{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
{This Moment} Hibernation
24 Friday Feb 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, Green Life
24 Friday Feb 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, Green Life
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
13 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Bike Life, Boston Moments, Learnin', Skillshare
Part of my intention in creating (and sustaining) this blog is to crow about my favorite Boston-area events. The four listed below are my long-standing loves.
Boston Skillshare: I learned of the Boston Skillshare as a result of my volunteering with Boston NOW. My first Skillshare (I’ve been attending for about seven years) was a wonderment -free learning, for real, of the most random assortment –knitting, soda brewing, spoon whittling, home schooling, time management?! At my second skillshare, I taught a class on letter writing. Now everyone I meet, practically, I attempt to sway to the way of the Skillshare. I’ve won lots of folk over, including my own mother.
Boston Pride Parade: I’m not sure how I learned about the Boston Pride Parade, but I’ve rarely missed a year of standing along the route, clapping and shouting and jumping for beads. In the time that I’ve been attending, the LGBT community worked towards and won the right to marriage equality in Massachusetts. And it might just be my opinion/experience but I believe, the Parade has since “cleaned up” just the tiniest bit, with fewer men shaking-their-rears on the elaborately decorated beds of semi-trucks to club beats.
Cambridge Citywide Dance Party: I’m only a three-year veteran of the biggest free dance party in Cambridge, where the city closes down one of its busiest streets, pumps up the music, and sets out chairs in front of the Senior Center for folks to enjoy watching the dance mayhem. Want to see how well your city councillor dances, conga with strangers, or steal some new moves from a four-year-old? This is your party.
Bike By Bike, At Night: I’ve only made it to two of these all-night rides that are so underground they don’t have a website (just flyers posted around the neighborhoods.) Begun in 1989, this annual tour is organized by the Back Bay Midnight Pedalers and features stopping points at historic and architectural sites of note in Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge. I haven’t yet made it to sunrise due to the lack of bathroom breaks combined with no published route, but once I figure those two issues out, I just might!
03 Friday Feb 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, With Friends
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A study in making the big city small, as illustrated by my experience in three neighborhoods:
Pretty Big
When I lived in Boston’s worst neighborhood (disclaimer: fact might be unproven), I used to see a few people a few times over. There was that guy who sat on his cement porch playing guitar while his leashed-cat prowled. Also, a woman with long, red ringlets -the most amazing hair! Sometimes, as I keyed into my apartment building, I’d spot her walking down the hill towards Brighton Ave., locks carefully held in place by a headband/earmuffs. Once in a while, I’d see her on the B Line. I wondered where she lived.
Not So Big
In the Savin Hill neighborhood of Dorchester, neighbors say hello. It took me some time to get used to this, as it NEVER happened in Allston. One night, I saw a young man steal a Pride flag from the porch of one of my neighbors. I stared, not exactly sure what I was seeing as he leaped past me, holding the flag high, streaming, as he raced down the street. Additionally, at the Savin Hill T stop, I developed a family-crush on a couple and their young son, combinations of which I’d see on the Red Line in the mornings. Sometimes we smiled at one another.
Kind of Tiny
My friends might be tired of hearing me say it, but rarely a day goes by where, commuting from JP to Cambridge, I don’t bump into a friend, a friendly acquaintance, or my own partner walking past when I least expect him. I see community members from JP and Cambridge out of context -in Boston and Somerville- and yet I still recognize them (which is an impressive feat for me, since I tend to forget faces.)
16 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Bike Life, Bloggin Noggin, Boston Moments, Green Life, Learnin', With Friends
Tags
I am five month’s happy with Whole Heart Local and, to celebrate, I’ve compiled a list of five favorite posts from 2011.
If you would like to celebrate with me, please post in the comments YOUR favorite post (or five) from your own blog!
Celebrating the elements: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/12/22/winter-mornings-jersey-vs-boston/
Daily richness and beauty: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/12/08/weekend-wonder/
Growth from opposition: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/09/21/wrath-on-the-bike-path/
Cherished time with friends: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/10/13/whole-heart-vermont/
Hanging with the gents at City Feed:
http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/10/08/this-moment-city-feed-supply-jp/
13 Friday Jan 2012
Posted in Boston Moments
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A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) Single photo – no words (not that words could explain, anyway!)
08 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Bike Life, Boston Moments, Learnin', With Friends
Some weekends are just weekends. Others are adventures.
An adventure in poetry at the Grolier Poetry Bookshop with January Gill O’Neal and Afaa Michael Weaver. . .
Chill adventures in Christmas brunch hosted by my good friend, Patricia . . .

An adventure in meeting the important people in my friend Sidia Maricela’s life at her new co-op home (and some dancing) . . .
Overwhelmed adventures in shopping local and handmade Bazaar Bizarre style . . .
Adventures in racing about the city on bike, trying to get to every thing on time . . .
Adventures and advice in proper city-cyclist etiquette at Papercut Zine Library with the ladies of Bay State Badass bike zine. . .
Adventures in connecting with old friends and new through the socially compelling and heart-warming adventure that is a gift circle . . .
26 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Boston Moments
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{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
24 Thursday Nov 2011
Posted in Boston Moments
My life in Boston continues to amaze me. Just in this past week I:
The hours I’ve kept:
Exhausted? Yes! Luckily, at all the above events, I’ve been graciously accompanied by friends, whose energy and enthusiasm inspired my own.
I often compare my experience here in Boston with my younger life in Jersey. Naturally, I’ve had a lot of good times in Jersey, but when I think back to high school, it doesn’t escape me that my scheduled looked more like this:
Weekdays: Up at 7:30 AM (groggy), 8:20 AM school, 12:30 PM bus to second school (a story for another day), 2:30 PM school end/bus back to my home town, 3:00 PM work at library, 6:00 PM picked up by mother or brother, 7:00/8:00 dinner, 9:00 PM homework, 11:00 PM bed
Weekends: Hang with mother, aunt, cousin. Knit/crochet. Read.
I don’t mean to imply that my life in Jersey wasn’t a perfectly good life -I was safe, loved, happy, and had all the library access my little heart desired.
Still, (here comes the gratitude), how very thankful I am for strange, funny, exhausting, and beautiful Boston moments!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
21 Monday Nov 2011
Posted in Boston Moments
One of the roles I’d like this blog to fill is a written celebration of my personal Boston (and Boston-area, I’m looking at you, Cambridge) favorites. From area-events to flora and fauna to singular moments in my memory. I’m not sure what to call this collection, but I’m kicking off the series with a tree I see frequently on my excursions to Arnold Arboretum, just five minutes from my apartment.
I’m open to name suggestions for my series!
Have you ever seen such a massive, gorgeous, precarious tree? I wonder often how the nearby homeowners feel spying it each day, wondering if, someday it might crush their house.
18 Friday Nov 2011
Posted in Boston Moments
Tags
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.