Turning 30

I turn 30 next week. I hadn't thought much about it, expect that people keep asking me if I am OK with it. It seems to me that I don't have much option but to be OK with it. I can't go back and re-do my twenties, even though some days I think I would like to. And I can't jump ahead and be turning 33, a birthday when no one asks you if you are "OK with it", skipping the next 3 years, even though some days I think I would like to.

So am I OK with it? I honestly don't know. I guess it kind of depends on how everything shakes out. Maybe it is better to ask me how I felt about turning 30 when I am about to turn 31.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part...

I was saying goodbye to my 3 1/2 year old niece on Sunday and when I told her I would see her three weeks she said: "Aunty that is too long."

I had forgotten how our perception of time changes. When we are young we are always in a rush to get to the next thing, or at least I was, and then as I got older, I tried to focus more on where I was right now, even as time pushed me forward into the unknown. Now as I face down turning 30, all the while waiting to hear about where I will be moving on June 1st, I feel like a kid again. Like time won't move fast enough, that having to wait two whole weeks to hear something feels like an eternity. And yet June 1st represents such an ending, such a change that I am also trying to hold onto time. Capture each walk home, each glimpse of the city, each night out with friends, each moment dancing with my niece, each moment laughing with my husband and hold onto it.

By the time I see her again I will have to tell her I am leaving. Tell her it will be awhile until she sees me again. I will promise to write her letters and send her presents and only love her more each day. But it won't be the same ever again, and even at 3 1/2 she will know that. And it breaks my heart all over again.

Fun in the Suburbs

Took a trip to West Bridgewater last night. Even the people there from other suburbs called it "the stix". A friend of mine's brother plays in a great cover band called Road Soda and they played at the Charlie Horse. We had a great time, good music, good friends. It had been a while since I had been a live show and I forgot how much fun they can be.

It was a treat to get out of the city and try to put everything behind me, even if it was just for a night. I havn't told people I am leaving yet, so as everyone talks about plans for the summer and stuff that is coming up it all feels very phoney. It sometimes feels like a lot of work to be around people.

Leaving Defined

The word itself has been making me think. Leaving. Merriam Webster tells me it is from
Old High German "verleiben" to leave and Old English "belīfan" to be left over. They both feel right.

Leaving means both departing and remaining. When words have multiple means we usually take the one closest to what we meant and stick with that. But this time I am embracing both definitions. I am leaving but part of me will be left behind. The contradiction of the word feels appropriate this time.

Leaving New England

I have lived here all my life. Grew up in Maine, moved the Boston for college in 96' and never left. Every year there is at least one day in the middle of the winter when I think "this is my last winter in Boston." I can not imagine spending one more frozen, dirty, angry winter here. But it is home. And so it is with great trepidation, fear, hesitancy and heartbreak that I have decided to leave. Destination TBD, but I know it will be somewhere warm, even though I hate the heat almost as much as I hate the cold.

Since deciding the leave I have found myself enjoying winter more this year. Walking the streets of Beacon Hill and really noticing what a unique and amazing neighborhood it is. How snow clings to the gas lanterns and kids and dogs and college students and adults all seem to come together to tie red bows around trees for the holiday season and go sledding and skating on the Boston Common. Time goes by so fast and now as the winter skies turn to a hopeful spring, the decision to leave has become all the more real. A countdown has been set. It is time to start packing bags, wrapping plates and mugs to protect them during the long journey, and take stock in what I am leaving behind - because as usually it is far more then hard winters.

Something to Mooo.... About

While the name still reminds me of a song from the musical Rent, the Boston restaurant Mooo.... (formally the better named The Federalist), remains a go-to place to find the best drinks, the best apps and some of the best steaks in the city.

The bar, run by the kind, capable and beautiful Melissa, and the just as kind (but unfortunately a Giants fan) Brad serve a diverse population of hotel guests, regulars and those looking for the next hot place. If you want the best Margarita you have ever had- Mooo is the place to go. If you want a Beef Carpaccio that is truly inspired- Moo is the place to go. If you want an ice cream sundae so good you will dream about it for weeks- Moo is the place to go.

While I have eaten in the restaurant numerous time, a reservation is recommended for dinner, I prefer the bar area where you are able to order off the full dinner menu or a smaller bar menu. The real hidden gem about Mooo however is the breakfast (and the weekend brunch). The dining room is almost always empty and the menu offers traditional breakfast and brunch fare prepared with high quality ingredients and an attention to detail that is second to none.

It's tough to find a bar stool on a Friday or Saturday night, but if you can, in between sightings of TV personalities and the occasional celebrity you will find some of the best food, the best wine, the best scotch and the best service Boston has to offer. While I miss the dark paneling of The Fed, Mooo has not disappointed.

Time to Embrace Boston's Students

A Boston Globe editorial from November 16, 2007 does an exceptional job describing how important the educational and medical community is to Boston. "The area's eight major research universities boast an annual economic impact of more than $7 billion. Universities and their affiliated hospitals include more than one third of the state's 25 largest employers. They compete fiercely for prestigious faculty members, research grants, and the most talented students from around the nation. They are, without a doubt, one of Boston's world-class assets, both economically and culturally."

However this "economic and cultural" importance is often ignored by Boston residents, sure the student populations will destroy the very fabric of their neighborhoods. While Mumbles the Mayor has pushed colleges to build more dorms, he has also reversed himself when it become clear that position is not a popular one.

By the next month the Mayor had done an "about face" his original pro-dorm position and came out against a newly proposed Suffolk University dorm. According to the December 27, 2006 article: "We have been hearing loud and clear that dormitory use is inappropriate for that location. The mayor has heard that," Boston Redevelopment Authority director Mark Maloney said yesterday. "By and large, we do want students to be in dormitories," he added. But, "hearing from so many neighbors about the difficulties of living in a community with Suffolk students, we concluded it was not good for town-and-gown relations."

Local schools including Suffolk University, Emerson College, Boston College and Harvard University all have plans for expansion into the neighborhoods they call home. Perhaps the most troublesome of the Mayor's office and the Boston Redevelopment Authority is there inability to stand up to the neighborhood associations. When Emerson College began the Paramount Center Project and renovations to the Colonial Building there was no protest by the neighborhood, as the location, the former Combat Zone is still an "up and coming area" and the city is happy to have Emerson College fund its resurgence.

For Suffolk University and Boston College however, expansion has been met with great resistance. As recently as yesterday The Boston Globe was reporting that the Boston Redevelopment Authority was asking BC to contain the building of new dorms to the existing campus.

If Boston wants to continue to grow as a city, we need to embrace our student populations. The best way for us to do this is to commit to making the students feel like a part of our neighborhoods, rather then a blight on them. The students of Boston is what makes our city so strong, diverse and unique. It's time the city stands up to the overly vocal few in the neighborhood civic associations and do what's right for Boston.