Dateline 1/26/12: E St & W Broadway, Southie

Morning watch -- 7:22 a.m.:   

In one swoop

confirms

I was asleep last night by 11:30

and

up this morning by 6:40

 and

the #9 bus driver did brake

halfway between G Street and Dorchester

to pick me up

as I sprinted to catch the 7:20

which got me to Copley by 7:37

(because crowds on the 9

and E. Berkeley Street drivers 

don't seem to get going until 7:45,

 I learned)

and in the office

(after a Starbucks stop)

by 7:51,

and

while I know this indeed is not early

for most normal folks

I am not most normal folks,

 and

 I don't think I've been either

in bed by midnight

 or

 in the office before 8

 on any day in the last year

 and,

 well,

 it just seemed worth noting

in case it never happens again.

Dateline: Dorchester Heights 12/31/11

3:20 p.m.

All hail the feet that ran 1,000 miles this year without injury, without complaint.

Many thanks.

(And onto the next year, my friends.)

Dateline: Carson Beach 10/08/11

Never really expected to be 

working on a tan, 

in my bikini, 

in 80 degrees, 

in Boston,

in the late afternoon

on the 17th day of autumn.

But, so be it.

4:51:   This dude wanted my apple core.  Badly.

4:56:  Apple finished.  Seagull banished.  Nap commenced.

5:44:  Sunset over Southie

Dateline: The High Line 8/7/11

Looking down

26th Street in Chelsea

(4:28 on a Sunday afternoon,

88 degrees and sweaty and

pressed on all sides by

the normal, vast humanity of

Manhattan),

as if it wasn't enough to be

seduced already by

The High Line's 

vegetation,

Hudson breeze

and third-story perspective

(which I never thought necessary

until now),

there needed to be
this unnecessarily-suited cellist
bowing-out
this Bach cello suite
and this man in a scally cap
taking out his earphones
to record a new tune.

Yes.

It was kind of perfect.

Dateline: Orlando 06/02/11

6:30 p.m.....the best part of the business trip.

Dateline: Cafe Arpeggio 398 W Broadway 5/21/11

Sun.  Trees.   Coffee.  Newspaper.  Saturday at noon.

Ahh. Another kind of rapture altogether.

Dateline: View of the Office 4/29/11

Taking lunch in Copley Square

I find

I love my building

when the sun is shining.

Dateline: First Day of Spring 03/21/11

What? 

You can't see Cambridge through the snow squalls?

Yeah, me neither.

Dateline: View from the Office 1/12/11

The building is swaying

but I must admit

the rooftops are pretty.



Copley Square, Back Bay to Charles, 2:36 pm

The trees at ground level, 8:16 pm

Day 12 of 31: 0.00

(I know. Lame.

But come on. 

Wet feet suck.)

January Total:  22.36

Dateline: 1/01/11 Southie (11:38 pm)

Well, if I don't get to start the year with a boyfriend, at least I get to end the first day of it with a 25-minute run through the snow, in shorts.

(Day 1 of 31: 2.62 miles

January total:  2.62 miles)

Dateline: 9/18/10 Hampton, NH

One more Reach the Beach Relay down.

One more traverse of the state of New Hampshire,
on foot.

20.46 miles in 182 minutes.  

(Yup ... sub-9s.)

29 hours spent either in a conversion van 

or running

or eating either dried fruit 

or spaghetti at Joseph's Spaghetti Shed in Bartlett

or sleeping 

(for about 5 of those 29)

and doing all these things

in proximity to

 my 10 teammates from

Cheap Yellow Mustard,

who ran the rest of the 200 miles involved.

Time to rest the feet.

And time for some sleep.

More later.

Dateline: Fenway, 8/18/10

True, 

the cheap seats can be fun, 

at times.

D, C, A and the dugout.

But the expensive seats

(First Base Field Box 20, Row D, seats 1-4

gratis, no less

with a prime view of Lowell at first 

and Youk's on-the-DL noggin poking up 

like a lightbulb

from the warning track

and a pair of homers

and a 7-5 win,

with the ladies)

for a random Wednesday in August,
were slightly more fun.

Dateline 8/4/10: My table

He:  up from the Garden State. 

She: over from the Back Bay.

90 degrees.

(And almost that much humid.)

4.25 miles run, 38 minutes, 8:50 pace.

Stop at the

Southie Stop-n-Shop.

Find filet of sockeye.

Air-conditioned apartment. 

Agneta's 2000-calorie salmon recipe

(heavy cream, parmesan)

totally earned, no?

(Counter with light

via Chenin Blanc.)

No need to shower

or

lose the sweaty clothes

or

stop checking e-mail

when

dinner is with an old friend

at

9:36 on a Wednesday night.

Good times.

Dateline: Diesel Cafe, Davis, Somerville 5/9/10

10:32 PM

Yes, 

I do sit at coffee shops on Sunday nights wearing

my church dress and cardigan 

over 

my running gear.

Wanna make something of it?

Dateline: View from the Office 4/27/10

7:16 p.m.

If you've gotta stay late,

at least be thankful for sunsets after storms and

Comm Ave dressed in lime green

and being 28 floors up.

Dateline 4/03/10: Beautiful Day

It's beautiful to now own a reconstituted, red Raleigh. 

(Thanks, Bikes Not Bombs.)

It's beautiful to be looking at it in the reflection
of the Hancock tower instead of being inside the tower, working.

It's beautiful to wear shorts and tank while riding it on (by far)

the most beautiful day we've had so far in 2010.

No complaints here.

..........Dateline 3/22/10: Thirty-seven..................

The Cheesecake Factory,

(Prudential Center),
2:45 pm,

featuring the Key Lime

(with caramel-flavored writing),

courtesy of Claudia

(who also gets the photo credit).

I am not entertaining any

smart-ass comments

about how

last year

I posed buff in a bikini

and how

this year

I'm eating the highest-calorie dessert

known to woman.

It is the way to go

if

a birthday must fall 

on a

rainy, foggy Monday.

Dateline 03/14/10: South Boston

12:58 pm, corner of Broadway and Dot Ave, with the well-prepared musket man and his compatriots (and yes, he did indeed make a bad joke about the capabilities of his musket, as you might expect), before the parade, before I could have possibly realized that 2 hours later I would be standing in my bathtub wringing 2 full gallons of water out of all of those layers of "waterproof" clothes (including the "waterproof" boots).

Some stinkin' storm.

Update - 6:52 pm:  So I was just chatting with my father about my weekend. He thought my colonial drum-and-fife buddy above was the candidate I was marching in the parade for.  Which means I should be a good campaign volunteer and clarify that Mike McGee (below) is the man running for Fourth Suffolk District State Rep. That he sprinted flat out for 3 hours shaking hands in his garbage-bag-over-wool coat outfit through a serious Nor'easter (see the waves blowing through the puddles behind us) means he deserves a bit more love from me -- even if it means you have to see 2 photos of  that awful poncho.

Dateline 02/27/10: Killington Mountain

Obviously,

only the slowest skiers

have the time or the incline

to stop

and take pictures

of the wicked fresh powder.

Or,

maybe just

those on Easy Street.

2:27 pm

A good day

on the greens.

Dateline: Bryant Park 01/18/10

A Monday morning in midtown Manhattan,

wishing for skates

and an extra hour before the bus to Boston.