Schlepping Up to Boston (Whoa Oh Oh)

So how have YOU been? Things have been busier around here, but mostly, I just haven't had much that I feel driven to write about. This may also have something to do with my stupid computer, which has started bouncing the cursor around while I am mid-typing, throwing partial words into the middle of previously written sentences. That is SUPER FUN, believe me.

Anyway, let's recap my latest hiatus bullet-style, after which I will again make ~~empty~~ well-meaning promises to be better (although I am well aware that this matters to exactly no one), ok?

Working Girl: I got a job! Yay! It is not a real (by which I mean "in my field") job. Boo! It turns out that being a stay-at-home housewife sans children/part-time consultant is insanely boring. I was starting to go out of my gourd never interacting with anyone beyond the grocery and dry cleaning clerks, and I also really missed having frivolous spending money, so I went and got myself a part-time retail job at a way over-priced kitchen store that I love love love. It turns out that working at your favorite store isn't quite as much fun as merely shopping there, but the FORTY PERCENT employee discount more than makes up for it. My already lengthy wishlist is growing longer with every shift. Overall, it's going well, although after having been in a professional environment for so long, it has been a mental adjustment going back to having a Boss and punching a clock and having my break times assigned. On the other hand, I go there, do my work and chat with people, and they pay me money for it. Best of all, when I punch out and go home, it is OVER until I return. This is the first time work hasn't followed me home since my teachers started assigning homework in elementary school, which also means I am free to continue working on building my consulting portfolio. WIN.
Working (Harder) Girl: I was home with my family over the 4th (more on that in a sec), and while there, had a chat with my dad. My family owns a small pharmaceutical manufacturing company, which has been one of my clients for ages; in fact, they were my very first client in private practice. My dad was complaining about the amount of money he is shelling out for very reputable but rather inefficient outside counsel these days, and when I jokingly suggested his hiring me as the company's general counsel (as I do, most often when he is traveling to meetings in places like Milan, Paris, and Madrid), he was ... receptive. I would love to do it, as I am kind of desperate for the mental challenge. It would also be ideal, as they are MA based and I am MA licensed, plus it's work I can start now and continue with ease once we make our eventual move to MA. As a result, I am working on a proposal for him and simultaneously praying that this is not like the Jeep Wrangler he promised to buy me when I got my driver's license (I'm still waiting, 16 years later). Cross your fingers, ok?
Cape Week: As I mentioned, Mark and I headed north for the 4th as we usually do, but this time we drove up and spent a whole week. I wait for this week all year, and it was awesome as usual. My parents have a cottage on Cape Cod, and I love love love it there. Our neighborhood is this very insular little community that has not changed much at all in the last hundred years. All of the houses are handed down through families, everyone seems to be related, and as a result, it is basically summer camp for kids and parents alike. We used to leave in the morning after breakfast, go to swimming/sailing lessons, hang at the beach, ride bikes, play at friends houses, etc., showing up at home for dinner, salty and exhausted. Because everyone knows everyone else, someone's parents are always watching, and word will always get back to your parents, so there is the kind of freedom for kids that is unusual these days. Now I love it because it's basically a week of lying on the beach, reading on the porch, and eating amazing meals with Mom and Dad. Every day, we sleep in in the salty air, stumble downstairs for coffee, then head around the corner to the beach. We come home salty and exhausted, then settle into the rocking chairs on the porch for cocktail hour. It is perfection. This year was made even better with a couple of additions -- a new baby in the family AND Mark's meat smoker (what, you don't throw the smoker in the back seat for road trips?).

So close you can see the top of the bridge! Should only take another 45 minutes to crawl there.

Made it!

Cocktail hour on the porch -- I wait for this ALL YEAR.

Lobster eatin' injury. Life is rough on the Cape.

A boy and his smoker

That there? That's a smoked brisket covered in a BLANKET OF BACON. It is what is referred to as "nirvana."

Baaaaabies!: My college roommate has been coming to the Cape as long as I have known her, and after she got married, her husband started coming too. She is the third daughter in our family, so they are just part of the tradition now, whether they like it or not. This year, B and her husband have a new baby, who is pretty much the greatest baby to ever baby. He is 7 months old and gorgeous, sweet, a perfect sleeper, and wins over pretty much everyone who crosses his path with one drooly, gummy grin. Our week was basically a series of interludes of 4-8 grown adults gathered around one wee munchkin, making goofy faces in order to entertain him. Even Mark, who loves kids but is kind of terrified of babies, totally came around and now wants one ASAP. It was hilarious and delightful, and I miss his fat feet and wrist folds palpably. They're coming to visit in two weeks, and I may need to kidnap him.

I really wish I could show you how adorable he is, but alas, he is not mine, so I won't post a clear photo of him online. This was pretty much our week in a nutshell though. It was awesome.

Old Man is an Older Man: Mark's birthday was last weekend, so to celebrate, we went to his favorite place on earth: Fenway Park. We had spectacular seats (seriously, best I have ever had -- 3 rows off the field, just behind the visitors' on deck circle), but the game itself was pretty lackluster. It was a makeup game against the Yankees, the day game of a double header, and where most of the Sox are currently on the DL as it is, the team we saw was not even the B team; it was more like the C or D team. They got whipped, rather predictably, but even the worst day at Fenway is generally still a pretty fun day for us, so there you go. Once we got home, I attempted to make Mark's favorite dinner as a belated celebration, but I am a moron and forgot a key ingredient, so homemade pasta and chicken parm with a dessert of amazingly good birthday cake became just homemade pasta and amazingly good birthday cake because mozzarella-less chicken parm would just be silly. I learned two things here: 1) Mark will always be happy with just pasta, which he loves and I never make (carbs!), and 2) homemade whole wheat pasta is a sticky pain in the ass, and if you're going to all of that trouble, just stick with the damn refined white stuff and enjoy it. Lesson #3 was of course a no-brainer: birthday cake solves all problems. Happy Birthday, my buddy!