somerville open studios

Today Somerville hosted an "open studios" where artists of all kinds throughout the city open up their studios or their living rooms for neighbors to walk door to door as if every street is a string of galleries. I really, really dug it and was so impressed at how many people here were involved! There were about 100 different locations you could visit and at least 400 artists on display. I went to just five.

Warshington

So I think I'm often criticized for taking too many building pictures and not enough people pictures. In D.C. last week I had some fun with self-portraits-in-front-of-a-thing on a really beautiful day -- crazily enough, people kept passing me and saying "Can I take a picture for you?" - and I had to give an awkward "No, thanks!" I didn't intentionally coordinate my red, white and blue but it was downright hot out, I needed Julius. Yes, the cherry trees were pink. No, I didn't get to meet Bo. Yes, President Obama was born in the United States. Come on, people.

more photos over here

Wide Open Spaces

I don't normally ooh and ahh over Colorado - unless it's Mexican food we're talking about - but I have to admit it was a gorgeous day yesterday. In fact, we were swearing at ourselves for not wearing shorts. Today, of course, the Spring's sick sense of humor returned, and it dumped snow midway through an otherwise sunny morning while we were walking outside in light jackets and t-shirts. The photos here are from Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, a free park that's unparalelled on scenery. We also spent a good chunk of the day in a penny arcade in Manitou Springs where they have four rooms of Donkey Kong, Frogger, Space Invaders, Ms. Pac-Man and you-name-it (all still in working order) for a quarter, plus all the pinball and "love testers" you can dish out for 5 cents. I scored high at skeeball, as usual. The Elton John pinball machine (below) was super vintage cool and in great condition.

Boston Space

I've been meaning to upload pictures of my room but wanted to get 3 posters framed and hung up, and that took some procrastination. But I got to it today, at last. The walls are not as frighteningly yellow as they look here, they're a bit more bland but it's hard to get good lighting in there.

Kate gave me these adorable prints for Christmas that say "Some days are better than others... but the sun always comes out tomorrow"

The below poster is from a show I went to on the official first day I moved in to the apartment -- 10/15/10

Every other weekend, I try to take about a four-hour afternoon walk for fresh air, even though it's a bit cold! In the rare sun today, I took a few pictures of my 'hood:
Christmas decorations are still hangin' in there:
I like this combination of garlands:
Somerville Library:
The site that someday will be a new Green Line T stop, just a few houses away from me:
I was really thrilled earlier this year when we got our very own "Geezers Crossing" sign, and the one with the little heart is cute, too:

Cambridge Library all lit up at night:

Inman Square's famous poultry shop, they don't mince words:

More fun with the liquor store marquee:Just came back from a weekend visit to Colorado, packing a half-gallon of green chile in my suitcase, and two Costco-sized bottles of Cholula. It was both great and terrible to see Chris and Derby. I wish they were here.

I would love to blog more but I am so......... flippin'............... tired. Work has picked up, as they promised it would, and now I just save every second of free time after work to get to sleep early.

Zzzzzz.

Lord.

I spotted this statue in the driveway at work the other day.

It's a perfect symbol of how everyone's feeling about the snow this Winter in Boston, an "I surrender" kind of feeling.

A lot of my colleagues are working from home and the office has been closed three or four times since we're a school, too. I generally just take public transportation.

The conditions generally haven't been that bad, except last Monday when it was 1 degree on my commute to work. I was really bundled up, but it was like Minnesota for a few minutes there.

What's been unusual is how constant the snow has been -- it's snowing a few inches to a foot about every other day -- so it's more than Massachusetts is used to, and the piles when they haul it into parking lots are getting to be 2 to 3 stories high (really).

The local weather guys are giddy at the attention, and love any excuse to use special Wintery vocabulary like freezing drizzle and thundersnow.

My take on the silver lining -- I can't help but notice that the more perilous the weather, the more strangers and neighbors talk to one another. It's perfectly "Boston" that the worse the conditions of the day, the more likely people are to open up and talk to each other. They don't share smiles and hellos, but they'll share a complaint or an eye roll.

Snack Size Denial - 3 for 99 cents

Over the summer, my sister and I noticed these hilarious grocery-poster spoofs in the windows on the second floor of a brick building in Pittsfield and we were wondering whose they were. I finally went back again today and noticed they are pieces from an art gallery called empty set projects by Michael McKay and Monika Pizzichemi.

Some of my favorites not pictured are "Common Sense - 39 cents", "Industrial Strength Angst - 4 for $1", "Sweet Revenge - $10.99 a lb.", "Dashed Hopes - Buy One Get One Free", "Best Intentions - $6.29 a dozen", "Instant Karma - $7.49",

Greetings from Somerville

Typical neighbors! All festive and plastic and bright.

shoe shot

still a pretty Fall here, although any second, it may turn to Brrrrrrwinter

holidays mean family

I have no idea if this was intended to be funny, or even intended in the way that I'm reading it, but I really laugh hard every time I pass it on the way to work. Family comin' to town? Better start drinkin'. Also could be read as "mean family" comin' to town, better start drinkin'.

I said I was going to upload a photo of this cool Day of the Dead Matroyska doll poster that I bought the other day. Here she is. I still need to get it framed for the wall.

Also at the SOWA Art Market I bought this fun little trivet/tile of the Golden Girls which really ties the room together, does_it_not??

I can't really take a photo of my bedroom because there's piles and suitcases everywhere. But here's a couple pretty pictures of Boston at dusk, from Mem Drive, on my commute home last week.

at last!

here's a couple photos of a trip my roommate and I took to the SOWA Vintage Market on Sunday in South Boston which had lots of flea market stuff and etsy-ish artists. the tea pots are indeed a Mad Hatterish sculpture.

I bought a really cool poster of a Day-of-the-Dead style Matroyska doll, but I'll have to take a photo of that later once it's framed and hanging. also bought myself a tile/trivet of the Golden Girls (!) which is so perfect for midnight cheesecake snacking.

and recently found (finally) flip flop socks in pear-colored Asian bunnies. too cute.

great day today -- Phew.

"Everything is not enough, nothing is too much to bear. Where you been is good and gone, all you keep's the getting there."

Shug

(Sigh) I didn't even realize how much I loved it until I owned it.

I think I'll name her Shug after my favorite book, A Color Purple.

New place

This is me having coffee this morning in my new super-cozy, modest but furnished apartment and the hilarious mug with a photo of my landlord in his badass teenage years, circa St. Elmo's Fire. IKEA furniture has been delivered, and hopefully I'll have photos up of my new (well, new used) car tomorrow. All is well!

Above is my landlord's dog, Scooby, who is no longer living here but who is so perfectly cute she probably should have had a career as a movie dog like BOLT. She really doesn't like cameras though, this is her protesting.