bye may! hi june.

herrroooo!

let's first discuss how much boston loves memorial day. 

they had 33,000 flags placed in the commons all weekend to represent every fallen service member from the civil war to the present. 

is this blowing your mind? this isn't even all of them. it's crazy to think how many people gave their life so that we can be free. 

i need you to know two things. 

1. i LOVE that little white house with that huge tree and pink flowers and i feel happy i get to walk past it everyday. 

2. i ate swordfish for the first time in my life and didn't hate it! not even a little bit. 

swordfish w/ banana rum chutney, avocado and tomato salad, and mashed sweet potatoes = a meal i still think about and it was like three weeks ago. 

okay i guess three things. 

3. natalie and i finally (after probably three months of trying) got our volunteer badges for the VA. 

we not only get to hang out with elderly vets but also get to feel like we are on alias. 

the last week of may consisted of lots of outside friend time, toscanini's ice cream, and this gal below:

but my face is sad because she moved back home to arizona which makes me SO sad. 

mel, come back!

can we talk about this guy for a second? 

i was cutting through harvard business school to go home around 10pm one night when the man above came up to me asking about where something was. he then somehow started talking about some app which then brought up something else which then brought up the fact that i am mormon which then led to us sitting at some outdoor table discussing it for over an hour.  he was kind of crazy and somewhat inappropriate in the types of questions he was asking but it felt nice to defend my faith and hopefully he listened to at least some of what i said. 

anyway.
the last week of may was graduation fest 2013 and there were SO many moms and dads and chairs everywhere. 

here is a story. 

so maybe one time i was trying on my one-piece swimsuit (trying to debate if it would make it's debute this year or not) when it started rain storming outside. i was so thrilled with this that i forgot i was in my swimsuit, immediately turned off my lights, turned on bon iver, laid on my bed, and just listened while i watched the lightening and pouring rain out my window. a few minutes later i looked down and thought it was the funniest that i was still in my swimsuit so i took these photos and awkwardly sent them to friend christine and am now posting them on this blog. the end. 

the temple is the greenest right now and it is the best. 

these houses are also the best. 

i was walking to my friend carly's catholic school kids pop recital and accidentally turned down the wrong street. i was way happy this happened because it was the most beautiful and lovely detour (and the best time of day i might add!). it was nice to discover somewhere new, it is one of my favorite things to do. 

one night i came home to find this. maybe i'm not good at those little sticky hangy things because they hate holding up this strand of lights. 

i walked into my boss' office to find three of our executives being match teams. so cute.  

one of my more favorite parts of spring = our parkway boyfriend is back! i need to not be in a car when i pass him one time so i can actually sit and talk with him. i just love him. 

can you spot the random spanish man asleep on our lawn? re-roofing our house is tiring i guess. 

the last night of may was spent with kristin, boston, and our bikes. 

if that is what my nights are like for the rest of the summer i definitely won't be mad about it. 

(and i don't know how many more times i can say it without sounding trite, I LIVE IN A DREAMLAND)

the next morning a few of us drove up to portsmouth new hampshire for lunch on harbor

then we drove a few more miles and BLAM! we were in kittery, maine. 

i think maine was born to be foggy and rainy, it was perfect. 

(if you look closely you can see a very iconic lighthouse on the tip of that land - there was another one too but i wasn't very good at taking pictures of them)

 

we only explored for a few hours but it was delightful. 

there is just so much to experience and see on the east coast! i'm glad i have friends who love to go and see new places just as much as i do because let's be honest, i've become an adventure addict. 

i thought i blogged these guys already!

..so that was disappointing when i found them in a draft, wordless.

may loves to rain. most of the time i'm thrilled it isn't freezing anymore so i'm okay with it. i was especially okay with it when i walked out of the temple and it looked like this. it was perfect.

boston got it's very own shake shack recently and people are pumped about it.  

i think it is nice and all but i don't know if i will ever understand all of the hype! or why it is fine for a small hamburger and baby shake to come to $12

chelsea introduced a few of us to an app ellen degeneres made called "heads up". you just hold it up to your  head and then guess what it says from the clues people give you. considering how much we all love headbanz it is great and everyone should probably install it on their phone asap. 

so here are some fun things that have happened at work recently:

1. i have become a hand/arm/shoulder model and feel pretty famous when i see large posters of said extremities around the office

2. after you've worked at vecna six months your security allowance goes up so you need a new badge with a green background instead of a blue one. since i'm way overdue for my new photo i tried to do it the other day but for some reason meg (my trusty co-worker who i share an office with) didn't like any of them. i can't imagine why?

3. one time my blouse matched my ninja star! like, perfectly. it was awesome.

4. a guy at work so kindly made a replica of my face out of clay. ...i thought it looked more like that monkey.

when it's not raining the weather has been the dreamiest. the other day i decided to hang out at harvard yard while waiting to go to dinner with some friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

(like, really. i couldn't have been happier than to just sit and watch the foreign friends in front of me video tape themselves and cry laugh tears as they watched what they had just recorded)

i finally took some time to go into the curious george store (the only one in the world mind you!) and also noticed my favorite tree is all leafy again. yay!

nice weather also means more street performers which makes me happy

and i just wish i could describe to you how perfect the weather was that day because it almost felt magical it was so good. 

and to end this random post i just have to say that boston is beautiful and i feel very blessed to live here. k that's all. 

one month ago on this very day

the 2013 boston marathon occurred. 

via

if we all remember from my last post i was sick and miserable so instead of going to some reenactments in the morning and then heading over to the marathon like i had planned i ended up laying on john's couch and watched it instead on tv. 

via

i decided to see what else was on around 2:30 and then at 3 i saw that my friend had instagrammed a photo of her television with a caption about something terrible happening at the marathon. i quickly turned the tv back to it and then sat in horror as i watched them replay what had happened. at this point no one really knew what was going on so i sat glued to the television for probably six hours listening to a small detail here or there as the story unfolded. usually when things like this are on the news i feel sad for the people but have no real attachment to the place so it was weird to watch and instead be very familiar with the bombed area. i just couldn't believe someone would do such a terrible thing and i had an even harder time with the fact that it happened in my city. 

and because it was my city i had friends and family text, call, send fb messages, etc to see if i was there and if i was safe/unhurt. considering i was supposed to be at the marathon that day i was very touched by all those who reached out, some of which i hadn't talked to in months and months, to make sure i was okay. 

the next day i still wasn't feeling well (my body felt fine but everything in my head was still sad and my throat was maaaaybe on fire) but felt better than i had the days previous so my work friend meg and i decided to go downtown to participate in one of the many vigil's being held for the victims. 

i loved the flyer that was passed around for it, 

"darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that"

we tried to make our way to a different vigil but many of the streets were still closed off so we just checked out boylston street (where it happened). 

other than the random japanese news anchor it was pretty deserted. it was eerie since that street is usually packed with cars and people. i found the photo below on the internet, it looks like in the following days that tiny mural in the picture above on the left became rather large. 

via

since it was only a day after the bombing it was touching to see that signs with words of encouragement and love were already posted everywhere

(and this is unrelated to the bombings but i really enjoyed other parts of our walk too, like this night time scene near the prudential)

wednesday and thursday seemed semi normal. everyone was going about their lives but you could tell they felt a little worried, not very safe with the recent events, and didn't like not knowing where these bombers were. 

and then there was friday. 

i was so proud of myself that i woke up on time, showered, and was even going to be a little early for my 7:30 am yoga class. i was about to go out the door when i got a text from my roommate saying that they had been chasing the bombers all night and that it would be a good idea to stay home until further notice. 

i thought that was kind of crazy and unrealistic so i was about to go out the door anyway when i decided to check and see if the buses and subway were running.  they were not. i then checked my work email and found the three emails above which confirmed to me that my roommate's suggestion to stay home really would be a good idea. 

sooo my day (and probably everyone else who lives in boston) went like this:

8 - 2:30 tried to work from home while simultaneously listening to the news and taking gross pictures of myself to send to my sister kim. i also tried to do yoga for one minute and made myself lunch 

(this play by play is for you grace!)

2:30 -5:30 i couldn't take the boring repeated news anymore, laid down, then woke up in a panic 3 hours later

5:30 - 5:45 got really rebellious and  sat on my porch outside for a few minutes

5:45 - 9  tried to keep working but finally things were really happening so the news was much more exciting. around this time they finally found the guy! 

he was captured three miles away from my house, as you can see from the really helpful map i made above. 

so then we drove down there and joined in on the celebrations going on in the streets of watertown. 

i have a feeling the military and policeman felt like rockstars. so much cheering and clapping going on!

then we drove to the arsenal mall which is where all the tv crews were set up all day. so many satellites!

(i circled some of them in pink but that was only a fraction of them)

and then it was time to visit the house with the boat where he was found. 

oddly we were were able to get really close to it, and felt really pleased with ourselves (as seen below) 

and then just like that it was over. now a month later it all kind of seems like a dream. i know it isn't that way for those who were personally impacted and will probably feel like a bit of a nightmare for a long time, but for the rest of us life just continues to move forward and the media finds some other tragedy to exploit. but just so i don't forget - it was a week full of uncertainty and sadness and tears yet it was also full of hope in humanity and gratitude for so many wonderful people who helped save those who were hurt. my heart was especially touched by those who had just finished the marathon and then continued to run to the hospital to give blood or the physician who immediately started working on people even though he himself was exhausted. i've felt so proud to be a bostonian at this time and to be associated with such good people and for others to recognize that goodness. i loved what stephen colbert said, "here's what i know. these maniacs may have tried to make life bad for the people of Boston but all they can ever do is show just how good those people are." and that is true for all places of the world, i feel like every time these terrible things happen somehow so much good comes from it. so that was my experience. i saw people rise, unite, show love for one another, and in the end grow stronger as a community than they were previously.