27 down...

Aside from having 8 hours of training to sit through on my birthday, it was a pretty good day. Intrigue was really nice and the weather was so warm that even I was able to sit outside and not be cold. Unfortunately, we got a square table which meant only one of us was able to look at the haahbah. They try to squish in a lot of tables which means that almost have the diners have to stare at the restaurant. Considering you are paying for the view, it's kind of cheap of them that they don't arrange the tables better. The food was good - nothing terribly special, but good enough that you almost don't mind the prices. I got ravioli and Andrew got a grilled pizza. Neither one of us had any complaints. The drinks were good too - way to expensive, but you know that going in - anything at the Boston Harbor Hotel is going to be overpriced. However, they didn't water them down and then charge $10 for a drink so all in all, it's a pretty good price. In the end, we didn't pay as much as we thought we would (though we also got the 2 cheapest items on the menu) and the view for me was fantastic.

I guess if you must turn 27 it wasn't a bad way to go.

Last one

I started my last summer semester of school. I can now officially start countdowns. One year from tomorrow I will graduate. Actually, one year from tomorrow I will be 2 years older than I am today. BECAUSE TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Sorry, I had to get that out.

Anyway, I will never have a first day of a summer semester again. And I am giddy about it. I'm not sure how I am going to get through the next 12 months, but I've already done about 31 months of it, so I am sure I will make it through. I can almost taste my freedom. And it tastes goood.

Speaking of tasting good, I made reservations for me and Andrew tomorrow at Intrigue. I wanted to go to Meritage, but let's face it, I am not made out of money. As it is, we are going to have to be somewhat cheap at Intrigue. But I love playing with Yelp and Open Table way too much so I couldn't not do some reservation somewhere.

It's also Andrew's last day of working in town, so I guess it's fitting that we meet in there after work one more time. It might actually be easier for us to go into town after work, we can hop on the train together instead of having to meet up in Back Bay.

I'll do a mini review of Intrigue tomorrow and let y'all know how it is. And how fabulous my birthday was :)

Memorial Day Weekend

I heart Memorial Day Weekend. Mainly because it means a long weekend from work and school. But next year it will mean GRADUATION so I will heart it even more.

Today we had a somewhat lazy day. Mid afternoon Andrew and I went on a bike ride. I got some interesting pictures. If I had a better camera I could have gotten some really good pictures, but a really nice camera will have to wait until next year. I just don't have the time to learn how to use it now.

This lilac bush fascinated me. It was all by itself. Just doing it's own thing, growing all by it's lonesome. You normally don't see that, at least around here. And maybe if you do catch one by itself it's a grown up bush, not a baby one like this.

This is one of the blossoms. In real life, I love the smell of a lilac bush. But I hate the smell of any kind of lilac spray. It makes me nauseous. However, smelling a nice blooming liliac is fantastic. I tried to really zoom in on the blossom, but again, I just have a point and shoot camera. You get the idea though.

This used to be a very small beach at the end of a main road. I used to walk down here when I was a kid and play in the sand. At the end of the main street is a dirt road, and at the end of the paved road is a small path over the dunes. I used to come down here with my mother and have the area all to myself.

It's all different now. They've put big rocks at the end of the sand. I guess for your safety, as there are the remains of some very old pilings. I never really swam down here, but I did wade around. Even that is out of the picture now.

But even if I don't have the same kind of fun I used to have on this little strip of sand, these crazy kids do...

Manolos and Martinis

I know that it's fictional, unrealistic, some might say shallow, borderline alcoholic, and a tad extravagant, but I want to be one of the girls on Sex and the City. Specifically Charlotte, but I'd be anyone of them except Samantha...

I didn't ever watch the show when it was on because my family didn't have HBO and then I went to college and I missed out. Now I get HBO and I watch it On Demand. The acting's not great, the clothing sometimes makes me scratch my head, but damn... the shoes... and the lifestyle. I want to be a single girl living on my own in NYC (and always have enough money for anything I want to do) and always know where the best parties are (and always get in), always have time to shop for the perfect outfit to wear to the best parties...

It's not real, but I would like it. I do enjoy a cosmopolitan now and again :)

Is there a better time?

Being a full time worker and part time student I get almost no vacation time. I get exactly 6 weeks off from school a year and 4 of those take place in December and January. One week takes place in the end of August and one week is in March for spring break. As I don't take a lot of vacation in the middle of winter and really, March isn't good for much, I don't bother taking time off from work. But two weekends a year, Memorial Day and whenever the weekend after July 4th falls, I happen to be between semesters. And to celebrate that joyous fact, I take some time off from work. As of 4:51 this afternoon, I was on Vacation - through next Monday! 5 glorious days of NO WORK and NO CLASS!

We're heading down to the cape tomorrow afternoon. I'm so ready for a break. I've been bowled under by an unmanageable amount of stress lately. Which resulted in me crying a lot last weekend. Crying during the season finale of Numb3rs. What a sacrilege. This weekend is stress free, work free, and school free.

Very. Excited.

good news bad news

Bad news - I had an "irregular" mole removed a few weeks ago, I'm even more susceptible to melanoma than I thought I was, and I really can't bake in the sun at the beach anymore

Good news - they took off the mole BEFORE it completed it's transformation to melanoma. Or even decided to think about completing its transformation.

Bad News - our new AC didn't fit into our AC sleeve, and we have to now figure out what to do about that
Good news - The new AC is in the condo and we have high hopes we'll figure it all out before summer

OLD AC


New AC

Bad News - Andrew will be playing more video games

Good News - .... because we have a Wii!!!

Exhausted

I am so tired this week. I didn't get a lot of sleep last weekend and I never get sleep during the week. I'm just sleep deprived. Which leads to very long and painful days.

I babysat my niece today. When her parents left I sat down, looked her in the eye and we had a discussion. I told her in no uncertain terms, that while I had never witnessed her doing this before in her short life, I was still not going to tolerate any baby meltdowns. She looked at me, drooled a bit, and laughed hysterically. (I may or may not have been having Cookie Monster doing my talking for me. And singing C is for Cookie. She also may or may not only be 14 weeks old). We clearly understood each other and she was a perfect droolface for our visit. We played with her little lay-on-the-floor-and-bat-at-things-hanging-down-from-it-gym. Or she played and I watched, giggling at her the whole time, because, really, how is that fun? I'd be be annoyed if I had things hanging in my face. And then we played put-the-toy-on-our-head. Actually only one of us played that. Again, I am not a fan of toys covering my face. For some reason, Molly finds that to also be pretty funny. You can totally see the dialogue running through her little head when she does it.

"hmmm.... here is a pink fuzzy animal of indeterminate origin. Maybe I'll touch it. Maybe I willl...... OH MY GOD, I PUT IT ON MY HEAD!!! THAT IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE SEEN IN MY 14 WEEKS!!!!!! Look, there's drool coming out of my mouth"

Oh, to be an infant again

I've had a blog post formulating in my head for a couple of days. I sat down tonight to write it, but I don't think I have it in me tonight. Putting coherent and grammatically correct words together in a logical sense is slightly beyond my capabilities right now. And if I make a single error, Matt will be all up in my grill piece about it (is grill piece one word or two?). So I'll leave you with Miss Droolface herself and try to get some sleep



C is for Cookie...

God Bless America

I know her! Who wants to touch me?

I used to sing this song in Kindergarten. I guess singing it at Fenway is cooler.

From the mouth of babes

My parents wanted me to be into team sports. They must have felt that me being part of team sports was really important because in my childhood I played the following sports: soccer, basketball, sailling, tennis (one summer - before I was old enough to sail), baseball, softball, and hockey for a smidge. In high school I was on Varisty swimming, track, and sailing teams. I feel like I am missing something.... so there could be one more sport in that list. But I never liked them. I did like to sail, but I was petrified of it for many years. I was afraid to tip over because I didn't want my father to yell at me. He claims now that he didn't yell at me, but he would have. It wasn't until I had a self-righting boat that I stopped being afraid. But I really wasn't into racing. I'm not competitive. And if all the teams I was on as a kid didn't bring about competivenes, I will never be competitive. And I am okay with that. I don't think it's really that important. My family thinks otherwise and I have to defend my lack of competitiveness to them - but that is just who I am.

As a kid I always wanted to ski and ride horses. My mother never let me - I really didn't have time to ski with everything else I did. While I was more than willing to quit everything else that I did.... I was never allowed to quit any team sport. I didn't understand then why I was forced to play sports that I hated, and to be honest, I still don't understand. I do believe that it is good for children to be involved with organized sports, but forcing a child to play soccer from the time she is six until she is thirteen is a bit much. Especially if she was never any good. The only sport I was ever allowed to quit was hockey, and it I didn't even quit it. My mother just didn't sign me up one year. I think it's because she never really wanted me to play hockey in the first place.

I'm digressing. My point was I always wanted to ski and ride horses. And I was never allowed to do either as I did so many other things - 99% of them I didn't like. Since, you know, I wasn't into the whole "team sports" thing.

As a grown up I drove myself to a mountain and signed myself up for skiing lessons. And now skiing is a pretty big part of my life in the winter. I love skiing. I'm not great at it, but I love to do it. And in June, I will finally be taking horseback riding lessons. Only 3 lessons total, and there will only be about 2.5 hours of riding time for 6 hours of lessons, but I guess you have to crawl before you can walk.

So as a child I begged my parents to ski and ride. I never got to. As an adult, what do I do for fun? Ski and learning to ride.

Maybe I wasn't crazy after all!

Am I that old?

I'm watching THS Investigates: Prom. And I can't get over what some parents allow to go on, and what they are willing to spend. For a prom. My mother brought me shopping for my prom dresses - though we went to Filene's and Macy's, not designer boutiques, she let me get my hair done, though I didn't even bother with that my senior year, she even paid for my tickets (all girl's school - meant not only did I have to ask a boy to my proms, I also had to pay). And she bought me dresses for my boyfriend-of-the-month's prom. I think my proms were fine, I had fun, I looked smashing in those dresses - I wish I could still wear them. But we hardly went over the top. In fact I never even took a limo - the first time I was in a limo was at my sister-in-law's bachelorette party. I don't think I missed out on any rite of passage just because my parents didn't drop 10K on my prom. (though if they had, could you even imagine how crazy the wedding would have been?)

Honestly, these parents should be ashamed of themselves. We ask why teenagers now have such an over exaggerated sense of entitlement. The prom is just one example. Dress, accessories, shoes, hair, makeup, limos, beach houses in the Hamptons for a post prom party. How hard is it to say no to your children? I'm sure my parents could teach a course in saying "no".

Child: I want to buy a $2,500 prom dress
Parent: No.

Was that hard?

Exciting things in the life o' Meghan

So what is new with us... We FINALLY are getting a new air conditioner. We're both pretty excited about it. No longer will we have to seek shelter from the heat at my parent's house. No longer will be sleep bathed in a puddle of our sweat, no longer will we dread the heat. We have an air conditioner. If you've lived without any kind of air condtioning, you'll understand my glee around getting one.

We're also getting a new stove. Our old one didn't have a broiler. I know what you are thinking, and I can assure you it isn't underneath the stove. We have neither a broiler nor a drawer down there. There is no broiler. There is no pre-heat. There is no self-cleaning oven. There is no time. There is no clock. They don't even make them without broilers anymore. That's how old it is. But our new one has all of the above, and we are both more excited about it than we are willing to admit. Yeah, I'm terribly excited about a new stove. Strangely, I am okay with that.

Even MORE exciting than my new stove and AC..... VALERIE IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!! I'm super excited for her and I'm very excited to be a bridesmaid again!!! Another Saint A's wedding!!!!! Saint A's weddings are the coolest weddings ever and I'm so happy we've got another one coming up. Saint A's kids know how to party :) So a super huge Best Wishes to Val and Congratulations to Scott. I'm already mentally planning the bachelorette party. :)