Week 8

If we're lucky, Melissa and I will be moving mid November into a pretty cool place. We're waiting on the landlord to let us know. It's in a decent neighborhood. We're Jamaica Plain/Roxbury adjacent so that's good. I'm about 3/4 mile from the train so it will be an interesting walk but hey, I'm all about that up here. Reduce that carbon footprint! Here are some pics of the outside. Inside is 2 bedrooms (with a side room for Melissa's art studio) and 1 big bathroom. Skylights are in there, too. Big kitchen, decent sized living room, too...and plenty of storage. It's 3rd floor but ... again with the movement!
 

Pretty Decent Architecture, IMO. 

I like the pillars and the stained glass porthole thingies. Gives it character. 

It's on a dead end street filled with families. 

The 2nd floor is the landlord. They are really nice. The 1st floor is a couple.



Anyway, I'm excited to see if we can get it. It's really reasonable for a JP apartment.

I went to an High School ARC Club Orientation with Shawna this week. It was a private school in the Back Bay section of town. Think UPSCALE Hyde Park (Tampa). If I had money, I'd so live there. It's exactly what I imagine city living to be like. Seriously gorgeous brownstones. I told Kevin he needed to buy one and I'd rent a floor. LOL. 

 See? How cool is this?

Wouldn't you love to live there? So so cool. Hey, Kevin...Just sayin'!

Monday I had after work bevies with some ARC peeps. Boston is not short of cool places with relatively reasonable prices (relatively being the key word). This concoction is "The Firebrand Saint:" Thai Chile Tequila, Agave Nectar, Lime Juice and a splash of cranberry juice. Yum-O!

This week at work was all about rolling out the new Disaster Preparedness Campaign: 

www. savingzombies.com.

It's a cute and fun way to get ARC out there in the media using the "Mayan End of the World" thing and "The Zombie Apocalypse." We have a contest whereby people upload videos of what's in their "Go Bags." I'm supposed to make one. I'm coming up with something clever, I think. Stay tuned and I'll post the link. Cool article in The Metro.

This fits in nicely with our YAB Haunted House which took place on Friday and Saturday nights. Natalie let us use the dance studio in JP so that was great. We had a couple of snags (a bunch, actually) but like true Red Crossers, Shawna and I put our heads together and got the job done. It was a fun time for everyone. We of course, got way into the Halloween Spirit! Our HH was a maze.. 1st area was a cemetary then down the dark hallway where zombies came after you, then through a room where bodies were chopped up then served to you on platters. Yeah, gross...but highly effective!

 

Shawna and I got bit by the zombies. It was gross yet ever so much fun!

 Other than that...I just went to Waylon Bedell's 2nd bday party on Thursday night. It was low key and nice. Natalie & Stephen had snack food and beers and cake. Way is adorable and very sweet. I babysat for him today. He loves Yo Gabba Gabba...think Barney but more inclusive and with super cool guest cameos every episode.

Hurricane Sandy is about to hit NC and we're already getting the weather. NYC is evacuated b/c of flooding. We haven't gotten much of anything except it's windy, cold and rainy (sleet, I think). I went shopping today and got more water, food that doesn't have to be cooked, batteries and extra glow sticks, etc... I have an emergency pack from ARC that has a first aid kit, flashlight, and other cool stuff in it. Hopefully, we won't need it. As of 9pm tonight, MBTA is running as normal for tomorrow. I'm going into work unless they tell me otherwise between now and then. Fingers crossed we just get wind and rain...and not the huge storm they think we're supposed to get. 

Everyone have a great week. If I don't talk to you, I'll be keeping Mom in the loop. She'll be your contact person for info on me.

MUAH!

Love, Jini

Week 7

Oh yeah, it's the end of Week 7 and I'm moving right along.

Aunt Leila has been digging through pictures and sent me a few old school cuties. I'm LOL at some of them. Rhetorical question: How adorable am I? 

This week I got to do a Volunteer Fair at Montserrat School of Art up in Beverly. It's a stereotypical small New England town: beautiful, town square, trees, character... The College is one big building and in front is this gorgeous park type area. I bet it's really conducive to getting the artistic juices flowing.

Because I work with kids, I get a tad bit of leeway on having fun with my appearance. So, last weekend I got my nails did...BLACK! Spooky! The kids thought they were cool. LOL

Wendy sent me a new picture of Brooklynn. She's so teeny tiny and cute. I think they're out together today.

Thursday night all the ARCEM peeps went to a place called Lucky's (basement bar/pub) for "Flirting With Disaster." This is an ARC sponsored event locally where the volunteers can chill out and get to know each other and it's also a good social recruiting tool. Shawna, Paul and I went. It was good $5 Sam Adams beer and pub food. We had a good time. Here are some Boston pics as I walked from South Station to the Pub.

Friday I was off for Flex time (I work weekends sometimes so I'm allowed to have comp/flex time.). I pretty much just apartment hunted and went to Target. Then I met Daniel for dinner at a really nice place in Peabody. It's in the same building as the truck stop where he parks. He had said the food was good but I was imagining what other places are like about which he's said that: diners with really good food. This place? Decor like an upscale Applebee's and food like an upscale Carabba's or Outback. MMM good. Love my Friday Date Nights!

So...How 'Bout 'Dem Gators?! Kevin had to text and rub it in that he went with Dad on Saturday. Me? I was in a Shelter Training and Ops class all day. I did get a chance after to have a Team Building Sam Adams Octoberfest with 2 of the other 4 AmeriCorps, though. That was nice.

Today was stressful looking at apartments. Very very stressful. 

That's about the it. Nothing exciting is happening. OOH...yeah, Haunted House is next weekend. We'll be prepping for that all week long. Can't wait to post pics.

Everyone have a great week.

Love, Jini

6 weeks in...still loving it!

Hello, everyone. I hope everyone has had a great week. Me? Meh. I was a bit under the weather Wed-Friday. I was in bed 3 days. I'm feeling better now, though.

Last Sunday, Shawna and I did CPR demonstrations and Disaster Preparedness for the Boys Scouts' SOAR event here in Boston. We thought we'd have more kids but it was still a good amount. Overcast and very chilly but productive. We had supplies with us so we got the kids to create holiday cards for the troops for our SAF (Service To Armed Forces) program at ARC.

The weather has gotten colder. It's low 30s at night and only highs in the mid 50s during the day. Hence, Jini gets to wear scarves and hats and jackets, yay!

I told you how Halloween obsessed Shawna and I are, right? Yeah, here is the (maybe) completed wall at work...

And here is a well mannered Zombie. He has obviously read Emily Post which clearly states that when eating brains, you should always use a fork and knife.

Nothing much new is going on this week. Except that I'm moving again. The temporary housing turned out to be way more temporary than we anticipated. Melissa (roomie) and I are looking for another place as we speak. Fingers crossed. It's not cheap to live up here.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting news to report next week. Until then, have a great week and GO GATORS!  Jini

Chugging Along...

I hope everyone had a great week. I certainly did. There is never a dull moment, I tell ya!

This week we decorated the office for Halloween. Shawna and I are freaks for Halloween so this is just the start.

We went out to Natalie's Studio on Monday to check it out for the Haunted House. We're going to decorate it so cute for the kids! I can't wait.

On the way, we saw this awesome art studio. They make sculpture out of car/motorcycle parts. It made me think of Ava, of course.

The big news is that Tyler and Rachael had their baby on Wednesday night. Brooklynn Rena' Bedell is tiny and beautiful. She so looks like her daddy; who is ecstatic. For the record, I'm "GiGi."

I'm learning the MBTA system better. The bus schedules are not at all easy. I feel like universities should offer advanced PhD level classes on them. Anyway, I downloaded an ap for my iPhone and I can tell when my bus comes. Here is a pic of the view from the pick up in the morning to my street. The leaves are starting to change and it's beautiful!

I had off on Friday for Flex time since I'm working on Sunday for a huge all day event. I ran some errands and then had some "me" time...and the Samuel Adams Brewery Tour! (The Boston location is in Jamaica Plain where I live...and in the same complex as Natalie's dance studio). Fun times. I love that these places do this. History of the brewery, short tour of facilities, explanation of how it's all done. Then you get FREE BEER!

I drove down to Uxbridge to see Daniel last night. We had a great dinner at a new (to us) place and chilled with Prince. I miss my dog!

So that's what was going on this week. Nothing exciting or anything, just chugging along having a great time.

Tomorrow I'm teaching Disaster Preparedness to about 4000 Boy Scouts (10 at a time so obviously, not all of them will be in class!). This week is choc full o busy so I'll chat at you next week.

Jini