It is getting very cold. This is at 7 am on my way to work.

Everyone loves a shopping day at IKEA. It's not too far. about 30 minutes.

So exciting! My first snow fall. This was nothing compared to the blizzard we had that dumped 18 inches in one night a couple weeks later.

-PS I miss my car :(

Snow fall through my sunroof.

We had kind of a white Christmas. This was on my way to a friend's house in Rhode Island to celebrate the holiday.

This is what 18 inches of snow looks like after it's been plowed to the side of the road and had the chance to melt for a couple days.

This is what I look like when I'm excited to use the new camera I got for Christmas. Maybe one day we'll catch his face in a picture ;) He's actually climbing into the back seat to get out of the car because the snow was so high on the curb that he couldn't open the door :P

As of late:

Walmart has EVERYTHING. I have been looking for these suckers:






FOREVER and this is why:







They are the perfect size to store quarters, 3 rolls to be precise. After a roll of quarters is opened it's difficult to keep track of the little stinkers on account of them bein round 'n' rolly and all. This plastic tube is perfect!







The simple joys in life.








The first time I had to scrape ice off my windshield. Luckily my car has front and rear windshield warmers, so if I wait long enough it will melt away.









This is the only Christmas tree lot I have seen since Thanksgiving ended. Most people drive fifteen minutes to the forrest and cut one down themselves. This was a Boyscout fundraiser.




These gloves are THE best invention! I resisted them for a short while because they remind me of the gloves that homeless people wear. But how many homeless people do you know own an iphone. Observe:







The fingers are exposed to allow for iphone usage without exposing the wrist to the freezeing cold.







An when you are not typing on your phone, your little digits are roasty toasty.

BRILLIANCE!

- Posted using my iPhone :D

Can you blame me....

...for getting lost all the time?

I went from this:

To this:

GHAAA!

The last three months in picture form

So the fastest way to catch you up on the last three months of my life is to post all the pictures from my iphone. When I first got here, Boston chewed me up and spit me out. Almost everything that could have possibly went wrong DID. It was during that time that I realized what was most important in life and I learned to celebrate the small victories in life.

This was the BIGGEST small victory. It was the first time I parallel parked successfully in the city. This is at Boston University. I long for the days of giant parking lots as far as the eye can see. For FREE. sigh.

A few people from the ward were nice enough to help my move into my new place. After I was semi-settled we went apple picking. I took a picture of the legend so we could remember the kind of apple that was on the tree. Now I wish I got a picture of the orchard. Darn.

This is Davis Sqare in Somerville. It's my favorite square and where my PO Box is. I'm sitting in a deli between jobs getting out of the rain. It rains A LOT.

This is what we get because it rains a lot.

Remember things that went wrong? This was one of them. I was tring to read a sign while driving when the road curved and I didn't. Luckily there was a curb and I didn't hit a tree. This was also when I learned that if you pull out the materials to change your tire and appear to not know what you are doing, without fail a gentleman will come and rescue you. Sometimes cute. Most times not.

I was sitting waiting for a bus. I remembered that my mom had requested pictures of folliage so I took these to appease her.

Did I mention it rains? A LOT.

This is in Salem, Ma. Trying to get more pictures of folliage.

I went exploring around Boston with a friend. I couldn't tell you where we were but we found a memorial of sorts. We also found a community garden that I promptly forgot to take a picture of :-/

I spend 90% of my time in my car driving to, from, or in between work. So naturally most of my pictures are taken while driving.

This was walking back to my car after working in a Dr.'s office. Notice the lack of parking lot. But the trees are pretty.

Rain on my sunroof.

There is a family farm just 2 miles from my house and on the way to the highway. Around October I saw them giving hay rides. The real kind. Not the Ford pickup truck driving a trailer with hay on it through a parking lot. It's blurry because I took it really far away while driving.

I had to pay a quarter to pee. I was pissed. :P

I use to pick the leaves off my car just under my windsheild wipers. Then a friend got in my car and noticed I was doing it. She said "silly girl, this is New England".

This is not even a block from my house. I live in the historic Lexington, MA. As in the battle of Lexington and Concord. Something about Paul revere on a horse. I don't know exactly what happend care of the Clark County School District.

One of the reasons I love my job is all the incidental information I am exposed to. I also get to do cool things for free sometimes. I am interpreting an art class at 9 am on Saturday mornings. Last week they took a field trip to the ICA art museum right on the harbor. It was pretty awesome, free for me while working, and I never knew it was there. Sometimes I actually think: "They are paying me right now, unbelievable!"

This is my place. I'm renting a room and there are a lot of stairs. One odd thing I have noticed about some houses in New Enlgand is that the lightswitch is on the wall before you go into the room. Or the lightswitch to the basement with the laundry is at the very top of the stairs in the kitchen.

The view from the back porch. Sometimes I feel like I live in the wilderness.

The leaves have fallen and winter is comming. Noooooooooo!

Toll Roads SUCK!

Sorry there are not pictures. I didn't want to take my phone out for fear that it would get wet. It has rained NON-STOP for three days straight and the news says it will be another 2 days before the sun comes out. Today it was 58 degrees. To me, little miss Las Vegas... that is winter. In August! I'm sure I'll be in for a rude awakening when it starts to get "real" cold but for now I'm still burried under blankets at night. But the weather man says that it should get up to the upper 80's by the end of the week.

So I have not decided if I want to be a Boston Metro interpreter or a willy nilly vehicle interpreter. Boston Metro interpreters take the T and walk and ride a bicycle everywhere but willy nilly vehicle interpreters drive and have to pay outrageous parking meters and stupid tolls. I leaning towards Boston Metro lately.

Reason 1:

My GPS isn't fast enough. Whenever I miss a turn and she does her re-routing thing she will tell me to turn at a street I have already passed. Then she has to take the time to do her re-routing thing AGAIN. It is beyond the most frustrating thing on the planet.

Reason 2:

Toll Roads SUCK! I came to a fork in the road and couldn't tell via my GPS if I should veer left or veer right so I closed my eyes and took a guess. It was a bad guess. I got onto a bridge and there was no turning around for 4 miles. The estimated arrival time on my GPS went from 2 minutes to 25 minutes. Then, when I could finally get myself turned around and situated I was coming back. On the way back... that same road I was on. THE SAME EXACT ROAD that I had been driving on for FREE now cost me $2.50 to drive on because I was going in the other direction. Are you freakin kidding me?!?!? I later learned that this was because Boston want's to punish the people the live in New Hampshire and pay cheaper property taxes but work in Boston at increased wages.

Reason 3:

I am digging the exercise I get everyday. I've already lost 7 pounds and I've only lived her for a few weeks.

Exploring Boston

These are what sidewalks look like in Boston and the city streets aren't much better. I can't go more than 15 mph or my wheels would fall off. For someone as impatient as me it takes a lot of getting use to. I also can't text and drive. It really is risking my life. Back in Las Vegas you only had to worry about someone coming into your lane or stopping in front of you. But here that is only the beginning. Then there are roads that don't go straight and no turning lanes so cars will stop in the middle of the road if they would like to turn. And people make their turns because if you don't there is no going back. The roads aren't wide enough for U-turns and the streets don't go straight so the next turn won't necessarily get you to the same place. And then there is the occational "we are turning this travel lane into a parking lane today". I was driving in a lane and all the sudden there were cars parked in what would have been the shoulder but there wasn't enough space so half the car was in the moving lane. Cars and semi-trucks often swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid someone waiting to turn (in either direction). Then there are my favorite intersection where everyone has the right of way. Three roads come to a point and no one has a stop sign or a yield. Those are my very unfavorite.

The T

Before I moved here I spent a lot of time looking at apartments and rooms to rent. The description always included "close to the T". I had no idea what that meant. Then I saw some clues as I was walking around Harvard Square. This happen to be a bus stop but "The T" includes buses, handicap taxi's, subway trains, and the commuter railroad.

So as I was wondering around Harvard Square I decided to get brave and take the train home. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person so i walked down the stairs to the hub and told myself I would look at a map and figure it out. This is what I saw:

So not having any idea what any of those machines meant or which one I should go to first I turned my happy little but right around and marched back to the surface. I found a tour starting and I obviously looked lost because the recruiter for the tour asked if he could help me find something. I told him where I needed to go and he told me which bus I should get on and I had to be brave and go back down and look for the sign that had my bus number on it. Very intimidating but success and not to bad for my first time on public transportation.

I do have one horror story about the T that I really should document for posterity. I had met an interpreter through a friend and she invited me to tag along with her when she went shopping for a new outfit to wear as she presented a workshop at RID Region I conference. I got my map out and planned my trip so that I could stop at the Institute building and check it out before jumping back on the train and meeting her at Downtown Crossing. Then in my constant state of brilliance I decided to save a total of $3 by walking to the institute and then taking the train to the designated meeting place. I apparently didn't leave enough time because when I got to the street that forked right for institute and left for the train I didn't have time to make right so I just turned left and on to the train. I made it just fine and we had a lot of fun shopping even though she didn't find anything for the conference. So when we ended at 4 I thought to myself: "cool, there's still time to sneak by the institute. So I go on the green line out to Lechemere but at one of the stops the conductor gets on the intercom and says the train is being taken out of service. So at the next stop everyone gets off the train so I get off the train too. I wait for the next train to come so I get on thinking it will go to the same place the train I just got off was going. Not the case. In fact, I was the only one who got on the train so I smoothly get off the train like I knew exactly what I was doing. Then the next train came and I looked around to see if anyone was getting on. No one moved. Then I started to get frustrated that everyone else knew something I didn't know. How did they know that train was no good??? Well the third train that came had a bunch of people get on so I followed the crowd like cattle and jumped on. Then as we were riding along I was making sure to keep track of where I was because I needed to switch to the red train to get home. Well at the stop before the transfer the guy came on the speaker again and said that anyone getting on the red line to Alewife needed to exit the train and take the shuttle to Kenmore station. So I get off the train and follow the cattle again and have to wait in a giant mob for the third bus to come and get packed on board like sardines and get off the bus with the herd all the time wondering if I'm going to have to pay to get back on the train because it should have been a free transfer but if we walk into the station then it won't be recognized as a transfer. But following the herd never fails because I was with a particular group that went through the service entrance to the train that didn't have to pay. Then I had to wait for the second train before I would fit on board (busses and trains are 15-30 minutes apart so you can see that this trip is taking RIDICULOUSLY longer than it should). And all this because they were doing construction on the little section of the red line that I was trying to get on at. So the moral of the story is that even if you don't use a car you still get stuck in construction traffic.

I am surprised at how... shall we say... "lack of idiot-proof-ness" it is here. Maybe it's because Las Vegas prepares for their pedestrians to be in a constant stooper from alcohol but it seemed so strange that there wasn't a way to protect people from a train whizing by at top speed. People stand right up to and sometimes on top of the yellow line and wait for half a train to pass until it stops to open the doors. I kept thinking to myself that this just wouldn't happen in Vegas. I don't know why but it just didn't seem like it would fly.

This is what happens to your pinky toes when you walk more than 10 miles a day in tennis shoes that are falling apart. Luckily I just got some unexpected funds that I can use to buy new ones...pronto.

City parks are beautiful and not like anything I am use to. The first time I went with Janice to walk the dogs at the park I felt like I was back at girls camp hiking up the mountain. This is the trail from the parking lot to the park... in the middle of the town. Once you get to the actual park it is grass as far as the eyes can see.

Boston is so much different than Las Vegas when it comes to shopping centers and how they are set up. In Las Vegas you can drive down the street and see a CVS and pull into the parking lot and get what you need. If you happen to miss that parking lot then another CVS or store similar to it will be on the next corner. Here the area where you shop is separate from where you live. There are large areas where there are only houses and that is where people live. Even on what would be considered major streets there aren't businesses on every corner. In the areas where you shop are streets that are lined on either side with various stores and these are centers within each city. And everywhere you park has a meter. Mom & Pop stores reign supreme here. CVS is the only drug store/pharmacy that I recognize. There is a Trader Joe's and a Whole foods in the city I live and only one grocery store that is a chain and it doesn't even exist in Vegas. It's called Shaw's. There are not Albertsons. No Smiths. I haven't even seen a 7-11 Since I got here.

Speaking of 7-11 most of the gas stations here will pump your gas. FOR YOU! It's the most awkward thing to get use to. Then I have an overwhelming urge to tip them at the end but Janice said it's weird to do that. Maybe it's because I lived in the biggest tipping town in the world but it's almost uncontrollable. I feel really guilty.