It went click when it moved, and pop when it stopped, and whir when it stood still

So, before I get again thoroughly frustrated with my car, I thought I'd talk about how much I like it. I love my car. It's a great car. It drives so nicely! The seats feel really good! I've noticed this again today because I've been a month without it, and driving Glen's car instead. His car is okay - it's reliable, it's legal to drive, and it's hanging in there with it's good ole '95 mint green Subaru self. All more than I can say for my car. But his just doesn't feel as comfy in the seats, and doesn't ride as smoothly, and doesn't feel as connected to the road as mine does when I drive it. Now if only the damn check engine light would stay off, maybe I could get it inspected and not worry about it for a year.

In other "new toy" news - I picked up phones for Susanne and Mom this week. They had made the agonizing decision about what model and color they wanted, and I went into Sprint to arrange the deal. We are now getting a spectacular deal on our cell phone plan, and I can only hope it works as well for them as it does for us. For three days, I carried around both of their phones as well as mine, testing out the news ones and making sure nothing was obviously wrong. This meant I could conceivably had nearly every appendage ringing, had anyone known the numbers, and I had turned the ringers on.

Meanwhile, it has finally, for a day, stopped raining and turned to spring, which made it a good day to be out and about, even if it was driving for hours down Route 9. We also went to Russo's and got a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables. It's such a great place to shop, and I get so inspired in terms of cooking and salads when we're there. So we now have food for a few days' worth of dinners, which is also good. Glen, it seemed, was also inspired, insisting we pick up a spaghetti squash, and, later, pignolis to make pesto. He had discovered artichoke/fontina ravioli (they make fresh pasta - SO good!), and wanted to make pesto as a sauce for it. I stocked up on cucumbers, and on his suggestion, dill, and we made cucumber salad. (They would have been pickles but we never wait that long to eat them!) I also made a green salad which we topped with marinated artichokes, so we had a meal with three dishes tonight, a rarity for us. It was also very green, but quite springlike and delicious.

I've had a very bipolar week. Thursday was definitely the worst of the days. Tons of good things happened - I have loads of consulting gigs lined up, for example - but everything else just felt like it was falling down, and I did indeed have a meltdown on Thursday night. Ugh. At least by then we had hot water, though, and I was able to take a shower. Something about taking a shower was key in my mental state, and not having hot water on Wednesday night or Thursday morning had put me in an even more precarious mood.

Talked to Chris briefly on Friday morning. Things generally seem better after I talk to her. She pulled me out of a slump a few weeks ago, too. "So..." she had said over IM that Tuesday, "Tell me your worries." I had to laugh. No one else would say that to me. Very British. I can't wait to see her again in September.

And hooray for a three day weekend. My interns are now up and running, and starting next week there will almost always be at least one of them there at all times. Which is good, and productive, but also a bit of a stress. No matter how bad my days might be going, I need to put on a good face for them.

Weather has a lot to do with it. It's been raining for days straight, and (feels like) months' worth of weekends, so all of Boston feels like it's in a collective depression. (And I mean more than meteorologically!) Today, with temps in the high 70s and bright sun was definitely appreciated.

Jennifer falling down

Had a decent weekend, although too short per usual. Yesterday, along with karate and laundry, Glen, Eric, and I went to meet Kris and Amy at Bartley's for dinner. It was raining and as we left Bartley's, I slipped my hand through Glen's arm, and then back into my pocket. Moments later, he slipped on the curb, and, although I managed to get my hand out of my jacket pocket, I couldn't untangle it from his arm, and we both ended up on the pavement, scraping our hands.

Then, today, we were making paella, and I was chopping onions with our wonderful Shun knife. The knife slipped and I sliced my finger. It's amazing how much blood can come from such a small cut. Glen finished the onions.

I do have karate tomorrow, so hopefully this trend of being dangerous won't continue!!

In other news, I can't believe my interns start on Tuesday. This will be the seventh group I've seen...

Everybody wake up

It's been, as you might be able to tell from the lack of blogging, a hectic few weeks. In that time, there have been a multitude of things I have been told to add to my blog, but of course, now that I'm actually here and writing this, I can only remember a couple stories:

I was in NYC about a week and a half ago, doing an NVivo training for a group at Baruch College. On Thursday evening, I was supposed to meet Glen's parents for dinner, so I was walking down Park Avenue South. It was about 5 PM. NYC generally makes me uncomfortable so I was looking around and being hyperaware, like usual, when I glanced behind me and saw, running towards me, a man, stark naked. He was out for a jog, I guess. With absolutely no clothes on. "This must happen all the time in New York," I thought to myself, "I can handle this. I'm a consummate New Yorker." So I didn't double take, I just kept walking. The guy ran on by me, and as I followed in his wake, everyone on their cell phones was saying, "You're never gonna believe what I just saw..." Security guards were on their walkie talkies saying, "No man, I swear! The dude just ran right by here. Naked as the day he was born!!" So I guess that sort of thing doesn't happen in NY so much...

Earlier that week, I was giving a presentation in Boston, and I got to the venue near the Boston Public Gardens with plenty of time to spare, on a beautiful day. I decided to take a lap around the gardens. After walking a bit, I sat down on a bench. A woman pushing a stroller with a little girl came up to the bench next to me and asked the child if that was a good place to have lunch. About ten feet away stood two Canadian geese. The little girl (maybe 4 years old?) waved frantically and yelled "HI TURKEYS!!!" When the woman unbuckled the girl from the stroller, the girl said something about not having seeds (to feed the birds). Then, she started miming throwing seeds to the geese, who, seeing the motion, started frantically looking for what was being thrown, reminding me very much of dogs who are ready to chase a ball when their owner's are teasing them and haven't thrown it yet!