Earthquake!

So, everyone by now knows that the East Coast had an earthquake today. It was a 5.9, centered in VA. It was felt from DC, parts of NC & SC, NY, PA, and MA. Growing up in California, earthquakes don't faze me. I remember the Northridge quake in the 90s which was a 6.7 I believe. I was spending the night at a friends house, dreaming that we were having an earthquake and moments later, waking up to an earthquake that never felt like it was going to stop! I did not feel today's earthquake in Boston, like some of my building mates did. I was amazed watching the news (every channel had some sort of coverage of it). They evacuated buildings (which I find silly esp. with reports of the 111 Devonshire building swaying and the evacuees standing all around the building. Did we learn nothing from 9/11...if a building is going to fall...we do not stand right outside, we get as far away from it as we can!). Fortunately, nothing happened. But 9/11 was brought up by the media [of course] especially since we are coming up to it's anniversary. The Pentagon was evacuated and someone had the balls to say it reminded them of what it felt like when the plane crashed into nearly a decade ago. Seriously?! Now, granted...it was much stronger down there than up in New England. These people also do not know what to do or many may never have even felt an earthquake before, so I probably should not have been laughing at them. But I did find the news coverage quite comical. Especially the part about President Obama, who is on Martha's Vineyard, being briefed. I mean, in California, this really wouldn't be news b/c we are so used to it, but then again... I have to put myself in other people's shoes...which is sometimes quite hard for me to do.

Rooms

So, I've been doing some redecorating. These are photos of the spare bedroom that was recently fixed from this past winter's ice damage to the exterior wall.

This is what the room looks like now...

My dining room, finally finished it with the latest addition...the server which holds all my alcohol.

And because I'm a shop-a-holic...my kitchen is now complete, with my newly purchased "cafe" themed canisters...you wouldn't believe what I went through searching for something like these, ended up purchasing them at Montgomery Wards, which is an online only store now. I also added the island b/c I needed more counter and storage space...for the size of the kitchen , I do not have enough cupboard space, which is so frustrating.

Living Room and my bedroom to come...

I Don't Know Why!

I had an adventure today. It involved a rain storm, a bus, an extremely busy traffic circle and creating my own path while hoping I didn't tread through poison ivy. I've spent all weekend rearranging furniture (after my dining room set server was delivered yesterday morning), deep cleaning the apartment and spraying the apartment for bugs. This afternoon I headed out to Target and Costco before the rain was scheduled to start. Unfortunately, by the time I came above ground and got off at the Wellington T stop (about 45 minutes), the sky opened up. Dressed in shorts, tank top and flip flops with no umbrella, getting caught in the rain has become the norm to my life lately (ever since my trip to Scotland). I had no choice but to wait for a bus instead of walking the .6 miles from the station to the shopping plaza. So it stops raining, I get on the 99 bus and whoops! The 99 doesn't go to the shopping plaza on Sundays (only on Saturdays). So, I got off the nearest stop, which is on the other side of the very busy Santilli Circle (which is off of a highway). So, not seeing crosswalks to get across to the other side, I had to make my own path, which unfortunately was through some grassy area (walking in flip flops) and all I could think of was walking through poison ivy [I think I'm good though; seeing as nothing is itching except for some of my bug bites]. I got to an area where I could cross, but not before probably spooking some drivers as I stood behind a guardrail. Monitoring the flow of traffic and signal patterns, I managed to hop over the guardrail and cross 3 sections of the circle safely. Phew! [It totally reminded me of the game Frogger.]

So, I didn't get wet like I have been getting lately during these rain storms. I managed to get my shopping done and carried over 3 gallons of liquid on the bus and 2 Ts and finished up the deep cleaning. Sat down to dinner after 8pm (which is becoming the norm, I beginning to understand Europeans and their late meal times) and watched Limitless. I don't do to well with these crazy [as in out there] types of movies. Bradley Cooper's character narrates the movie. The movie starts at a future point, so the story has to rewind a bit, so the audience knows what happened prior and leading up to that particular scene. I thought it moved kind of slow, but Bradley Cooper played a more serious role which I prefer over his stupid ass characters on his filmography.

PHOTO: I tried to capture the circle on the bus as I headed back to the T station after my shopping.

Tipsy

So, I am giggling as I type this...way too much to drink, so here is a video that explains tonight, LOL....I had a fun night out with Meg, talking and drinking and interacting with a bar tender who wasn't all quite these... and for the record, I wore jeans and heels, but kicked shoes off at the door and changed into boxers before recording this...hey, at least I wasn't topless [this time ;) lol]

Movie Review- "Attack the Block"

Another free movie screening. Tonight was a British film, Attack the Block. Going into it I knew it had to do with "inner city" kids [hoodlums] and an attack on their "block" which was their apartment complex. It's rated R for language [you think Boston's bad with the over usage of fuck? These kids make a sailor look clean]. Now, I didn't realize it would be about aliens. [Think scary MIB monkey wolf looking aliens.] But, figured it had something to do with turf wars (side story). Now I don't know much about South London where the movie takes place, but think MIB (or even Independence Day) in not the nicest urban area, with kid gangbanger wannabes instead of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, fighting for their lives to save their friends, victims and building from aliens.

You have comedy, blood and guts, rap music, a pot room, and the English accent which at times makes it nearly impossible to understand what the kids are saying. A little less than an hour and a half running time and I was impressed. I jumped once b/c of the alien creature, but that's not saying much considering I jumped at Signs. Not a movie I would have even considered watching, but I was entertained and do recommend it. I think I enjoyed it b/c of my hip hop background (both listening to and studying the culture); I kind of empathized with these kids. The movie got a round of applause when the credits rolled and most of us watching were the people that go see tons of movies (and screenings), and I think besides Scream 4 when Wes Craven was in the audience with us, this was one that received a loud round of applause.

http://www.attacktheblock.com/

Goodbye Plants, Hello Cement

When I first moved into the Brookline apartment nearly 2 years ago, there was a huge tree out in the parking lot. They removed it a few months later. This weekend while I was running all over Boston stimulating the economy, I left in the morning seeing flowers in the plot outside my door. I came back to cement. I can't believe they covered up the dirt and sealed it. It doesn't even match the brick work! I'm a suburbs girl for sure, but I've made do with living in the city by having some greenery around...So now, all I have is the smelly pear trees outside in the front and my fruitless veggie plants I've planted that are sitting on my front windowsills. If they didn't want to keep up the planting of season plants, I would have easily volunteered to keep it pretty with plants. Sigh...whhyy?! [in my best Kenan Thompson impression from Nick's Kenan and Kel]

Adventure

After work me and a friend of mine went on a mini adventure. We walked to the orange line from Longwood Medical Area (LMA) to West Roxbury, where we got the T to Forest Hills. We then hopped on a bus to Roslindale and walked some more. We picked up her car which got some work done, then headed to JP for dinner at this Scottish Pub (The Haven). They were playing Scottish music and everything reminded me of Scotland. They had haggish (which I would never eat), minty mushy peas (which I had with my Fish & Chips like I did my first day in Edinburgh) and they had my favorite English beer... Innis & Gunn. I don't remember what type I had in Edinburgh, so I tried both the rum cask and the oak cask...they are both good. The rum cask darker than the oak cask....both have a high ABV. I think I enjoy the higher ABV beers. They are tastier, a little more expensive, but totally worth it. Plus, I can't drink too many...after the one, I was feeling it...after the second, I was having a hard time organizing my words in my head and getting them out of my mouth, LOL. I wish I had room for dessert, they had a deep fried Mars bar which I would have loved to try, but I couldn't even finish my meal [I think I only ate half my fish 'n chips which is a good thing I guess].

It was a fun night, catching up with a good friend. It was a gorgeous day out too, which made the adventure even nicer. And to make the night even better...I received my Pats ticket for the Pats vs. Chargers game next month and am watching them play their first preseason game! It's football season!!

Cookies!

Tonight I made cookies! I started watching The Girl Who Played With Fire and decided I wanted to bake cookies to snack on while watching the movie. So, I paused the movie about half way through and made oatmeal chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies (same batter, but I split it in half, added some raisin and cinnamon to one, chocolate chips in the other). It doesn't take that long, but every time I make cookies, by the time they are on the cooling rack, I'm over them. Maybe it's b.c I LOVE cookie dough and eat my share of cookies in the raw, but who knows. All I know is I now have a few dozen cookies that I had to find containers to store them in and managed to only eat 2 cookies.

This photo is the last of the cookie dough. I don't know about you, but I never have enough to do a full tray when you get to the last batch, so what are you supposed to do? Usually, I'd eat it...but this was too much. I could have made 3 or 4 cookies, but decided to just make one big cookie for the last tray. And, nope, I didn't eat that one.

Pain

You know the saying those gym owners and trainers are always telling us, "no pain, no gain"? Well, I know the difference b/t good pain and bad pain. And what I'm experiencing is bad pain. Last week I was getting headaches. Now, at first I thought it was from caffeine withdrawal since I had cut out coffee for a few days, but after my 2 hour massage (and drinking coffee again) I found that my headaches were caused by knots and tension from my back, shoulder, neck and even my arms. I've been doing yoga, pilates and spin weekly and haven't done too much lifting, but I totally overdid it in yoga last week, where my shoulder popped. I didn't think anything of it, I mean my hip pops every now and then, whatever. Last night I did Wii Sports and played tennis, which was a BAD idea. That's when I started to feel the pain in my shoulder. Now, I have been working out 5-7 days a week for about a month now, and obviously not resting as much as I should. Today, I decided to lift some weights and do cardio, but again, that was a BAD idea. I also had bowling tonight and my shoulder was so sore that I ended up playing a few games as a lefty (which were better scoring games than when I attempted to bowl with my right). I'm feeling really sore, and the pain is working its way down my arm. It hurts to do simple tasks. So, I took some Ibuprofen and pray that I can get a good night's sleep tonight. And yes, I'm still going to hit the gym tomorrow, but instead of yoga...I'm going to just stick with cardio.

Movie Screenings

Tonight was my third movie screening in 2 weeks. I love going to the movies. I like escaping reality and have no problems going to the movies by myself. When I first moved to Boston I lived less than a 5 minute walk from the Fenway Regal theater and spent many afternoons escaping the heat and watching movies nearly once a week. Lately, I’ve been spending evenings going to the movies.

I saw “The Change Up” last week and enjoyed it. It was a feel good, RomCom movie with a predictable ending. I like going to see movies for free, especially when they're movies I know I'll like and would have seen anyway.

I saw “The Devil’s Double” on Monday and really enjoyed that movie. It wasn’t the type of movie I would normally watch considering the topic. It’s a true story about Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, and his body double. It was graphic, but interesting. I don’t think I would have gone to see this movie in theaters or rented it once it came out on DVD, so I’m glad I went to this screening. I was quite surprised with liking this movie and really do recommend this one.

Tonight, I saw “30 Minutes or Less”. Now, I have a crush on Jesse Eisenberg. There’s just something so gosh darn attractive about that nerdy guy! Anyway, it was funny, but stupid. I’m clearly not the intended demographic. The movie falls in the “stupid” category. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, I just watched for the first time “Napoleon Dynamite” the other night and THAT movie was stupid. I didn’t get the point of that one. So, if you liked that movie, you’d probably enjoy “30 Minutes or Less”. I probably would have gone to see this movie in theaters anyway, but I’m glad I saw it for free b/c it was one of those movies where I walked out thinking “lame”. My advice if you're on the fence, wait until it comes out on DVD...unless you're looking for a pointless hour and forty five minutes of entertainment in an air conditioned dark room.