14 Monday Jan 2013
Posted in With Friends
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Do you ever find yourself rushing to be slow? Pretty ironic huh?
Especially when you get to where you’re going and the calm is so absolute, so welcoming, you wonder just why you were banging around earlier.
A crafternoon with friends is an important place to be. Maybe I can’t stop my frantic rush to arrive, but it’s good to know, at least, that the panacea is available as soon as the door clicks softly shut. And the smiles blossom. And the late-morning light does what it does well.
27 Tuesday Nov 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, With Friends
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I used to do it for the pie.
Back nine or so years, as part of the annual public service efforts of my dotcom job, I started volunteering with Community Servings, an organization that prepares healthy meals for individuals and families struggling with life threatening illnesses. As a group, we first did a stint in the kitchen -to my memory washing pounds and pounds of broccoli. Then we discovered Pie in the Sky, an enormous bake sale that raises thousands of dollars each year. Some of us fell over heels for the pie hospital (can you guess where some of those “sick” pies end up?)
Now days, I do it for the tradition. For the moment of walking into whatever enormous warehouse the pie quality-checking and packing operations are set up in. The refrigerator-chill and boxes of pies stacked higher than our heads.
I do it for time with friends and “ex” co-workers.
I do it for the music pumping through the speakers of that excellent lady DJ, spinning beats that keep our feet moving as we honor our imaginings of all of the people who will continue to receive much-needed meals as a direct result of just a few hours of our labor.
08 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Green Life, With Friends
Soup’s on the stove. Cat is in his basket. Sade’s on the player. And outside the window of my home office: snow, snow.
Amazing that, three days ago I was admiring the subtle tones of autumn in the mountains of Maine.
Water was flowing, but I bet now it’s ice.
A friend said: Is that snow on the mountain over there? And I denied it, claiming sky.
But it’s true the plants were packing up, headed towards the season of sleep that drives us wakeful ones indoors.
When the season turns over, it shouldn’t be a surprise, but so it often is.
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, With Friends
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Those who know me well know that I like to dance. Amazingly, going to dance parties around the city has led to my making a good many friends. Which in turn has led to more free dancing opportunities.
I’m not the best dancer -the most skilled, rhythmic, or adventurous but I’ve got enthusiasm. I’ve got laughing. I’ve got style. Leaping and skipping and posturing; all manner of silliness.
Recently, a friend hosted an impromptu dance party at the gazebo on Jamaica Pond. Undeniable beats poured from her impressively loud ipod speaker system, and we were dancing like it wasn’t illegal (park doesn’t close until 11 PM, I hear.) What do we see suddenly but a gaggle of preteen girls swooping in?! The song we had been listening to at the time was a bit chill, a little complicated, so our host made quick dj decision. Beyonce shouts GIRLS! GIRLS RUN THE WORLD. And the girl gaggle before us stops short.
They’re unsure. A group of adult women and a few men dancing on the street at 10 PM. Is it safe, is it scary? To our disappointment, the girls retreat.
Oops, I thought. Was our response too enthusiastic? Enthusiasm and vulnerability, walking hand-in-hand. It was too much, I think, for these young people who have probably been drilled on the importance of safety -physical, emotional, and otherwise.
My theory is, if they’d been just a little younger, or a year or two older, the girls would have embraced our cheerful enthusiasm for what it was: an invitation to dance their hearts out, safely, among friends.
06 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Green Life, With Friends
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I think was a teenager when I first started noticing that, if I emphatically announce that I WILL NOT DO something, there’s about an 80% chance I’ll end up doing it . . . . and (I hate to admit) possibly liking it.
In college, I started using the phrase “pride before the fall,” with impressive frequency as I watched this occur in the lives of myself and my friends . . . with impressive frequency.
This, I believe, explains my sudden plaid explosion at eighteen, and in my twenties, an inaugural pair of Dr. Martens. And to bring us to the present, between 2011 and 2012, I’ve gone camping in Vermont twice.
In case you wondered, I don’t camp.
And, if you catch me at it, be certain I don’t like it.
22 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in Home, With Friends
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Sometimes there is a sweet simplicity to being a family of two (or three if you consider the non-contributing, four-pawed, fur-child who lives with us): simple, quiet weekends. Though, occasionally what at first pass seems simple can grow a fringe of busyness, seemingly out of nowhere.
Last Friday I thought to myself, Oh goody! This Saturday I’ll spend the day cooking for the Boston Food Swap on Sunday, and also I’ll get a haircut. Then, on Sunday, I’ll hang with friends at a brunch potluck and go to the Food Swap.
Simple. Meandering. Quiet. Sort of.
Saturday:
10 AM Paul Gore Street Yard Sale
12 Noon Lunch at Blue Nile Cafe in Hyde Square
2 PM Book Sale at our local library branch (oops, missed it!)
3 PM – Midnight Bake bread, prep contribution for Sunday’s brunch
Sunday:
9 AM Bake gluten-free vanilla scones for brunch
11 AM Drop off 35mm film
12 Noon-2 PM Potluck brunch
2 PM Race out door to Food Swap (luckily find ride)
2:30-4 PM Attend Boston Food Swap with friend
5 PM Clean house
7 PM Go to the movies with D (a rarity!)
15 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in Home, With Friends
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What we did with all that local maple syrup . . .
Golden brown, gluten-free pancakes courtesy of our good friend Heather. Pancake flipping skills and strawberry slicing courtesy of our friend Alice. Tea and fair trade coffee brewing courtesy of my partner David. Local syrup courtesy of Natick Community Organic Farm.
04 Friday May 2012
Posted in Green Life, Jersey Moments, With Friends
13 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, With Friends
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
12 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in Green Life, With Friends
Create my own fun, time-consuming photo madlib? Yes, ma’am!
Back in 2011, I attended _A__ potlucks and hosted _B__.
New to hosting successful potlucks, my partner and I enjoyed fresh opportunities to _C__. Also, we learned that a host must be _D__!
Now when friends start a’calling, I whip up a batch of _E__, hop on my trusty _F__ and speed _G__.
Never before in my life have community meals been so _H__. I feel very _I__!
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
Phoebe Sinclair Writes 