Well, It's been a while. 6 months I think? So, I guess it's time for an update.

So, things are good here.
Work is going well, which feels really good.
Chris is doing well too, and found a job in town, which is great news.
I assume/hope we'll get married one of these days, but that ball is in his court, and I don't want to push.
I guess the biggest news is that I put an offer on a house this morning... now just to wait and see if they accept it.

But I've had a little story stuck in my head for a few days now, that I thought might be worth sharing.

When I moved back to town, I reconnected with an old family friend. And this past summer her father, M, was killed in a car accident. It was really devastating. He was a great man. Pillar of the community, etc etc. And, he ran the Newport Music Festival.

So when the time came for the first festival without him, it was a bit somber. And at the end of opening night, people gave speeches in his memory, etc. And I guess all of the sudden, a bat flew in the window. It just quietly swooped about overhead for a few circles, then settled down on a beam, and "watched". Now this place (one of the mansions) is not the kind of place that gets bats.
But so people started whispering and murmuring- they felt the bat was M. And I guess one by one, people started standing up, and applauding the bat. When they were done, he just got off his perch, and flew away.

Then a few months later, my friend was at home one night, getting ready for bed... and she was having a rough time. Missing her dad, sad about a boyfriend, etc etc. She was getting in bed, with a heavy heart, and heard this noise, and looked up- a bat. Gently circling around her bedroom. She said 'hi papa...' and watched him for a while, then opened the window, and he left.

So, I don't really believe in reincarnation and all that... but... you hear stories like that, and there's just something comforting about it.

So, (e:Jason).... next time you're feeling glum.... keep an eye out for a bat, watching over you. Or perhaps a coffee bean, or a beer bottle, or some more Josh-like thing. :)

And finally, I'll leave you with a few pix. :) (most of which have been on FB, so, I apologize if they look familiar.)

hi estrip.
I know it's been ages- but I just wanted to pass along some news, to those of you that haven't already heard on FB...

Josh Larson was found dead this morning.

(and Jason- I apologize if it's not my place to spread this news, I'll take it down if you want.)

And here's another little adventure I can blog about, I guess...

So last weekend some friends were going to come visit from Buffalo. But my one girlfriend had to work late friday, blah blah, and it was too much of a drive for just the weekend.

But then she called me friday to say that a friend wanted to take his seaplane to Newport, so they were coming after all.

How freaking cool is that. So I was pretty psyched to have them come in by seaplane. Buuuut then it got stormy, so they couldn't take the seaplane.

Which just meant they had to take the jet.

So, we went to the airport to meet them. It was kind of rainy and nasty.



Then we played tour guide, and drove them around town, gawked at the mansions, and ate some lunch.

Then the guy who owns the jet decided "hey, let's go go Martha's Vineyard for dinner. It's only a ten minute flight!"

Ummmm, let me think.
OK!!

So we went back to the airport. Then found out that since the Obamas were on MV, you needed to apply for permission to land 72h in advance, so we couldn't go.

So, we went to Nantucket instead. Which is adorable.


Not too shabby...


What? no bulletproof door between us and the pilot? But what if I'm a terrorist?!





In the seatback pocket.

Ah yes. the "private jet lifestyle magazine". Only $35/issue.

And then, in a very rare fit of spontaneity, Chris and I decided to let them fly back to Buffalo, and we were going to stay on Nantucket. We had no bags, no toothbrushes, nowhere to stay, and no way to get home the next day. NOT a situation I am comfortable with. But we decided to go for it.



Nantucket is really cute.

Of course, it was 7pm on a Sunday by this point, and crappy weather.

So, we set out to find a place to stay. Wandered into one place... "why yes, we have a room! $295/night." (oh crap.) Then they check their sister hotel 'well they have a suite too. Water view $495/nt, no view $450."

Uh oh. We are starting to think we've made an expensive little mistake here.

So I try priceline on my phone. Nothing.
Then yelp.
And on yelp found a great little B&B and got a great little room at a normal-person rate.


Our B&B. The Barnacle Inn.

Ok, so we had a place to stay. Now what... let's go out on the town?
well, it's sunday night. And raining. So, we played scrabble and went to bed. Planned to explore a little in the morning, have lunch, and catch a ferry back.

Well at breakfast learned that the ferries were getting cancelled.
So we called them right away. Got tickets on the 1030 am ferry. By this point it was POURING rain. Then heard the hotel manager say they were all booked for the night.

So we went to the ferry dock. At 1015, they cancelled the 1030 ferry. Great, now we have no way to get home, and nowhere to stay.

Put our name on the list for the 130 ferry, and went to the other ferry dock. Bought tickets for the 1200 "slow boat". Was not looking forward to a 2 hour ride on a less stable boat in terrible weather, but figured it might be our only chance off the island, so we took it.


This picture does not do it justice- the water was ROUGH.

And good thing we did- right after we left they cancelled the rest of the boats off the island- until wed.

So the ferry ride was bearable. Met some super nice people. Then my sweet brother picked us up in Hyannis- a good 2h drive from home.

So all in all, we didn't do much and the weather sucked, but, it was still kind of a fun little 'adventure.' :)

Aww, Paul I'm sorry you're sad about estrip. That makes me sad too.
I'm not sure if it's specific to estrip though- I think society is just changing. I do think facebook (which I like) and twitter (which I hate) are probably a part of this sea change. I'm just not sure anyone really blogs much anywhere anymore.

In my case, moving and getting ready to start a new job has made it harder. And, I feel like my life isn't as interesting and blog-worthy these days. But like jbeatty said- when I first moved to town, it really was great and helped me meet a lot of people. Who I am still friends with now- so I think that counts for a lot. But now that I'm not single and out drinking til 4am and bitching and moaning about boys- there's not as much to say. I'm happy and boring now, I guess. haha.

But actually, I was coming here just to write a blog and post some pictures, so, I will go ahead.

I went to Maine this weekend for a wedding. Tiny little town on the water. Beautiful, but very remote. No cell reception anywhere. No national chain store/restaurant/gas station of any sort anywhere. Which at first seems cute and charming and quaint- but that would wear off fast. Fun to visit; I could never live there. Also- it's pretty in the summer, but I can only imagine how cold and bleak it is in the winter.

But it was nice to see old friends from college, and meet new people. It was a small wedding- and I'm actually really touched that I was even invited- I never knew I was that important to the groom.

But we went up a couple days early to make a little trip out of it, and we actually went sea kayaking, which was a lot of fun. Left me with some sore shoulders, (which means I was doing it wrong), but it was peaceful and beautiful.

Now I'm back home... start work next tuesday. One week left of 'freedom'. I'm super scared.

Ok, some pix...


This seems like the beginning of a Stephen King book, particularly as about 3 seconds later a sinister looking black pickup truck passed us at about a million mph. "the young couple drove cautiously across the narrow causeway, to the deserted island ahead..."
View from our B&B- Morning, low tide

Again, morning- low tide

From the B&B, but high tide this time.

Just driving around, had to pull over and take pix

I love that they sell lobster everywhere. Even at the ice cream shop.

Eggemoggin, I think

Pumpkin Island lighthouse


Waiting for the bride and groom

Self explanatory. :)

Across the water from the Inn


Reception in full swing

Doesn't that just scream "summer relaxation"?

Quintessential Maine coast.

Ok, so for the last couple months I have started getting this new spam.
I am getting 2-5 messages a day. And there is no way to unsubscribe.
They are all advertisements for business schools in India. It's a form, where you enter your name and email address and choose which campus (Mumbai, Bhopal, etc) and they send you more info.

I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL IN INDIA.

it's really infuriating because I can't make it stop.

Most of my spam is a one time thing, and I just delete it. And the recurring stuff usually has an unsubscribe link.
But these don't, and it seems like they're multiplying.

Just today I got messages from "Entrepreneur Business School" "Mumbai School of Business" "Bangalore School of Business" and "IILM Business School". They seriously send me these messages every single day.

Isn't this illegal?
don't they HAVE to have an unsubscribe option?
Is there some place I can report this?

Ugh, I wish I did not always want everything gadgety and expensive that I see.

So this town always used to just have private trash collection. You paid monthly or yearly, not a lot I don't think, and the garbage truck came to your house.
Then some town council people or whatever decided that wasn't fair to low-income people.
So now the town picks up trash, for free, but the catch is they will only pick up what you put in these special yellow garbage bags. And the bags cost $3 each.
But they gave every house, for free, three big plastic wheelie garbage cans. A gray one for trash, a blue one for recyclable cans/bottles, and a green one for paper recycling. And they made recycling mandatory.
Buying the bags is a pain, but at the end of the day it's probably cheaper than a monthly fee.
And the good news is, it makes people really try to reduce their trash. People are recycling more, composting more, etc.
So, it's a small bit of cost/effort, but with a good payoff.

BUT

My building has found some sort of loophole. They are NOT using the town trash pickup. Since they count as a commercial account, not residential (since it's more than 4 units), they can still pay for private trash pickup. which is nice- it means I don't have to buy the yellow bags.
But there's no recycling.
I even called the company about it, and they were like 'yup, your building is not signed up for our recycling service. you should talk to the condo association about that.'
So I'm sure they're just being cheap and didn't want to pay for recycling and got the bare minimum trash service. (But then why not just use the free town system?)
But since we're renting, we're not on the condo board, and they don't meet often... I don't know what to do.
We have 5 giant green trash cans out front. Which i thought meant paper, but for this company it means trash, which is confusing.

Anyway, so for now we are just stockpiling our recyclables and storing them. Even tried taking them to the dump ourselves the other day, but they wouldn't let us. So the options now are 1- just throw them in the trash. 2- store them up and take them to my parents' and put them out with their recyclables, 3- ask our neighbors if we can put them in their bins til we get it sorted out.

But so in the meantime I wanted to find a nice way to divide them up and keep things neat and not destroy and stink up the kitchen.

And I found this.



I want it.

It has separate compartments for paper and cans, and it has a built in compacter to smash cans and plastic bottles.
But it's $300.

seriously, only I could find a way to make a garbage can an expensive gadget that I suddenly really want.

A few misc thoughts...

Sunday was our 1 year anniversary. (awww). Though i'm in the middle of studying, and my sister was in town, so I think we're going to celebrate after my exam- I'm thinking a couple days in Block Island. We can even do it during the week to avoid weekend rates/crowds.

But after Steve Martin on friday, we saw Louis CK on sunday- who is very funny, but perhaps a little too heavy on the masturbation jokes.

Chris gave me a funny little tote bag that says 'Rhode Island. 3% larger at low tide'
heh
And a little hipster tshirt with a picture of a bridge in providence. Now I feel very local and trendy. ;)

It's so nice to be back home. I love this little state. :)

But, the cell reception is crap-ola... the AT&T guy told me it's because there's some town ordinance (or something) that won't let them put up cell towers, because they might block peoples' view. Grr.

But so having 0-1 bars in my HOUSE sucks. Until yesterday, when I discovered AT&T's "3G Microcell". It's $150 but then there's a $100 rebate... so basically a one time purchase of $50, and you get this box that you plug into your router... and it's like a mini cell tower in your house. Now I have 5 bars in my house. No service contract, no monthly fee, no nothing. LOVE IT!

Also, thinking of having a housewarming party/bbq over labor day weekend, but need to get an idea of if people will actually be available and/or willing to come.

Finally, an awesome little video (it's quick, so watch it!) and the requisite pix of my niece.






And now, back to studying! Have a good week, peeps!

Well the voice memo in my phone is all screwed up, apparently, so I had to extract it as a .mov file...

There's no video, but hopefully the audio works...

enjoy!

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Ok paul I just typed this long thing out, then uploaded a pic... then I couldn't type anywhere or click any buttons... I took some screenshots in case I lost everything. and then clicked reload, hoping there would be a draft somewhere, but.... there isn't.
What happened to the draft feature??
Anyway, I don't want to retype it all, so I'm going to try to upload the screenshots.

This is pretty good. Esp around 0:58, where he does a bit about fixies.