Turn Up that AC

It's amazing how much of a difference central air makes. If you have it, you know you have complete control over the temperature and your comfort. If you don't have it, you boil and sweat.

As David Sedaris says "I was lying on the floor making a sweat angel..." but I just left central air in Rhode Island and now I'm back in the old buildings of Boston where you need to BYOAC.(bring your own air conditioning...yeah).

So today I bring you two pictures as I loose about 5 lbs from sweating. The first is an homage to my old home an it's one of the last dinners we were able to have in our dining room...before everything got packed up. And now, sadly, pretty much my entire room is in boxes:(

The second picture is an homage to summer. When you grow up with both of your parents being musicians playing in a local wind ensemble, you get pulled along to every concert during the summer concert series. The American Band...check them out on Facebook. Wind ensemble music just reminds me of summer...especially marches and John Phillip Sousa. And it helps that this picture is a classic photobomb.

August is snapshot month!

So as I said before: August 1st came and went but I have 4 pictures to make this month current! So...

1.) Well, you know its going to be a weird day when you think you've time traveled.

2. This is a picture taken at sun down of the skyline of the beautiful city of which I live, and was enhanced using Instagram. 

3. Just some summer weather including intense thunder and lightning, soaking down pours, and heavy winds, complete with a tornado watch over the city. 

4. And from today, the beginnings of my room being packed up :/

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More to come...and stay tuned. It seems as though my photos will mostly be about moving and changing locations, as well as exploring the new areas I'll be moving to. It's both exciting and daunting, but I'm glad I picked this month to document with photos. 

the endless cycle of moving and packing

I've been a very bad blogger lately, but a lot has been going on. August 1st came and went and with it went my motivation for this blog. However, I am at home, where it is easiest to blog (since there's not much else to do) and I'm in the process of packing up my room. This is kind of going to turn up being a few weeks of moving hell:

1.) Already moved all the things from my apartment in Somerville to my boyfriend's apartment in Boston...and bless his heart because my multitudes of shoes and clothes are piled around his room.

2.) I am now at home packing up my room here so that my parents can move from the bay area to southern Rhode Island.

3.) I will return in a couple days to help them move and unpack.

4.) I will then help move all my things, my boyfriends things, and two of our friends things into one huge truck to our new apartments on September 1st. And I can't wait to decorate our new apartment! And eat Chinese food on the floor surrounded by boxes...and always have a bottle of white wine in the fridge.

So right now it is August 4th. I had decided that I knew August was going to be a busy month, so I resolved to take one picture a day. Easy enough, right? Well...I owe you four pictures today. I'll upload them later.

Just taking a break from packing up my things. It's amazing how much crap one can accumulate in 13 years. I found pencils that I remember from 3d grade! I also realize that I can't bring myself to throw out three things: photos, greeting cards, and sheet music. I just can't do it. I have thrown out a lot, and for that I give myself credit.

I also need to ask myself...how did I just discover Portlandia? It's HILARIOUS. Yesterday I packed and threw things out with that on Netflix in the background and watched all the episodes through. Today was more of a Family Guy, stand up comedy day...in fact I've got some Gaffigan playing in the background right now.

Well I'm going to take a break from blogging now, which was originally me taking a break from packing to...eat! My favorite part of the day. And I got some Outback steakhouse ribs. In honor of my little brother, who loves loves loves ribs.

I'll be uploading those pictures later! (Four of them...i know!)

Sent from my iPhone...

...(so please excuse terseness and typos)...

So here I am, laying in my bed at home and realizing this will be one of my last nights in this house. Since I am only here for one night I left my computer in Boston. It's hard to blog in Boston because I'm so busy, and I find that when I'm here at home, I have the solitude and quiet that I need. But alas, my nice computer is miles away, and I am relying on autocorrect and my thumbs to publish this post (not to mention the artificial sounds of typing).

Lately I haven't been that great of a blogger, but so far this is the most consistent I've ever been (I have a few other blogs that failed miserably). I'm relying on this new great idea that I have for this blog, because I'll actually have things to write about, and even if I never get any followers, at least I can track my own progress. I'm actually kind of afraid to acquire followers right now, since I'm still new at blogging...and since this blog hasn't really been about anything recently I'm glad I don't have anyone expecting anything from me yet. Maybe in a few months after accomplishing some things I'll tell my friends...but right now nobody really knows I have a blog. I mean...it's on my Facebook...but it's kind of hidden.....

Time to get down to business. I've been watching a few documentaries lately trying to understand human emotions from a scientific and biological standpoint. It's not as interesting as I thought it would be...
Aside from that I recently saw Ted (which is awesome because I was able to identify almost every place in Boston) and the new Batman movie comes out tomorrow...technically midnight.

I've been trying to figure out a name for my blog too...this "untitled blog" isn't too inspiring or creative.

And August first is approaching...and this will be my first full month long challenge. I can't think of anything to start with. I was going to try to start with taking a picture every day, but I already do that. Maybe I can add on to that idea.

Well my eyes and thumbs are tired. Time to see what Mr. Grey and Ana are up too...probably something way more fun than blogging.

He's probably googling her twitter.

Untitled Document

I probably should have mentioned in my first post that although I have started blogging, I do have a life, and sadly I will not be able to blog every single moment of it. So what have I done? Well, I've made my annual visit to Tanglewood to watch the TMCO fellows perform their first concert, I've made my way down to the reflection pool in Boston, walked through the park, and spent some quality time with myself mulling lots of things over in my head while I spend quality time with my family, and while I slowly watch the days slip away until my first day at work after my vacation.
So I've decided to finish out this month by watching documentaries. I already saw Fat Head, a documentary that is similar to the more famous Supersize Me. Very intriguing, interesting, and a little gross. I'm actually wondering who is more correct...Mr. Spurlock or Mr. Naughton (either way...they both have either french fries or bologna stuffed into their mouths on the covers of their documentaries).

If you have any ideas and are reading, please comment, and please follow me! I promise I have interesting things to say!

This is the first day of the rest of my life.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog.

I have started and ended multiple blogs, mainly because I get bored with them, or I forget about them. Also, life has a tendency to become a little mundane. Recently, however, a light bulb went off in my head. Actually, this idea came 100% from this Ted Talk. I recently discovered Ted.com and I have fallen in love with this site. There are so many interesting, ingenious, inspiring people out there, and to hear about their experiences and stories is truly remarkable. I would LOVE to be one of them.

So here's my plan. Every 30 days (or 31 or 28 depending on the month), I will be trying something new. Something that I've been curious about, something that I've been putting off, or perhaps trying something that I had no intention of learning about...but now that I am challenging myself to learn new things, I'm going to go for it. I am going to start on the first of every month - but already I'm not off to a great start, seeing as it's already the 8th of July. This will officially start on August 1st with my first challenge, so this blog is kind of a "warm up challenge".

Now, I am not a writer, and my first challenge is starting a blog, so that I can keep a log of all the things I've learned. Since I started writing today, I don't really expect too much in terms of followers right now. I am going to start with easy challenges, and move gradually to harder ones. This summer I have already learned how to play Sudoku, which I've been avoiding mainly because I'm terrible with numbers, and naturally I avoid puzzles that resemble anything having to do with math. I'll move to harder challenges eventually, and soon easy challenges will be all mixed in with crazy challenges, and in no particular order.

I have recently realized that life goes by so fast, and I feel that this would be a great way to slow down time...or at least make the time valuable. It's exactly like what Matt Cutts is saying:

The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days?” 

So why not? I am learning how to blog right now, and trying to find my literary voice before anything super interesting happens so that I'll be able to write not only an informative, but also entertaining blog for you to read. Before I go into what I want to do, I want to fill you in on who exactly I am.

I am a working clarinetist. I have a bachelor's degree in clarinet performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, and I just took a year off from school for a reality check, working as a waitress in Cambridge, MA. I live in a part of Cambridge called Somerville, in a four bedroom apartment shared with 3 other musicians, and will soon be moving to Allston, right across the river, as it is closer to the school I will be attending in the fall. I aim to acquire a master's degree (in clarinet performance) from the Boston University. On top of all that, I'm a native Rhode Islander, I grew up with the salty air of the ocean in my lungs, and it still remains one of my favorite places to be, for it has amazing healing powers for the mind, body, and soul. I have a great and supportive family, I have lots of amazing friends who are always there for me, and I already have lots of unforgettable experiences. 

Life is too short, you only live once, no regrets...say it however you want, but it's true. This is my attempt to make my life more valuable. Never again will I be wasting another day, because every day I am going to be improving my life and my knowledge by meeting the goals I'm going to set for myself. 

Now for the fun part. These are my ideas. 

Like Matt Cutts, I am going to begin my challenges with something simple: taking one picture every day for a month. I also will write a novel, maybe even two...but I am going to save that until I'm comfortable writing here (baby steps!). I want to improve my grammar and spelling as well, before I start taking on the task of writing a novel. I want to learn how to knit and do needle point. I want to try one new recipe every day. I want to explore tea, wine, and beer. I am going to start making plans to sky dive, bungee jump, and do anything else that might make me potentially pee my pants. I want to learn how to do something physical-whether it's pole vaulting or taking a dance class I don't know yet. In addition to that, I am also going to learn how to swing dance. I do have my long term goals that I will also be working on every day, but this will keep my days busy, fun, and rewarding. 

Since I am a student with limited funds, I am going to be depending on my friends for a lot of help. My little Korean friend is great at needle point, and I have a dear friend who can teach me how to knit. Some of the people I work with seem to have an endless knowledge of teas and wine. A friend of mine is a skilled saxophone player, but he's also a skilled swing dancer. So on top of learning all these new things, I'm going to be spending lots of time with people who are near and dear to my heart. 

I'm very excited about sharing all of this with you, because I really feel that this is the first day of the rest of my life.