Miguelina

Dirty Water

(Originally posted on New England Mamas)

I’ll never forget the moment I became a New Englander. It was October 28, 2004.  I know it was around lunchtime because I was buying a salad when I heard The Standells for the first time:

I'm gonna tell you a story
I'm gonna tell you about my town
I'm gonna tell you a big bad story, baby
Aww, it's all about my town

It was, of course, the day after the Sox had won the World Series. I’m not a baseball fan (actually, I’m not a fan of any sport) but my husband and I couldn’t help but watch the game on the tiny TV in our guest room and cheer on the local team.  I may have shed a tear when the game ended and the neighbors on our sleepy Newton street went outside to celebrate, but at the time I thought it was the pregnancy hormones taking over.

We went outside too, and I took a blurry picture of the blood-red lunar eclipse.

Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles 
(Aw, that's what's happenin' baby)
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves
(Aw, but they're cool people)

My newfound affection had very little to do with curses being broken.  By then we had been living here a little over two years, but we had spent a lot of that time discussing where in the world we would end up living - for real.  Vienna?  Miami?  London?  Rio?  What city would allow us to live the life we wanted?

Turns out we were already there.

Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home 
(Oh, you're the Number One place)
Frustrated women 
(I mean they're frustrated)

At first, I thought this town was boring and was frustrated because it wasn’t welcoming.  There's no street grid, so it takes years to learn your way around.  Driving a Honda Civic in 10 inches of snow is not fun.  I was a frustrated woman, indeed.

Until I got AWD and navigation, that is.

Have to be in by twelve o'clock
(Oh, that's a shame)
But I'm wishin' and a-hopin, oh
That just once those doors weren't locked
(I like to save time for my baby to walk around)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, yeah)

We had many hungry nights when we first moved here.  I was used to eating dinner after 9 pm, and I never, ever went to a restaurant before 10 pm.  Have you been in Boston after 10:30?  Ghost town!

Eventually, we adjusted our dining schedule.  Now I eat at 6 pm (sometimes 7!) like a real New Englander.

Because I love that dirty water
Oh, oh, Boston
You're my home (oh, yeah)

But you know, this town has a way of growing on you.  We love going for walks on the Charles River Esplanade (always keeping an eye out for thieves).  I love cannolli, and therefore the North End.  I’ve been on a duck tour, and it was corny and all sorts of awesome.

Well, I love that dirty water
(I love it, baby)

Canoeing to the playground in Auburndale park.  The Barking Crab.  Fenway Park.  Nantucket.  Tanglewood.  MassMoCa.

I love that dirty water
(I love Baw-stun)

I don’t have a Boston accent, but my son says “cah” and “beah” instead of “car” and “bear.”

Adorable.

I love that dirty water
(Have you heard about the Strangler)

I love the history and the scenery that has inspired countless artists: Walden Pond, Emily Dickinson, The House of the Seven Gables, Norman Rockwell.

I love that dirty water
(I'm the man, I'm the man)

I will never love the snow, but it makes me appreciate our gorgeous summers even more.

I love that dirty water
(Owww)
I love that dirty water
(Come on, come on)

I even love our simple black and beige colonial with its red door.  It's just a rectangular box with a gable roof, the kind of house a child would draw.  It screams New England.  It's home.

To dream...

I just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love. I know I'm a couple of years late to this party, but it's a good read - even for someone like me, who is turned off by spacey new age types (probably because if I'm afraid that if I'm not careful I could end up one). In any case, I think that the reason the book has inspired so many is that she doesn't tell you that there is a specific path you need to follow to find happiness in life - there's no need to go meditate in India or live a smelly bohemian life if you don't want to - but you do have to work at being happy. It's not going to just happen if you're not aware of your desire and live with the intent to be happy.

Agreed.

In the book she found a path to happiness through focusing on mantras - I'm not the mediative type so you'll have to go elsewhere or read the book for an explanation on what mantras are  or what to do with them - but I would be lying if her writing didn't inspire me to try it out.

Now, I have two small children on different nap schedules, so I get absolutely no quiet time. The only quiet time I get is in yoga class, conveniently enough. So lately instead of being annoyed when we have "meditation" time in yoga I work really hard at clearing my mind to push away all thoughts and see what happens.

Guess what? I found a mantra too!

My mantra is "z". As in "zzzzz."

I need more sleep. My goal for the next few days is to get more sleep.

Stop laughing. It's harder than it sounds and you know it.

What bothers me about it

The whole Heath Ledger thing is so indescribably sad and I can't really put into words exactly why;  but she did:

Heath Ledger, it has been reported, had pneumonia and was on a possibly-fatal combination of antibiotics, sleeping pills and antidepressants. ANTIDEPRESSANTS. That's horrifying, that a young man with a thriving career, critical acclaim, millions of dollars and all of perks that fame brings - endless attractive sexual partners! fancy clothes! interesting drugs! - was that unhappy. (this was meant ironically, people!) What does our society possibly have to offer anyone if the winners aren't happy with their prize?

I've FINALLY decided!

And I made a button to celebrate:

Here's the code if you want one.

Pretty useful: How to tie a Tiffany bow

I once decided that I needed to learn how to tie a a Tiffany bow. This might seem like a frivolous quest but I figured, why not learn to do it the right way? So I walked into Tiffany's and asked for help.

Believe it or not, the nice saleslady actually taught me. Now I'll save you the trip and teach you how to do it. It's really easy once you know how.

Step 1

Gather your materials. You'll need:

1) a box

2) nice silky ribbon (I usually cut enough to go around the box about two-and-half times)

3) scissors

Step 2

Leaving at least a box's length of ribbon at the bottom of the box, place the ribbon at the center of the top of the box and hold with your thumb. Like this:

Step 3

Wrap the ribbon once around the box. Place the second piece of ribbon under your thumb as well:

Step 4

Fold the ribbon over your thumb to go around the box at a 45 degree angle:

Step 5

Keep going...

Step 6

...until you go around once: 

Now, the step coming up is actually the most important one of the process - if you screw up this step the bow won't work - but don't worry, it's an easy step. Ready?

I know...Snow in New England - Shocking!

But what is surprising is how beautiful it looks when it covers everything like frosting. Winter can be magical when it matches your mood.

Just look at our backyard:

White, white, white everywhere. It's as peaceful as it looks.

All you need is 10 minutes

Janet over at Slice of Pink is one of my favorite bloggers - she's clever ("the audacity of pink"? Genius!), has impeccable taste and seems like a really lovely person to boot. She also has great ideas all the time - like her New Year's Resolution, which is to clean for just 10 minutes but to do it without any distractions (and every day).

Simple solutions like that make me happy.

Yes, I know it's basically the Flylady system, and thankfully my house is pretty clean most days, so I'm not about to start cleaning for 10 minutes a day on top of my regular housekeeping system (um, maintain a minimum amount of chaos before the cleaners come - shh!) but her post reminded me that you can get anything done in 10 minutes - of you set a timer and focus.

Maybe it's time to start putting those pictures into albums?

Decluttering

The NYT had a recent article on decluttering which, of course, isn't surprising at this time of the year. The comments left on the author's blog, however, break my heart. I've thankfully never had a hoarding problem but it has only been a couple of years since I've learned to free myself from the tyranny of stuff. And it feels very, very good.

I may not be a neat freak that finds nirvana in vacuuming, but I'm excellent at getting rid of things I don't need anymore. I also happened to marry a man who hates throwing anything out, who enjoys very much finding new uses for old things, and what this means is that I have to think VERY carefully about buying new things because if I'm not careful I'll have to stare at that impulse purchase for the next twenty years. That has cured me of any desire to buy things "just because." I also hate dust, and the more things you have, the more things you have to dust. Every time I'm wiping something I ask myself "is this thing worth it?" A lot of the time it just isn't.

This morning I filled a large kitchen bag with pure junk - junk that was hiding in closets, boxes and drawers as well as right on my kitchen counter. Getting rid of it made the house feel lighter, the air felt cleaner.

Is it beautiful? Does it make you happy? Does it make your life easier? Do you really truly need it?

If the answer is no - get rid of it.

New banners!

...and overall design - here (as you can see!) and at New England Mamas. Can you tell I've been inspired by winter?

He's got a point...

My husband, after inspecting the awesomely reusable, yet incredibly condescending shopping bag my new yoga mat came in:

"You should have asked the cashier to be your friend."

"Why?"

"It says right on the bag - 'Friends are more important than money' - apparently they would've valued your friendship more than your money."

(Here's a post making fun of some of the other things on Lululemon shopping bags - yeah, the bags are cheesy, but they're reusable so they're going shopping with me - all in the name of less waste!)