Hit me where it hurts

Polaroid announced they are no longer going to be making film. Kind of a sad day for me and my little fleet of polaroid cameras.

I think I'm too low on the financial beanpole to notice most of the effects of our failing economy. but when they come after my film (or my cookies) it starts to hurt

in the meantime, anyone who wants to get me some film for Christmas, Hanukkah, a happy new year, because they feel like it, I am hoping to stockpile.

happy birthday whitney

we miss you

I'll be home for the Holidays :))

Hey peeps.

just wanted to heads up everyone that I will be in Provo for Christmas (20-27th or so). So if you are reading this chances are I would love to see you. let's make it work&get it together.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
I am brimming with blessings, not the least of which include:

leslie
my new job
(update: it's pretty fun. I got to fold mass amounts of paper yesterday with a machine)
the gospel
& Bob Marley

I'm grateful for you reading my blog. your comments make me feel loved.
<3
erin

2 years (and a little) ago when I first moved out to Boston I had a lot of philosophies brewing in my head--one of which was that buying things is dumb. so for a while I shunned Targets and gave thoughtful letters instead of gifts and did whatever shopping I did need at second hand shops (me thrift store shopping, I know it's hard to believe). and then for a while I was unemployed and didn't have money to spend anyway. then it was really easy to be anti-stuff.

so now I am so blessed to have a new job. My first real job as a college graduate--by "real" I mean one which truly requires the education I have painstakingly payed for for the last 10 or so years.
I am working as a research assistant at Harvard's School of Public Health on a study looking at the causes of autism. I have a cubicle! (which is supposed to be a bad thing, I'm aware, but which to me is highly exciting) and a salary and I take lunch breaks. It's all very grown-up.

along with being grown-up and full time I decided I wanted to dress professionally. I bought some slacks and some shirts to go with my slacks. then I realized I needed shoes, and then of course Leslie taught me about trouser socks. I bought a dress coat (my old coat had a hole in the lining so you never knew if your arm was going to end up coming out the sleeve, or stuck somewhere in the abyss inside of it). Looking so great made me finally accept that my current messenger bag was too holey and shabby to see the light of Harvard, so I borrowed a bag of Leslie's while I search for one of those too.

there's still the matter of grown-up makeup and jewelry, hair styles. who knows what else. Being a woman suddenly seems to require a whole lot of accessories. And suddenly I am remembering why I swore off materialism in the first place: because having more leads to wanting more, leads to having more and up and up until I don't know what happens. until you end up in a park somewhere chasing down squirrels and calling them "baby" (note: this lady exists)

maybe materialism isn't bad. Maybe it just seems excessive because I'm trying to make up for years and years of living like a hippie. afterall, the things which I am replacing are things which I've loyally used for years (and have the holes to prove it).
I don't know, I'm still seeking further enlightenment. enroute, however, I'm also in the market for a good desk calendar, if you have any suggestions..

la vida dulce

have this thing lately about photographing our meals.

where was I

October has been my favorite month ever since I got born in it. I like to take it as a kind of 2nd chance at new years: do some hearty self evaluation, set new goals, then charge at them with all the mid-semester zeal I can muster.
this October I am sticking with tradition but I have to admit that this year the self evaluation has been a pretty depressing process. I feel like I've been asleep at the wheel for the past year and am only now waking to find myself miles and miles off course. How did I get all these unpaid bills? How did my running mileage get so slow? where did this extra body fat come from? How have I gotten so out of touch with so many of the people I enjoy most? Where was I when all of this happened??
I could try and blame it on being so happy in my immediate circumstances (AKA living with Leslie) that I forgot to think about long term consequences, like late fees and back fat. but I know myself well enough to remember that things like this have happened before. I've loved procrastination almost as long as I've loved Octobers.
There's a part of me that wants to let out a little mouse shriek then run right back to whatever hole I must have been hiding in. Denial is not just a river in Egypt baby!
But this is October, so I have to be tough. Work myself out of this wreck. Pay the piper.
It's a painful, but humbling, process.
and for now, I am humbled.
humbled and huffing through my morning runs.
stinking.
huffing and stinking. oh man..

Something's Wrong

sometimes when I run in the morning I pass people that smell good.
then I think "hmmm, I stink."

peeps

hey.
yes, I am back in Boston. indefinitely.

So, I was perusing my old posts and remembering my first days/year here and how lonely they were. It's not just a coincidence that I was alone in all my pics! No wonder my best friend was a river.
This last weekend Leslie, I and some friends went to the same ward campout (it's an annual thing) that I met her at two years ago. It was pretty great to be there with established friends, instead of wandering around, playing ice breaker games hoping to make some. We had such a great time.
I may not have a lot of things right now (money, a real job, any clue about what to do with the future) but I do have my peeps. and for that I am feeling grateful. and, for now, I am content.

my Maine man

I know so much about Maine, I got Maine facts all up in my brain!

my mainestay

Homesick!

so my mr. laptop doesn't usually work, but for some reason the salty Maine air seems to have given him another chance at life. It's been a good couple of months since I perused the stuff on here, all the time I've been back from Provo, in fact, so I was much and pleasantly surprised to find a little cash pool of photos from the bygone days. and man, it makes me miss you all.
because besides the three kitter-tastics, I am all alone in the world. or at least in the state.
Hope you enjoy this (short) homage to the good old days in P-town. and for those of you who escaped under the radar, know that I miss you too, wherever you are and wherever I am not.

okay. I'm taking care of the Kittergirls in Maine for a month in this little town on the coast called Castine. It is beautiful. The quintessential new england experience. The quintessential Maine experience: lobsters, woody areas, cold ocean, LL bean.
Cell phone reception here is basically nonexistent.
Sunday afternoon-Wednesday night I am alone with the girls (ages 8,6,4) while their parents work/sleep down in Boston. Then the rest of the week I'm kind of on-call, mostly able to do my own thing.
It's Wednesday night, so I'm just coming out of one of these shifts now and I have to say, as I've said before, I don't really get how mom's do it. I'm pretty spent. sibling arguments (does it matter who got to open the garage door?!!), whining, not eating my scrambled eggs because I forgot to leave out the pepper.
my only sanity right now is Leslie coming up to spend weekends with me. Not a bad outlet to have, that's for sure, except that monstrous bus rides and never ending goodbyes on the tip of every hello carries an insanity all its own.
anyway, that's my summer. just doing it like a rockstar. okay. peace out.

Willa

sometimes I think Willa is crazy
then I remember that she's 4
then I think maybe I'm crazy, for understanding her so much of the time

naming your business in Maine

"Mainely Pottery"

"The Maine Course"

"Game Mainea"

some stuff I've been up to

well, hey. It's been a long while since I've written on the old blog. It's not that boston hasn't been plenty exciting and news worthy, just the opposite, I think. I've been just kind of doing it so much that I haven't had time for reviewing it. I could surely sum the last month and a little up by saying: I am happy and home here in my lovely Roxbury with Leslie.
This Friday I will be heading out for a short detour to Maine (to nanny for a month) and then we are going on a couple backpacking trips in CA. September I will be done with long crazy trips, cute but messy subletters, and all that jazz. Then I will be a home body once more.
Last Friday (the 4th) a squirrel broke into our house and ate some cookies and left paw prints on the counter. I thought it was funny.
Anyway, here are a few photos (of other stuff, not the culprit...sorry).
love you. EEB.

Oh ho ho...my arrival at Logan airport (with my guitar case so stuffed full of heavy stuff I could barely carry it)
Having a girlie night with Leslie and our summer subletter, Christy
(the mitts were for a "special" hand treatment, wherein you dip your hand into a vat of hot wax until you can't stand the pain anymore AKA can feel your heart beating in your hand)


Well, you know how it is... just a little foux de fa fa with the llama and a redbean/icecream sandwich fish
Hiking Mt Watchusett with some buds and Les on top of the mountain posing like the superhero she is


The source of my power
(don't worry mom, not real. not my wrist.)

Pics from Leslie's birthday
(a close look should reveal that our home now includes a cotton candy maker and lots of dehydrated camping corn)