Media-crity

I think I won some sort of MBTA lottery today.

1. I got to my bus stop 10-15 minutes before the next bus was scheduled to arrive but within a minute, one showed up. It was practically empty so I got a seat to myself AND it only made one stop so I made it to Malden Center in 7 minutes.

2. Got to the inbound platform just as a train was pulling in. Platform was mostly empty, as was the train, so no problem getting a seat. Train remained only 3/4ths full so there was no crush of people in my face

3. Got to DTX, very quickly I might add, and found the Braintree/Ashmont platform crowded with angry people. Guess the red line was delayed. No matter, I just went out the street exit on the platform, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself two blocks closer to work than if I had gone out where I usually do.

4. Then, the topper on this MBTA lovefest? The Newport Ave Ext. entrance at North Quincy was open after class! Usually it closes at 7:45, meaning I have to walk all the way across the dark, freezing parking lot, up the stairs to the W. Squantum St. entrance, and then back down the platform (I like to get on at the front of the train so I don’t have to walk down the mostly-deserted red line platform at DTX when I switch to the orange), which makes me angry every single time. Tonight, though, it was a quick walk from class to that entrance, and there was a warm vestibule to wait in! Oh if it could be like that every week.

I don’t know what I did to deserve such fabulous T-karma but Charlie, at least for this one day, I love you.

Lisa has thrown down the gauntlet, suggesting that we (the people whose blogs she reads) make an effort to post about 10 things on a topic every week.

This week is 10 Favorite Websites. For me, this changes a lot depending on what I’m obsessing over.

1. Universal Hub: Adam, the webmaster, combs a ton of RSS feeds looking for interesting, breaking, quirky stories about Boston. It’s the first place I check when something breaks because it gives me what people are saying, not just the quick hit blurb the mainstream news has. There’s a real community feel there that makes it more personal than going to boston.com or WBZ’s website which, most of the time, doesn’t even have the story up right away. I also enjoy his snarky headlines/comments on some of the stories.

2. Facebook: Enough said. I can’t get enough of finding out when my friends are making dinner or going out or using the bathroom!

3. Twitter: Like Lisa, I was suspicious of Twitter. It seemed pointless. But now, especially with the search feature, I’m a convert. Plus it’s nice to have somewhere to make a note of odd things I might encounter but don’t know who to tell, like the man riding a unicycle like a road bike a few weeks ago.

4. Center Field: A fantastic Sox blog with a plethora of Pedroia-related posts. That gets an A+ in my book.

5. Call of the Green Monster: He’s been on hiatus since August but it’s still full of side-splitting baseball-related (okay, mostly Sox-related) parody stories. I was going to link my favorite post but I couldn’t pick one, so go read all of them.

6. GMail: I love love love GMail because I was able to link it to my home email, allowing me to check all my email accounts in one place AND not have to deal with my hosting provider’s crappy webmail anymore. The search function is phenomenal. And it has gchat.

7. Goodreads: I’m not as active on Goodreads anymore but I do go back from time to time. I love being able to go back and see what I’ve read or what I thought about a certain book.

Flannery’s book montage

Powered by Goodreads.com

(this is getting hard)

8. Pandora: Streaming radio that plays songs based on a particular artist. I’ve had great luck finding songs this way.

9. Extra Bases: Boston.com’s Red Sox blog.

10. Group Recipes: They call it a Food Social Network but I call it a damn fine way to store recipes, and find new ones. The best part is the tag system, which is true of so much of the internet. You can search by flavor, season, cuisine, anything.

As many people around here know, the City of Boston started a tourism campaign called Visit the Pin, placing 12′ high lollipops map pins at various tourist traps interesting landmarks around the city. They each have a tag informing you of where you are, why it’s important, and a number to send a text message to for more information.

So, did this one have a few too many blue fishbowls at The Landing and stumble home, drunk, at closing time, only to wake up having no idea whose couch it was sleeping on?

Sunday, as I mentioned, I went to the Sowa Open Market with a craft-minded friend. I don’t think we stopped laughing the entire day, which was nice. It started when I was on the orange line heading down to meet her. A little girl, maybe 4 or 5, sat next to an older man in his mid-late 50s. She looked up at him and, in that disarming way kids have, asked him his name. He said it was Kim and asked hers. She looked at him, broke into a big grin and shook her head. “No it isn’t!” she said, as though he had just told her it was Mickey Mouse. “Your name is Grampy!” He took it very well and confirmed that he was, indeed, someone’s Grampy. She happily sat next to him, with her parents in the seats across from her, for a few minutes before leaping up to look out the window. She was so absorbed in watching the scenery go by that she didn’t notice when he got off until the next stop.

Furrowing her brow, she looked around, concerned. “Where did Grampy go?” she asked, confused. Our section of the train once again burst out laughing.

At the market we saw all sorts of neat stuff like decoupage map bracelets, purses with all kinds of lovely fabrics, beach-glass-and-metal pendants, handmade stationary, paintings, antiques, illustrations …

We looked at every booth and I came away with two purchases, which I am going to plug here because the artists were both so awesome and they deserve to be plugged and to have lots of people buy stuff.

The first thing I bought was the book Goodbye, Penguins by Greg Stones, the plot of which is “fifteen penguins go for a walk and disappear one by one in humorously tragic ways.”

It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time. Check this out!

One penguin was abducted.

That’s just one of the pages from the book! He also has a bunch of hilariously random watercolors involving penguins, robots, zombies, mermaids, and sheep. This is one of my favorites.

Penguins, Man, Baseball

Seriously. My friend and I spent 20 minutes in his booth crying from laughing so hard. And we weren’t the only ones.

The other thing I bought was a print from Eric Sturtevant. He draws this adorably, hilariously cartoon-y animals. If you have kids, you should definitely check this guy out. In fact, if I know your kids, they might just be getting some art this Christmas!

Look at how cute this is:

“Early Reading Time”

And some of them, like the one I got, are just hilarious:

“Medieval Firefighter”

He ALSO just got a contract with Barnes & Noble for puzzles and kids card games, which is so awesome for him. Anyone for Old Maid?

Finally, this is a plug for someone who isn’t local but I so wish was. And if she was she would have had the most popular booth at the market.

To start, my friend Laurel and her husband Lorne are some of the awesomest people I know. You may remember Lorne and Laurel from when they visited this winter, or from the link to her blog over there on the side. Well now they’ve gotten their shop, PenguinBot open for business! Please go check it out, you won’t regret the click.

For instance, wouldn’t you be the most stylish lady on the block with this tote?

Or how about this knit clutch with HAND-WHITTLED handles? HAND-WHITTLED, PEOPLE.

Or she takes custom orders! I had one custom-made back in February and eagle-eyed readers can spot it in several pictures around the blog, such as running into and out of the Pacific Ocean this past July. I carry it pretty much every day and I love it. It has a little pocket that’s the perfect size for my iPod and Charlie Card, curing me of my habit of tossing the card in after I tapped it and then spending 5 minutes the next time I needed to get on the T cursing and dumping the contents of my bag onto benches and floors throughout the city. She has also done things like custom diaper bags and a bag with a special pocket for a hunting knife. The possibilities are endless!

And now I will close with a frightening encounter I had on my way home Sunday.

I was standing on the orange line platform at downtown crossing, waiting for the train that had just been announced, when this guy came stumbling up. A guy carrying a large duffel bag, waving an American flag, and wearing a freaking Jason mask! He stood on the yellow line and yelled at the oncoming train, waving his flag and thrusting his hips at the train, then turned and lurched at me and got right in my face and yelled something before I jumped aside and he continued. I ran down to get in the next car because I was NOT riding with that dude. I sat all the way to the side and could see him in the next car. He stood way down at the far end of the train, leaning against the door to the conductor’s compartment. I obviously couldn’t hear him but I could see him gesturing crazily and waving his flag in peoples faces STILL WEARING THE CREEPY JASON MASK. I felt like I was in a horror movie and he was about to storm the conductor’s compartment and take over the train.

Fortunately, he didn’t. He got off at North Station and sat down on the bench.

CREEPY. Also funny now that I no longer fear having a supporting role in Final Destination XXVIII.

Okay so I lied. More baseball. I spent some time today reflecting on how incredible this team is and how proud I am to support them, win or lose.

First, there was this: the ad in the Globe after the sellout record was broken. Seeing all those moments and memories and asides listed in one place reminded me why, through the pre-2004 heartbreak and the post-2004 and -2007 bandwagon (ooh dirty word!) expectations, I have never given up on this team. Why I named my first car Pedro. It’s more than Papelbon getting it done, more than rings, more than rolling rallies or trophies. It’s being part of the year-round dedication and the community and the mutual affection between the team and the fans. It’s the late nights and the 2 Diet Cokes at 10 pm that, in the end, don’t matter if they win or lose because that’s not what it’s always about.

Not that it isn’t that much better when they do win. Ahem.

And, while I have love for the entire team, every last one of them, it’s no secret that my heart and attention belong to one little pony. So, in closing, I present the Top 10 Reasons I’m Proud to Rock the #15 Jersey:

1. He gave back the last two years of his ASU scholarship so they could recruit more pitchers. And, in typical Pedroia fashion, he shrugs it off as no big deal, saying that he knew the team could only get better if they could recruit more pitchers.

2. The story of his first meeting with his coach at ASU, in his cut-off white undershirt and his gun show.

3. Playing out the season and postseason with a broken hand and, again, shrugging it off with “Eh, I just changed my grip on the bat, made some adjustments.”

4. In contrast to 1 and 3, his cocky attitude just kills me every time. He truly believes he can hit every single pitch out there. He believes he’s the greatest. “The strongest 160-pound player in the league, right here!” indeed. See also, from ESPN magazine:

Now Pedroia hops up the dugout steps and shouts in Millar’s direction: “Hey, 2004 was like 20 years ago! And all you did was walk! Mariano let four fly! It was not, like, some 12-pitch at-bat!” Pedroia imitates Millar’s stance in that critical Game 4 moment against the Yankees, with the Red Sox three outs away from elimination. He mimics the way Millar steps in the bucket. He does it four times. “Ball 1, Ball 2, Ball 3, Ball 4,” he says. “That’s all you did.” Millar isn’t even paying attention.

5. Continuing on that theme: his swing. He puts everything he’s got into it, wringing his body like a dishrag by the time he finishes the follow-through.

6. The Ping-Pong Championships with Youk and Lowell.

7. The infamous story of the mystery fan who asked him to sign the ball “Dustin Pedroia 2007 ROY” early into the 2007 season when his stats were in the sub-basement.

8. His relationship with Tito and the rest of the guys. I’m a sucker for the genuine affection they have for each other and for him. He and Tito play cribbage every day! How cute is that?

9. This season, opposing teams grew to fear him as much, if not more, than Big Papi himself.

10. This smile right here:

He just loves this freakin game and he shows it day in and day out.

11. BONUS! This GIF:

As much fun as he has playing, he expects the very best of himself and it shows. He seems like a great mix of lighthearted, childlike glee and hardworking dedication to his craft.

Tomorrow, I swear, the story of how I got the crap scared out of me at Downtown Crossing by a guy in a Jason mask on my way home Sunday and a showcase of three awesome artisty people who make awesome things that you should buy.

I do have a few non-baseball related posts in the hopper, mostly about some cool artists I saw today at the Sowa Open Market but I need to go to bed, so I leave you with this:

“This is the coolest day I’ve ever had and I’m not surrendering! I’m not giving up!”
–~5 year old boy running after his mother at the Prudential B&N this afternoon

Kids are funny.

This is how I’ve spent most of the night. Except I finished that bottle around the end of the 8th and then opened a can.

I’ve also been twittering up a storm, which is kind of fun. Those who follow me, this is what’s up with the constant stream of tweets with #redsox in them

I am so, so tired. Good day, though. Thwarted attempt to get apples (well, apples that had been made into donuts) followed by a trip to Chili’s with some friends who just moved to the area. Lots of laughing and waitress ineptitude.

Baseball will be the death of me. I can’t take the pressure!

Not much else. Plugging away at chemistry. I swear, every day is like Memento with that class. I get it, I go to bed, I wake up, I forget everything.

Oh, hey, we also joined the 2000s and got Tivo! Switched to Verizon FiOS and got us a shiny box of FREEDOM. Because I have not caught one new episode this season. Between studying and class and, well, “Kate said ‘Let’s go have a beer …’”

Thinking about doing Nanowrimo this year but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’ve written two short pieces of fiction in the past couple of weeks, the first in 4 years. And it felt really good.

Nursing school apps are due Nov. 1. Where did the past year go? We’ve been in Boston 13 months, I’ve been at my job nearly a year.

Oh and yes, I did change the blog layout again.

Hmm. It’s mostly been pictures and bitching about Manny, huh?

Well let’s see. I turned 26 and I got to go into the Pacific Ocean for the first time. That’s about the most exciting thing.

For my birthday weekend I flew out to Portland (Oregon) to hang out with some cool girls. It was one of the best weekends of my life. Much of it too hard to articulate but suffice it to say it was also one of the best birthdays of my life.

Here are two of my favorite pictures from my birthday, both taken in Cannon Beach by Adria.

OMG THE OCEAN!! YAAAAAAY!!!!!

OMG THE OCEAN IS COLD!!!!!!!!!

Other than that, working hard, playing hard (My So-Called 90’s Night at the Common Ground in Allston, The Kinsale, Original Sin cider …), and not wanting the summer to end.

Dear 104:

After a couple of months of early departures, it’s nice to not have to get to the bus stop 10 minutes early. However, at least that was *A* schedule. Now you’ve given up and show up whenever. I’m convinced that they start new buses at Malden to mess with me. It sucks to get to the stop early, but to arrive at work as though I’d slept in an extra half hour.

To put it another way, I LOVE the new Hold Steady. Have it on endless repeat. But it should not be possible for me to listen to it twice on my morning commute.

No love,

The girl on the corner who refuses to thank you

Dear Male Commuters:

That’s a very pretty necklace! Now will you button your shirt please?

Gross,

A Fellow Passenger

Dear Cranky Lady on the Red Line:

Nuh uh. You do NOT get to shove through the mob exiting the train, flop into a seat, and SIGH as though we decided to play Red Rover and not let you in. You wait or you suffer the consequences.

Enjoy your trip you rude wench,

The girl who glared at you

I went out to return some pants and shop a bit. Then I thought it’d be a super idea to wander down Quincy Market way to find some cheesy Boston souvenirs someone. FAIL. I nearly killed 3 people, plus I still feel like crap so the walking from downtown to there was clearly too much for me and I was getting dizzy and weak.

So instead I sat down by the Holocaust Memorial because it’s my favorite place to hang out/people watch/find some peace in chaos. It’s a little removed from the touristmania of Quincy Market/Faneiul Hall but close enough that you can hear the crowd noise and street performers, and that people do come by, but far enough away that you’re not stepped on and/or in 1500 pictures.

In the half hour or so that I spent there, I witnessed:

–4 or 5 kids with balloon-animal swords and … sword holsters? around their waists. Much jousting to be had.
–A man try to explain the Holocaust to his 6-year-old son. I don’t remember what he said but it was kind of touching.
–A woman crying silently and praying
–A homeless man dividing his bottle of Popov between three water bottles and two separate families reacting in a horrified manner before dragging their children away
–A man ask his mother what bestiality was. The whole family then debated the proper pronunciation.
–A homeless man ask another homeless man to tie his bandana for him.

Then I headed to Haymarket caught the train home. I’m spent.

Wow it’s been a little while.

I did indeed finish the Corporate Challenge. I walked it with two coworkers and had a lot of fun. I did it in 51 real time (1:02, minus the 00:06 start and the 5 minute bathroom break for one of the girls I was with).

Been quite social this past week, doing the CC, going to the infamous 90s Night at Common Ground in Allston, going to a wedding, and tonight going to the fireworks. I’ve been doing these things with some local friends via a local message board. So the internet is pretty cool.

Now I gotta run and throw myself into the middle of the insanity. We’re going to watch them from Memorial Drive, yipes.

I’m running my first 5k tomorrow. Holy crap. How crazy is that. It starts at 7:15 so I have to get through a full day of work first. I’m kind of nervous, but also excited. Fortunately, it’s a run/walk event so I do have the option to walk. I just hope I don’t finish last for our company team.

I never in a million years thought I’d be doing something like this. So much has changed in a year. I’m pretty proud of myself.

More tomorrow.