Rain

Since I arrived here in the Berkshires last Saturday, the rain has become increasingly frequent. The basement's flooded a every time, some of the driveway washed away, the back yard has been flooded in some areas, some portions of roads are flooded or have been washed away, there is loose gravel, etc. etc.

I went into Boston yesterday and had lunch with a friend; fun change of scenery. Also wanted to see Emily, but she was busy with family things. It's nice that the more I visit the city the more familiar and comfortable I've become with it. When I went the first few times I felt somewhat intimidated and hermit-ish but now I'm feeling better.

Had dinner with some new friends last night and the night before I made quite a feast of bbq chicken and roasted parmesan veggies. Thanks to Giada!

Supposedly the rain should hold off for the rest of the day (though it's incredibly humid and damp) and I think I'll walk the couple miles to West Stockbridge to find some stationary to do some writing.

My Great Vacation

I am on day three of my "Great Vacation." Spending time out here in the Berkshires is quiet, relaxing, beautiful: tranquil. It wouldn't be great at all if I wasn't spending the time with Michael. He is in the middle of his first Tanglewood season with the Boston Symphony and he just got tenure so things couldn't be going any better.

The weather's been off and on. It's rained at least one time every day that I've been here. Today we opted to take the Volvo out for lunch. Clear skies, no wind, lovely. We made it to Stockbridge (so touristy, blah) and ate, and then Michael started getting nervous about the weather so we high tailed it back to the car. Trying to decide if we should explore the Berkshire Botanical Gardens, a decision was made for us as it started to rain! Oh boy! Was I able to stay calm as Michael got really worked up over the rain on his 45 year old vintage car. Being stuck behind very slow drivers added to the tension and the stress. When we finally made it back to the house, we raced to dry off the car as throughly as possible. I don't know how long we were at it for, but it entailed Michael under the car drying, and me using my hair dryer to get the water out from between the body and chrome trim. It's a beautiful car and quite enjoyable, but being that it currently has little to no rust, keeping it out of non-perfect weather is of utmost importance. I've never experience such quick and drastic changes in weather as I have in the past three days.

I wonder what adventures tomorrow will bring!

I cannot commit

I just cannot commit to blogging. When I decided to do this a while back, I thought it was something I could stick with; guess not.

Last weekend I traveled to Boston to see my man. Oh boy was it so good to see him! Though he had been here for a about five days earlier, it was great to get out of KC and back East. It had been hotter and more humid here than I care to remember and in Boston, it was a cool and breezy in the high 70s, low 80s. NICE! We explored some outer communities, had lunch at Symphony Sushi, and walked and walked around the city. We had a fantastic meal at Pico's on Tremont and then I was determined to trek it to the other side of the city for a piece of original Boston Cream Pie at the Parker House Hotel.

On Sunday we drove out to the Berkshires and got settled into Michael's summer house in Richmond. Wow! I had seen it in March when we first checked it out, but in the fullness of summer, it's so much better than I remembered. The house is on a few acres and is isolated between sunny meadows and green forests. I hate to say that it's perfect (because nothing ever is) but it's perfect. So quiet, lots of different birds singing, and totally serene. There's even a massive claw foot tub to soak in, and the windows in the bathroom run low enough that you can see out into the back.

On Monday before I left, we explored the Tanglewood grounds. I had no idea they are as expansive as they are! There are so many paths and trails to take around the area with maps posted every so often showing, "You Are Here" so you can find your way around. Rolling hills, open spaces, and areas of forest and wild flowers. Why did I have to leave? To come home to take care of Molly Cat and work my job. I miss having summers free.

Out of hibernation

Spring is a Tease.  After weeks and weeks of feeling like Spring had finally arrived, it'd retreat and winter would wave, "hello."  I finally feel Spring now because I feel like I can venture outside of my four walls and have adventures.  This is the first weekend in many, many weeks that I've had all to myself.  I believe since February, I've either had guests visiting, or I've been out visiting.  It has been nice to relax and have my own time.  Friday night some of us celebrated Lisa's birthday at JJ's and it was so much fun, though I was the youngest and the only non-divorcee.

Yesterday I found myself exploring my neighborhood.  I went by Halls Crown Center for the first time in eons and I couldn't believe how great the store looked.  Really, really, really good and terrific merchandise too!  I'm really glad that store is getting a much needed, and overdue facelift.  Though I didn't find shoes to wear to the wedding here in a few weeks, I did find so many other things that I did like.  After that I wondered the floors of River Market Antiques.  I don't think I've ever gone alone; it's always been Michael's and my place to scavenge.  I did find a table for my massive, shedding, and sunburnt fern.  It's just perfect and now the plant is further away from direct sunlight and should get even bigger and greener!  Going to the gym was great, taking my time in the shower, and then meeting Meredith at Aixois in Crestwood.

We ended up closing the place!  I don't know how many times that's happened for me, but everything was fun.  I even tried escargots without blinking an eye and they were great!  The staff and owners seemed to take to us so we even had a glass of a port with a chocolate, on the house.  I swear, sitting and eating at the bar of a nice restaurant is a good way to go.  Every time I do it, I usually get something extra as well as meeting someone new.  Thanks to my friend Sloan who introduced me to that style of dining.  It's great.

Together in Boston, Alone in Kansas City

After an incredibly busy and stressful week at work, I took off for Boston Friday evening and arrived just after midnight.  After what's coming up on four years, I still get some butterflies when I see Michael for the first time.

Saturday we ventured out a little bit to a Boston neighborhood, Jamaica Plain, or JP.  It didn't do much to thrill me.  I felt like the houses and store fronts were smushed together and then shoved all the way to the street curb with a narrow sidewalk as a divider.  Not my ideal neighborhood, not to mention every single house was four plain walls, no yard to speak of, and covered with monotonous vinyl siding.  On a positive note, we had a pleasant lunch at City Feed and parked in front of the Mother Ship JP Licks.  It was too cold and windy that we weren't in the mood for non fat (non calorie?) delicious ice cream.

I did get to see more of Brookline and Michael even spotted a house he thought was neat and then we ended up (of course!) at Trader Joe's.  My favorite thing that I spotted was a massive display of matzos and overhead it said, "Don't Pass Over This Deal!"  Hahahahaha!  We hung out for the rest of the evening, had a nice dinner, a little wine, and watched Slumdog.

On Sunday we got up and had to head out to Cambridge to hit the antique market because Michael found a pair of Eames chairs for the dining table.  They were perfect!  Since neither one of Michael's cars are, "practical" in the practical sense of the word (both are two-seater sports cars) one chair went in the back, and the other went upside down on my lap with the window open for one of the legs to stick out!

It was a beautiful day and we spent hours walking outside and looking for deals.  I finally hit the jackpot at second hand shop.  I found three great dresses: one Prada sport, one Miu Miu, and the other was a no name, but it was a sweet trench dress with fun yellow trimmings.  Bad thing: not what I was looking for to wear to a wedding and no extra money for great deals, no matter how great they are. :-(  Being poor is not easy.  We did find things to wear to the wedding and we both got great deals, so we did do well.

I had such a hard time adjusting to Michael living in Boston and visiting Boston and over my past few visits, I've found my rhythm.  I feel like I've found some sort of niche which makes every time I leave so much harder, and harder on both of us.  Totally sucks.  Thank goodness for a great small book, "The Four Agreements" which is a great guide to help me figure out what's best for me.  I wonder how much longer I'll be alone in Kansas City?

Dogs

So I'm housesitting/making-sure-my-friend's-16 year-old-stays-out-of-trouble for the next few days and they have a cat and two dogs.  A-Jax, is a great looking, very sturdy, black American lab, and is top dog.  While Boots, looks like some breed of herding dog with golden-black, burnt colored, fur.  Clearly Boots was abused in his previous life before my friend's family took him in from the wild.  It took one evening for him to warm up to me, but he did and now we're friends (and my favorite).

Yesterday and this morning, I've been woken up and begin to hear their whines.  They want out to run the large lot that the house sits on.  They get so excited when they see me and start hopping up and down and let out a few barks.  They scurry out the door and then run, and run, and run around the property.  They do come back to the back door and sit to see if I'm there and then they take off running again.  Yesterday I interpreted that as wanting in, but they'd only run in the house for a second and then beg to be let out again.  So today, I'm more savvy to their routine.  They now are waiting at the back door for longer periods; most likely because their hungry.  They can't eat till the boy is up and moving because he feeds them.

It's fun having the animals.  I just wish that it hadn't snowed and it was nice weather so I could have them go on a walk with me.

Saturday morning

March has been a month of visiting friends.  Leslie came the second weekend at the last minute and it was very enjoyable.  Unexpected for me, she brought me Trader Joe's Triple Ginger Snaps!  They are my favorite and it was such a surprise!  We got some good food and tea and kept ourselves so busy that I got a stomach ache.  The weather was beautiful that weekend that we walked down to the River Market Saturday morning and really indulged in the produce.  We packed lunches and then headed for the Nelson to eat outside on the lawn and then went through the Asian exhibits.  We stopped by the library and then hung out in cosmetics at Halls for a little bit.  The weekend was fun and I felt lucky that she could come in on a Friday evening and then leave Monday morning while I was on my way to work.  We got all the time we wanted!

Last weekend Emily came to visit!  We also had some good food (and drinks!).  We were all over Kansas City on Saturday.  We went shopping on the Plaza (a totally gorgeous, gorgeous day) so she could see our massive GapBody, hit Standard Style, J.Crew, and Anthropologie.  We had lunch at Mixx (I took Leslie for dinner there her first night) and then headed out to meet up with Gina at Nordstrom where she was working a Bobbi Brown event.  We looked for gowns for Michael's brother's wedding and I found nothing!  But then, we got some jewelry making supplies together and Emily broke out her tools and we made some fun necklaces while watching the newly released, "Twilight."

On the subject of the Twilight series, I was very resistant to picking up those books at all since it's the rage!  I was encouraged to read the first book and I hesitantly did, but I totally got into it and I just finished the fourth book at the beginning of this week.  What great stories!  The movie, oh boy...good in some ways, unsatisfying in more.  I'm glad that I read the book first or I think I would have been discourage to after seeing the flick.

Yesterday evening I came to stay at a friend's home to keep an eye on it and her son.  So far, so good.  The bonus are the two dogs and friendly cat.  Well, there are more bonuses than that: being in a house out of downtown, on a massive lot with a green yard and lots of trees.  I just hope this weather becomes more pleasant so I can take the dogs out for walks.  The only drawback to this place is that I'm having a hard time finding anything!  Light switches are very hard to find here for the correct lights.  Oh my gosh, sounds easy right, but it's not.  This morning I couldn't find any tea or coffee, but I could easily find the kettle and the coffee pot.  Oy!