Here in New England we can't say winter really starts till January. I think it is so we can convince ourselves that winter won't last forever. But I think I can say winter has come to Boston. Last Sunday when I checked the weather before going to church I checked the weather on my phone and it said 6 felt like -12. By the time I left church it was 12 and felt like -6. Even though I have lived in Boston for 6 years I still don't know how to dress for that weather (maybe you just can't). Over the week we have had flurries of snow but nothing that stuck. But yesterday we had our first snow. Now it wasn't much but I took some pics of it.
Right now I like the snow, when I was home watching it come down it was nice and quiet. I made myself a cup of hot spice tea and watched a movie. Even when I went outside it seemed like the world was quiet. It was very nice to have an excuse for a quiet day.
Now it wasn't much snow but I took some pics of it on my walk home.
The Fens under snow
I love seeing paths of people who ventured away from the sidewalk
I was trying to capture a couple walking through the snow
Icicles from a car. Also the thing I don't like about the snow... when it turns to brown.
I don't have a great view from my window but here is the park across the street from me.
The little sparrow on the top of the tree... very brave birds to brave the cold.
I liked seeing the red berries on this bush.
The fence of the park...I liked the contrast between the black and white
I love Christmas but sadly this year has not felt much like Christmas. First I will blame the weather. The weather here in Boston has been unusually warm (I mean like 40s to almost 50s) which is great because I don't have to bundle up but it is sad because it doesn't have the feeling of Christmas in the air. No Jack Frost nipping at the nose and no real reason to climb under the blankets and drink hot coco. It is kind of sad because come February I will be complaining about the cold weather but now I kind of long for it to get the Christmas feeling. Second I will blame grad school/ full time job. I haven't had much energy to decorate my apartment and prepare for Christmas. But I have to say my office looks very Christmasy which feels nice and as finishing up the semester I am listening to Christmas music. So I get some Christmas feelings. I just wish I felt Christmasy on the inside.
One thing I love about Christmas is getting Christmas cards and sending Christmas cards. But I don't think this year I will get my Christmas cards out on time before Christmas is here so I am going to type a long post instead as if was a traditional Christmas card letter. This will be fun reflecting on the year past...
For me personally I don't feel like much has happened in my life (well I feel that no big event in my life has changed it). Last January I started my first semester in grad school. I took two classes one in Reference Library and one in Slave History. I only took two classes as I worked a full time job in Membership Accounting. In January my little nephew Jayden came into this world on January 14th, 2011.
During that semester I went to my first Boston Celtics game. It took me back to all basketball games I used to go to with my mom and step-dad when we cheered on the Seattle Sonics. I am happy to report the Celtics won. But I felt I spent most of the semester studying. So I will skip ahead to the summer.
In May, my month off before summer school. I went down to Cape Cod. I had only been there once before with my dad and step-mom but it was in November and I am sad I don't remember much of it. But this was a nice trip. Tried to dip my toe in the water but it was far too cold to get in any further than my toe. Also during May I celebrated my 25th birthday in a three day event. My birthday was on Thursday and originally I had nothing planned because it was on a work day, but then my co-worker had tickets to the Red Sox game he wasn't able to go to. So I bought them from him and went to the game. Red Sox won it was a great way to celebrate. Then on Friday night some of my co-workers and I went out for drinks to celebrate my birthday. Also almost all my co-workers wore pink for my birthday and threw me a little party with my favorite things (harvest cheddar sun chips, Dr. Pepper, and German chocolate cake) I love my co-workers. Then on Saturday as a gift to myself I got my hair cut and treated myself to a pedicure. My hair cut was a big deal because I had been growing it out since August for my younger sister's wedding but then she told me I could cut it. And I did really short. Also on Saturday my friends went out for Karaoke. I wanted to do something I had never done before for this big birthday and loved it. My friends and I sung "Baby" by Justin Beiber, attempted to sing "Telephone" by Lady Gaga and we did one Spice Girls song. It was lots of fun. I wonder how I will top it for my 26th. For other post on my birthday click here.
My friend and I singing.
Next on my fast pace moving May was a trip down to Atlanta to see one of my best friends. We didn't do anything too touristy as I kind of wanted to see her life. I had never really been to Atlanta so it was lots of fun getting away from Boston for the Memorial Day holiday and just hang out. I loved Atlanta and if I was to move south of the Mason Dixon line I could see myself living there. It had its southern charm but where my friend lived it had a good indie vibe. I am not indie but I like to pretend to be sometimes. I am happy to say I will be going back there soon when I watch my friend become a Mrs.
Sadly in June my grandma, on my dad's side passed away. It is sad but it is also really great now she is up in heaven. We pulled out all her photo albums and filled up a ping pong table and 2 card tables with all the photo albums she had. We were able to go through them and take the pictures we wanted. I got a lot of pics from my childhood that I didn't even knew existed. For other post on my grandma click here.
Then I had to start summer school where I took Technology for the Information Professional. I learned about HTML, CSS, and other geeky things. But June was also a good month as I watched my younger sister get married. Weddings are another time I love. It is great watching two people who are so in love with each other commit their lives together. I also loved when my sister told her husband that he will always be her number 2 in her life as God is her number 1. And I loved when her husband put on chap stick before kissing her (it was so him). For other post on my sister's wedding click here.
My cat hiding
Most of July was spent at work and at school. I was writing more on this blog, which was nice then by August I was a full out blogger. I was also getting ready for my move. I grabbed boxes from my job or if I saw them sitting on the street. My cat was starting too get worried so she started hiding in the boxes.
I also attended another friend's wedding in August in upstate New York. I must say I like going to weddings where I am not busy doing other things so I can just kick off my shoes and just dance the night away. I did dance the night away and it was lots of fun. For other post on that wedding click here. (I love having this blog to sort of remind me what I did through out my year).
My cat blocking my reading
Then September 1st I moved. The move all went very well even with Hurricane Irene hitting the weekend before. I had some really good friends that came over in the storm and helped me pack. I spent labor day weekend unpacking and getting everything ready before school started this semester. This semester I am taking an Introduction to Cataloging and Historical Methods and still working my job. Next semester I will be going in as a full time student where I will be taking my last two core requirement Library Science classes (Evaluation and Management) and I will be taking my first Archiving class in which I will have an internship to do. It is not set up yet but I am really looking forward to being a full time student.
I am getting ahead of myself... back to this semester. I have tried to be better at juggling work and school but still remembering to take care of myself by taking naps even if they are for 20 minutes, hanging out with my friends even if all we do is crash on the couch and watch a movie. The big news of this semester is that my really close friends (practically family) had their little baby girl Brianna on Oct. 20th. I was so happy when I saw the first picture of her I began to cry. Then when I got to hold her I was over joyed. (If you haven't figured it our I love babies).
Some other big happenings in my life is if you have been following this blog you might have seen some changes in my life. In October I was kind of going through an identity crisis (more of a purpose crisis). I was wondering what I was suppose to be doing with my life. I have always wanted to be a wife and a mother and that felt so far away from me. That I honestly didn't know what to do. Of course this has a long back story of being upset at God. But some where in between my A Page from my Diary (Sept 28) to my Thought for Thursday (Oct. 20th) and even now my life has really changed. I still don't know what I am suppose to be doing but I lean a lot more on God to remind me to live in the moment and He has a beautiful future for me. I am also reminded on a constant basis that I have been blessed so much that I need not worry about the future for it too will be blessed. I am also letting go of my past (mostly my mistakes) so I can move on to a bright future.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I hope even with all the stress comes from this Christmas time that you are able to remember the real reason for the season. It is not about presents, decorations and parities. It is about getting together with loved ones (friends and family) and celebrating the greatest gift of all when God gave us his son to live and then die for our sins. I was just told about this article from the Huffington Post on the Real War on Christmas a good little reminder.
Linus explaining what Christmas is all about.
I was talking to a married couple in my bible study and the wife was telling me she was worried about her kids having a good Christmas. She wasn't worried about the gifts necessarily she just wanted he kids to have a great Christmas. It reminded me why I love Christmas so much. I can't tell you everything I have gotten. But the memories that stick out to me was spending the night at my Mema and Grangran's house waking up on Christmas morning with all my family there. Then after eating a huge meal my mema would ask if any of us wanted dessert but we were too stuffed to say anything. Then when I got older I remember two years I made my dad cry (good cry) over the gifts I gave him. One year it was picture of me sitting on his lap resting my head on his shoulder the other year was I wrote him a poem about how I needed him. Other Christmas memories are my uncles fighting over Oklahoma State and Oklahoma University football and my mema who was as mild as a mouse usually but when we played chicken foot she was the most competitive woman. None of these memories cost much money and have little to do with the gifts it is more about the time we have had together.
Now the one thing I am looking forward to is getting home and when I land I know my dad will be there and he will give me one of his big hugs all of which will tell me I am home and loved. (I guess I am getting a little homesick in eager anticipation for Christmas).
So there is my Christmas, year in review, letter. I hope you enjoyed.
The title comes from one of my favorite Disney cartoons Cinderella but this little free write comes from my office's quote of the week.
Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true. -Leon J. Suenes.
When I read this I thought...What are my dreams? The dream I am pursing right now is getting my Masters in Library Science and Masters in History. I guess physically the government is paying for it but I will be paying them back soon. But I guess in some ways I am paying for it. At least my body and brain are. Summer class hasn’t been so bad but spring was hard taking two classes and working full time come May I was wiped out. I was tired, I was mentally exhausted and I was always on the brink of tears (because of mental exhaustion). I guess that’s part of the price you pay.
Another dream I am living out is living in Boston. It has become my life but I remember when it was my dream. When I was younger I wanted to be a writer, I still do, but I thought working for movies. I was thinking about the dress I would wear when I hit the red carpet for my night at the Oscars. So I dreamed of going to UCLA or UCSB (University of California in Santa Barbra). I told then I would move to New York. Well my mom gave me some good advice “if you want to live on the east coast you should look at east coast schools”(okay that might be paraphrasing). So I did look at east coast schools. I begged my mom to buy Baron’s Profile of American Colleges and we can begin scouring colleges every where from Boston to Virginia. I thought about schools in New York but the city seemed too big too scary. Then my mom came to Boston during the 2004 play offs against the Yankees, I am not sure if was the excitement that filled the air because of that or what but I fell in love with the city. I looked at a few schools in Connecticut but Boston had captured my heart. So I applied to Simmons and Suffolk in Boston and my mom made me apply to Quinnipiac in Connecticut just in case but I wanted Simmons first and Suffolk second. I got into Suffolk (however I am going to Simmons now for grad school) and loved the idea of moving to the city, during my second visit to Boston I told my mom I was going to tie my self to a park bench so I wouldn’t have to leave. And in March I started a count down till I moved to Boston. I even wrote a persuasive speech to convince the students in my English class to move to Boston and for months it was all I talked about. So it was a big dream of mine to move to Boston and I have loved it for the most part. But I guess I pay for it, when I am lonely and miss my family. I pay for it because I don’t get to see my niece and nephew grow up as much I would like and there are moments I pay for it when I wish I could still climb into my mom or dad’s lap and cry on their shoulders. I cry over the phone but its not the same. But I guess those are just facts of life and I have to remember sometimes the dream of living here are worth the loses.
Okay that took a sad turn, I didn’t mean for this free write to be sad.
On the up side there are still dreams I still have yet to accomplish. I have two really big dreams one to become an author but I know I would not feel my life wasn’t complete if I wasn’t a wife and a mother. As a single girl I love thinking about being the stay at home wife who has dinner on the table when her husband comes home and I also like watching my married friends and learning from them what it is to be a good wife. There is a really funny quote from Gilmore Girls where Emily, the grandmother, describes her life as a canoe she is rowing a long and so his her husband and through each doing their own job they are making life work out. If you know the show this quote seems completely out of place for the character Emily but I like the idea of being a canoe. Right now I am more what Emily would describe a kayak. I know there are deeper things to describe how a marriage should be than a canoe but I like the image a lot. In that I also dream of being a mom. It might be a miss quote but in the movie The Perfect Score, Scarlett Johansson character describes the type of mom she wants to be one who doesn’t care about the title on her business card but being an actual mom (okay random quotes stick in my head). I see that as a way I would want to be and I love the real life examples I get from my sister, and the moms at my church I have gotten to know. That’s my biggest dream to be a wife and a mother and while I am still enjoying my single life it is something I look forward to and pray about.
I guess the next dream I have is to be an author. Which is why I started this blog, to keep me motivated about writing. I have written stories ever since I was little. The first journal I remember having my best friend in elementary school gave me, it was peach colored with a precious moments doll on the cover. The only problem is though I dream about stories I have yet to finish one. I also have a big problem with showing people my work. I am not a good speller and punctuation is not my strong point I am known for my run on sentences. And until this blog, though I would read my stories to my mom, I didn’t like people reading them. I am sure my younger sister does not remember this but one time we were at my brother’s soccer game and I let her read a story of mine and all she did was point out my spelling errors since then I didn’t like people reading my stories. I know when most people do things creatively they pour themselves into it and they expose themselves to vulnerable. I don’t like being vulnerable but if I want to be published I guess I will have to face people not liking my work.
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