Brief (but Important) Updates

• 10 days (and counting) without coffee
• 7 days (and counting) since surgery
• bought myself a present for surviving both of these milestones: 

Boston Sunset on a Fall Day

After a particularly hectic Monday, I returned to to MBTA station in  mediocre mood....until I looked up at the sky and saw a gorgeous sunset in the works. Since my apartment (and the T) are roughly only a five minutes drive, I was inspired to race the clock and go take some pictures of the sunset. What follows are my feeble attempts at photography that I hope to improve over time! enjoy :)

This is my favorite...I wish it had come out clearer

City skyline with a plane landing at Logan

clearly I need to do further research on manual settings

D-Day

For those of you following my coffee journey, Sunday marked D-Day: decaf day.

So far, the torture caused by this change has been only mild to moderately uncomfortable. Sunday I just felt very tired and out of sorts. Today, I have a moderate migraine (migraine = in pain, but trying to still function). Contemplating heading out early to go home and lay down...we'll see.

PS - decided to buy cookies at Starbucks for an afternoon sugar push. One was a cat an the other an owl. I took the photo *after* eating the first cookie:

Restaurant Review: Wicked

I recently dined at the (relatively) new Legacy Place area in Dedham. I had heard about a restaurant on the Phantom Gourmet called "Wicked" that served organic pizza.

As an individual with food allergies, eating at restaurants (and eating in general) can be downright terrifying. It's scary some of the crap that they put in food and it has made me very timid about trying anything new. I prefer that my epipen stay in my bag and never be needed :)

So, when I heard about Wicked I jumped at the chance to enjoy a meal worry free!

After a brief wait, we were escorted to a side table in the bar. One of my only critiques of Wicked was how close together the seating was, but not a major issue in the grand scheme of things.

Our waiter, Adam, was amazing! He answered all of my allergy questions and gave us a brief overview of how the restaurant worked and how they made the items we had ordered. I found out that a vast majority of the food is organic, which is pretty fantastic!

Here are the noms:

Buffalo Wings

Mushroom Swiss Burger (ground in house same day!) with Truffle Fries

Brownie Sundae

The food was amazing! It was so nice to go somewhere that is organic and allergy conscious without being pretentious. I will DEFINITELY be returning soon :)

Kicking decaffeination into overdrive!

My surgery date is set.

In addition to being terrified, my caffeine "plan" fell by the way side as of late. I didn't go back to my ventis, but I didn't drop any more ranks.

Now that there is a definitive timeline, the plan is back in effect. This week? half caf!

not very legible, but it says 1/2

Next week? decaf! With the weekend pre-surgery being no caffeine.

It's going to be a rough road before and after, but I have at least two things to look forward to during the recovery process:

:)

Ten Years Later

On September 11, 2001, I was a brand new freshman at Bridgewater State College. I had just entered my first full week of classes. My Tuesday/Thursday class (Theater Arts) was late in the morning, so I had slept in. My father, a Boston Police officer, had worked an overnight detail at Logan Airport and was driving home when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

I remember my father running into my room and demanding I wake up. I thought I was in trouble for breaking something on my mom's Chevy Caprice...how naive I was. He insisted I turn on my television, which I did...approximately thirty seconds before Flight 175 hit the South Tower.

I got up for class and prepped my school stuff. At that point, no one knew what was going on still...news stations hadn't uttered the word "terrorism" yet. My professor balked when I called and asked her if class had been canceled. I drove to school in a daze, parked my car in the mostly empty commuter lot and hurried over to the campus center. 

I walked up the stairs to the second level to see dozens, maybe even a hundred kids (the number is hazy now) gathered around TVs that a faculty member had wheeled into the hallway. Time seemed to stand still as they played and re-played the video of the towers crashing down, which had happened while I was in the car.

At some point, it was announced that school had closed for the day. I called worked, which I was informed was also closing. I remember going to my then boyfriend's house and just sitting on the floor glued to the TV, waiting to know what was happening. I stayed there until curfew and then went home to watch coverage with my parents. I remember bawling my eyes out until i fell asleep.

The days and weeks that followed were a blur. Everyone was a New Yorker for a few short months, a united front against the atrocities committed to our home. I remember watching this happen live on FOX and just crying (starts at approx 4:29): http://youtu.be/IH_6EUCILew.

The initial shock and pain faded for many. A united front turned partisan once again. How soon people forget. A few short months after 9/11, students were publicly admonished for supporting our troops while professors and students alike protested AGAINST the military. Many military members has signed up because of September 11th in order to help. One of those protesters had been my friend. Our friendship ended that day.
 
To say I was not personally affected by 9/11 would be a lie. While it's true that my family did not personally lose anyone in the attack,  we lost close to 3,000 American lives that day. Mothers. Fathers. Children. How can that NOT personally affect you?

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I happened to be in Providence and took some pictures of the anniversary observances (below).

  

My thoughts and prayers remain with those families and loved one lost on September 11, 2001.

Impromptu events are my favorite

I am the first to admit that I am by no means a hockey fan. My sports fandom typically starts with spring training and ends with the World Series....with a few Miami Dolphins games sprinkled in to annoy my family and friends ;)

However, I do love Boston overall as it has been my home since...well, forever.  I recognize that Boston and sports go hand-in-hand. So, when a last minute twitter announced opportunity presented itself to take an impromptu visit to see the Stanley Cup in the North End, I jumped on the Red Line!

It didn't hurt that the cup was going to be paraded around by this gorgeous man either:

Andrew Ference

It was a cool event overall, a parade through the North End. I did get the touch the Stanley cup as well which is pretty darn cool. What follows is a photo collage of the afternoon!

Blades on his Segway

Andrew leads the procession (yellow shirt)

Turning onto Hanover Street

My moment with the Stanley Cup

Ferrance raises the cup at the fire (this photo courtesy of the Interwebs)

Hanging out with Bobby Orr

Zen Place #2

Okay, I know I have discussed my Zen Places in a previous post, but one of these is so important to me that I feel the need to dedicate a full post to it.

 Castle Island aka Fort Independence aka City Point (for anyone over 50 really). The area has three claims to fame really:

1) The fort's historical involvement in the War of 1812 and the American Revolution before that
2) The alleged inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" (Poe was stationed at the fort while in the army)
3) Las, but not least: Sullivan's (Sully's to the locals)!

My favorite thing in the entire world to do on an afternoon at Castle Island is to: grab some fries and a soda from Sully's, meander around to the other side of the Fort and people watch. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is my photo documentary from my last visit :)

Sitting on the fort, I-pod ready

Cruise ship pulling in to port

Panorama from my seat

Plane landing in the distance at Logan

One of the (small) beaches Castle Island has to offer

Fort Independence

Cannons on the Fort

A prison cell? Fort Independence was home to Massachusetts' first state prison

Plaque about Fort Independence

The famous Sully's! Celebrating 60 years!

The pigeons outside are FAT!

My only regret is that I haven't actually been inside Fort Independence since I was thirteen years old. My goal is to remedy that Labor Day weekend. Expect another photo documentary if I succeed :)

Decaffeination Nation...not as easy as I had hoped

I have been delaying the inevitable regarding a caffeine update because...quite honestly? I am embarassed and ashamed at my lack of progress. I never took into account 1) how addicitve this substance is and 2) how painful it can be to stop.

I moved down to the smallest iced coffee that Starbucks sells this past Monday. Thankfully I was off from work because I spent most of Monday and Tuesday with a dull migraine. Believe it or not, this was the more pleasant of the two downsizes.

The previous downsize from Venti to Grande was TORTURE. The first few days were fine, but the four day migraine that followed Fourth of July weekend was enough to cause me to delay my next step as long as possible. The trauma was compounded by the migraine hitting an hour from home and getting caught in MedFlight traffic from a car accident (not me).

Today is day three on the Grande to Tall downsize. So far so good today...but we'll see how the coming days progress! Cross your fingers folks.



Tall coffee: Day One

 

Size Comparison with Wall-E 

   

The hottest day of the year = SCALLOP dinner!

As most of you may know, this past weekend in New England was quite the scorcher! As indicated in the picture below, it became quite steamy and unbearable.

Temperature Friday night

 So, once I was home from work on Friday night, I decided I was NOT leaving the sweet modern convenience of air conditioning again! I decided instead to make some scallops with pasta for dinner :)

Scallops in oil with garlic powder

 As this was an impromptu dinner, I did not have any garlic cloves to cook with, so I settled for using some garlic powder (which I typically reserve for lasagna). It wasn't as good, but it was decent for a last second substitution.

I boiled some whole wheat pasta....

Then added some spinach to cook with the almost ready scallops....

Stay Frosty

One has to have a sense of humor, so I used my winter cookie plate for my dinner. I was trying to think cool thoughts :)

Ta-da!