it's snowing in OCTOBER

yes my friends....it's SNOWING in october.

and granted, it is oct. 30 (almost november) but still. snowing. the winter has officially made it to boston. although looking out my window right now, it's sunny. the northeast weather is such a tease.

shit is hitting the fan out here in beantown. and not in a bad way, it's just all hitting at once. kind of like the saying "when it rains, it pours". yeah. i have presentations up the wazzoo and a few midterm papers. and professors who aren't that great of teachers. doesn't that sound like fun? at least my internship is going well. we have our annual conference next tuesday, and have to be in worcester (pronouned "woo-sta") at 7am. and it's an hour away from boston. we will most definately have to stop at dunkin' donuts on the way there!

i'm happy to announce though, that my cuba class has officially begun, and i'm getting so excited about it. we're already doing research for our projects, watching videos, etc etc and i just really can't contain myself when i think that i'm actually going to get to visit cuba while fidel is in power. i feel so friggin' lucky.

...and i bought my ticket home for christmas, so if anyone wants to meet up, i'll be home dec 16th through jan 3rd. new years, anyone??

apple picking...and a moment of silence

so, my weekend started off on a bad note....my mom had called to tell me that my dad had put my childhood dog to sleep. sadie was such a great dog, and lived a wonderful and energetic 13+ years. i don't think it's hit me yet that i won't see her again...

it was a beautiful and crisp day here in massachusetts. it finally stopped raining for a few hours, the sun came out, so monkey and i decided to go apple picking. it was absolutely chaotic of course (it being sunday, there were tons of families out, and i was starting to get a little clausterphobic on the "hayride" up to the orchards). but it was gorgeous, and we ventured far into the hills, looking for the perfect apple. there were about 4 varieties in season, and we tried every one of them. i know that apples taste different, but i guess i've never compared them at the same time. and i kind of felt guilty because i ate so many of them, but i figured it was better than the little kids who just picked them and threw them on the ground! and needless to say, i had a little bit of a stomach ache on the way home. just like eating one too many cannoli's from mike's pastry :) the fall foliage is jsut beginning to emerge in western mass, and it's looking very very pretty. and it's starting to be scarf season, whoohoo!

oh, so sad :(

i'm sure you've all saw the terrible news. perhaps you even watched in agony, just like everyone else in red sox nation. but those with the white socks won this time. monkey and i just couldn't take it anymore, and turned it off after they lost the lead. i know that's not true fan behavior, but i just couldn't bare it. oh well, there's always next year, right??

in other (better) news, i did go to a FABULOUS show last night at the somerville theater. his name is amos lee, kind of a combo of ben harper/bob dylan and lots of others mixed. hard to explain, but he's folky/bluesy/jazzy. i adore his cd and was excited to see him live, but i was BLOWN away by his performance. honestly, he rocked the place, and i'm just dying to see him again. check out his website www.amoslee.com and see if he's coming to your town. i promise you won't regret it!

is it going to be fall in boston, EVER? i mean, it's been pouring all day which is fine, but it's still 75 degrees and gross. you can't even go outside without getting frizzy hair and soaking wet shoes. the leaves are changing color which is nice, but it's still so yucky out!!! i guess whatever keeps the winter away is just fine with me!

....i love that dirty water!

the sox made it (barely) to the playoffs. whoohooo!

i'm most definately looking forward to the playoffs this year. lots and lots of beer drinking, camraderie, cheering "yankees suck", and eating wings. fun! and i even have a new jersey to wear, since my pokey reese jersey just ain't cuttin' it (he was traded last year). i have to admit that the month of october last year was the best i had in boston! and i'm really looking forward to this october.

i actually got to go to the game on friday when the sox played the yankees (suck!) i won't reveal my connections, but i will say that i was eating fenway franks and drinking coors light on friday night, watching the game with 35,000 other folks. they ended up winning and "sweet caroline" was sung by all...(if you're not from boston, you wouldn't get it)

here's to the curse being reversed AGAIN!

bonnarooooooo 

arrrr matey.....

i thought that i was born to live in the water....but today i was proven WRONG.

a swimmer at the age of 6 months? check. a participant in swim races? check. constant earaches from swimming as a kid? check. river guide? check. water skiier? check. hut tub lover? double check. ohhh...but cruise ship captain? not so much....

well, i wasn't actually the captain of the cruise ship, but honestly i should have been! it never occurred to me that i would be getting sick on the "booze cruise" from sea sickness. too much to drink, sure, but not sea sickness! and while i never got physically sick, i did feel like puking the whole time i was on the boat.

let me back up here....my friends and i signed up to go on this grad school "booze cruise". something that i would never sign up for alone, but they wanted to go and i said, hey, why not? the company of my friends was great, but the rest of the 650+ stupid BC grad students was unpleasant to say the least. that's not fair, some of them were cool. then again i didn't even start talking to them, as i passed by conversations that included "well, when I went to harvard"...and "no way, he was eating her out!" yuck. not my kind of people. but people watching was in full effect, and the cheesy-ass d.j. kept the bad songs rolling so i could get the full view of bump-age and grind-age on the dance floor. now THAT was worth the $25!

and while i looked forward to the post party downtown, i decided to catch the last train home. a party pooper, i know, but this poor girl's stomach is seriously hurting. it's in the genes, i know since my dad always gets seasick. i could've saved myself the $25 with a little more thought...but then i wouldn't have gotten to see everything i saw!

"until the city and the country ain't divided....until then"

last night i went to my first live music show since i've been back in beantown. i've been craving live music, (since i got so much of it this summer), and i'm taking advantage of the fact that there are so many great bands and artists coming through boston. the guy's name is citizen cope, and he's fuckin' amazing. i can't even describe his music, but he's just great. check him out! the place was packed and there weren't too many anooying BC/BU students there. actually, it was a chill crowd which was nice. although i do have to admit that i *may* have had too much to drink, and towards the end of the night, i was chatting at a very high volume (hey, the music stopped and i didn't adjust my voice level!) whatever...it was a great night. makes me wish that i had a musical gift of some sort. well, i've always got my rythym, that's for sure!

tomorrow night i've signed myself up for a BC grad school booze cruise...what have i gotten myself into? yeah, trying to mingle with law and MBA students? that's gonna be great. i can't wait. no really, i can't (damn, sarcasm is hard to portray in blogs!) anyway, i know that my friends and i will be the plastered ones in the corner, making fun of the aforementioned students. heaven help me if i ever become one of them! (no offense to anyone out there fitting that description....it's just not me). but hey, i'm a team player, and my friends really wanted to network (aka get some law school ass) so i'm supporting their decision and going. plus, i have to show off my fulton fashionista self (as jenneth cole calls it). an occasion to get dressed up and drink is one i'm always down for.

this song has no title...just words and a tune

i don't really know how to feel about today....

i was talking with my mom on my way to target. she shocked me with the news that a student from my old high school (a 16 yr old guy who was there when i was doing my americorps service) had committed suicide. obviously, the news took me by surprise. but not until after talking with my good friend (the principal at the high school) did i realize just how hard it would hit me. i mean, 16 years old and feeling like that is the only way out? uhhhh, it just makes my heart hurt....for him, for his family....for the other students...for the small town to lose a youth....

i guess the "silver" lining in this story (which is played out among small communties across this nation) is the way tragedies bond people. boundaries and personal barriers that once stood on the way are broken down with support - whether it's a phone call, or a hot meal.....it made me think of the hurricane, and how we are bombarded with images from katrina...and how through the devastation there is also a silver lining (a national one, at that).

the social worker in me tells me to always look for the silver lining, no matter how small it may seem. i can only hope that the students, the family, the community, can look for the lining as well.....

a night of random adventures

so things got a little bit crazy last night.....

my friend megan called me in the afternoon to let me know that our friend had VIP tickets to the free Cake show downtown. never one to pass up a free show, i decided to head down there and see what it was all about. we all met up amidst the chaos of screaming 13-17 year olds and couldn't find the way into the VIP section. we gave up, yes, but we were now on another mission: to drink as much as possible that evening. it doesn't sound healthy, i know, but we were all "celebrating" the survival of the first week of school. and you know me, never one to pass up on drinking beers with good folks!

after we had 2 drinks at this shee shee place downtown, we headed up to beacon hill to get some pizza and beer. the random plan of the moment had turned into feeding ourselves, and drinking. so we got some pizza, some beer, and headed over to the boston common (the park) to eat and drink said pizza and beer. only we didn't drink the beer....we shotgunned them under a big dark willow tree with little mallard ducks everywhere trying to eat our pizza. it was quite hilarious, considering 2 of the girls had difficulty shotgunning the beers and it spilled all over them. imagine us 4 girls, emerging from under the willow tree, with beer all over our shirts, pizza in our hands, and ducks at our feet. it was CLASSIC.

onward now to clery's, some pub in the south end that i had heard a lot about. i immediately felt out of place because i wasn't showing enough cleavage (guess i didn't get the memo....) oh well, we danced until 1 then headed down to southie for one more beer. like i really needed it.

those familiar with the movie "good will hunting" know that southie is where the characters come from. and since i've moved to boston, i've been wanting to go to the L street tavern, which was in the movie. since i was crashing at megan's place (she lives in southie), we decided to have just one more at the tavern. now i have to admit, that part of the night was a little blurry, but it didn't look too much like it did in the movie. i mean, the outside looks the same, but not the inside. oh well, it was worth it.....

a night of random adventures....always a good time!

new friends...

you know what one of the coolest things in the world is?? meeting new friends. yeah, and though i don't like to admit it, i am judgemental. for example, if i see a girl wearing pearl earrings, a ralph lauren polo shirt with the collar popped, 7 jeans, carrying a louis vuitton purse, OF COURSE i'm going to make fun of her. and probably not want to talk to her other than ask where the closest H&M is. i'm sorry, it's a character flaw in me, but at least i admit it! so anyway, in a town that's full of the aforementioned population of females, it's SO great to meet others like me. and that's like finding a needle in a haystack, considering my hippy/socialist self.

this has all become apparent to me after drinking beers with a friend tonight. see, she had met 2 really cool girls on her recent social work trip to africa, and was like "i can't believe you guys don't know shannon....you would totally get along!" i had my doubts, i have to admit, and was pretty much betting on them being the coach purse carrying type. but to my surprise, they were COOL. and that's awesome, considering the fact that i haven't found too many cool people in boston. i mean, it's a great town and all, but it's too consumed with pretentious bullshit. and come on, that's just not me!

so anyway we all spent the evening envisioning a perfect world (as all social workers do)....questioning the powers that be and vowing to motivate our fellow BC students to end their complacency to the "man". it's a large feat, i know, but i'm optomistic.....

isn't it great to find needles in the haystack???

it's a bad thing that my new apartment has a tv....

i've been watching the coverage of hurricane katrina, for what seems like hours. and getting frustrated....very frustrated! if this would have happened in manhattan, would the reaction be the same? Or some shee shee east coast city? or even somewhere on the west coast? i can't help but think that relief would have come faster. our response to feed/clothe/shelter victims in foreign countries is faster than this. and we're the richest, most "powerful" (i.e. greedy) nation in the world. what the fuck???

....and i digress.....

jenny went with me yesterday to harvard square to get my latest tattoo. and i LOVE it. i sat there for an hour and a half getting inked, and jenny watched (actually, cringed) the entire time. i told her that her stay in boston wouldn't be complete without me getting the tattoo i've been talking about all year long. closure....that's what i like to think of it as!

finishing off this chapter in my life here in boston is getting off to a great start. it's hard to believe that i moved here a year ago. all of the new students are walking around aimlessly....while i stare at them, smile, and think "i was pretty much lost like them around this time last year". red sox games to watch, new bars to find, adventures to be had....

back in the saddle again...

yeah! i've made it to boston in one piece!

the summer of travel and adventure is finally coming to an end. i'm sad about it, but ready to get a move on with this whole grad school thing. it's hot and humid in boston, and we're supposed to get some rain from the hurricane down south....which makes me long for the hot, dry weather of good ole utah. oh, so sad!

monkey and i both moved our lives into new apartments on saturday. i seriously felt like i was on crack, since my plane landed at 7am in boston, and by 2 pm i was helping monkey move all of her stuff. by 11pm i was moving stuff into my own apartment. i just wanted to get it done! i'm happy to say that i'm all moved and relaxed in my new place. it's soooo much bigger than my old nasty apartment...and i feel like a princess because i actually have a bed frame and i'm not sleeping on the floor. (wow, it's the little things in life, really!)

the rest of my visit in california was great. the day after i got back from utah (which was a long journey...isaac and i brought back the new guidehouse kitty "hobbes" to his mom in sebastapol) i went on a 2 day tuolumne trip. it was so awesome to be back on the tuolumne, and fun to row a boat with steve. the best part was when we perched/wrapped on pelican rock in the middle of clavey falls. yeah, i was highsiding and it was fun....though i don't think steve would agree! let's see, we also had a bbq at my parents house which was great....koob was played on the new grass, and lots of fun was had. all in all, a great way to end the summer!!

i don't start school for another week or so, so i'm just hanging out in boston now. jenny and i have to "clean" up our apartment tomorrow...but other than that i'm just chillin' as usual. i'm gonna go look for a job (gasp!) to help me pay for my upcoming cuba trip. then i might go down to the gauley for a trip or two...we'll see about that!

groover reading material....

yanno, sometimes i think my blog would make great groover reading material. groover reading material you ask? what's that? well, let me tell you a little story about the groover (both my friend, and my enemy). see, on river trips we bring this great little white box called a "groover". this box holds all of the human waste from the trip. yum. and the *best* part is emptying it out at the end of the trip. fun!! my favorite part about shopping forevery trip is finding the best magazine to be used for groover reading material. this is a very important task, as some people are nervous before using the groover and need a magazine to get this going (or flowing, if you know what i mean) i usually try to get outside adventure magazines, but this week i went for the "utah" groover material - Country Music Weekly. george strait (the legend!) was on the cover, and i swear folks were fully enjoying reading about the 29 things they didn't know about george. things were definately flowing, as both groovers were filled to the brim. mission accomplished.
so, as i was saying, i think my blog would make great groover reading material. funny satire thrown in with bits of random information and adventure.

and besides the two full groovers, this trip was absolutely fantastic. 9 guides = hardly any work, which = lots of beer drinking. in true ARTA fashion, we had a dress up night at jones 1 camp. i wore my lovely pink bridesmaids dress, while ken sported a brown velour 70's robe, and val's mom wore the liger suit. i even managed to convince a 68 year old texan to don a st. patricks day green 70's dress (a thrift store find) he even bought me a milkshake at the end of the trip.

we got back to the guide house early (i powered through the flat section of island park) and had a pizza/bbq/dance party. oh yeah, and i constructed a water slide out of a paco pad, a backboard, the back of the truck, and a water-filled old bucket boat. i was the first to test out the newest contraption, so i made sure to wear a helmet (safety first!) and pad my landing with chairs. the water was freezing cold, but oh so worth it. everyone tried out the slide...even ken's mom!

i'm such a pusher :)

7 days in desolation

so i just got off of my 1st trip of the season...a 7 day desolation canyon trip on the green river here in utah. i've never been on a 7 day deso trip (usually i'm on the 5 day trips from hell) so needless to say i was really looking forward to spending lots of time in the canyon. the passengers we took down were 6 inner city kids from florida, one of their dads, a "leader" (you'll understand why that's in quotations) and a board member of this organization. the kids were great - they've never been camping before, many had never even been outside of their city. just to see the look in their eyes when they were paddling their inflatable kayaks into a rapid, or how they loved seeing shooting stars for the first time, or cooking smores on a real campfire - that made it ALL worth it.

this quite possibly could have qualified as one of the best trips i've ever been on in utah. the kids did a "show" for us, which consisted of telling jokes (my favorite - "your momma is fat, she has a chip on her shoulder. then she ate it") hahah, you know i love silly jokes. we were "initiated" into their tribe, while we had a mandatory dress up night and the boys were all wearing girls clothes since it was all we had. (and the "leader" was afraid they were turning into cross-dressers!) yeah, the leader was a TOOL. from day 1 i hated the guy, and i know that's not very social-worker of me, but he was such an idiot that i couldn't help but ignore him. he made racist comments in front of the kids and didn't even try to help them. it bothered us all, but the fact that the boys were energetic and were enjoying themselves made up for it.

i think the best part of the trip had to be night 3....after seeing a bear in camp the previous night, the leader was freaking that the bear would come into camp. it then started to pour rain, amazing lightening and thunderstorms and we continued to cook dinner (and drink whiskey on the down low...the kids didn't know because they were all in their tent). we drank just enough to make the rain bearable and even fun, then the clouds literally parted and it was time to eat the sandy hot dogs and burgers i cooked. we happened to be camped above a sweet rapid, so us 4 guides took 2 inflatable kayaks and ran the rapid a few times. it was sweet....how i've missed utah!

anyway, i load for a 4 day trip tomorrow that starts sunday morning. it'll be my frirst lead guide this year and i'm stoked about it....this hot weather is so nice, and doesn't make me miss boston one bit!

canyonlands....

i have made it to utah, my friends.....

isaac and i had a long drive yesterday. we didn't leave camp lotus until 11am or so. we stopped for dinner in elko, nevada (whoohoo!) and rolled into salt lake city around 12am. i thought it would be fun to go trekkin' up the mountains around salt lake to look for a place to camp. eventually we found one high up in the wasatch national forest. very beautiful...lots of aspens (my favorite!) the only bummer was that i forgot my sleeping bag in groveland and ended up sleeping in the back seat of isaac's car. yeah, my n eck is still hurting today :)

we made it into ver-NAL around 2ish. did the usual stops (the cowboy shop, deseret thrift store, ashley trading post, the library) and i got to take a LOVELY 2 1/2 hour class on food preparation and handling. did you know that most food born illness is due to improper preparation and temperature? and that in utah, they call diarrhea the "trots"? (nice, i know. i practically slept through the whole thing, and was embarrassed because i almost didn't pass the test at the end). i know that he's coming to look for me on the river!

there will be more to report on my short time in california, dawnelle's wedding, and of course my river trips. for now i've gotta get to the guide house to get my first REAL night of sleep. it's been a while, my friends :)

ciao!

summer time....and the livin's easy :)

FINALLY!!!!!!

i just completed my first ever summer school session. now i know why i've never taken summer school before....how do they expect you to concentrate, when there's so many distractions? like the sun? the beach? the cape? drinking beers and having bbqs? baseball games? ahhh, the list goes on. by nonetheless, i'm SO DONE. and i'm so proud of myself. wow....now it's onto the REAL summer....

jenny, megan, monkey, and i are going to go celebrate with a few beers at my favorite pub down the street. tomorrow morning early i leave on a jet(blue) plane home! kristin is going to pick me up and head up to g-town. we have some projects to complete before dawnelle's big day.

in 1 week from now i will be embarking on a road trip with isaac out to utah. we're both on a 7 day desolation canyon trip (my first ever 7 day trip....i'm usually on the 5 day trips which aren't as fun). anyway i'm SO looking forward to being on the canyon. so looking forward to road trippin' it with isaac (he's spent the last year in chile, so we have a lot of catching up to do!) and SO looking forward to spending some much needed time with the fam. and reggie, of course!

this time tommorow i'll be chillin' on my mom's new grass, sippin a beer, chatting with friends and fam and playing with the dog. i can't WAIT! ....yes, the fun has just begun....

kitty needs a home...and other bits of randomness

first things first....i finished my 30 page community assessment paper. YEAH! i haven't worked so hard on a project before, and i finished it yesterday. didn't quite know what to do with myself since it's basically taken over my life for the past 3 weeks! so in true fashion, monkey, jenny and i went out for a little celebration. we went to this nice shee-shee wine bar/french bistro place near south station. had yummy food, then went to wally's jazz cafe. it was so awesome, these musicians were just lined up to play. and they were all so young!

i'm starting to pack my stuff for my vacation home. i can't believe how much i've accumulated since i've been here. (well, actually i'm not that surprised!) it'll be interesting to see how i'm going to move all my stuff outta here....

does anyone wanna give my kitty lola a home? she's a loving, sweet 18 lb. cat (she's not fat, just big boned) :) she is super cuddly, loves attention and likes to be outside. judy's mom and sister have been graciously taking care of her, but since her sister will be having a baby shortly they can't take care of her anymore. and we don't want to give her to the SPCA (she's just too great of a kitty!) so if you know ANYONE with a good home that is looking for a 4 yr old cat, please let me know.

it's off to get coffee for me!

london calling

i woke up to another sad, sad day for our world......

it doesn't seem that long ago that monkey, laura and i were hanging around the british museum....taking the bus to king crossing, or catching a train to the airport from liverpool station. on my first trip to london, my cousin alison and i stayed at a hostel right in russell square. things will never be the same, and my memories of my time in london have changed forever.

what makes me sad is that this is just fueling the fire of our fucked up nation. (of course i am sad for the 40 people who died in the tube and on that bus, the hundreds of wounded others, and their families). but i'm more sad that, again, our nation will be exploited by our president in the name of "homeland security". today i had flashbacks of a war rally/protest i went to in london. this was right before we invaded iraq, and britain was considering joining the good ole boys. hundreds of thousands of british protesters were there, warning blair that it wasn't a good idea. i guess today he has seen that they were right.

so what do we do now? invade another country? send more troops? sign another "homeland security act"? search everyone that gets on a bus or train? i don't have the answers.....just a whole bunch of fucking questions....

4th of July fun and sun....

hello all....

i've been without internet access for a week so i haven't been able to blog! i was in the cape again, chillin' out on the beach, playing pool and swimming. i know, i know, i have nothing to complain about! it was so nice to be able to relax.....not that i haven't been relaxing lately, it just felt good not to do anything! (and yes, i was kind of "working" while i was down there. i got about 10 pages done on my paper so that's a good start!)

my 4th of july was pretty fun. we went to a bbq in providence the night before, and i won $20 playing texas hold 'em (watch out, i'm pretty good!) but, i gave the money back because i felt bad that i won....don't bring me to vegas :) we didn't wake up til 12 the next day and headed back up to the cape to go swimming in the pool....had some beers, watched the fireworks over the water, and just chilled!

i'm getting SOOOO excited to come home....in only 1 week! i can't believe it. things are getting prepared for dawnelle's wedding (the wedding that i'm in....only 2 weeks away!) crazy, i know. i'm starting to think about what i wanna say for the "speech" at the wedding....have to make sure not to drink TOO much beforehand...not that i would embarass dawnelle, but her parents might get a little upset if i mention all of the shenanigans we got caught up in, both in high school and afterwards!

after that it's off to utah...whooohoo! i can't wait to be in the canyon. all this time off has made me realize just how much i need to be OUTSIDE during the summer. i don't know how i'm going to make it once i have to get a "real" job! yuck! won't think about that yet!

it's off to class for me. i can't believe i only have 1 week of summer school left. where did the first half of the summer go??? :)

blazing in boston

yuck. i'm sticky. i'm hot. it's humid. yes, the summer has finally arrived in boston! jenny and i refer to the heat as "blazing saddles". it's definately blazing saddles in boston.

i just returned from a little trip to the cape to visit a new friend....we chilled, drank beers, played frisbee, and well....drank beers! it was soooo nice being on the ocean. it smelled like santa cruz, and i began to reminisce about the good ole days in the cruz....i didn't realize just how much i miss california. don't get me wrong, boston is a great place to be! but ahhh, to be chillin' on the beach in the SC, having a bonfire at twin lakes beach, and eating sushi at pink godzilla sounds just too damn good right now!

other than that, nothing new to report on shannon's whereabouts. i'm about to start writing this huge community assessment paper on tuolumne county (which is going to take up all of the 3 weeks i have left here). as is to be expected, i am DREADING going to the library tomorrow. oh well, at least it will be air conditioned....

for now, i'm gonna go change my sheets. i think it's time to get rid of the flannel sheets for some soft cotton ones. oh yeah, and i had to break down and buy a fan today. it's just too blazing saddles in this apartment!