Nov 5

So here we are, just two months after rolling out of Boston for good and I can’t believe we lived there for over a year. As always, the last couple of months before the move have flew by faster than we imagined possible. And after moving home and getting settled, I can’t believe how much I actually miss the East Coast. More than I ever thought I would. So here, in nor particular order, are the things I’ll miss and the things I won’t miss about living in Boston…

Things I’ll miss:

1. The old. The history of the area, the interesting things that happened there and the fascinating people who made them happen. The amazing architecture and the buildings that have seen centuries of use and places where generations have walked.

2. The new. I have never, not even once, claimed to be a big-city girl. But it turns out the city can grow on you and that it has a lot to offer. There is always something different to do and see. Festivals, museums, concerts and a different park to walk in or place to visit every day of the week.

3. The beach. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, I miss the ocean. I had completely underestimated the restorative effects of a fabulous view on the human psyche.  The sound of the waves on the shore at night, the smell of the sea air (which I thought I would NEVER get used to!), just staring out at the ocean. I can’t express how much I miss it!

4. Our backyard community. We lived in one of four townhouse style units that shared a backyard. At first I thought it would be awkward to go into the yard and know that our neighbours had a clear view of us or to go outside and find them already there. But the reality was that it was a wonderful social atmosphere. Our kids adored having playmates that were easily accessible. I loved that they had a huge yard to play in, which was extremely rare where we were living. And the fact that there was almost always someone to visit with was good for me, particularly in the early days when I was feeling kind of isolated. It was also a pleasure to share yardwork, gardening and other outdoor activities with our fantastic neighbours.

5. Cheap shopping. Food, clothes, books, need I say more?

6. The people. Amazing people. Really interesting and wonderful people and a few friends I hope to keep for a lifetime.

7. The Boston accent. It felt so strange and foreign when we first got there but now I will always think of it with fondness and hearing people with the same accent will make me miss our Boston people.

8. The diversity. Another benefit of the big city, especially one with sooo many universities (like 80 something universities in the greater Boston area) is the huge variety of people you have the opportunity to meet. It’s awesome to be exposed to so many different cultures in something as generic as a trip to the park or the grocery store.

9. Public transit. We loved riding the subway! In a few months I went from being totally intimidated by the T system to embracing it completely. We never drove into the city. We could easily walk to the subway and be in town in ten or fifteen minutes. It was convenient and inexpensive and we got a lot more Lose Weight Exercise as well as feeling good about not driving so much.  The big city i much more conducive to a fantastic transit system.

Things I won’t miss:

1. Traffic. Not so much that there are lots of cars, although there ARE. But also that it takes so long to get places. When you meet new people it frequently happens that you easily live 60 minutes or more (sometimes MUCH more) from each other. This makes it really hard to invite someone over for casual drinks and to create opportunities to get to know new people.

2. Being far away from our family, friends and country of citizenship. It was just way too far from family. Even though we don’t currently live in the same city as most of our family members, we are much closer than we were. And it’s surprising how much closer you feel just by being in the same country.  As for our country of citizenship, we genuinely missed being able to participate in our country’s systems and processes. We missed the big and little things. It’s a strange thing to be living in a society where you hold no status (in terms of voting etc.). It’s a little disconcerting.

3. The lack of universal healthcare. I think my posts from our first summer in Boston adequately sum up the frustration of trying to get set up in a very different medical system. I am so glad to once again be able to go to the doctor without having to pay for the visit and to know that I can get prescriptions and medications easily and for a much lower price.  I feel much safer, medically speaking, in Canada. Even though H1N1 seems to be running rampant where I’m living. :)

Before our one year adventure Boston wouldn’t have made our top ten list of places to visit. In fact, it didn’t register at all! But now I can’t say enough about what an amazing place it is to visit and I constantly surprise myself with how much I miss being there.

Goodbye Boston. We’ll miss you!

Jun 12

We’re not doing too well out here. Not well at all. Those of us who are prairie-dwellers turned New Englanders are currently the equivalent of a fatal case of dishpan hands. We can’t take any more cool and rain and wet and rain and clouds and more and more clouds and rain or any combination of moisture-producing weather systems. We can’t go so long without the sun!  It’s inhumane! It’s barbaric! How do New Englanders live like this?

We have been asked how we deal with the frigid Saskatchewan winters. The answer is simple: the sun can trick you into believing anything is survivable. Even -50 windchill and snow drifts higher than your car.  On the other hand, continuous cloud cover with frequent rain makes even the most lovely locale feel unbearable and unwaveringly dreary.

What’s worse is that the five day forecast changes every single day. Every. Single. Day. the forecast predicts several days of rain/cloud/cool weather followed by Joyous! Sunshine! and Angels Singing! But EVERY DAY the forecast changes to include one more day of yuck. So we never actually reach the promised carrot on the end of the stick, pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, facking sunshine and heat!!!! I am ready to throw myself off the upstairs balcony into the ocean if I see one more computer generated raincloud.

Whoever came up with this diabolical weather forecast clearly has a mission to purge New England of all but the pure English race. Only those who are native English folks and their descendants could be expected to put up with this sadistic weather for weeks on end without beginning to feel violent or plotting a permanent move to a better climate. Even Saskatchewan has pleasant summers to make up for nasty winters. WHERE IS YOUR SUMMER NEW ENGLAND??? WHERE IS THE SUN???? WHERE???????

If anyone is looking for me, I’ll be here, drying my damp hair by the warmth of my computer and weeping into the keyboard.

May 24

Another bullet post because I am nothing if not repetitive concise:

  • The Aporkalypse (or Hamthrax as I hear some of my Canadian friends are calling it) has hit our school district. One child in our school district has a confirmed case of H1N1 and although everyone is putting on a calm and sensible demeanor, I have this feeling that there is PANIC lurking behind the facade.  The four phone calls we’ve received from the superintendent of our district seems to be evidence of the barely concealed alarm. Each one was nearly exactly the same: ”There is no reason to be concerned. We are following the directions of the state health board in regards to dealing with this tiny little problem that’s really not even a problem. Also, if your child has a fever they must be kept out of a school for seven days, regardless of whether they test positive or negative for Hamthrax. But really! We’re not panicking!  If more cases show up in our district – although we’re positive they won’t – but IF they did, we will follow state directives on whether or not our schools need to be closed.  Please do not worry! Everything is under control!!!! PS- If your child shows symptoms like fever, runny nose, coughing, purple spots, melting flesh, or barking like a dog, please see your family physician. Thank you.”
     
  • I am becoming a true Bostonian. You can tell because when I drive I now honk at the slightest hesitation at a green light or at people who cut me off or people who drives cars I don’t like. Pretty much anything. Call it cultural acclimation.
     
  • After almost three long years I no longer have to isolate my son from peanut products! I have two children without peanut allergies! Huzzah! We celebrated by eating a chocolate-chip-peanut-m&m cookie. Peanuts and peanut butter are found in all the most fattening delicious foods. However, my days of eating all of Kieran’s peanut-laden Halloween candy are finished. Sigh. All silver linings have a cloud.
     
  • Another reason I now feel like a Bostonian: tourists are driving me crazy! We have spent so much time in Boston, going all through the fall and winter. But now that tourist season is here I am so annoyed with all the tourists invading MY space. Wait, that’s not entirely true. I’m annoyed with tourists who dawdle and who are completely unaware of what’s going on around them. People who are walking along at a good pace and then just stop in the middle of the sidewalk, right in my path. I was raised to be aware of people around me and to step out of the way if I need to stop. So this rude behaviour is frustrating to me. 
     
  • I believe my washing machine has some kind of vendetta against my children’s clothes. We have now lost five shirts to the washer because they came out with black/brown streaks on them that I couldn’t get out. All signs (ok google) point to ball bearings wearing out which may or may not be covered under the warranty. It’s not technically our responsibility as our landlord owns our appliances. But I don’t want to be afraid to wash clothes! How to appease the washing machine gods???
Feb 26

So, as I mentioned, things were busy this past week. Some of our activities were more fun (read: less insane) than others. 

For example, going to the Boston Children’s Museum the week of winter vacation? Not smart. It seems that all of New England came out to visit the museum the same day we did and I have to say that I have a hard time enjoying these places when other peoples’ obnoxious kids are tearing around shrieking loud enough to shatter glass. Still, it’s a cool place and the kids had tonnes of fun, despite my bad attitude.

As a side note, I’ve decided that I need to chill the hell out and stop being so uptight when it comes to bubbles. In the past the kids are so excited about bubble blowing but I’ve been the bubble bottle nazi, holding the bottle for them and trying to keep them from getting soaked with soapy water. Because OMG SOAPY WATER ON THEIR CLOTHES!?!?!?! THE HORROR!!! I know, right? What kind of mother is so completely anal about soap??? This summer I’m going to complete the first in an ongoing series of de-anal-izing Lose Weight Exercises and make a huge tub of bubble water and let them go crazy with it outside. Because seriously? They could have stayed in the bubble room at the children’s museum all freaking day and if it would entertain them for a fraction of that time this summer, it would be worth it!

I also mentioned that we made the trek to the closest Rainforest Cafe with the kids last week. What I didn’t realize is that, like the children’s museum, the Rainforest Cafe is the destination du jour around here during vacation week. We arrived at the mall a couple of hours before lunch and spent some time shopping. When we finally got around to the restaurant we were told the wait was TWO AND HALF HOURS, which, I’m sorry, is just too long to wait with kids who are already tired and hungry. But the result of telling a tired and hungry 5 year old that her patience, which had been garnered only with promises of an exciting lunch-time experience, was all for naught, was…well…heartbreaking. She is such a good girl, my daughter. She didn’t throw a tantrum. There was no screaming or throwing herself to the floor. But the tears welled up and her disappointment was just so genuine. I totally understood her feelings and I can’t even say how incredibly stupid I felt for not putting our name on the damn list the second we walked INTO the mall, several hours before. We ended up eating elsewhere and promising to come back another time.

The other major destination of the week was Disney on Ice which was performing in Boston, again, over the school break. After our foray into the children’s museum I was a bit concerned about being confined to a seat for several hours, surrounded by other people’s annoying children, all hyped up on sugar and whipped into a trademarked-character-inspired frenzy. But fate was kind to us and we had pretty good seats and were surrounded by reasonably well-behaved children and parents. Watching my kids experience a show like this for the first time was truly magical and I enjoyed every minute. Seeing the show from their perspective, and their uncomplicated delight at each unexpected costume change or flying character. Misdirection totally fulfills its potential when the audience is mostly children and not cynical adults. 

So that’s what we’ve been up to. Now that we’re all caught up, tell me what you did last week.

Jan 7

I know y’all are going to think I’ve completely lost my mind but I am actually missing decently cold weather right now. I’m sick of the slushy, soupy mess that Massachusetts gets after a snow when the weather hovers just above freezing. Today, instead of a day of steady snow we had a constant downpour of rain which turned our freshly fallen snow into a sloppy disaster. Just walking to the car is like wading through a damn waterfall.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not missing the -40-55 degree weather (-40-67 F) that Saskatchewan has been getting. I have no desire to relocate to the polar ice caps. But the typical Saskatchewan winter temperature of -12-18 (10-0 F) seems preferable in my mind. At least the snow stays snowy and although climbing over snowbanks and shovelling walks isn’t fun, it’s possible to enjoy the outdoors with the appropriate clothing. 

I miss the sun!  I actually miss crisp winter mornings where the sun is glistening off the snow…. 

….

OMG, my brain must have shorted out there for a second.

That idealistic vision bears no resemblance to my previous posts about Saskatchewan winters. But , it’s true. I do miss the sun. Sunny, bitter cold really is preferable to mild and messy.

Sep 27

We went apple picking last weekend and I am totally feeling nostalgic because this weekend we are drowning in rain.

I’ve never been apple-picking before for several reasons. First, we have never lived in an area where the land was such that it could sustain an entire apple orchard (One or two apple trees in a yard, yes. Orchard? No.). Second, we had friends back in Saskatoon who gladly supplied us with more apples than we could ever want for free.  

So when I saw the price tags of our idyllic apple-picking adventure I may have cursed. Loudly.  But still, it was a lot of fun. The only disappointing part was that the picking is over way too quickly. All that’s left after that is to eat as many apples as you can so as to get more apples for your $25.  Between the four of us we definitely ate another $25 worth. It’s amazing no one vomited. Seriously. AMAZING.


Kieran literally walked between the rows of trees picking up apple after apple off the ground and taking one bite before letting it drop and moving on to the next one.  Awesome. 

OMG. Couldn’t you just DIE from the cute?

Aug 30

We’ve had such a stupid week that I have neglected to say what an awesome weekend we had pretending we are still kidless and young enough to rock and roll all night and party evah-ree-day.  Some Canadian friends came down to visit us (it is SO WEIRD to be classifying friends by what country they’re from!) and it was so much fun. While we’ve been having a good time doing the tourist thing here in Boston, we’ve really been missing spending time with good friends who we know and who know us. 

To top off the fun of having our friends here the clouds parted and the angels sang and Tina offered to babysit so we could go out sans kids which was great because we basically acted like kids the whole night. 

First, we giggled at the name of a Chinese restaurant because we’re all 8 years old….

 

Then we went to a bar that had it’s menu in the form of a giant periodic table and lab stools for seating because the four of us are HUGE GEEKS and that’s exactly the kind of gimmick that catches our attention.

Then we annoyed our server because we aren’t familiar with American beers. Once we got the beer we cracked open a nice cold can of Canadian superiority over the lower alcohol content of sissy American beers. Ok, well I didn’t actually have any beer because I’m a big baby and only drink alcoholic drinks that taste like sugar fruity and sweet. 

But it was so much fun to just let loose and laugh! S and T, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VISITING! And T, thanks for this “Blue Steel” picture. Because it makes me happy every time I look at it.

Know what else made me happier than is reasonable? Spending an hour in a drug store investigating products that are not sold in Canada or that are different between Canada and the US, and having friends who agreed with us when we said “That is just SO WEIRD.” Like why the unit price is posted for every item? Like I care that I’m getting the best deal per pound on deodorant? We did spend a long time searching for the item in the store with the most expensive unit price (I think it was condoms, if you’re wondering). It may have been kind of a lame and geeky night out. But I embrace it!

The next day we went to the beach where we quickly buried our kids in the sand so wouldn’t have to pay too much attention to them:

 

But when we started burying our friends in the sand, too, people started to look at us funny.  

Still, a good time was had by all. My son personally inspected each grain of sand and pronounced it acceptable.

Then we decided to have dinner at the “Cheers Bar” (the outside of the bar was filmed as the outside of the bar in the hit TV show Cheers, the inside was not shown in the show, nor does the inside resemble the set of Cheers) …

…which is not actually called “Cheers” but is actually called “The Bull & Finch Pub“…

…and where everyone did not actually know our name so much as want to take our money. But the service was great, the food was good (and reasonably priced) and we had a fantastic time together.

Our friends cheered up immensely and it is only because I had such a FABULOUS weekend that I did not reach through the phone and pull out the spleen of our contact at the moving company when he told us that our belongings will now not be reaching us until September 11. And by September 11, I’m pretty sure he means December.

Aug 8

The Good News: The Diabetes Center was ALL KINDS OF AWESOME and were 100% helpful and got me all the prescriptions I needed and I’m pretty sure there were rainbows and bunnies shooting out of the air vents.

The Bad News: More fun times to be had on the phone with THE INSURANCE COMPANY and THE MAIL-ORDER PRESCRIPTION COMPANY and THE INSULN PUMP SUPPLY COMPANY (capitalized to indicate their purely EVIL natures) in order to accomplish the dispensing of three months worth of medication and pump supplies. I expect to be pissed off again before too long because that’s just exactly the kind of lovely person I am.

The Good News: The Diabetes Center even managed to get bloodwork done for me, which isn’t fun, but I mean, really! Bloodwork! Without any phone calls! Or yelling! It’s an effin’ miracle! 

The Bad News: I defy anyone to tell me there is something more humiliating than bringing two kids with you into the bathroom while you -erm- *collect* a urine sample. The ONLY saving grace was that it was a private washroom and not a multi-stalled, potty-house where everyone could here Avery say “Mommy, why are you washing your hands BEFORE you go pee? What are those little wipes for? What are those BOTTLES FOR??? WHY DOES THE DOCTOR WANT TO SEE YOUR PEEEE???” and Kieran simply yelling “PEE!! MAMA! PEEEEEE!!!!”  I am absolutely POSITIVE that the whole waiting room could hear us in there. I left quickly, and without making eye contact with anyone. Ah, dignity, how I miss you.