City Sights - September 1st Eve

For some reason September 1st fills me with a mix of sad feelings and happy memories.  Though it's still hot and humid in Boston, September's arrival means that summer is over. 

In Boston, it also means that the students have come back, and thousands of leases have ended and are just beginning.

On the final night in August, a couple of friends, the boyfriend, and I took a walk around Allston and Brighton, neighborhoods fraught with students and leases.  I just wanted to share with you some of the amazing piles of trash that we came across.

Another man's trash...

...is another man's Double Rainbow All the way!

It was fascinating to walk around the neighborhood.  Usually, I try to avoid the craziness of the U-Haul trucks, smelly sidewalks, and hyped up undergrads.  But doing this with friends makes the experience a whole lot better.

Words of advice for anyone:  Bring hand wipes or hand sanitizers or both.  I made the mistake of touching a Guitar Hero drum set that was just disgustingly sticky.  Gross!

There are a lot of things I miss about being a student, or just in general about years past.  But I'm interested to see what this September will bring.  With that, I leave you with this awesome tripped out video of an amazing song.

Toesies of the Month - July 2010

In 24 hours, my friend and I will officially be in the beautiful country of Greece!

Now, considering that we're planning to be mainly beach-side, and I've been convinced to get on a donkey (though I don't know if the donkey will let me get on it!) to check out Santorini's volcano, us girls had to do some prep for the vacation.

Aside from packing, there was waxing, calling banks and credit cards, photocopying important documents, and of course getting our nails did.

It's even more fitting that I wait to get my nails done with my friend, as she was the one who introduced me to the magical world of pedicures.

We used to go to this tiny little nail salon near Washington and Venice in Los Angeles (any of you who know your L.A. geography would note that this is in the area fondly remembered as "South Central").  There seemed to be more male nail technicians at this one location.  But the pedicures were a mere $12.  No spa chairs, but they did airbrushing for nail designs.

Though I've upgraded and have discovered the amazingness that is the spa chair, I still miss those cheap prices.

I didn't mention this in my post about my final days at work, but part of the memory book included a gift certificate to Brookline Natural Nails!  I had to laugh when I saw it, considering that I remember several people asking me about where I got my toes did.

Ready for Greece!
Top Color: Sephora by OPI - Mermaid to Order

Designed by Cathy at Brookline Natural Nails, Brookline, MA
Color:  OPI - Sonic Bloom
Occasion:  Greece, baby!
July 2010

This was definitely not a bad way to start our 4th of July celebrations in Boston.

We followed up our pedicures by going to another amazing place that my friend actually introduced me to while she was visiting me here.

I love the North End in the Summer!

Oh, Giacamo's Ristorante.  There's always a line here, so if you plan on eating here you should go when you're not hungry.  By the time you've gone through the line, you'll be hungry.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with diced asparagus
in a prosciutto mascarpone cheese cream sauce

Oh, pillows of heaven.  I know this is going to sound gross, but I'm just going to put this out there.  These delicious little pillows are just amazing to put on your mouth whole, then just let the flavor explosion take over your senses.  I have discovered that I really enjoy putting whole things in my mouth just for the explosion.  ("Shut yo mouth!"  "What?  I'm just talking about pillows of heaven!")

After we food-drunkenly exited the restaurant, we talked about how we were going through the different stages of grief.  But then, we ended our 4th of July evening on a roof deck in the Beacon Hill neighborhood area of Boston (across from the State House).

Gorgeous!

The couple that lives in this complex are fellow Californians, so it was nice to be among people we could relate to.

Sun setting.

After some more drinks, and making sure that I don't nick the pretty nails, I was able to enjoy the fireworks over the Charles River.

Can you just hear the patriotic music?

Purty!

Favorites!

So, Happy Independence Day Everyone!

I'll try to keep updating about our travels in Greece!!  Otherwise, I'll see you all on the other side!

8Things - Improved Eating

As the trip to Greece looms closer and closer, and the weather is getting warmer and warmer, I'm reminded that I'm still in the same place that I was in the beginning of the year.  That is, I haven't lost a single pound.

If anything, I might have gained a couple of pounds, though I am staying positive and saying that it's just muscle weight.  I have received a lot of compliments in the past couple of months about whether I'm losing weight, but I think I'm just learning how to dress better for my body type.

That being said, here are my 8Things for improving my eating habits.

1.  More water!  I mean, c'mon.  What kind of mermaid am I if I'm not guzzling water all the time?  I've actually noticed that I'm drinking less water, for some reason.  AND, I know that it makes me snack more.  Maybe I will move back to carrying my BIG water bottle instead of my little portable one.

2.  More veggies!  I've been saying this forever.  Again, in the past several months, I feel like my veggie intake has gone through ups and downs.  I was really good about salad for lunch for 2 weeks, then I had a whole day of eating chili (ya...umm....it was really good chili...and my belly wasn't too angry at me for it!).   I really like Rachelle's idea about eating 2 all-veggie meals a week.  I might try to go for the same, and more if at all possible

3.  More variety!  So, not only do I need to up my veggie intake, I think I need to vary the types of foods I'm eating.  I've gotten interested in exploring quinoa recently, but I've yet to make something with it.  Time to look through all the recipe's I've collected from magazines, websites, and books.

4.  Less eating really late!  I'm a busy girl.  My extremely considerate boyfriend, who does most of the cooking, will sometimes plan it so that we can eat together.  Sometimes, that means that we eat close to 9pm.  That's bad.  I know that's bad.  It means I stay up later, usually, as well as storing a lot more fat.  Bad bad bad.  I know this.  I know that sometimes it can't be helped, let's say if I had a belly dance class at 6-7:30, and I get home at around 8:30.  But we've already started talking about it, and we're both going to try to make an effort at this.

5.  More juicing!  The other day, I woke up and felt like I really wanted to juice some fruits.  I haven't juiced anything in a long time, and my poor juicer looked it.  But it felt really good to have that fruit juice, though I really wanted some greens and ginger in the mix.  I think I would like to start my weekends with juice.  I'm generally pretty good about having breakfast during the week, though it's mainly bagels or cereal.  On the weekend, I wake up later and usually just have brunch (seriously, last Saturday, my 3 meals were of chili....no regrets...).  But, if I have juice in the morning, I feel like I might do better about my choices during the day.

6.  Finish "The Omnivore's Dilemma"!  I'm currently in my non-fiction book reading phase.  But I haven't necessarily had time to read for recreational purposes.  Though I felt like I knew quite a bit about healthy and ethical eating just from things I've read and talking to my ethical-eating friends, reading the book is bring a whole new level of consciousness to me.  I don't know if it will make me go completely local, organic, or grass-fed, but I will definitely try.  It could be a good experiment to find substitutes for Filipino meals.

7.  Try really hard to stay local, organic, and grass-fed...but recognize when I have to make exceptions1  Philippine Dried Mango?  Well, shoot.  I'm not going to give that up.  I know that everything can't fit nicely into all of those categories.  But if I can at least stay within one of them, I think I'll feel pretty good about myself.

8.  Just say no!  Or, well, I don't have to say no.  The problem is that I'm a very social creature.  And when I get social, I get snacky.  I need to be better about balancing my social nature with not eating while chatting.  I often grab lunch with another social worker in the school.  We chit chat, talk about nerdy things and our kittehs.  But sometimes, I go out to lunch even though I already have something packed!  Then I just feel like I'm wasting food, even though I'll eat whatever I packed later on in the day.  It's not a good feeling.  So, I need to be okay with saying no, or just bring my packed lunch with me (the little cafe we go to usually doesn't care).

I really like these lists.  It helps me put everything into perspective and keeps me on some sort of track.

Ya..that's a sausage.Wurstküche Restaurant, Los Angeles, CA
February 2010

City Sights - Staying Cool

Holy moly, it's hot!

I don't know if it's really worth it yet to put the AC in, since there's a possibility of thunderstorms tonight.  At work, however, the AC is supposedly on.  How is it possible that I can barely feel the air in our office when it's so cold in the winter?

So, in an effort to stay cool, I wanted to post not hot photos from earlier this year.

January 2010
Brighton, MA
That is snow on the ground!
I just loved the way the clouds were hanging in the sky.

April 2010
Allston, MA
I love this picture.
A rainy day in Boston, and I mean pouring!
I was waiting at a bus stop, within a covered area.  
I looked up, and noticed that the water had collected 
on the glass roof of the bus cover area.