MBTA

Welcome, aboard. Tonight, I am pleased to be a guest blogger for the Karos. Christiana is the main voice here, and she basically forced me to post about the commuter life.

It's long and hard (that's what she said!). Just kidding, it's not so bad. However, two days in a row I found myself sprinting to make it on the commuter rail. Up stairs to boot (falling twice on the final leg, scrambling for the top). My legs were jello at the top. It's nuts, everyone gets off the subway and just goes mad toward their destination. I can't imagine the pain the others who do not have the fortune of attending regular Crossfit sessions were feeling.

Anyways, long story short, yesterday I missed the train and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. Today, the train was 6 minutes late, so all my effort was for nothing. Good times.

Boston tip of the day: MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) is called "The T" by the locals and always provides an exciting experience.

Dave

Red Sox

You know you're near Boston when one of the first things a coworker asks you is 'Do you follow the Red Sox or Patriots?' Of course, I didn't realize the New England Patriots were in this part of New England...so my answer is 'No.' :)  Obviously I'm trying to brush up on a couple sports things to prepare myself for these common sports conversations.

Sunday night while watching tv a commercial came on with John Krasinski and Alec Baldwin. I instantly perked up because I love those guys, especially Mr. Baldwin. Basically this commercial cemented in my mind that I love Boston. The Red Sox were playing the Yankees this past weekend, and now I know that every time this happens, I need to be on the look out for these (apparently there are quite a few like this)!

Dave and I wanted to get in the spirit of the Red Sox, so we did what anyone would do.

Note: This a terrible pic, blurry, my eyes closed, but the ice cream was tasty.


Oh and before you think I'm completely daft when it comes to Boston sports, I would like to note that when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 I watched all the games! Mainly to see Johnny Damon, but it still counts. hehe


Boston Tip of the Day: If you don't follow sports there is a high probability that people will think you're quite odd.

Boom!!!

I'd say we did our first mini-Boston trip on Sunday!  We drove up to Lexington (only 15 min away) to tour around where the first shot was fired to start the Revolutionary War.  We ended up being cheap, so we didn't actually go into any of the museum-type houses. Instead we just wandered the town. We walked on the 'Battle Green,' to the Buckman Tavern where the Minutemen were waiting for the Red Coats, and then on to the Hancock-Clarke house to see Paul Revere's and William Dawe's Lexington destination. It's unbelievable to walk around such a historic area. We passed a house that was built in the 1680s - the last standing house of the 17th century in Lexington. 1680s! Over 300 years old - unheard of! :)

But, the most exciting part of the trip was on the drive out of Lexington. We wanted to pass the last historical/museum-type house, and we noticed tons of cars around the building. Then we see people in Revolutionary clothing outside!! We have to stop just to see what's going on. 

So the Lexington Historical Society was having a dedication ceremony for a portion of the Munroe Tavern that they rehabbed (or something like that). The Munroe Tavern was the British Field Hospital and Headquarters about a mile away from 'Battle Green.' Dave and I walk up near the Minutemen who tell us they will be shooting their guns soon. OMG!!! Old guns shooting! We have to stay. The dedication ceremony was just starting. We stand there for 20+ min listening to old person after old person speaking about how amazing this project was to work on, and thanking everyone imaginable.  Sorry for the ageism. :)  Finally the speaker says 'Now we'd like to honor this new plaque to John Raymond, who was the last Minuteman to die in this battle.'  Sweeeeet! We are standing right next to the Minutemen who are ready to fire. I can't wait so I move over a little bit to get a good view real close to them. 

Click.  First photo of them about to shoot.

As I'm in mid-click to shoot the next pic, they fire. It was fricking loud!!!! Like, blow out my eardrums. I jumped quite a bit and got this nice result. :)

lol .... a little shaky. Evidence of my shock.

Also, we're going to buy this house. :) jk

Boston Tip of the Day: Save up buko bucks if you want to buy a house here! Although apparently a lot of people out here have 'more money than God.'  (Heard that phrase at least 3 times last week)

Less Casual

Our goal this past Saturday was to explore a little around our city/surrounding areas. We looked at the other apartment complex we were sooo close to renting, and man am I glad we are where we are. We're much more secluded and it's just way better! Sometime soon I plan to post pics of our place.

Our other big adventure was finding the outlet mall! Some coworkers mentioned there was one in Watertown, about 10-15 minutes away. I map it and it says it's only 5 miles away ... I'm thinking 10 minutes tops. Well the traffic here is crazer. You're going through all these mini towns that intersect with one another. Roads are going this way and that way.  Needless to say it was more like 20 minutes. 

This 'Arsenal' outlet mall is on a site that dates back before the Civil War and was used by the Army. Obviously that has since been torn down, but it's kind of neat to think about.  So Dave and I hit up only two stores, but it takes 2 hours!  Ok... so I took a little long in Ann Taylor Factory store, but Dave made up for it big time at the Gap Outlet. He found some good jeans, but decided he wanted two pairs. He tried on the same size of at least 4 different styles, but none worked. He tried the same style, but the same size fit differently each time. Over an hour later, we found two pairs that fit.  He was worse than a girl! :)

Oh, and to the title of this post... Dave had also looked at some casual khakis that he would wear on weekends or occasionally to work. He says to me 'I just don't know if I need anymore of these kinds of pants... I mean aren't these less casual than my work pants?'  FYI - his work pants are quite dressy. I say yes, then replay what he said, and promptly say no. He repeats 'Really? These are definitely less casual than my work pants.' I reply, 'No I don't think so.' He starts to get frustrated ' What are you talking about?! These are less casual than my work pants!' I pause and ask him to re-think what he's saying, and I can see he's realizing these pants are actually less dressy than his work pants. He says 'Oops, you're right' and smiles at me. Now I continually bug him about 'less casual.' :)

Lastly, my Boston tip of the day: Sales Tax is higher here than in MI because they have state and local taxes. Be warned, Dave says you can actually feel the expensiveness!

Getting Around

We found another grocery store to frequent tonight! It's called Shaws, and it's kind of like a mini Meijer.  Obviously, it doesn't really compare, but it should be good enough. All this driving around to figure out our offices, stores, gas stations, etc. has made us notice a few things about Mass drivers.

1.  You can make U-turns whenever you want in the middle of the road. I've seen it at least one a day.

2. There are many roads that appear to be one big lane, but in fact end up being two tight lanes. Drivers like to squeeze right next to you.

3. Mass must not like to spend money on road paint. A few of those 'one big' lanes are actually meant to be two lanes, but you can hardly see 1 in 10 dotted lines. Sometimes I feel like I'm driving on the road where Kramer widened the lanes to have a 'comfort cruise.'

4. Knowing the difference between situation #2 and situation #3 will take us some time. :)

Boston tip of the day: Per the locals, these crazy drivers are called 'Massholes.'

Surreal

So as promised, I'm starting a blog!!! I don't quite know what to think about having a blog, but I figure this can be a record for Dave and I for years to come... and also let friends/family know what we're up to for the next few months. So without further ado.. here we go!

This all started 3 weeks ago almost to the day. Dave happens to mention to me that he got an email from a previous boss about a contract position on the East Coast.  The boss wondered if Dave knew anyone who would want to work with Ruby/Rails - Dave had said no.  He tells me this, and I ask him why he's not interested.  Long story short, Dave finds out more info about the job, sends his resume, interviews over skype, and is offered the position all within 3 days! My company was awesome and said I could work from an office at this East Coast location.  Two and a half weeks later we drove out to Boston!!!!!!

Here we are in Boston! All moved in, settled, and just finished our first day at work in the new location.  I still can't believe  we're here.  Surreal is the only way to put it.  It happened so fast, but everything fell into place and we felt so good about it all.

My office is about 10 minutes away and was really nice inside! Flawless set up and good to go.

Dave went into his office later this morning. Everything went well for his first day, aside from his 40 minute (2.3 mile) walk/run to make the commuter line in the morning.  And actually then... Dave missed his 5:50 commuter rail home and didn't want to wait for the next one until 7:50.  So he took the Red line subway to Alewife.  I drove 20 minutes in some crazy traffic to pick him up (the joys of one car).  Oh silly Dave!  Before we leave we will have his commute into downtown perfected.

Oh! Last item - our internet has been down for 3 days. Dave got it working (he's so good!), which is why I've now started the blog.  We also enjoyed our fixed internet and first day of work with a shot of Root Beer Barrel vodka - thanks Kim and Jim!!! hehe

Boston Tip of the Day:  The city of Worcester is actually pronounced Woos-tah.  Don't get this wrong! :)