absolutely stunning

more pics coming to flickr very soon...

life is a picnic

Saturday morning at 9am Shannon calls me. I'm sleeping (obvi) and her message says 'call me back, it's important'. she was at iparty.

Emily's bachelorette-picnic.


I feel like a parent who doesn't take as many pictures of their second born as they do of their first. I have millions of photos from Shannon's shower, bachelorette, wedding, wedding weekend, dress try-on, bustle (pictured), etc.

maybe someday if I get married no one will take pictures. actually the pictures seem like one of the best parts of a wedding ceremony. everyone is focused on grooming you and wants their picture taken with you. you're like Mickey Mouse.


KG, it must be so hard to watch from the bench. you should know that you look really good in your suits.

and I just really love this picture.

Go Celtics!

lovely

lovely VD:

sleep in late.

oysters, steak and cocktails at Eastern Standard.

bath.

art show at Orchard.

cocktails (and a hot dog) at Deep Ellum.

how cute is that dog?!

lovely Sunday:

brunch.

Freaks and Geeks.

Pants Yell! and Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

ZuZu.

sleepover with Kimberly.

in other lovely news:

happy 50th birthday to Dad.

exactly one month til I see the Celtics.

exactly two months til Emily's bachelorette party.

Newport tomorrow.

'09 Mercedes til Friday.

9 days til I pick up Emily at the airport.

I miss you Emmy

family

we're having real Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow when Shannon and Michael return from their honeymoon.

today was an unconventional Thanksgiving for us. I had lunch (steak) in Boston with my parents and Josh. then we came to Medway where lounging commenced.... those of you who have spent time with my family know we can get a serious lounge on. I just watched 5 hours of Dexter with my parents. I got them hooked.

when I packed my overnight bag for Medway it consisted of elastic waist pants, slippers, a sweatshirt, Dexter dvds and my book.


(Biff chewed off the laces)

my mom just made me a grilled cheese. today I woke up feeling especially thankful for my mom.

I'm reading I Capture the Castle. it's totally adorable.

I heard of this book a few years ago because it inspired an Anthropologie apparel theme while I was working there.

brief synopsis:
the narrator is a 17 year-old girl named Cassandra who lives in a castle with her family. they moved there after the father had been a successful writer, but has since given up writing and now the family is very poor. they don't even pay rent anymore. Cassandra's older sister, Rose, gets engaged to a wealthy man named Simon. while Rose is in London with Simon's mother to buy new clothes she sends a letter home to Cassandra. I'm going to type in some parts from it because it's just so sweet.

I expect you will wish I would describe everything we have bought but I haven't the time and I also feel embarrassed at having so much when you have so little. But you are to have a most beautiful bridesmaid's frock - you are to come up here to be fitted for it - and I think the ready-made clothes I am wearing now can be altered for you, once I get my trousseau. And when I am married we will shop like mad for you....

I have a bathroom all to myself and there are clean peach-coloured towels every single day. Whenever I feel lonely, I go and sit in there and I cheer up.

for some reason I get misty eyed whenever I think about that letter... the feeling of wanting your sisters to have everything is familiar to me. (sisters before misters!) as is how they can appreciate and understand your silliest behavior.

note between Emily and me:


the thought of how life and family dynamics will change once someone is married is particularly relevant. it makes me sad to think about how future holidays will be spent differently.

I wonder how Emily would've reacted if I left a note that said:

Darling sister, I awoke this morning to find an unpleasant treat from your cat. How I avoided it and thought about just leaving it for you to tidy after. I relented as I do respect your efforts to never clean up after that cat. In turn I request you see to the washing of our rather bedraggled floors.

Smithmas 07:

I don't think it really registered with me that last Christmas would be the last one where our immediate family was the 6 of us.

Emily and Josh both got engaged this week. Emily on Monday. Josh on Wednesday. first I thought I was having my recurring nightmare of the above scenario happening. but no, I was awake.

I haven't really adjusted to the news. in fact, I haven't like it at all. as a protest to what I consider "unreasonable behavior" I ordered beer with lunch today. I have never drank in front of my dad before. I had a winter ale with my oysters and filet mignon. I don't know what I accomplished by ordering expensive menu items but that was part of the protest, too.

oh well. cheers.

boys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses

my grandpa told me that after I got my first pair of glasses - at age 10.
first pair of glasses:

I didn't know what that comment meant at the time, but I remembered it. then at least a teansy bit consequently from grandpa's statement I almost always wore contacts from ages 12-22. sometimes I still feel sloppy or lazy if I wear my glasses (I wore contacts to my sister's wedding and sometimes when I go out) but as of a few years ago, I basically switched over to glasses full-time. on a similar note, I also stopped dying my hair and pretty much only wear elastic waist pants while in my house.

a couple days ago I took my sister, Emily, to my glasses guy:

he's great. he has a good sense of humor about the frames I bring him.
i.e. these sunglasses I had him put prescription lenses in.

and these toy glasses from Savers:


in a month and a half Emily is moving to Idaho and decided new glasses would be a big part of bringing granny style to Rexburg, ID.

some of the finalists:



calling our mom to tell her about the pair she wants to buy (and is wearing)

you can bet on seeing A LOT more photos of these glasses on flickr once she picks them up this week.

this morning at brunch 5/6 of us had glasses. Friday night 3/4 of us had glasses.

I think it's only a matter of time til we take over the world.

how the cookie crumbles

my sister (and roomie) is moving West in December.

I've known this for about 2 months now, but every time I think about it I feel like I'm just hearing it the first time and someone is punching me in the stomach.

last night I was in bed and Emily knew I hadn't eaten dinner. so she woke me up with a plate full of onies (macaroni & cheese) and a hot dog.

Emily makes the best macaroni & cheese.

we have our own language (something I also lamented about when Shannon moved because we have our own language, too) i.e. onies. we always tell eachother 'luvshu' (love you)... now you are hip to a couple of our words.

Emily's kitten and probably car will stay here with me. but they don't help me feel better about her leaving.



shortly after we moved in together, Emily heard me making my middle-of-the-night snack. (a ritual old roommates thought was completely weird because it is.) she burst out of her room looking so relieved that I was awake too. "I can't sleep" she said (and looking like she had taken some no-doz.) while I ate my rice krispies, Emily made bacon. then I had cashews and she had a jello. like this was a perfectly normal thing to be doing at 3am.

oh Emshee I mishu already.




in other news: I hate this time of year. go Celtics.

rites of passage/ land and sea

Friday morning I got on the T to go to work and it didn't feel nearly as crowded as usual. for a second I froze and thought, oh crap is today Saturday? Thursday night I took my sister, Emily, to a show at Paradise, so I hadn't got my usual 10 hours of sleep... threw me off a bit.

so I've been thinking about important milestones for someone out on their own for the first time... I didn't have anyone to show me cool places to go to or what the cheapest food for survival was. of course I learned nonetheless, but I'm really happy I have had the chance to show Emily some of the ways of life as a new adult.

go to show in Boston - check.


sneak into 21+ bar - check.


buy first burrito - check.


stay up late for no reason, doing dumb things - check.

(she usually goes to bed by 9:30, not that I can judge.)

live in hip, sometimes sketchy neighborhood in old house with lots of "charm" - check.

oh and get a pet because you can - check.

in other news, I was surprised Manny left us so abruptly. Jason Baywatch is filling the void nicely though. I am happy Ken Griffey Jr was traded to the White Sox because later on in the month I have tickets to see them play the Red Sox. I saw Jr, A-Rod and the other Mariners of the late 90s play at Fenway when I was in high school. I went with my dad and my brother on the commuter rail, we sat in the bleachers and I know somewhere I have a photo of Griffey's back that I took at that game. Randy Johnson pitched and even from far away he looked so tall. Tim Wakefield pitched for us. I bet this game was right around the time that I read the Mike Piazza article I mentioned in my last blog.

it's raining at my house but I'm watching the Red Sox game and there's no rain at Fenway. yesterday Elise and I rode bikes from Newbury St to the aquarium. while we were on our way we could hear thunder and a felt a few drops of rain. but we made it right before the downpour. we were like yes, sweet fist pump and ran inside to get tickets for Dolphins and Whales in 3D. but the people in line in front of us bought the last tickets to the show! all of a sudden we thought oh no we have the worst luck. then we were deciding if we should wait an hour for Sharks in 3D when these 2 boys came over and offered us free tickets to the Sharks show. yes!!! what a great day.

Rhianna and Rob met us there and we passed the hour preparing for the show by eating swedish fish.


the image of the yellow fish above was more gruesome than anything in the movie. I was actually a bit disappointed by that. however I do recommend the movie purely because of the jellyfish that will swim right in front of your face.

this turned into a long blog because I was planning on blogging before I left to go sailing. then it just kept looking more and more like rain. now there is a Red Sox delay. the sky keeps getting blue then really dark. I don't think we'll be sailing today.

activities

yesterday I was riding my bike around JP and I saw the guy from Revolution who fixed my bike. he waved and looked proud. I even rode one-handed for a bit while I drank my iced coffee... that was actually more nerve racking than I thought it would be.

Emily and I played tennis at Stony Brook. I felt rusty and my forearm is still tired. but I'm optimistic that I can be in full form soon. and my muscles look huge. anyone want to play tennis?



Friday I went out in a Mercury sailboat on the Charles. for a little while Rob, Katie, and I were under the Longfellow Bridge. even though we weren't supposed to be under there it felt cool to be in a place that not too many people had been. some little flakes of the underside of the bridge fell on me. I put a piece of it in my pocket to take home. I wonder how many people have touched the underside of that bridge...


a few weeks ago I didn't even know words like boom vang existed. now I use them like a life-long sailor (almost).