update with pictures.

Updating with pictures a) I'm tired, b) I have tons of stuff to get done, and c) everyone likes pictures, probably much better than my rambling.

In no particular order:

Sara and I pretty much attacked Randy Price in order to get a picture with him. If you don't live in Boston, you probably don't know Randy, but he's somewhat of a local celeb around here (or maybe just to us). He's a news anchor over at channel 7 and was the host of the MSPCA Spirit of Kindness dinner we attended. He's a huge animal lover and owns approximately 16 cocker spaniels. Not a lie. The event was completely awesome and anyone who knows me, knows how I feel about the MSPCA. And if you don't, read my entry from last year. I can't be getting all sentimental again.

A few nights earlier, Sara and I met a Conan O'Brien look-alike, who again, we attacked. After gawking at him all night, he finally walked by us and Sara jumped up and said, "I have a question! Has anyone...." and he exclaimed, "YES! ALL THE TIME!" and kindly agreed to a picture. What a good sport. Although, come on, if you don't want people mistaking you for Conan, you wouldn't have a hairstyle like that. Am I right?

Finally got my new Blackberry, which both excites me and makes me feel miserable. I resisted it for so long, until I realized my job/lifestyle is just not feasible without one. I hate being so dependent on my e-mail, but I have so many things going on and I can't afford to miss e-mails throughout the day. And if I want to go out and enjoy a nice sunny afternoon, I still need to be easily reachable during the 9-5 hours. Now I can rest much easier. And um yes, I got a pink phone.

Another finally. I met Karen from Not Just Celery. I've been hearing about Karen from Sara for the past 3 years and seriously felt like I already met her because I've heard so much and am an avid reader of her blog. We had a fabulous Saturday night during which I was also asked to be the maid of honor in my sister's wedding (another finally! I knew it was coming...but still) and got to check out the wedding venue and have an amazing dinner with the fam at Turner Fisheries.


Getting excited for my family reunion vacation now that I have a flight booked home. While I'd love to spend 7+ days in upstate New York, let's be honest, if I don't work, I don't get paid. And Internet access is not exactly easy to come by on Lake Chautauqua (not to mention, I need a couple days away!). Also, I'm obsessed with Jet Blue and find flying alone to be really peaceful, especially after a nice poolside vacation where I plan on catching up on ridiculous amounts of reading, doing lots of writing, playing games with the relatives, and just spending some good quality time with them.

Am upset because I checked the schedule at the Chauatauqua Institute to see if anything good is going on when I'm there and I'm missing seeing two of my fave people ever. Michael Ruhlman is giving a talk the week after I'm gone and Jim Brickman is playing piano there in August. Nothing fun is happening while I'm there. But I'm still determined to spend some time there because I never went last year and it's just a beautiful, rare place.

Today was the wedding shower of one of my oldest friends (as in person I've been friends with a long time) and the first out of us to get married. It was so much fun to get together with all the high school girls and made me realize (not that I ever forgot) how lucky I am to have such fabulous long-time friends. The September wedding will be a blast. I didn't take pictures and no one has posted them yet, so this is a pictureless update.

Oh, and pilates is still going well too. Making lots of older friends (as in, old in age). No pics of that either because I'm not a total creep at the gym.

As usual, I ended up rambling anyway. Sigh. I'll do some sort of real entry soon. For serious.

pilates with new friends.

Today I took a pilates class with two 70+ year-old women. And it was fabulous. Basically, my gym experience involves hanging out with the older crowd since I'm there during non-traditional gym hours. Since my workout plan was clearly not working (read: I gained 1o lbs since I started going to the gym and could no longer put my pants on), I recently switched it up and decided to add pilates as it's probably the best thing for me to do right now. And lucky for me, there's a class 2 days a week right when I'm at the gym anyway. And that class currently has two 70+ year-olds in it. Semi-private, not so bad, eh?

Of course, pilates with 70+ year-olds probably isn't quite the intensity level I'd usually aim for, but I believe it's what you make it. And since my pilates background is basically made up of watching Denise Austin smile and tell me I'm doing a fabulous job, I should probably start slowly anyway. The teacher told me I did a fantastic job (gold stars, yay!), but couldn't get over how "weird" my ribs are. I've always noticed they stick out, but never realized that was odd.

The only thing that bothered me was at the end of the class when the instructor asked if we wanted to work our abs or our butt more. Of course the older women yell, "butt!! butt!!" and since I'm new to the class, I feel it would be rude of me to argue. But really, my problem areas are much different than a 70 year-olds. I'm just saying.

After I finished pilates, I completed the rest of my workout on the treadmill with the 60+ year-old men who attend my gym. The area I live in is seriously really young, so I have no idea where these people come from during the day. But really, I don't mind it at all.

Will I do the pilates class again? Well, I kind of already promised Martha, who I ran into in the locker room. She's worried the class will get cancelled if not enough people show up, so I assured her I'd be there on Tuesday. Hooray for new friends.

Boston Blogger Meet-Up!

Saturday was the Boston blogger meet-up! OK, so there were only 7 of us there. And 2 of the girls (yes, all girls) I already know quite well. But it was a blast and great to get to know some of the other local bloggers. Sadly, Julie Q took the only picture and so she is not even in it! But of course, that just means we'll have to have another meet-up soon, and hopefully even more bloggahs will join us.



From left to right is Chelsee (SeeLeigh and my co-writer at We are not Martha), Me, Sara (ComfortSource), Pam (Cave Cibum), Amanda (In Development), and Susie (yes, another one! Transient Travels). And obvi Julie (JQ Lounge) was the girl behind the camera.

Sara brought cupcakes from Sweet and we hung out, drinking beer, and chatting and filling each other in on the things we didn't already know from our blogs. Like the fact that Amanda's uncle is a man I've had a crush on for about 7 years. OK, I think I might have scared her a bit with that one...I'm really not creepy, I swear.

And a 40-year-old "challenged" man tried to buy me a beer and I kind of rudely turned him down. Yes girls, after Chels pointed out that he looked a little slow, we were leaving the bar and noticed a sign on the door that said "Special Olympics Meet-Up Downstairs." Oops.

Anyway, I am totally down for another gathering any time, so let me know who's in and when and maybe we can even find somewhere cooler to go to than the Pour House.

right now.

Things I'm happy about right now:

• The Celtics won game 1 of the series!
  
• I'm taking tomorrow off. Sas and I were planning a day at the Colonnade pool, but since the weather isn't going to be 100% fabulous we're putting it off. But we will go lie in the sun somewhere and enjoy the day anyway. And get all dressed up and go out at night. Why? Because it's Friday, the start of summer, and Sas has about 150 party dresses she needs to wear. And we always love an excuse to get dressed up.
  
• A When Pigs Fly Bakery opened next to my apartment and it is the best bread in the world. I am seriously obsessed and am planning on trying every single kind. Like the chocolate. I just bought the whole-grain anadama, but I think cinnamon raisin is next. SO good.
  
• I think I have at least one fun thing on my calendar each week for the next couple months. I love that.
  
• I've been doing well with my gym routine and am feeling really good about it. I guess when you pay ridic. amounts of money for a gym membership, you tend to want to use it.
  
• I have crazy amounts of work to do and while I'm feeling rather overwhelmed, having work to do is a good thing. Taking tomorrow off may not be the best idea, but I need it. And there's always the weekend. I'm still loving writing for Guidespot, as well as my other lovely jobs. I'm lucky to be able to do what I do!
  
• Did I mention it's going to be 90 degrees out this weekend??

What are you happy about??

cleaning out my closet.

I recently cleaned out a few of my bureaus and part of my closet. I learned several things:

1) I have WAY too many clothes. Like ridiculous amounts. I got rid of 8 pairs of jeans that I didn't even know I had.

2) The ex wasn't lying when he saw me and said "That can't be her. She's like 20 pounds skinnier than that" Maybe I haven't been so aware of my massive weight gain, but holy effer. I couldn't get most of these pants on past my thighs. I probably shouldn't have even tried them on knowing it wasn't going to be pretty. Honestly, I know I used to be way too small and I'm actually happy to have grown a bit (I don't look like a child anymore...just a 16 year-old now), but still. It's never fun to see it.

3) I have way too many skirts that are way too short to wear in public. I remember wearing them in college and realizing that while it's cool to wear short skirts in NH, it's kind of sketchy in Boston. All it gets you in Boston is stares from gross men.

4) A lot of my tank tops and stuff are kind of skankish. I asked my mom if she would take my clothes to Goodwill or something and she said she has a co-worker who needs stuff for a church sale so she will give them to her. But I'm not so sure my stuff is church-appropriate. Are there rules on that? I told my mom I wasn't sure my clothes were good for church girls and my mom said she was sure there were some skanky church girls. Fair enough.

5) My tastes have changed a lot. For some reason, I have lots of old surfer-ish clothing. Tons of skirts from Pacific Sunwear (or PacSun as I guess the kids call it now) and just plain strange stuff that I would never wear these days.

6) I also cleaned out some of my clothes at my parent's house. Interestingly, the stuff from high school fits me; some of it too big. Conclusion? I wore my clothes far too large in high school, realized this in college, and then massively grew. Who goes through growth spurts a couple years after college? Apparently I do.

7) After getting rid of tons of clothes, somehow all my drawers, etc. are still full. Round two is coming soon.

So, that was tons of fun. And now I'm going to bed so I can get up early to go to the gym. The Colonnade pool later this week? Must fit in bathing suit.