May 16, 2008
biking into boston
Clouds overhead, humid breeze nudging us along, a fleet of Dorchester bikers entered Boston this morning for national Bike to Work Day. We kept an easy pace, but the ride was mostly flat, so the commute took only half an hour. Down Dorchester Ave, through the blight of the harbor warehouses, into Downtown Crossing where the early rising financial district stared in approving delight. Then welcomed at government center where groups like MassBike and Hub on Wheels handed out free schwag. Pastries, fruit, Peet's coffee aplenty. I sped back to Dorchester with Amy, satisfied and with plenty of time to make Friday volunteering. I would like to do that again.
| By laurajuanita | 09:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
May 06, 2008
Done...DONE, I tell you!
No more looming papers, tests, group projects, classes. No more THESIS on the horizon! And I can't properly express my elation at this prospect of freedom after handing in my last paper EVER! It was poorly written, of course, but who can blame me?
I have enjoyed my time at B.U. The summer in London was what originally attracted me, and that proved absolutely worthwhile. I've been under the tutelage of experts and feel privileged.
But I am now a master (mistress) and don't plan on ever returning to school.
Now back to reading Middlemarch.
| By laurajuanita | 07:24 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
April 22, 2008
boston marathon weekend
Just had the loveliest long Patriots Day weekend. Ben, Kim, Eliot, Jonathan, Joe and new girlfriend Kara, and the Parker family all came up to watch Ben run the marathon. The weather, food, and company could not be matched.
This is Jonathan and me at the U.S. women's Olympic trials on Sunday morning. They looped through downtown Boston, across the river to Cambridge and back again, several times adding up to 26.2 miles:
We ate Sunday brunch at the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown - ah memories! I reminded the owners who I was, and they cheerfully remembered their former waitresses Hope and Tami, the best in the business:
Ben at the 25th mile. He finished 235th overall and, even better, smoked Lance Armstrong by 8 minutes. We cheered from our lazy spots on the Comm Ave median:
The silver sea of finishers in Copley Square:
A couple highlights from the weekend, besides the marathon itself: we had a pasta party at our house Sunday night, sauce courtesy of Lutheran choir friends/Ben's grad school friends Chris and Anne, and are now indulging ourselves in the leftovers. Three sauces - one with capers, olives and tuna, one with chicken, spinach, and cinnamon, one with veggies - mmmmm. Also, the weekend seemed to be full of praise songs that rotated through our heads, and at one point we turned the forgettable tune "Come Now is the Time to Worship" into an unforgettable a capella chorus full of soft, rich harmonies. I never thought it could sound so good.
| By laurajuanita | 09:06 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
April 06, 2008
From my college fiction-writing class
I found these choice pieces in a stack of papers from my junior year fiction class with Dr. Foreman:
Ten things that make me angry, week of 1/13-1/20 [I recorded only three]:
1)The way that my cousin ignores me when I try to give him a friendly 'point' greeting.
2)People laughing at non-humorous parts of a movie and then trying to explain an already obvious joke.
3)The boy in CHOW Art and Music who, after hearing a well-known Beethoven sonata, shouted, 'Can anyone tell me what movie this song was in?'
Ten things that please me, week of 1/13-1/20 [again, only three]:
1)When friends who I didn't even have last year call me regularly by my first name.
2)The cup of Ghirardelli hot chocolate given to me by my roommate after a cold day.
3)Waking up to a square of sunlight fixated on my Radiohead poster to the left of my bed.
A Waitress Who Rhymes:
"Amanda always came into work singing, and after fifteen years of waitressing she had grown too accustomed to the nauseating smells of hot oil and bacon grease. In fact, she was in the middle of a project to announce the menu to patrons in a unique way - she made it rhyme.
'A bit of lamb goes well with lime jam,' she once told a customer. 'And how about some tea with your broccoli?' That particular customer accepted the rhyming gleefully and laughed. But not all of them did.
It was an old, stodgy man who first resented the playfulness. Amanda approached him and chanted, 'Today our special is venison stew. A nice side dish would be honeydew!' He grunted. 'And juice with goose would spruce you loose. How 'bout it?"
He frowned. 'Just stop the nonsense, okay? Bring me some breadsticks for a starter.'
'Might give you gas you cranky old farter!'"
(Foreman added that last line himself.)
| By laurajuanita | 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 29, 2008
Hypothesis
I have a hypothesis that an economic recession will be good for American culture. Although a slowing economy with increased unemployment is almost never a good scenario, the effect of less buying power might be generally positive for our materialistic culture. I have already seen several stories about ways people are saving: making their own bread, staying in to eat, having potlucks with the neighbors, walking everywhere if possible. I've started to do my part by using only cold water for laundry and getting Heidi to cut my hair. :)
Boston.com's 20 ways readers save is full of good ideas. I especially like the homemade dog food.
| By laurajuanita | 01:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
America's typo police
These guys are correcting America's grammar.
While I understand their motives, I also find the grammatical inaccuracies of America's signage endearing. After all, whatever would do without websites like this?
| By laurajuanita | 11:18 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
