Posts by Caitlin

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A Quiet Month

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Is January the least liked month of the year?  Apologies to anyone with a January birthday, but honestly, it doesn't have much going for it.  It's dark, it's cold, and there's a big excitement letdown from the non stop holidays and fun we've had for the past two months.

It's also the busiest month of the year for me at work, which makes it even less enjoyable.  I've been debating taking a random day off to do some stuff around the house, or maybe just take a nap, but I feel like when 5:00 hits and it's dark out, I'll still feel like it's time for bed, and stop whatever I'm doing. 

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Missing in Action

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Phew!

So I've been MIA for a bit huh? Where did December go? 

Well first we hosted a mini Colgate reunion.  One great thing about Christmas is that people who live far away come home for a few weeks and give us a chance to hang out.  Then there were more Christmas parties, and a trivia competitions (winning team over here! woot!), and we even found some time to take in Penny for service!

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Christmas Cookies

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Every once in a while, I see something on the internet and decide that I must immediately recreate it.  This weekend was one of those times.  

I've been wanting to make some sort of Christmas cookies for a while, but the thing is, I don't really have a favorite Christmas cookie.  Sure, there are ones that I enjoy, and ones that I used to make when I was little, but none of them were reaching out to me as the ones I NEEDED to make this year.  So I waited. 

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Christmas Party Season

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I was pretty sure I wrote this post last year.  Or maybe the year before.  But maybe not.  Because I searched my posts, and unless I did a Christmas in July special, I can't find it. So if someone else gets deja vu from reading this, help me out, okay? 

And yes I know, I've missed a few posts lately.  I swear every year I'm going to start holiday stuff in August, and every December I'm running around in circles with lists of my lists that I need to complete.  Every. Year.  

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Christmas Tree: 2016 Edition

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So I've completely succeeded in convincing Tom that we should cut down a Christmas tree every year.  Unfortunately Massachusetts has been in a severe drought most of the year (remember our beautiful lawn?), which has impacted the local Christmas tree crop.  Apparently this is a serious issue that is going to impact our local Christmas trees for years to come... Most of the available trees around have been trucked in from other states, and all the trees at the cut your own places were small and half dead.

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Have a Seat

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If you've been to our house recently, you've already seen the end result of this project, but I figured it was about time I shared the journey of how we got here.  After all, I only started this project back in July!

As I said before, we needed a lot of new furniture to fill up our house, including a dining room table and chairs.  I spent a day shopping with Nicole and found a table I liked (as did Tom when I brought him back later to look at it) but no one really liked the chairs that went with it.  So we bought the tables and started the search for chairs.  At some point I got the idea that I wanted the chairs to be blue.  Of course I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere, so shortly after, I decided that I'd paint the chairs myself.

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Some Thoughts on Thanksgiving

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I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend!  Although I spent a large chunk of it driving, it was certainly nice to have some time off of work, and to see some family members.  

It's one of those holidays where it's impossible to get everyone together at once, but I think we did a pretty good job this year.  

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A Quiet Week

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It's Thanksgiving week, which means a slower pace to life (unless of course you're in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner, which I thankfully am not).  Work isn't that busy, the commute is easier, and everyone is gearing up for time with family. 

Tom and I still have some decorations to put out and some lights to hang up, so hopefully we'll get to that this weekend.  Other things on my to-do list are finishing my book, and maybe watching a movie? 

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Adding a Little Beauty to This World

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Let's focus on something good in the world right now, like art - sound good?

One of my favorite things about working where I do, is the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.  It's a long, winding park that replaced I-93 once the big dig was completed.  It runs from the North End to Chinatown, and there's always something new to see or do.  Farmers markets, food trucks, water fountains, art installations... it really is a fun part of the city. 

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Par For the Course

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This kind of seems like a metaphor for how life's been going lately, but this is a sign I saw this morning on my way to work:

ROAD UNDER CONSTRUCTION.  USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Wonderful.  The only problem is that this sign is at the end of the exit ramp from I-93.  There is no option to turn around or go another way once you're at this point.  Even if you decide you don't want to risk it, you have no alternative. 

Not My America

I'm sick of hearing the excuses.  Don't try to claim you don't agree with the racist things Trump says, or try and convince me that he doesn't really mean those things.  Because the truth is, a vote for him was a vote of support for the hate he speaks.  And there are people in this country that are using that as an excuse to act out their truly racist ideals.  

The following are all compiled from various news outlets including CNN, twitter, personal accounts and local news sources.  This is obviously just a small sampling of what's been reported and verified, but I assure you these things are happening across the entire country.  

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This Is Not the Post You Think It Is

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It's homecoming week for Northeastern. It was always a busy week for me when I was still there - not as busy as Springfest week, but still busy.  I was on the student activity board that planned most of the events on campus known as CUP (The Council for University Programming).  It was an amazing experience, and gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of cool celebrities.  However since I've graduated, CUP has gone from getting cool people, to getting my heroes.  I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to try to get these people when I was there, but I have no problem enjoying them now as an alumni.  

This year's homecoming headliner was Amy Poehler.  Someone I've been trying to get in the same room with for years.  So it was a no brainier, even though it was a "past-my-bedtime" event on a work night.  And naturally I brought my best friend along.  

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Our Office: A Transformation

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I'm not going to lie, there are still a lot of unopened boxes in our house.  There are entire rooms that are either empty or just full of things waiting to be unpacked.  It's not easy to furnish and decorate a whole house! 

Lately we've decided to turn our focus on our office.  At some point we decided that if only our office was set up, we'd be able to unpack a majority of our boxes.  All of the books could come out, computer equipment, important papers... they could all find a spot. 

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Errands and Randoms

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Sometimes you put off all the things that you need to do, and convince yourself that they're not THAT important.

And then all of a sudden you can't put them off any longer.  So today I sucked it up, and off I went to cross things off my list.  It actually made me feel a little more at home in our town too.  I made some stops that only the locals would go to. Like the library! 

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Our First Halloween Here

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Last night was our first Halloween in our new house.  We weren't expecting much, but still I made sure we were prepared.  It's true we live in a sparsely populated area of the town, and it's true that we don't even have sidewalks or street lights - two usual requirements for trick-or-treaters, but I chose to be optimistic. I wasn't expecting hundreds of kids, but maybe we'd get tenish? And in case we did, I made sure we had a variety of candy, including full sized candy bars. FULL SIZED!

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Someone is Way Too Excited Over a Closet

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And that someone is me. (You probably guessed that already, right?)

We have a spare room in our house that really can't be a bedroom, since you have to walk through it to get to another part of our house.  I think it's meant to be a small office, but it wouldn't work for Tom and I to share, and we've already set our office up in another room. 

That left a craft room as the next obvious option.  If you know me at all, you know that the amount of craft related items I own is ridiculous.  They needed a spot.  The best part about this room, is that it has an okay sized closet.  Not big, but okay.  So it quickly became a fun challenge to figure out how we could maximize the space in there.  

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Much Ado About Chicago

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So what did we actually do in Chicago?  A lot of things!

It's hard to believe its already been a month since we were there!  I guess we've been pretty busy since we've been back, but we're still talking about this trip and how much fun we had.  While we were there, we went to Second City, one of my favorite improv houses, and watched future SNL cast members perform some of the smartest comedy comedy sketches I've seen.  We also explored the city on foot, ordered room service, and we visited the top of the Sears/Willis tower.