Saturday in Boston

I spent the afternoon hanging out with my grandfather in South Boston. Pa is getting older and this is the first time he has lived on his own for years. Hanging out with him is always fun! Today he told me about how his uncle made over a million dollars bootlegging and about how he used to roller skate to the art museum with his sister as a kid and even confessed to being scared when he found himself alone in the mummy room. If you saw the movie the Departed then you saw his front door. They managed to cut down one of his rose bushes during filming which brought my 80 something year old grandfather to tears. He had had that bush for something like 40 years. My aunt called Warner Bros to complain and they graciously planted another bush and put another one on their stoop with a big bow on it.

I left my grandfather's place and parked at the Boston Harbor Yacht Club to sit on the beach for awhile. It was about to rain, but the salt air and beach sand made me even more excited about the approaching summer.

While I was in Southie I decided to stop at Bailey's for coffee. I ordered a small REGULAH! On the way back to the car I realized I was parked right in front of Murphy's Law. If you saw Gone Baby Gone then Murphy's Law might sound familiar to you. Murphy's Law is where the final scene of the movie was shot.

On my way back to Somerville I drove over the bridge near the power plant and saw a small military ship parked at Black Falcon Terminal and then over by the James Hook Lobster Company to see the what was left of the building. The James Hook Lobster Company has been a New England Tradition since 1925 and unfortunately was the victim of a seven alarm fire yesterday. The fire department was still there throwing water on the building as I drove by today. I hope they will be able to re-build. I went over the beautiful Lenny Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge and saw the Bunker Hill Monument in the distance.

I finally arrived home and thought about my day. I realized that I love Boston and love living here. This is a great city, I grew up here, it is a part of me, and I couldn't imagine wanting to live anywhere else.

One Other Thing.....

B and I were driving back to Boston today via Wellfleet and noticed someone riding a horse on the side of the road. We were initially take aback because we didn't expect to see someone riding a horse. Then we both realized at the same time that the rider was Barbara Austin. Barbara Austin was the Wellfleet OysterFest Shuck Off winner in both 2006 and 2007. We were pretty psyched because we love the OysterFest (the Shuck Off is my favorite part) and Barbara is a shucking superstar!

Memorial Day 2008

We just got back from Provincetown. We went to celebrate our 7th anniversary and have gone every year (except for the year my mother was sick) since 2001. What a weekend! We managed to avoid the gaggles of drunk college girls and enjoyed our time there. We stayed at the always lovely Oxford Guest House. We love the Oxford and Trevor and Stephen are great! Happy birthday to Stephen.....I believe today is his special day. Lets see....what did we do? I'll fill you in on our adventures. We ate lots and LOTS of food. We consumed pizza at Spiritus (oh yeah....three espresso shakes too...yum!) and George's, enjoyed lunch at Ross' Grill, found a new amazing place called Victor's, hung out with Erin for raw bar (I don't eat seafood, but my fries were good) happy hour at Clem and Ursies, had a great fried seafood and burger meal at the Lobster Pot with Mommy on the Floor and family, and shared a tasty sandwich and cupcake from Relish. All this fried food is causing havoc so tomorrow I'm back to salad and yogurt. But that being said....it was good going down. I managed to get a teeny bit of exercise in though. B got me a really cool new yoyo (I think I'm getting my yoyo groove back) and we biked to the end of town and back one evening. We also spent some time at the beach, did some reading and sudoku in the garden at Oxford, went to see Suzanne Westenhoefer and Kate Clinton, and took in an AMAZING whale watch (probably the best one I have ever been on). I also took the opportunity to fly Wilma this weekend. Wilma is a 1927 Waco GXE biplane and the oldest commercial aircraft operating in the USA. This was one of the COOLEST things I have ever done. I highly recommend going out for a ride in Wilma if you are ever down the Cape. I managed to record a little bit of my ride.......check it out........

New Little One

Congratulations to Patrice and Frank for the birth of their second child! Little Genevieve Marie was born last Friday. She is a super cute little one!

Mothers Day 2008

I had a great day with Mom today. We ate lots of yummy brunch items at Amrheins. Then we scooted over to the Adams National Historic Site. We went to the birthplace of both John and John Quincy Adams and took a tour of the Old House. The coolest thing was the stone library.....which houses a large percentage (the other 3700 volumes are kept at the Boston Public Library) of John Adams' book collection. This collection includes not only copies of Webster's.....but also Johnson and Worcester's dictionaries. Cool huh? We also went to a play called a Timeless Love Story, The Love Letters of John and Abigail Adams in the carriage house....which was fun too. Plus the grounds were beautiful.....and all the lilacs and wisteria were in bloom. You should plan a trip to Adams National Historic Park if you haven't done so yet. It is very cool! Happy Mother's Day mom! Hope you had fun....I know I did!

Saturday Story

A strange thing happened to me today. I went to Harvard Square after my CTA NextGen faith sharing group to get Mother's Day cards for my mother and Nora. I picked up a card for Nora that said the following...."Whoever has a heart full of love always has something to give". I realized as I was paying that this was a quote from Pope John XXIII. How coincidental is that? I was coming from a CTA group.....Nora was the first person to really bring me to church....Pope John XXIII is my favorite Pope. So......needless to say.....I think it is the perfect card. I hope she likes it.

I also stopped by Million Year Picnic while I was in the Square. Karl Stevens was there doing a book signing. I bought a copy of Whatever. I think I like it so far. I love seeing Boston in graphic novels.

Bought an ice cream cone today too. of course it all came tumbling down as I walked down JFK Street. You think at the age of 34 that I'd be able to eat an ice cream cone without it falling to the ground. No such luck for me. Maybe I should eat more ice cream cones to build up my ice cream eating skills. I think not.........

Farm News

B just got back from the farm with our meat CSA. Today we got a ham steak, two t-bone steaks, two chicken breasts, beef patties, hot dogs, hamburger, and lamb sausages. I hear they brought a three month old pig to the pick up today too. AND....we got some eggs too. Now I wish I went along. Which reminds me....we need to let the farmers know that we want to continue on past June.

I'm getting really psyched up for our vegetable CSA too. That will be starting back up in June.

I also heard that Silverbrook Farms is still selling shares for the summer. I believe they will be delivering in Watertown, Somerville, and Cambridge via New Amsterdam Projects Tricycle Trucks. That is WAY Cool! So....if you are in the market for a CSA......then this is your chance.

Catholic Identity and Experience

Speaking of Faith had a great story this week on contemporary Catholic identity and experience. I love Speaking of Faith and was happy to know they were doing a story on something that is so dear to me. One of the program participants was Rachel Pokora, President of the Nebraska chapter of Call to Action (CTA). I was excited to hear Rachel's story because in many ways it was like my voice being heard through the radio. I too am a progressive Catholic who believes there needs to be reform in the Church. I am a pro-choice lesbian Catholic who is in support of the ordination of women and married men in the Church. I was raised in a culturally Catholic family and went to Catholic schools for 14 years, majored in religion as an undergrad at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and wanted very much to live life as a lay-person in ministry. As an adult I decided to not pursue this because I knew I would never be protected because of my sexual orientation and didn't want to hide anything about myself. I currently worship in a super cool progressive community in Boston (Paulist Center), am a member of a Call to Action NextGen faith sharing group, and believe in a commitment to work towards social justice in the world. After thinking more about Rachel's story I began to feel very sad. Rachel spoke about being excommunicated and about living in fear that she would be denied the Eucharist because of her involvement with CTA. Rachel also talked about about how being excommunicated meant that she was not able to receive a Christian burial or get married in a Catholic Church. This angers me because I feel that she is living a Christian life, working for change in her Church, and truly living life in the spirit of Vatican II. I am a believer in the idea that the Church is the people and not necessarily only that of the hierarchy of the Church. Who is the Church to deny her the right to the Eucharist or a Christian burial or marriage? Another person who participated in the radio show named Olibhear talked about sharing the Eucharist with friends around a table and experiencing faith in that way. I too have had wonderful experiences of Church in that way and believe that to be a wonderful gift. He also spoke about the Church using exclusion to push those with differences away and to shut down any conversations. The final person to speak on the broadcast was Bonnie Amesquita. I have listened to this show twice and both times her words brought a tear to my eye. I was again saddened and angered because in many way it appears that she feels pushed away because of her differences of thought. This reminded me of a discussion I had with my guidance counselor when I was 14. I remember telling her that there wasn't a place for me in the Church because of my politics and ideas. She told me that the Catholic Church was a diverse community of people and that if I kept looking that I too would find my place. I finally did feel that I had found my place with my involvement in retreat planning in my later high school years, with Campus Ministry in College, and at the Paulist Center in Boston. However......I have to wonder....as Rachel Pokora does....how long will I continue to be involved in a community that openly rejects me, my lifestyle, and what I believe in. The sad part of all of this is that underneath all of this...we all believe the same thing. In justice.....and community....and following the teachings of Jesus Christ.

PIH In the News

Partners in Health is going to be featured on 60 Minutes this Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. If you don't know about PIH...then you should. This is definately worth checking out. The work PIH has done in Haiti is amazing! Plus Paul Farmer was my doctor when I was a patient at the Brigham and Womens back in 1993. He sort of saved my life...........