We Are Family

I came home on Sunday night after a long day at work and found Steve standing in our bedroom neatly folding clothes and putting them away. That’s right, while I was at work Steve took our mountain of laundry (these things pile up when there isn’t a laundry matt near by) to the laundry matt, sorted and washed by color and clothing type (if you leave it up to boys they short everything as whites and not-whites), then neatly folded most of the laundry before returning home. It was probably the best thing he could have done.

That night as I fell asleep on my freshly washed sheets I thanked him for taking care of me. “Don’t worry about it,” he sleepy said “you take care of me too.” And he’s right. Over the last few months I really do feel that Steve, Moose and I have become a family. We take care of each other, laugh, cry, and live together. For the first time since I moved out of my parent’s house I feel like I have a family that I come home to every night.

So every once and awhile, when I’m reminded that we aren’t a really a family, it’s like a cold splash of water to the face.

Slummerville

There are times in your life when something odd happens to you and no one around you reacts to the event that in your mind is too weird not to react to. I have just had one of those moments.

I had just come out of the health club and was still on my exercise high listening to my ipod and living in my own world. I stood on the corner near Porter Square and waited for the cross walk sign to change when I noticed a couple standing near me arguing.

This couple epitomized why Somerville is nicknamed Slummerville. Both appeared as if they drank/smoked as a profession and both of them may or may not be homeless. I stood on the corner trying to ignore their fight (which was escalating) thinking that if I was a better person, or my sister, I would go over and mediate their fight. I could tell them statistics on domestic violence and maybe they could become better people. Instead I continued to ignore the now loud shouting of the man to the woman to “keep walking” and the woman who’s finger and face were mere inches from the mans face to “never tell her what to fucking do.”

The woman was holding a Dunkin Dounuts coffee cup in her hand and at what could be described as the climax of the fight the man drop kicked the cup out of her hands. As the fluid in the cup spewed towards me I began to imagine my life as a burn victim. I would have to invest a lot of makeup just to leave the house, maybe I could even get a telethon. Instead as the liquid showered down on me I was not burned but instead covered in a liquid that had smelled a familiar smell now covering my hat/coat/pants. That smell was beer.

I froze, looking around, to see how other people reacted. I, a simple pedestrian was now covered in some drunks hair of the dog. No one around me even looked. Everyone else kept staring at the crosswalk and hoping the light would change soon. I looked back to the man and woman hoping for some king of apology and instead saw the woman, arms around the man, hugging him and yelling “I love you so much baby!”

I had no idea how to react so I j-walked myself out of there and home where I promptly took a shower.

It’s Part of the U.S.

One of my New Years resolutions was to travel more so to start the year out Steve and I have planned to co-celebrate our birthdays by traveling to Puerto Rico and staying for a long weekend. Puerto Rico seems like the place for us to go seeing as Steve didn’t have a pass-port at the time of trip planning and we wanted to go somewhere warm.

We’ve been told that we don’t need pass-ports to get in and out of Puerto Rico but some part of me still panics at the idea of being trapped there without a passport. In my head I would have my passport with me and I would be begging the custom’s agent to let Steve back into the U.S. We would have to have some sort of crazy/crappy wedding where I get married to Steve to smuggle him back in to the U.S. The entire scenario makes me want to take a TUMS.

Steve’s passport came in the mail last weekend so any tropical forced wedding had left my head and now my biggest worries are what SPF I should bring. So bring it on Puerto Rico, I’m pumped!

A Nice Evening

Last night I stepped out with my Boston-best-friend (that BBFF for those of you wondering) for a very nice evening. We started it out at the Jazz club by my house where I had some yummy vegetarian chili and sweet-potato fries with New England beer. After dinner we headed across the street to go see Juno (awesome movie that I highly recommend) but seeing as I got the time wrong we got to the theater almost an hour early. So once we got our tickets we headed back across the street to an ice cream store that was surprisingly full for the middle of winter. Following the ice cream we went back to the Somerville theatre ordered a couple of beers and made our way up a steep staircase to the balcony of the theatre. Yes my friends, we sat in the balcony of a old-school theatre where there is a grungy red velvet curtain and art deco design on the walls and ceiling and watch a hip indie movie while sipping tasty beer. We felt cool.

After the movie we met Steve out at a pub where we drank into the wee hours of the morning and talked to crazy English men. The Irish band at the pub even played my favorite waltz to close the evening out. All together it was a great evening.

Happy Birthday To Steve

This weekend was Steve’s birthday so to celebrate we had some people over to play a couple of games, drink, and eat yummy food. Steve doesn’t believe in making birthdays a big deal but I do so to commemorate the day of his birth I made a cake in the shape of a sword.

We didn't really cut it with a sword

Even though it didn’t turn out great it was still fun to make and it’s the perfect size for eight people who want to eat cake with no left overs.

The Straight and Short of it

Since I hadn’t had a hair cut in a few months I decided it was time to invest in a new look for a New Year. I had ideas of a curly bob cut but apparently my stylist felt different. She, like most people, wanted to straighten my hair and by extension teach me to straighten my hair. After adding some nice layers she broke out the blow dryer and the straight iron and this is the result.


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I have gotten two different reactions. The first from my friend Kelly which was “You soooo need to keep your hair this way. You look awesome!” which was nice but seeing that it took the woman twenty minuets for blow drying before the straightener was used I didn’t see it happen much. Steve’s reaction was “uhh, you aren’t going to do this to your hair all the time are you? Because I love you curly hair.”

As of right now I have made one attempt to straighten my hair since the stylist did it and all I got was wavy hair and a stiff arm. So if you see me anytime soon rest assure you most likely will see classic curly me.

Kitty Check Up

So after months of owning a cat and not having him properly vaccinated or free of worms we decided it was time to take Moose to the vet. Steve and I were both anxious about this being that Moose hates the car and we were taking him to a place where they would be sticking needles into our poor kitty.

This morning we packed him up in his kitty crate and after much debate we walked the six blocks to the vet while Moose mowed the entire distance. Not just any meow though, the type of yowell that tears your soul out and makes you want to do anything just have him stop making that sounds. Other pedestrians on the street sympathized with us and gave us wishes of good luck as we trudged on to the vet.

Once we were locked away in an exam room of the vet’s office we opened the crate but Moose was too scared to come out. So he sat crouched in his little piece of home waiting for what torture was next. The vet was really nice and gave Moose a clean bill of health but said that since he was an outdoor cat there was a chance he could have leukemia and he tested positive for it then we would have to make him an indoor cat. Steve and I gave each other a sideways glance remembering the awful week that we had to keep Moose indoors after we moved in. He always kept us up and night and was constantly meowing for food. The vet had left to check on some blood work from Moose and I asked Steve if he thought we could Moose and indoor cat.

“No, probably not.” He answered. I started to tell him that letting Moose go outside when he was infected was like sleeping around when you knew you had AIDS when the vet came into tell us that our kitty was free of leukemia and free to roam the streets of Somerville as he pleased.

In the end the trip to the vet wasn’t as bad as Steve or I feared and we are glad to know we have a health kitty… who needs to return to the vet in one month for more vaccines.