tolerance.

Today’s 90 minute train ride included:

No heat (bundle of fun in a big metal tube that probably hasn’t been used all weekend)
A breakdown at… wait for it… MANSFIELD! (What a surprise, eh? Black. Pit. Of. Doom.)
An idiot IM’ing someone on his iPhone, complete with rapid chiming. (the noise… we hates it!)
Icy walkways in Boston (where the city never plows sidewalks… idiots)

So I’m now about done with coffee #1, soon to go back for coffee #2. And I imagine hot drinks will be the order of the day today. I’m just hoping I will feel my toes sometime before this evening.

Meh.

Dear fellow MBTA travelers who were trapped on the 7:35 Providence train:

I realize that when we get in an hour late due to yet another engine breakdown, I totally understand the attitude of “screw it, I’m already late” and you decide to take your dear sweet time.

HOWEVER… morning trains generally involve this glorious invention called coffee to get the body moving. And when the train has been forced to sit dead on the tracks for an hour, that coffee generally has had time to work through the human system, and the bladder goes into distress whilst waiting to get to a place guaranteed to have an accessible bathroom – which sadly is NOT Back Bay station, even though it’s the first stop past the breakdown. As you all know – there may or may not be a bathroom on the morning train. AND, even if there is one – it’s impossible to know which car it’s in, nor if you will even be able to access it due to people having to stand in the aisles because the train is so full.

So really – get off the phone, stop walking at the same speed the train-pushing-a-train crawled along the tracks for 40 minutes from Hyde Park, and MOVE YOUR ASS into the station, so the horde of women driven to madness due to needing to pee can get past you to go to the scary bathroom they’d otherwise never want to use. Short urethras and all that make for some desperation when you’ve thought about nothing but having to pee and how to prevent yourself from having an accident for over an hour.

Thank you.

(why no… um… I have no personal experience with this issue this morning… why do you ask?)

——

Writing update:

Draft for hearts_in_time – done. Although if I have time, I may further tinker with it. Needs beta work.

Draft for oh_she_knows – mostly done… although smut bunnies decided to make a housecall. So currently, the Doctor is having a glorious time kissing Rose. My posting window’s the 11-15th, so I’m in good shape there. Needs beta work.

Support Stacie auction – waiting my instructions from wiggiemomsi *waves since she’s now on my friends list). I’m plotting with wendymr regarding our joint win for dameruth. And I think I’ve decided what I’d like to request from clevermonikerr. Maybe, hopefully… *strokes chin thoughtfully*

And I have so many weird broken draft attempts for the first two that I just couldn’t get moving in the timeframe I had available. Hmm….

Overall, I do feel good right now. Scary – when do I ever feel good in regards to writing deadlines?

—–

It’s quite cold out there today, and the sea is the prettiest shade of bright blue right now. Not a cloud in the sky. Absolutely lovely.

—–

It’s clearly winter because I’m waking up with somewhere between 2-4 cats on the bed every morning.

—–

Apparently Erich managed to finally get Hoodsie to purr last night. Given that I have yet to hear this personally, I still disbelieve. But it’ll be a wonderful breakthrough if this cat purrs. We do get chuffs from him, and he does breathe very heavy at times when you pet him, so he’s been *close* to purring… but not quite.

We’ll see.

Traumatized cat with major abandonment issues may be headed for a big breakthrough sign of being domesticated again.

—–

OK… need to work now.

- Mel.

Important instructions…
Originally uploaded by measi.

Well, at least the city has a sense of humor, eh? But yes, these are the official signs. It’s not the only one I’ve run across.

I took this at lunch near my office building. It’s in one of the new parks that have replaced the ugly elevated portion of I-93 that cut through downtown Boston in the pre-Big Dig era. This particular sign is in the park portion next to International Place… and is blocking the view to the spot where the Boston Tea Party took place.

Why is it that every time it snows, the mentality prevails that it’s something so deathly horrible that everyone becomes complete morons, freaks out, can’t get anywhere, and just gets an incurible case of the snow stupids?

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT YESTERDAY?!?

Learn to drive correctly on snow. Stop being an ass and trying to cut the lines of cars, causing people to spin out, slam on their brakes, or get into accidents because you’re being such an ass.

And plows? DO YOUR DAMN JOB. If the main roads are too crowded with cars, do us a favor and start cleaning off the secondary and terciary roads so people can use them. Don’t sit there with your plow up, just watching people.

It took my husband FOUR HOURS to drive what normally takes EIGHT MINUTES. He almost ran out of gas in the process. I don’t doubt many people did. People in my office had to abandon their cars due to running out of gas – from FULL TANKS.

*head desk*

ETA: This will be my last post for Holidailies. This was not appreciated and makes me very uncomfortable remaining with the project. The community owners asked for honest opinions, and I gave mine. I feel that honesty is important, and what I gave was constructive and honest criticism and suggestions on how to go about a project like this in the future.

via today’s prompt at Holidailies, which asked for a story about snow.

ETA: This entry was noted as a “Best of Holidailies 2007″ posting. Hooray! Thank you to whomever nominated me!

Saturday, January 23, 2005…

Funny that it’s now nearly three years ago, but I can remember the entire evening like it was yesterday. Big events in your life tend to be that way, don’t they?

I spent that weekend in January holed up in the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. As in years past, my other half, Erich, and I were attending the Arisia fandom convention, held every January.

It had already shaped up to be a unique convention experience. Our requested king-sized bed had been upgraded – for free- to a mini-suite, allowing us both a bedroom and a sitting room for the remainder of the con. In addition, our room was on Dealer’s Row, where a good portion of the convention wares dealers set up shop within hotel rooms. Every year, it’s one of the bustling areas of the con – and my personal favorite to hang out on – and here I was, with my hotel room on Dealer’s Row.

Life couldn’t be better.

As Friday night and Saturday morning rolled on, reports about a winter storm brewed, but all was well. The con staff kept weather updates in the main hallways. A few presenters and panel guests cancelled out to fly home before it got too bad, but everything went on as a normal con.

Erich and I decided to go out into the city to grab dinner somewhere in Back Bay before it got too bad. We wandered two blocks down the street to Fire + Ice, one of our favorite restaurants (and the one where we’d gone on our first date… so it was sentimental). The snow was just starting to fall as we went inside.

The restaurant was dead. The snow was beginning to swirl, and in true New England snow-phobic fashion, few people had dared head out into the streets. We took our time, had a lovely dinner, and then headed outside…

where we found nearly six inches of snow already on the ground. The snow was really swirling now. The windtunnel that is Back Bay Boston was in full force. And then Erich looked at me and asked if we could go one more block over, just for a second, so he could see how the snow was swirling in the Hancock intersection.

I thought it was a bit odd – because the corner of Clarendon and St. James Streets is the LAST place you want to be during a windstorm in Boston. The buildings in that intersection create a horrible little microcosm of weather, and in light breeze conditions, it can feel like a hurricane in there. But since Erich had worked in the John Hancock building for a while, and it was close, I agreed, and we plodded over. The snow was piling up on the sidewalks, well over my ankles. It was swirling everywhere in the air, getting difficult to see.

But what I could see was lovely – the snow was piling into little ripples on the stone buildings, creating miniature drifts above window casings. Very lovely.

And then Erich stopped, just short of the stairs in front of the old John Hancock building.

And then suddenly, he went down on one knee.

Now – you know those cliched “and time stood still” phrases in literature? The ones you think are totally bogus?

Yeah. Well, they happen. Especially when someone proposes marriage to you, in the dark, in a blizzard, when you’re the only two people for blocks in Back Bay Boston because you’re the only two people stupid enough to be out in this weather.

Time stood absolutely still. I said yes, of course.

He placed the ring on my finger, and we had the quickest of kisses before time, wind, and snow came roaring back at us, forcing us to return to the warmth of the hotel, to our lucky upgraded room, as twenty more inches of snow piled through the night.

- Seeing your name next to the words “Last Will and Testament” is a very surreal experience. But it’s nice to know that Erich and I both have wills in place as well as DNR documents in case, Goddess forbid, something happens to us.

- New Doctor Who tonight. Woot!

- I’m now the proud owner of a 500 gig external harddrive. It’s quite spiffy – the height of a paperback, thickness of a Robert-Jordan sized paperback. And it’s 3 times larger than my computer’s harddrive. Should take care of some of my… issues.

- Less than a week until Thanksgiving. Eeek!

- I have an entire weekend with no scheduled events. Instead, it’s going to be a weekend of around-the-house projects. Thanksgiving dinner shopping, cleaning up (and out) the kitchen so it’s ready to go for Thursday’s whirlwind, scrubbing the bathroom, and tidying up the living room.

- Save your medical bills for your taxes, folks. Erich managed to decrease a LOT of stress on his mom’s final taxes via the medical bill statements. Really. You want to.

- I seriously need new clothes. Two of my favorite sweaters now have armpit holes. I’m going to attempt to sew them back together (because I think they’re fairly clean seam holes), but still… I need new clothes.

- World of Warcraft just became more awesome with Patch 2.3. Faster levelling, new daily quests involving cooking, and my hunter tracking is now ass-kicking because aggressive enemies show up in red, instead of the generic yellow. (yes, I’m geeking… but seriously). AND the auction house is so much faster.

- Simmer Dim is one of the more delicious fanfic pieces I’ve read in a long time. Absolutely lovely. You must read if you enjoy Who!fic.

- I am not a jelly doughnut. Contrary to my body size, I am not. I promise you.

- I’m craving Indian curry. I don’t think my intenstines would appreciate it, though.

- Apparently today is the day for all sorts of roadwork on I-95, because there are blocks up everywhere. Driving in to Boston today was… interesting.

- Right now, the prettiest part of said drive is right at the northbound exit for Route 1 in Sharon/Walpole. All of the leaves are still on the trees. Colors are past-peak, but the most beautiful variety of burnt orange, deep reds, and browns. Absolutely gorgeous.

- Our trees just turned color in the last two nights. Yesterday’s deluge of rain knocked a fair amount off into the yard.

- My cats are insane. Especially Noby.

- Is it can be weekend tiem nao, pleez?