...to the airport I go...

Hi everyone =) Rachel here. Hope everyone is getting all their last minute, oh shit i forgot that person, what about those decorations, damn i burnt the potatoes, shut up uncle EDs...accomplished happily. As I'm trying to clean every nook and crany of our condo I realized something pretty cool about what we're doing. So far everywhere that we have been... within the first couple of days, we make it our home. It's not just some random place, we really make it our own. It's almost like we get to practice making a home before we actually have a permanent one! haha well let me tell you... i must say we're getting pretty good at it. It's as "christmasy" in here as it can be for florida. And as I'm anticipating leaving to pick my family up at the airport I pictured that scene in Home Alone where they are all running through the terminal... how interesting it is that movies are based on reality. I'm sure they are doing that exact thing right now haha. Can't wait to see my family. Will definitely miss my other family in Monroe and of course I'll miss Jo. This is the longest we've been apart since americorps! I know gag you.. boo hoo haha. One of these years it would be great to all be together. Ya never know. Anyways... I feel really thankful this christmas for everything. I'm really lucky. And after the all the mumbo jumbo is over it comes down to spending time with the ones you love. Enjoy, happy holidays, happy new year... eat a lot... laugh a lot... and if you drink... well then drink ;-) Love you all. Love, Rach xoxoxooxox

quick update

So we've both got jobs. Rach is at a nicer Italian place called "Samanthas" and I'm once again going corporate at "Gulfstream Cafe". We don't make much money now but "season" is supposed to start next weeks so we're hopeful. I like my job more than she likes hers. Weather's been ok. Patte now comes into our living room if we leave the doors open. We love her. We've been spending our time working and getting the house ready for the Popson clan. I'm leaving for Monroe on Thursday for Christmas. Can't think of any fun stories at the moment but I thought I'd drop in and give a breif update. -lj

my own fountain of youth

So for the sixth night in a row I'm at home while Rach is at work. Slave drivers. I just walked in and am trying to think of something to do for the next three and half hours. We've been here for a week and half almost and I've been to the movies four times...two by myself. See, every weekday Mike and D get here at 8:30 and work till about 6. We try to stay out of their way and I especially try to stay out of the apt from 4-6 while Rach is at work. Twice I've filled that time with the movies which is a few stores down from Rachel's restaurant. I love going to the movies. At this specific theater there's this old guy who works the ticket booth. The first time I went alone it was to see a movie that happened to be rated R. After I asked for the ticket he said "I'm going to have to ask you for identification. The movie is rated R and you have to be seventeen." He said it like he was breaking bad news to me. I was half amused and half offended that this man thought I was a fifteen year old boy. I showed him my ID and he said I didn't look that old. As with everyone else I show my ID to, he didn't notice that it was a girls ID. Today I went to see the Disney movie "Tangled". Again, alone. The same man was working. I asked for the ticket. He then asked if I worked there. I said no. He explained his question by telling me that a lot of kids worked there. Ok. Moving on. He started printing out my ticket. "Do you have your student ID?" ...no...I don't have my student ID. I'm 25 and graduated college almost four years ago. I started to say no when he said "well, you're a student" and proceeded to give me a student discount. He said it as if he felt stupid to even ask me to prove I was student. He obviously decided for himself that I was in high school and wouldn't have a student ID. It saved me a dollar. These things happen to me a lot. Maybe I should be offended, maybe not, but ya know what? .......................... I'm going to be one hott fifty year old. -lj

click click click click click

we saw a dolphin today at the beach. life is good. -lj

hook, line and...patte'?

I'm pretty sure we told you about the two ducks outside, Foie and Gras, but after I blogged last we realized there was a third duck as well. We decided to name this one Patte'. (We work in restaurants, what do you want from us?) Well we consider all these ducks our pals. When we step outside, if they're around at the time, they'll stop what they're doing to come hang out. Sometimes we feed them Honey Nut Cheerios even though there's an obvious sign that says not to. We've really acquired a soft spot for our little duckies. Well a few days ago, Rach and I were sitting in the living room sipping coffee and watching TV. Every morning Mike and "D" come in at 8:30 to do constuction on the bathroom so they were here as well. We glanced outside the sliding glass doors that seperate the living room from the patio and saw Patte' sitting outside our door. This was not unusual becomes sometimes the ducks hang out on the patio and stare inside waiting for us to come out. We went outside to say good morning. When we first walked out we could tell he was standing funny. His mouth seemed slighted opened and his head was pushed down and cocked to the side. Rachel noticed she could see something yellow by his neck. We walked behind him to investigate. We were terrified to realize that Patte had a fish hook stuck through the bottom his beak so big that he couldn't close his mouth. To make it a million times worse, the other (hooked) end of the fish hook was jabbed into his wing. He couldn't even move his neck because the double sided hook was so short. We tried to approach him so we could see if we could help him. We still hadn't touched our ducks and he obviously didn't want to be touched. It was obvious however, that he wanted help. He was just standing at the door of the patio waiting for us to come outside. Mike was outside too and called the manager office to see who we should call. They gave us the number of some non profit animal sanctuary. Rachel called while I tried to further assess poor little Patte's situation. I kept wondering how long he'd been like this. All night? My heart was beating so fast and my fear quickly turned into anger. You're not even supposed to fish in the lake! What kind of asshole leaves these things around? Pate's must be so scared. The animal sanctuary informed us that they do not come get animals, but if we wanted to catch him and bring him in, they would help him. Mike said he would catch him for us and Rachel and I went inside and lined a big box with a beach towel. Rachel went outside and started the car while I returned outside with Mike. Once I was outside with the box, we cornered poor Patte' and through a blanket over him. "D" held him down to see if he could get the hook out. It was really in there, on both ends, and we didn't want to further hurt our duck friend. I pet Patte's head while Mike was at least able to cut the linking piece so that he could at least move his head again. We gently put Patte in the box and I took him out to the car. We drove the ten long minutes to the animal sanctuary, reassuring Patte with soothing words the whole time. We finally got there and had to walk past a huge mountain lion in a cage and some parrots to get to the animal hospital. When we got there, we were so relieved. The supervisor was standing right where we walked in. "Hey, what do we have here?" She says. "A duck." Since we had called I figured they might be expecting us. I handed her the box containing our injured friend. As she took if from me she asked if I wanted the box back. I told her it didn't matter as long as we got our duck back. "We can't give you the duck back." Wait, What!? "What do you mean?" She explained to us that they weren't a vet, they were a non-profit. The duck was a non-native invasive species and once we turn it over to them, they are now in charge of it and cannot, by law, give us our pal back. For a second Rach and I just stood in disbelief. This duck had a great home...it had friends. "What will you do with him?" "Well, if we can get the hook out then we try to find it a home." We didn't understand...this duck already had a home. I asked if Patte' would have the opportunity to fly back to his original home once he was placed in his new home if he so chooses. The answer was no. He would be living in a confined sanctuary. She told us she'd give us a few minutes to think about this. We would have to choose whether to leave him in their care, or try a vet who would probably give it back to us. The superivisor had to go outside to speak to animal control and we were left with someone else who worked there. A really sweet girl around our age. She saw we were upset and explained the law to us again. She told us that we'd have to lie to the vet a little and say that we planned to get Patte's wings cropped and that we had a good home for him. She wasn't sure how much a vet would cost. We also knew that taking him to a vet would mean more time with the hook. I asked the girl if they killed animals if they couldn't find them a home. I absolutely did not get the answer I wanted. Now this decision was really hard. Patte' had come to us for help and now he might die because of our decision. The girl lowered her voice. "Did you try to take the hook out yourselves?" We told her we had tried but didn't try hard. We didn't know anything about ducks and didn't want to hurt Patte' further. She glanced outside and bent down toward the box. In five seconds she had the hook out of his mouth. She fumbled with the wing for a bit. She stood up. "Ok, I can get the hook out. But not infront of my boss. Just say you've decided to take him to a vet". Our eyes shot open. Was she serious!? This girl was about to risk her job and break the law for us and Patte'. She ran in the back to get pliers. She came back quickly and got to work. We heard two loud clicks and watched her slide something shiny and silver into her hoodie pocket. Then the pliers followed. She looked at us and smiled. We scooped up the box and thanked her probably too many times and way too loud. This was supposed to be a secret secret operation. She hurried away from us with a quick "you're welcome" since we obviously weren't playing it as cool as she asked us to play it. Talk about an act of kindness. We took our pal home and fed him Cheerios outside on our patio. Where he belongs. -lj

no more excuses

Ok seriously "followers"...if you can get through college or hold careers you can figure out how to comment on a freakin blog. Really now! -lj and r

14. Blog

Before my mother e-mails me reminding me how many days it's been since my last blog, I'll have to give you an update. We're here! We said goodbye to Boston with a much anticipated "Farewell and F*!% You!" Okay, so maybe our goodbyes to coworkers contained some sadness, but the goodbye to the apartment was the easiest goodbye of my life. We left one last snack for Joey (who we actually were sad about leaving) and skipped merrily into the night. We even packed our car and loaded our bike rike in the dark so that we could leave Sunday night rather than Monday morning. We spent a few very much needed days in Monroe which always does the soul and tummy good. Top Chef Allstars started on Wednesday and was the primary focus and main event of the trip. Thursday morning after a brief but pleasant visit with Grandma, and a stop at Monroe Bagels and Deli we were back on the road! For lunch we went to Pat's King of Steaks in Philly for a cheesesteak. The oringal cheesesteak. It was the most disappointing sandwhich of my life. I had to stuff it with frenchfries to make it taste good. What a joke. Should have tried Geno's. Whats with Travel Channel leading us astray? If I can't trust travel Channel who can I trust? We drove a while after that and stopped outside Baltimore for the night. Our hotel had a fish tank in the lobby with a blowfish that had only one eye. I was mesmorized while Rachel played the adult and checked us into our room. That night we decided to treat ourselves (big surprise) to Red Lobster because it's our guilty pleasure. I ordered the coconut shrimp and snow crab leg combo entree thing (as usual). It was delicious and our favorite part is the crab. Not only is it delicious but its FUN! My favorite! So we're cracking our way through and talking about how you always run out of crab before you want to and our waiter plops another half a crab onto our table! "Here you go ladies, I got you some more crab legs because your first order wasn't really up to my standards." One of the legs of my first crab had been broken off. Who cares? I had to break it off to eat it anyway. But look! More crab! We thanked our waiter about a hundred times and got crackin...(ha). Let's just say he got VERY good tip. The next day we drove through Washington D.C on a safari. This means we drove around and saw the tourist things from our car. We then headed in a straight line south down to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit my cousin Jamie. She took us out to an awesome Mexican Restaurant and we drove around the city for awhile on another safari. It was amazing to see her. I seriously have the best family. We woke up the next morning and started our 12 hour drive down to Jupiter. We arrived at around 11pm. This place is amazing. It's absolutely gorgeous. We unpacked and went to bed excited to see it in day light. We woke up to a beautiful day. We decided to go to the resaurant across the street from the condos for brunch. It's a new resaurant called Gulfstream Cafe. I plan on dropping my resume off later today. Our server was so kind and we got to chatting. After learning we had just moved there she dropped the check and told us she was going to go see if she could grab us a "treat". She went inside for a minute and came back with two ten dollar gift cards. Again...big tip. After brunch we went to the beach for a few hours. The ocean is so different down there. It's practically green, it looks like the caribbean. We went grocery shopping and cooked our first Jupiter dinner. While we were eating we remembered whey we go out to eat so often. You'd think two people who loved food so much would be able to make things that taste good. I blame some of our meal on the quality of the halibut. It smelled a little fishy and I know fresh fish is not supposed to smell like fish. Stupid whole foods. Today is get our lives together day. We have a huge to do list and I know we'll go to bed feeling so good about ourselves if we cross off at least most of the list if not all. We learned last night that Jupiter doesn't have a craigslist page. This makes finding a job way harder. We have to make sure we don't work to far away from eachother because we only have one car. It'll be a challenge to figure it out this time around but I think we're up for it. Blogging is on the list so now I can cross that off. Laundry is in the washer and Rach is at the beach right now running in the sand. I plan to do the same today but I've decided to wait until sunset. Oh two more things! First thing is that I've literally been looking all over the country for Toaster Scrambles with sausage. I though they'd stopped making them with sausage and I hate the bacon ones. Well I've found them! Hurray! Another thing is that there is a beautiful, palm tree lined, so clear you can see everything on the bottom pond about twenty feet from our porch. It looks almost fake and I love hanging out on the edge and watching turtles swim. People must feed the ducks around here (which don't look like the ducks back home) because they're totally friendly and come right up to you as soon as you walk outside. I give them crackers though I don't think I'm supposed to. I have to duck friends. I've named them Foie and Gras. Daddy helped me name them. I bet by the end of the trip I'll be able to pet them because I almost can now and we've only just met! I have to go see what else is on that to do list. In conclusion, we are happy once again. Our only worry now is getting jobs and once thats settled we're good to go. I'll try to keep everyone updated. -lj (blog - check!)

On to destination #3!!!!

December 2nd, 2010... we drive out of Monroe with Palm trees and beaches in sight!! I must say I haven't thought about Boston nearly the way I thought about Denver. I miss my friends but other than that I can't say I ache to go back. The best part about driving down to florida, for me, is that it gets warmer and warmer the further we get!! I'm so glad I got to go into the city Monday night. Even if it was a short time it always reminds me that the city isn't going anywhere. It really is my home and I'll miss it until I see it again. As soon as I stepped out of the path train til the minute I got back on I was grinning ear to ear. Everytime I go back I have a new and different appreciation for it. Also, the christmas shops were open a week early this year so that was a little bonus =) I love those things. So we're taking the "outline" approach to our road trip this time. We had originally planned on stopping and staying a lot but then we got eager to get there haha. Hopefully I will see my family soon though cuz I do miss them. Anyways... Happy December everyone!! Enjoy your shopping and holiday season... I know I have a lot to be thankful for lately. I'm getting used to this adventure thing that's for sure. Love to my second family who took such good care of us the past couple days... as always =) And to my family... see you in Florida in less than three weeks!!!! Love, Rachie

Welcome to Adventurer Etiquette 101

Well I was going to make big ol' whopping deal over our hundredth blog, my Rachie took my thunder without knowing it! She snagged number 100, that little sneak! Well, if one hundred was as interesting a number as 101 we would have one less dalmation running around, wouldn't we? So pats on the back all around to all of us. We've reached blog 101 in our adventures and the journey still goes on strong. As many times we feel Boston has tied our shoes together and kicked us in the knees, the ending result is a very good one. Rach and I are the most united as a couple that we've ever been. I think we needed a good knee kickin. Our transitions so far have been filled with lots of arguements, lots of yelling and an endless list of disagreements and discouragment. This transition however is proving to be filled with happiness, love and hope. The only thing we've disagreed on so far is which cleaning supplies to leave our subletter. (She left us toilet paper, laundry detergent etc.) This disagreement was solved when I came home to find half our cleaning supplies on the kitchen table and I was told we were taking those with us. Problem solved. Comprimising, I'm learning, is the key to success. I'm remembering how mildly stressful, albeit exciting, packing is. Last time we packed the car it was pretty much at its limit and of course, we've acquired a few things. Thankfully we just have to get it to Monroe where we can reaccess the madness and leave choice items there. Tonight, we're cooking in, keeping our minds focused on the fact that we won't have jobs soon. It will be very nice next Thursday when my direct deposit kicks in and I recieve a pay check for seemingly going on a fun road trip. I'm actually going to miss my job. I'm going to miss a lot of things. Things are always better in retrospect and I'm excited to slowly discover things I didn't know I loved about Boston. I'm sure there will be plenty of things and I feel so badly that I few bad events had to shape my feelings about this city. I'll give Boston this always though...it is absolutely beautiful. You can't argue that. I was walking down the street with my friend Ally the other day and we were talking about me not liking Boston. "The people are just mean here!" I shouted angerly. "I mean, people think New Yorkers are mean, but they're not. They're just smart asses, the people here are just genuinly assholes!" She laughed and nodded in agreement. Just then a woman tapped my arm. "Excuse me." I turned around expecting someone to start defending the Massholes in all their New England glory and suddenly felt guilty for saying what I said perhaps too loud. The woman smiled. "I just want to know if my memory is ok. Do you work at...?" She trailed off obviously nervous now that she might have stopped the wrong person. "Clio?" I suggested. "Yea! I was in there in September, you had waited on us!" (Nice that people think I'm their waiter when I get 20% of what the actual servers make) 'Oh! How are you? How did you enjoy dinner?' It was all I could think of to say. "Clio was great, the service was excellent." I told her I couldn't believe she would remember me from September. She said I had made an impression and just wanted to say thank you. Jeez. Just as I'm screaming down the street how everyone in this town sucks. It shows me for the next place not to stereotype anyone for the place they leave. Everyone should be innocent until proven guilty. I have to admit though, I wanted to chase her down the street and ask her where she was from. I'd bet ten bucks she's not from Boston. -lj

Thanksgiving

Hi guys... Rach here. I figure I always have to say when it's me because Joanna blogs a lot more than I do. Soooo it's finally here!!!!! "Hell week" as we like to call it... when really this time it seems like Heaven week. Not one arguement... not one discrepency about why, when, where and what to pack... just sitting in between the kitchen and living room smiling as bags are being filled!! I have to admit I will really really miss the friends that I have made it Boston. We all got very close in a short amount of time and I hope to keep in touch with all of them. It does seem however that even if I stayed at my restaurant most of them would be leaving as well. So it's good I am getting out now I guess. I finally told my bosses Sunday that I was leaving. I hesitated to tell them sooner because they are known for letting people go the minute they give their two weeks and I didn't want that to happen. So I gave them one week. The owner, Richard, was sad to hear I was leaving and even offered to hire Joanna so that we would stay haha. Tempting... The chef on the other hand stated, "I'm not surprised. I'm happy for you guys. Get out of here. Boston sucks. I hate this city." Well... that's decided then. As Jo wrote... we have been having a lot of fun the past couple weeks. I'm glad we got to see some of what Boston had to offer. I took my parents to the top of the Prudential building, down to Fanueil Hall, to Clio, and to Cambridge. They had a great time. It's always good for them to get away from their crazy lives. We also got to see some extended family from both sides which was nice. So today I will be heading to the South End Buttery to help package pies. Yes, Joanna is not the only one to always say yes when someone at her restaurant asks for help lol So from noon to probably six I'll be folding boxes and organizing pies for thanksgiving orders. Hopefully I can snag one for poor Jo who I am selfishly leaving tomorrow for two days. Wish we could all be together for the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Eat lots of turkey.

smoke and combustable mirrors

Being inside of a machine such as a car or a train can suddenly become very frightening when you begin to smell something burning. At least for me. At first you wait for it to pass but as the smell lingers you internaly, slowly start to panic. God help your insanity if the stench grows any stronger. This happened to me on the train today. I was in a car with maybe ten strangers only three stops away from my home when the unspecific burning smell loomed into my car. Must be something outside. We travel to the next stop. The smell remains and is getting stronger. I look around and see no smoke or signs of distress nor destruction. None of my fellow riders have broken their idle stare that seems to last their entire commute. Their noses remain uncrinkled and apparently, unaware. I sit in my seat moving my head and eyes in tiny darts searching for evidence of disaster. Nothing. If TV and movies have taught me anything it's that at any moment my train is about to explode. Without warning and I will be faced with the decision of whether to save myself or someone else. One more stop to go. No one smells that? I study my fellow travlers faces for signs of recognition. Either no one smells it or they don't watch the same movies as me. It's my stop. I'm safe. I seem to suffer from paranoia that I think manifested itself inside of me after breaking my leg. If I pass a construction site while in my car and take in a burnt tar odor, my eyes automatically go to that "H and C" gauge on the dashboard. Without any knowledge of cars I simply assume that if my car is about to blow up, the little hand will shoot dramatically toward either the H or the C away from where it permanently rests (in the middle). I constantly think that my whereabouts is suddenly going to burst into flames. Heater making a funny nose? My house is surely about to combust. Milk not steaming properly? This old cappucino machine in Clio is clearly seconds away from igniting my latte on fire. At the Bed and Breakfast in Ptown our room was freezing because I wouldn't allow Rachel to remove the iron gate infront of the fire place. Why not? The fire was obviously going to leap out and burn the whole town to the ground. I did however have a breakthrough last night. I allowed the candles in my house to be lit while I ran down to the basement to grab the laundry. Adventurers unite! -lj

10 more days

I would start by apologizing, but I'm assuming that after my ever repeating offense of desserting the blog, my apology wouldn't hold much ground. Rachel and I just fine, just busy and just about outa here! I'm sitting on my couch, new tiny laptop in, well, my lap, and reveling in the fact that I was just cut from work and get to spend some "me" time alone on this chilly Friday night. On way home I was able to read a chapter of the new book I just started "Medium Raw" by Anthony Bourdain. (I have to laugh that if I were in high school I would get points off this blog for not underlining the name of a novel. Only short stories should be in quotes however, underlining doesn't seem to be an option on this blog program). Anyway, I came to my stop on the train, shut my book and headed home. On my walk home, by the way its freezing outside, I was thinking about how I wanted to blog as soon as I got home and I then got to thinking...why? I haven't wanted to blog in the last two weeks, why such an urge today? And then I realized that when I suffer...you suffer. Two days ago I finished the book "Tuesdays with Morrie". The book had come highly recommended by several people whose taste in books I very much respect, but I gotta say... I struggled. You know I'm reading a good book when I'm blogging a lot. I read good writing, I want to write. Very simple. Well I finally finished the book, am on to Anthony Bourdain and have a feeling, you'll be hearing more from me. Last we spoke, we were going to Ptown. Ptown was fun even though apparantly the big party was the night before Halloween. We finally found one bumpin' place and I spent the next day extremely hung over. Rach and I have seriously decreased our alcohol intake since Denver and my body now rejects large quantities of it, go figure. Since then, fun events include me driving to New Haven, Connecticut to hike with best pal Christina, a really great dinner at a restaurant called Aura, the New England Aquarium and just this morning the much awaited...Harry Potter. The Aquarium was great even though the only "petting" part was a shallow tank full of starfish. Just so we're on the same page...that is NOT as fun as feeding stingrays as was the case in Denver. Once again, Denver wins. The aquarium did however boast signs that advertised a big petting portion that will be installed in April. Sorry we missed it, but I wouldn't even come back here to pet sharks. Well..maybe just to pet the sharks but only to pet the sharks! Speaking of sharks there were also signs up informing us that the sharks from the "open ocean" tank were currently at another aquarium because they were ridding the tank of some bacteria. We asked a staffmember when the sharks would be back. ..."tomorrow". Damnit! I asked a co-worker how she thought a shark would be transfered from one aquarium to another. She said they were both near the harbor and that they channeled the sharks through the harbor! Tell me thats particulary awesome. I hope its true, cause that sounds very very cool to me. Also in the past two weeks, we've mapped our trip to Florida which includes nights in Delaware, Viriginia, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. It also includes lunches in Providence, Philly, and D.C. We also chose a route from North Carolina that drives along the coast. 1650 miles and we absolutely can't wait. I'm also very very much looking forward to our three days in New York where my family awaits. Rach is going to Buffalo for Thanksgiving so she'll get to see the Popson fam then. Thankfully I got to see them when they came to visit us two weeks ago. I unfortunatly had to work most of the time and didn't get to spend anywhere near the amount of time with them as I'd like to. I hate when I don't blog for along time because I have to spend the whole blog catching up. You'd think I'd learn my lesson. But there's the catch up. hm (happy mom)? :) -lj

why does boston suck?

We noticed a hand print on our window today that leads out to the porch. Checking it out we saw that it had been unlocked. Didn't we lock it? The screen has been ripped that goes around the deck so someone could have climbed up? Are we crazy? I mean...we made sure all our windows were locked and now the one with the handprints on it has been unlocked. We locked it. Maybe we're just crazy. We hate it here. One more month. We knew about the screen which had been tacked up when we got here. Whenever its windy the tacks come out so it's not like someone ripped it. Gonna go buy the little alarms mommy told us about. We were just starting to let it go too. We were thinking about setting boobie traps like in home alone. We're both working tonight. Hopefully our stuff is still here when we get back. Seriously... we can't wait to get outa here. At least we're going on vacation this weekend, then the weekend after that momma and daddy Popson are coming to visit. Then its just two weeks and then we're leaving and never looking back. -lj

"In two months it will be the day after Christmas!!"

So... as i walk into the kitchen to get our morning coffee I hear Joanna shout this from the bedroom. Christmas?!!!! Boy is time flying... and Florida is just around the corner!!! The treats we've left for Little Joey are gone and the sun is shining. We're up a little earlier than usual so it's nice to have a whole day ahead of us. Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of typing "Subway" into Barbara (our GPS) because I was in the mood and we wanted to go get Halloween costumes before Jo had to work. So we're driving down Tremont and park in a sort of weird looking area but we didn't think much of it. We go into Subway and immediately feel uncomfortable. There is some guy asking very loudly if Buffalo chicken is a 5$ footlong. To his disappointment it's not... then he proceeds to ask well how much is it then... while his oh so cute girlfriend has been in the bathroom for the while now. She finally comes out, looking extremely disheveled, starts talking to some other man who looks cracked out who happens to be buying a cookie for his daughter. Very upsetting. We quickly order our lunch and without even discussing it take it to go and make our way back to the car. I lived in NYC for 7 years and I swear I never felt so grossed out, scared or uncomfortable ever. I guess I'll still give Boston a chance but man it's not easy. So then we move on with our day to the Halloween store. Well... this was fun to say the least. We went in looking for cruela deville and a dalmation costume and came out with a giant Monkey suit and Harry Potter's sexy sister's costume. You can imagine who is going to be who haha. PTOWN here we come!!! We're off today... then 4 days of work... then out of here! =) Hope everyone has a good week! Happy Halloweeenn!!!!!! xoxo, Rach

burrata bummer

So we were too sick for the haunted hay ride. It would have been an hour drive both ways and then sitting in the cold...no good for fighting immune sysyems. I hate making responsible decisions. We did go to Coppa for dinner. It's one of Chef Oringers tapas place in the South End. We had Burrata, pork rillets, tuna sashimi, and mussel and squach fusilli with narsidium. Oh and risotto balls. The risotto balls were pretty good. Everything else was sadly a disappointment. Maybe we just have bad palettes? Bad palettes or not we didn't really love anything and we flat out hated the Burrata. (which is a cheese that is made by seperating and then reindroducing the curds and whey...i think) Oh well. We had a good time because we've been disgustingly in love lately. We wanted to try his other tapas restaurant Toro, but now I don't know. We're still definitly going to Clio, we just don't know when. Starting today I'm working six days in a row since we're understaffed until our new backwaiter Seth is fully trained. My manager promises that he'll probably cut me one of the days. I hoping I get cut tonight since Rach has the night off. She has tomorrow off too, but hopefully she can pick up the extra shift and we can both work. We have a groupon for a restaurant called "Aura" that we might check out tonight if I get cut. Its so unfortunate that I have to actually go to work before I get cut. The process of walking in just to walk out takes a little over an hour. I wish they would decided before hand and then call! Saturday night I got a great surprise though! My second cousins, Anthony and Sharon, came into Clio for dinner. They were going to surprise me but five minutes before they got there one of the backwaiters (who has English as a second language) accidentally ruined the surprise. She didn't really understand I think that she wasn't supposed to tell me. They sat and ate and had stuff sent out to them that I actually don't think they even wanted and it was really good to catch up. Hopefully Rach and I will get a chance to go up where they live (half hour north) and she can meet my moms side of the family. She'd really love them. Hopefully next time I blog it will start with "I got cut last night!". I may have just jinxed it. oops. -lj

Is it Sunday yet?

So we're both sick now. Drinking fluids and trying to get pity parties at work. Our fingers are crossed that we'll be better by Sunday so we can enjoy the haunted hay ride which we're going to no matter what! I'm tired of blogging about Biggest loser and Little Joey (no offense little joey). We've decided to treat ourselves and we're trying to plan a trip to Ptown for Halloween. We're very excited but still havn't booked anything because we have to see if our requests for work went through. Yesterday was my day off but I recieved a phone call around four o clock from Ian, my manager, asking me to come in since they didn't realize they were understaffed. They made the schedule with Wenderson on it and then fired him. How on Earth did they not realize they would have one less person every day he was supposed to work? I noticed right away and figured they had to have known but didn't care. So I ironed my shirt quick and rushed to work. Bye-bye day of rest. I can't wait to find out what I made. When I tell you you're gonna laugh. A hundred bucks means an awesome night and last night was not particulary awesome. Me and my silly ideas with this restaurant. My next day off is Sunday now. I'm hoping they feel overstaffed tonight with four backwaiters and one training back waiter and they send me home since I was supposed to be off last night. When Rach and I finally eat there next month this will all be worth it. If we order the nine course tasting, they'll totally send us a bunch of extra courses and give us special treatment. I hear all the time with tastings that its "the best food we've ever had". Man, I can't wait. -lj

A Bahston Shinah!

False Alarm! Joey is Okay! The morsels are gone. But turning our attention toward another mystery that I somehow forgot to tell you about... I woke up Monday morning to a very peculiar thing. Well, Iactually didn't wake up to it. We woke up normal and shared a pot of coffee while watching TV on the couch, as we do every morning. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. We decided to go for a run around the lake and I got up to change into my running clothes. As I pulled my sweatshirt over my head Rachel squinted at me and asked me what was wrong with my face. "What did you do? What is that?" I figured a fuzz was stuck to my face and I glided my hand across my cheeks, chin and forehead. Her squint remained. "You have a black eye". A black eye? My thoughts immediatly brought up the memory of the pepto bismol turned black tongue in Denver. Why must these weirdo things always happen to me? I didn't hit my eye or anything, did I? I walked into the bathroom to inspect this supposed "black eye". Surely it was a mistake. A smudge of dirt smeared in just the right spot to make it look like I was punched in the face. I looked into the mirror to find million dollar baby staring back at me. I don't sleep well so its common for me, especially without a tan, to have dark circles under my eyes, but this was different. I hadn't drank the night before, I didn't trip into anything, yet there it was. I had a bit of a shiner going on and I have no idea how it got there. WebMD to the rescue says maybe its sinuses. I finally realized there's a bit of a sore spot by my cheekbone, maybe I hit it in my sleep. Bottom line is I have a black eye and have no explanation for it. My coworker, Courtney, suggests that Little Joey is angry at me for trying to catch him and so he beats me while I sleep. Crazy enough, its the best explanation I can think of. -lj

Little Joey?

Alright people,we have an issue over here. While Rach and I were walking down the driveway today to head to the lake we noticed a dead mouse that had been ran over by a car. Now, it hasn't been confirmed that its Joey,but I'm sorry to say we fear the worst. We've set morsels in the usual spot for our little friend and will leave them there with high hopes while we're at work. Please send positive thoughts that the morsels are gone when we return. We'd sure miss our little friend. -lj

trick or treat

Trying to think of a good halloween costume can be so stressful. I told Rachel I wanted to be an American Eagle model and that I had to go shopping for a costume. She didn't quite go for it. Any ideas? -lj

tell me something funny

Rach and I are sitting in the living room watching "The Biggest Loser". One of the women on the show has just been given the privilage of choosing which contestant goes on which of two teams. There are currently 13 contestants. She must choose 6 people for the blue team and 6 people for the black team. The remaining person stays off a team for now and recieves immunity for the week. She is allowed to choose herself if she wishes. In one of those one on one confession/discussions with one of the contestants (i'm assuming its wrong to call them losers?) one of the guys say "Who wouldn't want immunity? Nothing is more important than immunity." Rachel then sits up and proceeds to yell angerly at the television. "Yes there is dude!" She seemed genuinly disappointed at the mans priorities. "It's called weightloss! Weightloss!" Not sure if this story is funny to read, but it sure was funny when it happened....................................................................................... another quick funny thing... I looked up side effects from ambien earlier. The list of rare but serious side effects was huge ranging from spasm of the esophugus to rectal hemmoraging. All sounding like serious serious stuff. The last rare side effect however...was yawning. Yawning. Had a good laugh over that too. -lj

all books end in tragedy

Ifinished my book today! I was reading East is East by my favorite fictional author, T.C Boyle. This is the fourth and a half book I've read of his (my last book was accidentally thrown out half way through) and yet each time I'm shocked when it ends tragically. You'd think I'd see it coming by now. Tuesdays with Morrie has been patiently awaiting my attention on the bookshelf and I'm excited for the things it will perhaps teach me. I'll try to keep you updated on how I'm finding the highly recommended piece. Finishing books always carries contradicting sensations. On one hand, you absolutely can't wait to find out how everything pans out in the end so you blast through the last twenty pages like Anna Nicole Smith in the reading of said spouses' last will and testament. On the other hand, once you turn that last page you have to mourn the loss of all those characters you've grown obssessed with since the first chapter. My favorite part of TC Boyle's writing his master over characterization and I always find myself pretty upset that his characters will no longer be apart of my life after I'm finished with the book. Poor Rachel is sick and I was lucky enough to get cut from work today so we could actually have a night off together. So far we've been sitting on the couch reading for an hour because I needed to blast through those last twenty pages. We went grocery shopping today. Have I told you that grocery shopping is one of our favorite things to do? Does that make us big girls? We have Sunday night off together and we hope she's feeling better so we can go on a haunted hay ride, which I'm totally psyched about. Whats more fun than pretending you're totally not scared infront of a pretty girl? The answer is pretending your totally not scared infront of a pretty girl when she's completely terrified. I hope she feels better. -lj

to update please click refresh

So the good news is that I told my job I was leaving at the end of Novemeber and they were totally cool about it. The bad news is that because I felt bad that I couldn't work Christmas eve or News Years even I offered to work Thanksgiving. You have to work two of the three holidays and I obviously won't be here for two of them. I insisted Rachel fly to Buffalo for Turkey Day since I'll be at work. I hate missing holidays with my family. Imiss them enough on a daily basis let alone missing them on a day thats about being with your family. And I'm working Thanksgiving and the two days after that so its not even like a can spend a little time there. We will probably stop there for a night or two on our way to Florida though. We're so pumped about Florida and the road trip to get there. We're gonna really stretch this trip out since we know people all along the coast that we can stay with. For now we must work to enjoy Boston. I think I've told myself so many times by now I don't like it that I started to really believe it, but its not so bad. I've started going on walks along the Charles River and I think its probably my favorite thing to do here. Rach's parents have book they're trip and are coming to visit us in about two weeks which is ALWAYS a good time. The weather today is beauitiful so we're going to go running and get some errands done as well. Little Joey is still at large and I havn't done a morsel test in a while to see if he's still around. I think I'll do that today while we're out. Enjoy the day everyone! -lj

go back to sleep little buggy

So when I got up this morning I came over to the computer and checked my email. There was an email in my inbox from Massify.com, a website actors and people in the industry put up profiles of themselves. I haven't thought about mine in months and months and practically forgot I had it. This email was from someone I don't know working on a movie that I know nothing about but she thinks I'd be "excellent for the role". I hate it when these kind of things happen. I'm totally happy doing what I'm doing and am almost comfortable telling myself I can send out headshots once in a while while I am in nurshing school (isn't repeating words weird?) and if something happens, it happens. But when you get emails like that, that little surge of excitement is just a reminder that there's a big part of you that has to lay dormant right now in order to accomplish something else you want to do. The audition was in New York and it was yesterday anyway, but I'm annoyed that the e-mail stirred up that little acting bug in me that I try to keep still. One day I'll go to another audition and it gives me something in the future to look forward to. I like playing adventurer for now. -lj

Celery

I just recieved an email from my mother telling me thats its been seventeen days since my last blog posting. I haven't gone back to look at the blog to confirm this information, but if this is true, I must say that I'm truly disappointed in myself. I'm disappointed at how much I've let this stupid little robbery affect my life and relationship. Well no more of that. It's time to move on. I'm still going to check three times that everything is locked before I leave the house but I have to drop this "why me" attitude I've been holding onto. They're not coming back. And if they did, they would find all the windows locked anyway and would have to move on to the next house full of trusting adventurers. I'm also done feeling sorry for myself that I make no money at my job. (And I mean half the money I'm used to). I'm the one choosing to stay there and I don't have to stay there forever. I finally got a chance to go home this weekend. Rachel went into the city one of the days and I had the day to hang out with my parents and go for a drive by myself. I took my favorite route around an area sort of by my house. It's through the woods around a lake and it was a perfect day with perfectly colored leaves. I got out of the car for a while to sit next to the lake with my back against a tree and read my book. Aside from the ant I found crawling up my sleeve, it was a very grounding day. It let me breathe and remember who I was and what I wanted. I feel much better. Rach and had a very rough two weeks and re-evaluated our relationship. After crying our eyes out at the thought of no longer critisizing restaunts and driving across the country together, we shook off the crazy idea and our relationship is now better because of it. The adventure shall continue as will Team Bubbles (what we call ourselves). So...updates on the adventure. We have a pet mouse. His name is Joey...like me. I refuse to kill him even though there are a million reasons to. I won't do it. Don't try to change my mind. I'll catch him if I can and let him free outside where I'm sure he'll just scurry back in. I've never actually seen Joey. I hear him and have left him tiny morsels in hopes of catching a glimpse. I then get bored, forget about watching the morsel and come back to find it gone. You're welcome little Joey. Rachel sees him all the time. It's a big joke that he is a figment of Rachel's imagination. A PTSD response to the robbery...she's manifested a tiny mouse friend so she never feels alone while I'm a work. If it weren't for the missing morsels and squeeks, I would actually consider this a possibility. Nevertheless, its still a fun joke we have. We went running for the first time yesterday since the robbery. It was the quintessential fall day and I ran my best time yet around the lake determined to come out of my mini depression better and stronger. Today, Rach and I rode our bikes to the Franklin Zoo where we realized how much we love cheetahs and discussed how we felt rude while staring at the gorillas. We also discovered that we can each jump six feet forward in a single bound (kangaroos can jump like thirty or something). I almost fell when I landed my jump so its safe to say Rach can jump perhaps a inch further than me. Little known fact about Rachel... she'd make a great predator. She ALWAYS spots the animals in the cages or tanks before I do. If I was an animal that had to hunt I would die in about a week swearing up and down that there just weren't any other animals in the jungle to eat. We also have a food love affair we haven't told you about. There's a sandwich shop down the street called "The Real Deal" and it is VERY difficult everyday at lunch time not to just go try one of the thirty something sandwiches they have. So far we've tried six of them and all were unbelievable. My favorite is the Cuban. We're pretty obssessed but we just went grocery shopping and probably won't be going there until the groceries are gone. Funny story quick...last night at Clio this ridiculous woman was at a table of six. Their bottle of wine had just been opened and she had basically decided she was the one who would be smelling and tasting the wine. The woman that was sitting next to her was four months pregnant and was not drinking. The ridiculous woman noses the wine immediatly after its poured. "Oh this is nice!" Eyes wide with excitment and brain void of any information that would justify her judgement of wine. She finally swirls the wine once around the glass (must have seen that in a movie) and smells again. Eyes grow even wider. "Oh my god! Smell that! That's fantastic!" She hands it to the pregnant lady to smell. The pregnant lady. Because she has "bionic" pregnant senses that will allow her to smell all the secrets of this wine. The pregnant lady says something about the wine I couldn't hear and gets the ridiculous lady all excited. Ridiculous lady smells the wine again and lights up. "It smells like celery! Oh my god! Celery! Can you believe that! Oh how weird, smell this! It does! It smells like celery! Oh this is amazing!" The pregant lady looks at her and corrects ms. ridiculous about what she said. This I couldn't hear either but Ms. R took a moment to pause as she processes what her friend said. "Oh soury! It smells soury? Oh... she smells it once last time and then proceeds to shove it in everyones nose that is within reach at her table. "It does kind of smell like celery though." Idiot. -lj

rach, where did you put your computer?

I don't even know what to tell you. I'm afraid my "all is well" attitude and witty charm went out the kitchen window along with our computer, i pod and cash. Not to mention our sense of safety, comfort and any love for Boston that we may have acquired our first week in this rain cloud of a city. Now I know what you're thinking. 'You girls have been through so much and everything has worked out! You can't let this get you down! Chin up and look to the future!' Well, my caramel coated candy stripe, let me say this to you... shut..the hell...up. We are the one's since our break in happened that have been stepping in shit because we keep walking with our chins up. Plenty of unblogged events have happened since the moment of our break-in and I don't know if its the lack of happy background music in our lives (our i pod was taken) but our luck has certainly yet to turn its pretty little self around. We haven't given each other this many pep talks since our first "Business of Acting" class in college when we were told we were basically doomed to fail unless we agreed to sell our souls. Every other hour is spent reminding the other one why we have to stay here until the agreed move out date in Novemeber. After an hour of weary peace goes by, we then switch and its the other ones turn to review the reasons we can't just walk away. It's an exhuasting cycle and neither of us can kick the fact that really just want to leave. Yes, we liked Boston in the beginning. Who wouldn't like exploring a fun new place while not having to work? Now Rach has her job, granted a good one, and I have my "internship". I call it my internship because I make awful money but stick with it as it is a significant resume builder. We've actually seriously talked about living in Monroe for the next month and half before going to Florida. Possibly even commuting, by train, everyday from Monroe to the city. The safety of running home to family seems so irressistable. However, we must remember that unfortunatly, we are adults and we have made a commitment. We can't use this robbery as an excuse to leave. We were secretly not so crazy about Boston after our first week, but now we can just be honest about it. We will try to make the best and we will try to stop thinking everyone else on the street is following us. It just might take some time. And if we still hate it... its only two more months. We've decided to use Boston for its money and lay low so in Florida it can really be a brand new start. I am sorry to report though, that we're counting down the days till we get to bust outa here. Job wise, we're decently happy. We just work a lot and our schedules don't work great together. We do our best to work around our schedules and to work with our bosses so we get time together. Rach landed a really great job. They totally respect her and she makes awesome money. I enjoy my job, however, I work my ASS off and make very little money. One of the other backwaiters asked me why I was a backwaiter...he was wondering because I'm American and my first language is English, so why would I be a backwaiter. Nice. There are five backwaiters that work there. Only two of us were born in America. Clio is going to look great on my resume, but if I were going to live here any longer than two more months I would never stay. No, I can't be a server. Being a server at Clio takes months of training. I won't even be here long enough for them to consider making me a server. I'm learning a lot all the same. I'll keep you up to date on our struggles. Lock your windows. -lj

We asked for an adventure...

As most of you probably know by now the adventurers have had a series of unfortunate events occur. I guess in each place we go there will be a weekend from hell. Or maybe it's just my bad luck?? In Denver I was in urgent care twice in three days for a jammed thumb and food poisoning and lost my grandfather within that same week. Now in Boston some jerk breaks in to steal the only expensive things I own as well as my hard earned cash and leaves his filthy muddy boot print on our kitchen table. I know I should be in the process of getting over this traumatic event but the anger and frustration are lingering. Of course in my crazy mind I think this person has specifically been watching me, considering he strategically left behind jo's computer, ipod, camera, etc. Despite that they were technically my things, everything that we own is ours and this has been just as daunting on Joanna. Not to mention now that every peep that we hear we turn our heads quickly in fear someone is there. We talk about it a lot, we try and rack our brains to figure out why someone would do this. Hell, since they have my of course unlocked computer they could be reading this right now!! I don't even care about the stuff, honestly. It's just stuff. But it's the memories on the computer. Every picture that we have taken thus far in our adventures as well as in the past 3 years of our relationship. I know i know I'm supposed to have backed it up, but we didn't. Also, the cash hurts. When you're working everyday to just make enough and someone comes and takes it!! And the next morning to top it off I'm standing in the kitchen after maybe 5 minutes total of sleep when a mouse runs across the floor!!! Ok... now i'm just venting and i should save that for a therapist. So... after all this crap, and actually very nice and helpful police (despite them being able to catch him or get our stuff back), we have made progress in forgetting it happened. We went out yesterday to get a few "Fall" items for our apartment, including pumpkin and apple scented candles =) nothing says home like those i'll tell ya. So while Jo was at work I cleaned this place top to bottom. Re-arranged a bit and attempted to wipe out the bad and move in the good. We have a day off together Thursday which we are really looking forward too. It only comes once a week if we are lucky and it has actually been two weeks since we've had one off together alone. We plan on going to the aquarium!!! Jo's fave. Then maybe a movie with our free passes that the chef family of my previous restaurant gave us. Then who knows. We're trying to stay positive and just think of this as a temporary bump in our journey. Thanks for reading. I actually feel better already =) Hope everyone has a good week. Love, Rachie

surprise surprise

Boy did I get a lovely surprise yesterday! I was walking around my apt about two hours before I had to leave for work and I get a phone call. It's my Aunt Judy. "Hey, Uncle and Donald are in the car driving home from Koscos! Whatcha doin?" I told her I was just hanging out and gonna leave for work soon. I could hear I was on speaker phone. "How's your job? What kind of food? Where is it?" I answer. "Where's the restaurant at? Back Bay?" asks Uncle Donald. Already the fact that they are called me, both of them, on speaker phone on their random drive home from "Koscos" is strange to me. I tell them more about the restaurant. They proceed to ask me several questions about where I live, how do I get to work, how long does it take me. Confused at their joint curiosity I answer all their questions. "Hey, I need your address cause I want to send you something." Now I'm thinking...this is so weird. Why would she call me from the car asking me my address. Why not just email me or ask me while she's at home where she could comfortably write it down? Already very suspicious, I tell them. I know somethings up. Could they be in Boston? I've been very close with my Aunt and Uncle since birth and I knew there was something about this call that was out of the ordinary. I tell them my address. I forgot to specify whether I lived on a street, or court or drive. (I obviously don't want to get my address on creepy internet). This here was the give-a-way. Uncle Donald, who probably would find a long speaker phone in the car conversation obnoxious, cheerfully and "innocently" asks me, (for privacy purposes lets say I like on Smith Street), "Smith what?" And that was all I needed. They were obviously punching my address into a GPS. That HAD to be it. They should have rounded out the questions with some none location and time based questions! I answered his question and told him Smith Street. I told them they should come visit me soon (95% sure they were already on their way), told them I loved them and hung up. I brushed my teeth quick, fixed my hair and made the bed. If I knew my godparents they would be here within fifteen minutes. I sit in the living room and watch a little TV. As I happen to glance out the window, sure enough, guess who's rolling up the street, braking awkwardly trying to figure out which was the right house. I knew it! I jumped up and ran outside to greet them. I think my being outside jumping up and down surprised them more than the original plan was supposed to surprise me. They parked and I ran over and gave them huge hugs. "What are you doing in Boston! I knew you were on your way!" Man, they're the worst sneeks ever! "How did you know! We came for our anniversary and guess what!? We're staying at the Elliot!" They were even coming to Clio for dinner! What makes this story so ironic is that I had literally JUST emailed aunt judy forty minutes prior trying to convince her to come to boston for their anniversary and eat at Clio. We've always been on the same page me and Aunt Juju. They drove me back to the hotel with them and surprised me again when she told me that Rachel and I could stay with them on the pull out couch. ME!? Stay at the Elliot!? Hell yes! I texted Rachel the good news. We didn't even care that we didn't have anything to sleep in (turns out aunt judy had brought us stuff). I said goodbye and headed downstairs to work. At the pre-meal meeting the manager announced I had family coming in and they were to receive VIP treatment. Nice. So I stared at the clock all night and couldn't wait for eight o clock to come. Finally it did and they sat down. The kitchen was awesome and sent them out some free tastings with their meal. I was happy to show off all I'd learned and tried to run as much food to them out as I can. Unfortunately, once the food is ready, whoever is in the kitchen takes it, but I tried to hover in the kitchen a lot so I could run they're dishes as much as possible. They said the food and service was excellent and it really made me like my job more. It's a good feeling to be proud of the restaurant you work for. After they left I only had about an hour left. After work I walked down the street to grab a crappy burger and meet Rach on the corner. We took our food and went up to the room where we all sat and hung out for about an hour. It was such a great day, and even better because I never saw it coming...well...not until that suspicious phone call. I'm so grateful to have family that I'm so close to share so much love with. Poor poor Rachel had to get up early for yet ANOTHER double (since she's such a good person and employee) and the three of us went to her restaurant for brunch which was very delicious. Thank you to Aunt Judy and Uncle Donald for such a wonderful and touching surprise! I love you both so much. -lj

a long story from long island.

So its pretty late but I just want to tell you quick about our time in New York. We woke up early in Harrisburg, PA after a fun night of catching up with Rach's family and went through Newark to NYC. We actually had to drive through the city without stopping because that day, we were heading out to Long Island to see my Aunt Judy. Aunt Judy has been like my second mom since I was little so we were really excited. We waved to the city and promised we'd be back the next day as we continued for the island. Over an hour went by and finally we had only a few turns left until we'd be pulling up the driveway and met with my first "welcome back to NY" hug. We pulled up, got out of the car and stretched. We'd made it! And what a beautiful day! What will Aunt Judy have planned for us today? It's always something fun! We walked around the back and peeked through the window. I've always gone in through the back since I was a kid. We didn't see anyone inside so we let ourselves in. Little dog Roxy greeted us first. Surely Aunt Judy's voice would soon be bouncing off the corners of the house and into the kitchen. "You're here! Is that my god daughter!?". We played with the dog for a moment and anxiously waited for the voice. Another moment. What's with this dog's haircut anyway? And where was Aunt Judy. Perhaps she's hard at work in her office? I ducked into the office expecting to find her at the computer wrapped up in whatever she was doing. I was disappointed to find her assistant (jeez, wasn't she alarmed that people just walked in?). Her assistant looked up at us. "She's at the beach with her friends." I smiled and said "oh okay, thank you." I turned around and walked to Rachel in the kitchen. I was still in ear shot to the office so I used my secret secret voice. "She's at the beach with her friends!" "What?" "I don't know thats what she said, she's at the beach with her friends." "Aunt Judy's at the beach?" "Yea" "Why did she go to the beach?" "I don't know." "Did you tell her we were coming?" "I texted her this morning we'd be here around one but she didn't text back". "Well did you call her?" I looked at Rachel a moment. "No." We were both still using secret secret voice. "Joanna why wouldn't you call her?" "Because I texted her." "But she didn't respond." "No" "So then why didn't you call her?" "Well if she didn't respond to her text why would she be around her phone to answer it?" Rachel stared at me now while she tried to make sense of my logic. "Joanna I don't understand why you didn't just call her, now what do we do?" We stepped outside and stood by the pool contemplating our next move. "We could wait here. Do you want to play in the pool?" Sometimes my unwillingness to grow up in endearing. In situations like these I think it makes me frustrating. Rachel didn't seem thrilled about entertaining me pool side all day. We both know I can't lie still by a pool for more than five minutes. I need someone to throw things to the bottom so I can retrieve it and then they have to throw it again. "I guess we could. Do you even have your bathing suit?" Her question made me realize that no I do not. It was packed somewhere deep in who knows which of the ten suitcases compacted into our car. I thought for a moment. The longer I had to think the worse I felt about not just calling Aunt Judy to begin with. I tried calling Aunt Judy. No answer. At least so far, my theory was right. "Are you hungry?" "I guess I could be hungry." "Want to find somewhere to eat and then we'll try Aunt Judy again?" "Ok I guess." So back into the car we go. As long as I've been coming to Aunt Judy's house I couldn't think of a single place to go get food. We hit the "food" button on the GPS and chose the place that sounded most like a bar. We needed some bar food and a beer. We took the first few turns toward the mystery restaurant. As I looked around I realized that this was the way we would go when we go to the beach. "I think this is how we get to the beach. You want to go try to find Aunt Judy? We have nothing better to do." There was a touch of excitement in my voice about this perspective treasure hunt. I knew which beaches Aunt Judy hung out in. Rachel typed in everything we could think of into the GPS that would possibly bring us to the beach. Nothing worked. Using my "extra special" sense of direction I managed to get us to some sort of bay. Ok, well at least we made it to a coast. We chose a direction and followed the coast. After fifteen minutes I decided we should turn around and try the other way. After another ten minutes, my phone rings. Aunt Judy! "Where are you?! You're here!? I didn't know you were coming so early! Come to the beach!" "We're trying Aunt Judy! We're trying!" She gave us directions and told us she'd meet us so that we could park our car and she'd take us to the beach. Turns out a was right the first time and we turned around again. I just hadn't gone far enough. Finally we saw Aunt Judy waiving to us in her pink beach skirt and sunglasses. I finally got my big hug and we all set off to the beach. Aunt Judy's friends were there waiting for us and we immediately sat down to mudslides and chicken fingers. Perfect. We had a great time at the beach taking walks up and down the water, running to the waves and running back up and finding cool shells to play with. Aunt Judy gave me a pair of spandex pants and a sweatshirt to wear in the car since my clothes were drenched by the end of the day. While we were walking to our car the decision was made to go to a nice dinner. Umm...hello? I'm in spandex. Everyone thought it was funny and told me I "looked fine". I was so happy to be among family that I accepted the fact that I looked like a 10 year old little boy and we went to a beautiful sunset dinner on the bay. We came home, sat outside and drank wine, woke up and went back to the beach! Oh I love Long Island... After some time at the beach, unfortunately, Rachel and I had to leave the island and meet our friends in NYC. Long Island, as always was amazing. -lj (gyl)

makers and gingerale

Where to begin... well we really do love Boston. We're pretty surprised about it since Boston was never on our "wish list" of cities in the first place. Its absolutely beautiful. Since we finally have jobs we figured it was ok to go out on the town Saturday night. We went to the Prixe Fix dinner at Aquitane, a restaurant on the south side a few blocks from South End Buttery (Rachel's restaurant). After an extremely disappointing meal (still a good time because we judged it together) we decided to keep our night going and to go to Buttery for a drink. Partly because we wanted a drink and partly because I wanted to see the place. It really is adorable. Almost as if Rach and I would open it ourselves. It's elegant but homey with a fire place in the downstairs dining room. The primary color of the restaurant is brown which we always like for some reason. We sat at the bar and I met all the new coworkers, all of which seemed super sweet and really fun. We ordered a round of drinks for ourselves. While we were sipping at chatting with each other, Liz came upstairs and I finally met the Columbian lesbian who has been training Rachel. She's hilarious and a huge smart ass. I liked her immediately. She said it was a little slow tonight and she'd try to get cut so we could all go get a drink elsewhere. With the perspective of our first friend on the horizon, we decided to stick around and have another drink. As this drink is sipped the restaurant and our spirits begin to pick up. Liz comes over and mentions going out again when they're done. Well we like our seats here at the Buttery so why would we wait for her at another bar where we know no one? Another round. And just to be clear... we're not drinking beer or wine. We were probably at that bar for a good four hours. Wow, looking back it didn't seem that long. We were having a really great time with each other. Rachel and I haven't been out just the two of us in a very very long time. It was nice to be reminded that we can sit and talk for five hours straight with no effort or pauses. Well finally the servers are done and the two of us, Liz and another server Whitney go down the street for a few drinks. We play "get to know you" and have a great time. We go outside and get ready to leave when someone Liz knows shows up. "Let's have one more drink!" says Liz. "Hey! Why not! Let's go! Everybody in!" We stand at the bar and watch Liz order for us. I've been very careful all night to stick to one liquor. Three shots of tequila show up on the bar. Rach and I stopped talking and stared in horror as flashbacks of college nights flickered behind our eyes. "Welcome to Boston" Liz raises hers to toast. Down they go. People really ought to stop drinking tequila shots after twenty two years old. Rachel and I locked eyes and we used the remaining strength and balance we had to keep the shots in a downward path towards our stomachs. It was a rough battle for both of us but luckily, the fermented agave obeyed the laws of gravity and settled into our bodies with promises of torture in the morning. At that moment the lights in the bar came on. It was 2 o clock. Lovely, our first night out and we close a bar. We all decided it would be a safer and less expensive plan that the two of us sleep at Liz's house. We stop and get some random, open-late Chinese food and bring it home. We eat the greasy food and climb into the extra bed. Liz has to be at work at 8:45 so we get up around 8, tequila keeping it's promise and ride the train home. When we got home we plopped into bed for three hours and woke up in time to go to the Bills back bar at Fenway to watch some football. Even though I felt much better after sleeping, I didn't drink and sipped on water while I watched the first Sunday football game of the season while gazing out onto the Red Socks baseball field. It was pretty nice. After the game Rachel and I decided to go grocery shopping. We were in the store for over an hour. We LOVE grocery shopping. We've been on a pretty healthy kick lately so we promised each other that we wouldn't get that drunk again and we looked at the nutrition label of everything we bought. Back on track! Tonight I have to leave poor Rachel home while I go to work at Clio. I have a few more days of training, which doesn't bother me since I don't know what I'm doing, and my first day of official work is Saturday. Saturday. Are they nuts? The busiest night? I better train hard till then! -lj

Happy to be a girl...

So...first day of training at Marliave was a success!! It's a little more upscale than I'm used to but it's worth the learning experience. And they all said they make great money. So I train there officially starting Saturday. I'm excited to challenge myself instead of walk away and find an "easier" restaurant. Tonight I train at South End Buttery so I'm hoping it goes just as well. The managers at Marliave said they have no problem working around my schedule if I choose to get two jobs =0) The best thing I must say though about temporary unemployment is that you can do whatever you want everyday. So Jo and I have been getting up early, working out, cooking, reading, etc. And I said to myself the other day "Gosh i really like this whole not drinking, being healthy thing. I feel great! Why aren't we always like this?" Then I worked one night back in a restaurant haha and the first thing I wanted when I got out was a beer. There is a just something about the industry I swear. Not to put the blame solely on it, however I will put most of it haha. So i wrap up my first night of "stagging" which apparently isn't training. It's more like volunteering because you don't make a dime and you have to run around and prove to them that you're awesome. I jump on the T a few stops and get out at Mass Ave to walk the 15 blocks to Joanna's job. To my hilarious surprise there happen to be 3 meat head college guys headed my way with a 30 pack each of keystone light in their hands. I couldn't help but burst out laughing which prompted them of course to say "heyyy you wanna come to the party???" "I think i'm too old but thanks!", I replied. When the little devil instead of me just wanted to shout, "HELLL YEAAA I DOO!!!!" Oh well. As my mom said, in another lifetime i guess haha my days of that are over. So I make it to Jo's restaurant and creepily pass the windows hoping she sees me...which she does. So i continue on down the block to find a place to watch the rest of the Saints game and grab that beer that I so desperately need. I first come to a place called the "Other Side" bar. Lets just say it definitely wasn't "my side". They were really rude at the door. I walked in anyway, turned around and walked out. Ok next place. Came upon Cafe 47 which Jo and I had had lunch previously and it was much nicer. I was greeted at the door by a nice woman who sat me in a perfect position to watch the rest of the game. My server Erika came over promptly and brought me a beer and a glass of water. Perfect. And the fourth quarter just started. So 15-20 minutes later Jo comes in, we order a pizza and are discussing our restaurants when some guy behind the bar wants to take down the New Orleans Saints football that was nicely placed above the liquor. Clearly he was a Brett Favre fan as he had a shirt on with his name on it. And my smartass decides to say "hey hey hey" when he tried to take it down. Ok, i'm sorry, but if you cannot partake in some playful football banter then watch the games at home. Well clearly I learned MY Boston lesson real quick. He continued to take it down, flip me the bird, and told us our meal was on him that we can kindly leave. Holy shit. What? Are you serious? Of course we didn't because I don't care what some idiot says, I want to finish my pizza and beer. Then of course he apologizes saying he really will get our meal, the server apologizes, the owner clearly already left for the evening blah blah blah. I tried to go over to be like "no hard feelings man i was just playing around. I'm actually a bills fan haha" but I was greeted with insane beer breath and realized the reason for his actions was pure intoxication. So we left a nice tip for our waitress and left. At first I thought, I'm never coming back here. Then I thought, I am very happy to be a girl otherwise we would have gotten into a bar fight. Then Jo was scared she would get her ass kicked. Then we both thought, hey 4 beers a large pizza and it was only $20 cuz our waitress was so cute... i'll run my mouth all the time for that hahha!!! Longest story ever short... Boston really does have crazy fans. So I guess maybe I'll stick to Bills bars, or just cheer quietly hahahahahhah.

Happy Football Season everyone!!!

Love,

Rach

ya know what...

Ya know what I won't ever get tired of? That person in the subway, or in this case the T, that is talking out-loud to no one in particular yet everyone can hear him. He doesn't care if you are listening, nor probably cares if anyone is even on the train with him. He easily frustrates anyone and everyone around him because people may be reading, or trying to relax on there way to wherever they are going. However this person never bothers me but rather makes me smile and even laugh a little every time. They always have so much to say that I feel bad because maybe they don't have anyone to talk to. They could be a "crazy whacko" but who isn't in their own way? And if they happen to actually direct their conversation at me, i will gladly go along with it until my stop comes, no matter what else I would rather being doing. Anyways, moving on. Hi everyone... Rachel here. It's been forever since I've written on here. Jo is just so far in the spotlight I couldn't interrupt her grove =) However, today I felt since she is off at her first training shift and I am here alone all night, why not blog? Since being alone is one of my least favorite things, for a whole bunch of reasons, at least writing for a bit I won't be so lonely. First things first. Sam (meaning Sam one of the regulars at Boa)... if for any reason you actually have checked out the blog I have to tell you something! I have no other way to get ahold of you. On my last shift at Boa my friend and very loyal customer Sam came in and sat on the back patio. After a little while he gave me a very nice compliment on the shirt that I happen to be wearing and for some reason it really stuck with me. So much so that it gave me such confidence that I wore that same shirt to my interview yesterday. And to my pleasant surprise, i landed the job =) or at least start training on Friday!! So I owe Sam a thank you. Thanks for giving me the boost to go get the job without even knowing you were doing it =) Sometimes a little thing can go a longgg way! I miss Denver the most right now. It's easier to not miss NYC as much up here because they have so many similarities. And as always I miss the b-lo. But Boston seems pretty cool so far. I'm training at a place downtown tomorrow night. Similar to the places down near wall street and the area is very similar too. Then on friday I train at a place called South End Buttery. It's a cafe by day and neighborhood-feel restaurant by night. I'll only have to work at night which is cool so if I can do both jobs that would be ideal. Roll in the dough!! I have felt very eager lately to go back to school, or at least learn something. Really i just want to go "back to school" shopping haha. So if I find something cool to learn about it... i'll let ya know =) Oh... great to see familiar faces this weekend and today. My friend from home Caitlin and her new fiance Jim came Saturday and it was a blast. And Sunday it was really great to hang out with family. My uncle Dave, aunt Jess and three cousins came in. Then today we got to spend time with Cassie and Joe who are recently married!! All great things. I'll try and put some pics and videos up. It's so much easier on facebook but if you can't get to facebook then I should try harder to put them up! Hope everyone is having a good week so far. Thanks for reading =)

xoxo,

Rach

the announcements continue

Lunch with Cassie and Joe was fantastic. They're moving to DC tomorrow which truely unfortunate. They're a really fun couple to hang out with and know a lot of cool things about Boston. They were kind enough to buy us lunch as a welcome to Beantown and gave us lots of tips and fun ideas about things in the area to do. Again, we're really bummed they're leaving. Next on the agenda for today is my apologies for not writing about our visit to New York. I plan to give our New York weekend its own entry either tomorrow morning or when I get home tonight. Home tonight? Joanna, where are you going? Well.... I will be at Clio from 4-10ish learning the ropes and seeing whether Clio and I "are a good fit". The interview went really well yesterday. The two managers I spoke with were shockingly young and extrememly cool and laid back. I'm training tonight with another back server and I guess if I do a good job, I'm hired. No, I don't know if I get paid tonight. No, I don't know if I get fed. No, I don't know how much I would be making if hired. When I know these answers, you will be the first (after Rachel) to hear them. I'm a little nervous about tonight. I hope I can live up to how much I talked myself up. I'm glad its not a weekend and it'll be a little slower. I'm hoping this place isn't completely out of league and I don't end up embarrassing myself. I'm sure it will be fine. I also just realized that my last five sentences start with "I". Narcissist. -lj

publick announcement

A few things this morning... 1. A Restaurant Review: We went to a beer pub last night called "Publick House". They're beer selection was nothing less than extrememly impressive. It took forever to choose our beers. I've only ever seen one other beer menu this complete and once I remember what that place in NYC is called, I'll let you know. Joshua, do you remember? We ordered mussels which were underseasoned and there were frankly just too many of them. We ordered the smaller appetizer version and I seriously think the cap on how many mussels one can fish in a season has just i been lowered because of our appetizer. It was a total waste of food and an unnessesary portion. I couldn't help but wonder why the chef was ok with giving away so many mussels at such a low price point. You should always wonder about large portions of cheap seafood. Seafood is expensive for restaurants to serve. They obviously make that money back on salt and pepper since they used virtually none on the dish. Our entrees came while we were still eating the mussels, which I was grateful for because if they had waited till we were done it would have added an hour to our meal. I ordered the short rib and Rach got Fish and Chips. There was some sort of spice I couldn't pin point on the short rib that I didn't really like and it was totally overcooked. Probably because it sat in the window while Rachel and I tried to make a dent in the probably 40+ dish of mussels. Rach liked the fish and chips. I don't think I got a good bite because my mouth was coated in whatever spice or herb that was in the short rib. After two and a half beers (we shared the third) we left. The service was very good although I wish she was more helpful with my beer selection. But she was nice and attentive. I'd go back for a beer but not for food. I was going to save this and finish later, but i'll post it now and post again later. going to breakfast with cassie and joe!! -lj

a fear continues...

I'm reading up more on Clio. The restaurants chef has a James Beard Award, has won Iron Chef America, and the restaurant has been named one of the best restaurants in America by Esquire magazine. I'm screwed. -lj

clio

Well, I got an interview. It's for a back waiter at a restaurant called "Clio" located in the Elliot hotel. I've don't think I've ever even eaten at a restaurant this nice let alone worked in one. If I work there it's going to bring my resume up about twenty levels. I'm excited about the prospect of working in that caliber of restaurant but I need a haircut. Thats a weird thing to stress about, but its not like I have money to go buy a nice outfit and get a hair cut for this interview. The owner sounded really cool on the phone and I feel I can definitely tell him anything he wants to hear. I'm gonna study up on the menu and convince him that if he hires someone who's learning he has the advantage of having someone coming in every day trying to do better than they did the day before. My biggest worry is what to wear to the interview. I have to invest in some shoes after this. My interview is on Tuesday at 2pm. Keep your fingers crossed for me and say a prayer to the culinary gods. -lj

We did it!

Attention Attention!! Rachel Popson and Joanna Cappola have officially gone an entire 24 hours without spending ANY money and didn't walk into a SINGLE restaurant! All 3 meals were prepared, cooked and eaten IN our apartment. We even stayed within the healthy criteria of our new diet. Man did we eat healthy yesterday! The first sucessful day of following a diet is key I think. Because after that you just feel guilty for cheating because then it knocks you off a track. It's much easier to keep saying "The diet starts tomorrow". Saying "The diet started yesterday" holds a lot more weight....no pun intended. We also went on a run yesterday around Jamaica Pond which is a huge pond just a few blocks away. I wore a sweatshirt on the run which is something I've never done before. I took a cold shower afterward and there was still heat radiating from my head. We didn't spend all of yesterday in the apartment however. We decided we needed a map of Boston since we don't know where any of the neighborhoods are in relation to eachother, or in relation to themselves for that matter. Triple A gives free maps to their peeps, who we are, so we decided to drive to the Boston office and get some free maps. Driving in Boston is ridiculous! It's so confusing! Barbera (our GPS) took us to the only office the internet says is in Boston. Imagine two girls from Kentucky just moving to NYC and unexpectingly driving into Times Square. Barbera took us right into downtown. We never found the place and still have no maps. The whole trip took over an hour. It got us out of the house though and we got to see some of Boston. We spent the day sending resumes, writing some letters, I played some guitar and going back and forth convincing eachother (successfully) to go for a run. We also started a very unhealthy habit yesterday. We know from being devout LOST watchers for so many years that you can watch any ABC tv show online. We decided to choose one to get into. After spending all day being economical and healthy, we needed some sort of guilty pleasure. We chose "The Bachelor Pad". Very attractive men and women living together in a beautiful mansion looking for love and competing for money. There's betrayal, scandels, manipulation, sex and drama. We're HOOKED. And we feel awful about ourselves because of it. One of my biggest concerns about going out with friends tonight is that we probably will have to wait until tomorrow to see whats next. I'm disgusted with myself. Anyway... At the beginning of the day we got a package from Aunt Jackie. She had made us a photo album of some memories of Denver. We sat on the couch and went back in time. We look at pictures of mountains now the way we used to look at the Manhattan skyline. The album is amazing and we're so thankful. Today we woke up early, did laundry, ate some healthy omega rich oatmeal, sent some resumes and we're going to spend the day with Caitlin and Jim. Good day to you all! -lj

We're gettin there...

There's a hurricane a comin! I've been doing a rain dance since we got here due to the fact that our apartment is void of air conditioning and we decided to arrive in Boston during a heat wave. It's been in the 90's outside and I'm sure in the 100's in our apartment which doesn't get the occasional breeze of the outdoors. The apartment in equipt with a tall, white fan that we literally carry with us from room to room. On the positive side, it has introduced us quickly to the electical system of the apartment and we already know where all the outlets are located. The apartment is really cute. Now. When we got here it was cute too since we weren't looking too closely. At a quick glance and walk through its adorable. After Leslie (the apartments normal inhabitant) left and we really got a chance to look around more closely we learned that the apartment was pretty filthy. Well....very filthy. It took us five hours on Wednesday to clean the place and it was not a glamourous task whatsoever. I had a four hour tantrum during the time. Rachel was very patient with me and allowed me to stomp around the apartment while I cleaned making loud noises and moving things with more force than necessary. Finally as it started looking better I started feeling better and settled back into a normal heart rate. While we were cleaning we noticed a few things that we have become accustomed to using on an every day basis were missing. We knew there was no cable when we got here. I held back my tears and decided that would be ok. It's 2010 and you can watch TV online if you must. But wait...where is the microwave and toaster? Good thing we don't have TV because we wouldn't be able to cook our TV dinners. Mommy says we can meet her half way and grab a microwave but Rachel and I have been hearing how unhealthy microwaves are for you (we don't know why though) and decided to give the lifestyle a shot. If you think about it, they probably aren't good for you. How can heating up food with no actual heat be ok? We went grocery shopping and pledged to eat the groceries since we have no jobs. Last night we did end up going to a local bar for a cheap dinner because they apartment was just too damn hot. Especially to cook in. Today. Today we pledge to eat only groceries. We're excited for the hurricane. I've never been in a hurricane! You'd think after all the post-hurricane related things I've been through I'd have a more responsible perspective. I don't. I'm pumped. We've dropped off resumes to some local restaunts. There are two right next to each other right down the block that we really want. The restuarants are Ten Tables and Bon Savor. Rachel applied at Ten Tables and I went into the other. The owner of Bon Savor said she was hiring and that she'd look my resume over. I'm feeling hopeful and you shouldn't give out resumes on the weekends so I'm glad I can give her a few days to look it over before I start the search again. It's right down the block and would be so convenient! And its cool! I hate searching for jobs and starting them. Especially when I know that nothing could ever top Stella. Tomorrow Rach's friend Caitlin and her fiance Jim are gonna be in Boston and we're excited to see them. Then on Sunday we're going out to dinner with Rach's Uncle Dave and Aunt Jess since they're in Boston for the weekend as well. Our only stress is jobs and obviously money. We're liking it here more and more and I know as soon as we have jobs we're really gonna start loving it. We're excited for football season and looked up a Buffalo Bills Bar to attend when it starts. Unfortunately they don't play preseason games and we had to watch the Giants/Pats game last night at the bar down the street. The Bills bar isn't as close. We'll have to learn the public transportation system for that bar. The past two nights (besides dinner) we've spent in watching Apocalypse Now (yes, it took us two nights to watch). On Wednesday night we went to Mr. Bartleys Gourmet Burger, supposedly the best burger in Boston. Travel Channel, Food Network and lots of local magazines told us we wouldn't be disappointed. I gotta tell ya though, I don't think anything will ever be as good as FLIP. We were totally disappointed. I mean, they were good.... but burgers you cook at home are good too. They weren't special and the place didn't even have beer. How do you not serve beer at a burger joint?! The restaurant was located in Cambridge right near Harvard. What a cool area. We were so jealous of all the students...you really don't know how great college is until its gone. Just like anything else I guess. It made us both feel stupid being around all the smarties and we decided we'd pressure our children and make them attend Harvard so we could live vicariously through them. Maybe our smart children will be able to explain to us how microwaves actually work. -lj

still some rocks in my socks

I've obviously had to call upon time travel i order to keep everyone up to date. Technically I should be writing about our first night arriving in Boston (which was tonight). About how we love our apt but have to dedicate our entire day tomorrow to cleaning the damn thing since it's previous inhabitant is in law school and I guess has not had the time to do so. But first, I must go back to our last few days in Denver. The last few days in Denver consisted of lots of hugs, packing, promises of keeping in touch, toasts of last drinks, financial planning, tearful goodbyes and saying "see you later" to people that we then, never actually did have the pleasure of saying goodbye to. Monday night Betty invited the neighbors and some of our work friends to a beautiful patio dinner. We all ate well and had a marvelous time. We called it an early night for Rachel and I had to get some sleep if we wanted to be ready to go at 8am the next morning so that we could make it to St. Louis by nightfall. We were able to have a private goodbye to Betty and Beau that morning. They were the only ones that could pull tears out of our eyes. It was so hard to back out of the long driveway watching the two of them standing there and watching us leave. I couldn't help but be especially sad knowing that poor Beau couldn't have understood when as the day past, we never came back. Betty said the left for the day and when he came back the first thing he did was run into our rooms to see if we were there. Obviously, we were not. I hope in my heart he knows I love him and that I'll see him again one day and that i'm looking forward to that visit. I really feel that he was my dog for three months. He was one of my best friends there. Everyone who knows me well knows how much I loved dogs. Well, I really bonded with this one. Our last night in Denver he and Ridely (the jack russel next door) slept in our bed with us. Saying goodye to Betty was just as hard. She had become our family. Waking up in the morning now without her there sends a feeling of loss and missing through my gut. I wish I had taken less naps and spent more time with Betty while Rachel was at work. Saying goodbye to Denver was extremely difficult. We had never imagined we could get so attached to somewhere you only lived at for three and a half months. We became attached to Betty, Beau, the house, the neighbors, Ridely, the mountains, our jobs, our friends, our neighborhood, or mountains....these things we didn't know before now helped define us in the morning as we woke. On Tuesday hugged tight, got in our cars, and it was all gone. We certainly had excitement up ahead but there was still the cloud over our car reminding us of everything we were leaving behind. When we originally left new york it was because we felt stuck. Same thing after same thing but never going anywhere. Our reasons for leaving Denver was simply because it was part of the plan, We're travelers. Explorers. Discovering pioneers. We can't stop now just because we found somewhere that makes us happy. And who knows...maybe it only made us so happy because we knew we were leaving. We weren't stuck there so why be afraid of it? I'm excited that we left Denver but it was very very hard. We really did have an amazing time. We met amazing people and we had a much harder time saying goodye than I thought we would. But we did it. We left. How I figure it....I have such a better and bigger heart after Denver because of all the amazing people and things I had to fit inside. Boston will do the same thing. No one's place will ever be taken, but new places will form and I will die with the worlds biggest heart. Because of all I allowed to take in and then go find even more great things to take it. I can't imagine not knowing the people I became close with in Denver. There must be people here that I'm going to meet and i'll think "I can't imagine my life without your presence. " No one will ever be lost or replaced. My heart will continue to grow on my adventure as I let more and more people in. So we've arrived in Boston tonight. Our apartment is great however its dirty and we have to clean the whole thing tomorrow and its not air conditioned. Not big deals. We will clean and live within five feet of our big fan at all times. We're very excited and we're thrilled that we get to act like we're married once again! more tomrrow and some pictures if your lucky -lj

Boston here we come!!

3:00pm.... Tuesday, August 31st 2010

We venture to Boston, Massachusetts!!!!!

What a great adventure so far....

top of the world

It's been so long since my last post and so much has happened that I think I'm just going to have to time travel and split it up into a few posts. We're gonna go back about two weeks now and go back to the weekend my cousin Nicole flew into Denver for two days. She came in on a Friday night and thankfully, Betty was kind enough to pick her up from the airport since Rachel and I had to work. I was running around my restaurant trying to coordinate seating, serve wine and explain the difference between cherry salad and carrot salad to my tables when I looked up and saw Betty and Nicole standing by the door. My family is here! Being a very family oriented person, I've been extremely homesick for my family and seeing such a familiar face standing in the entry way of my restaurant was like a cozy little blanket. I ran over and exchanged hugs and asked how the trip went. I kept having to bounce away from the conversation to fill a water or clear a table. I introduced Nicole and Betty to my coworkers as they whizzed by holding water pitchers and dirty plates. I told them to go next door and say hi to Rachel and that I'd probably see them tomorrow since it was already nine thirty and we were still slammed. The next day we all woke up early (early for me) with expectations to drive to Mt. Something (?) and hike up. While we were driving we realized that if we continued up the road, we would reach Mt. Evans. Remember Mt. Evans?? If not, please revisit one of my first posts and learn about it. Well, of course I got super excited and pretty-pleased everyone in the car and got them to agree to skip the hike and drive up to the Evans summit. Well it seemed to take forever. We were in Bettys car which is pretty high tech and the GPS told us our elevation the whole time going up which was really cool. We got out a few times to take pictures and marvel at the pristine beauty of the world very few people lived in. Finally we made it past the tree line and got out again to stand infront of Summit Lake. The wind was freezing and we were absolutely not dressed properly. I got out and walked about the lake as long as I could stand the cold and then jumped back into the car where everyone else was already comfortably at a livable temperature. We continued up. Mt. Evans is a huge tourist spot so we were far from alone. There were so many cars and people and even a lot of frighteningly fit bikers that probably started biking around six that morning all the way to the top! We parked the car in the highest parking lot in the country

and got out and started snapping pictures. The summit was still a five minute hike up from the parking lot. I was so excited I practically jogged up. Betty and Nicole were feeling a little affected by the altitude and decided to stay by the parking lot. Rach and I stood on the top, took a picture and stood for a few minutes in complete wonder. The air was thin, but it was perfect. It was so beautiful. We were completely surrounded by mountains in every direction. We didn't stay for long because poor Nicole who had been at sea level the day earlier started feeling a little woozy. We all started feeling a little funny I think. We drove down and me, Nicole and Rach all passed out when we got home. After our naps, Rachel went to work and Nicole and I had a nice dinner at my restaurant. Then I took her downtown and showed her Denver. It was a really great weekend and I love that Nic and I got to have some one on one time. Well thats post number one. I'm in NYC right now and I'm sure you'll hear all about it in six months

(just kidding, it will be soon). -lj