One Year in Boston

Can you believe it??? How crazy is it to know I've been in Boston for a whole year? Yesterday marked my one year anniversary as a 'newly-minted Bostonian' and I can't believe how the time has just flown by. I've been able to do so much in the past year - start a new job, make new friends, try new foods, visit new places - I can't imagine what my life would be like if I was anywhere but here.

Highlights of this past year:

• Road trip with Dad :)
• Moving to Beantown
• Starting work at ConnectEDU
• Finding the culinary joys of L'espalier, Avana Sushi, Diesel Cafe, Ess-A-Bagel, Cafe Sabarsky, Drink, Friendly Toast, Koreana, Sam La Grassa's, and others
• Getting my MFA membership and going whenever I like
• Meeting SO MANY wonderful new people
• Discovering the 'secret road' to walk from Porter to Davis that's just a beautiful neighborhood to look at and be in
• Getting an iPhone and all the wonders (and apps) that come with it
• Trips to NYC, Montreal, and Rhode Island
• Finding a church (Aletheia - finally!)
• Getting a 2 hour massage
• Going home to see my family at Christmas and my sister's graduation (and Mom, Madeline, and Benjamin coming up to see me)
• Walking all over Boston
• Riding a Hubway bike
• Going to my first block party
• Learning how to make new foods like dumplings and sushi
• Going to a city-wide pillow fight
• My first Boston winter not being that bad
• Many many other crazy awesome adventures :)

Ok, now on to this week's photos:

Does anyone else think it's horribly wrong to be put on hold for 20 minutes???? The only reason I put up with it was because a) I was killing time anyway and b) it was the weekend and wasn't counting towards my minutes. This is just ridiculous...

New (old) favorite summer treat (remembered from childhood) - berries and evaporated milk with sugar sprinkled on top...mmmmmm

This week I made my own BBQ in the crock pot - turned out pretty good! I had a big pork butt and cooked it in ketchup, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar

Pretty daisies on my walk home from work

On Tuesday I had my friend Lexi over for dinner and we made homemade pizza - it was delicious!

Lunch - BBQ and cornbread casserole

You caught me! I got a cookies 'n' cream milkshake from the 4th floor of my office building

Can you spot him?

This little guy shows up sporadically - it always makes me smile to see him (Roger, the albino squirrel) 

My office building had an ice cream and candy social!!!!

Toppings for the ice cream

The candy bar

Waaaaaaaaaaaay too much sugar

Haven't seen this since I moved up

Even flavored waters

And Italian ices - they went all out!

V's ice cream looked prettier than mine

Look - Vanessa has a rock candy body! ;-)

The office isn't too shabby :) 

I am SO STOKED to be getting new roommates...we have pretty hilarious text convos, including this one (I can already tell we're gonna have an awesome year)

I love buildings...I love nature and green stuff too, but nothing makes me happier than seeing a bunch of beautiful buildings

SO PUMPED - I decided to cancel my membership for my office gym and try out Boston Sports Club - maybe now I'll actually go more than once a month

My scarf from Anthropologie finally came!!!! I've been waiting for weeks - it's beautiful!

It's Boat Week in Boston, which means battleships from different countries are coming into the harbor (can you see it?)

It's becoming a problem....I can't get enough of Life Alive - so healthy and SO GOOD

The church I go to is held in the YMCA at Central Square - it needs some major revamping, so we're giving it a makeover!

So much work to do

Peeling off tiles...

...and scrubbing down walls... I had fun doing it and got to meet some more people from Aletheia!

And when we got outside....there was a block party going down! 

This made me laugh pretty hard...there's a Dane Cook sketch that Sheila (college roommate) and I used to joke about where he talks about going out and dancing...one of the lines (as he mimics girls) is "let's just stand in a circle around our shoes and our pocketbooks and let's just dance," so when I saw this pile of bags and purses and the whole group standing in a circle around them, I had to snap a photo 

Having a blasty-blast

Part of the team that helped clean the Y on Friday night - we had an awesome time doing it and then heading out and dancing!

A scene from the block party - it was pretty epic

With all the things that have happened this year, I really don't see how year 2 can top it....but here's to hoping!