Boston, Cape Cod, end of some things...beginnings of others...

So, I got another year older last month. Yup. It was a pretty pithy showing on the celebrations side of things. Not even a cake. I received one single card (Nate) and one single book as a gift (thanks Bob!). Is this what happens when you start to get old? I got alot of really nice email/Facebook/text birthday wishes and my mom and dad (and Bob) both called me several times. :) Steven sent me a nice birthday text-- I guess that's the next generation thing to do. My parents, who have always (and I mean ALWAYS) been on the ball about birthdays, sent me a nice, fat check about 2 weeks later. I forgive them because they had their hands full with a couple garage sales and selling/closing on my Grampa's house in St. Paul. I haven't been around in MN lately for all the hectic'ness, but it has been palpable when I've talked to them on the phone in between everything. My point of the whole matter is that as a kid birthdays were fabulous, full-day celebrations (from which I have many great memories), but now that I'm an "adult" things are starting to change to a more laid-back style of things. We make our own fun I guess! Oh, growing "pains".....

Now don't be feeling bad for me or anything; Nate and I had a grand trip to Boston and Cape Cod over the weekend of my birthday. It was pretty fun and nice to get away from Philly and work and the routine for an extended weekend of 5 days or so. We did the "Freedom Trail" which is about a 6ish mile long walk through the city along a pre-destined path at and between various historical sites such as the Bunker Hill monument, Quincy Markey, historic cemeteries, wharves, Paul Revere's house, and the Harbor. We also visited the Harvard University campus, stopping in at the Natural History Museum. We walked around the famed Harvard Yard (Hah-vahd Yah-d, as they say) and rubbed the bronze toe of memorialized Mr. Harvard. We also went to one of the many meccas of my academic world, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I didn't drag Nate around toooooo much.....I swear. We took the T to and from our hotel and around town everywhere we didn't walk, which was great. I swear I am going to miss great mass transit the most about the east coast. Oh, Twin Cities.....your myopia is so pathetic.... At least the LR is expanding--- finally....

After Boston, we drove down along the coast, stopping in Plymouth, Massachussetts. There we saw the enshrined Plymouth Rock and picked up some delicious salt water taffy before moving on to the Cape. We took the full drive down the Cape through the National Park as far as you can drive without a 4-wheel-drive vehicle and a special "drive-on-sand" permit. There were plenty of Cape regulars with their jeeps and SUVs plugging along the sand to get out closer to the solitude of the lighthouses and farther away from civilization along the seashore. Back on the Park circuit, the road was nearly enclosed on both sides by sand dunes, which I haven't seen since I was west of the Rockies. Very beautiful country and I finally understand for myself the allure of bunking up in a tiny tin, cape-side shack that probably costs thousands to rent for even a week-- just to have a lil piece of the ocean and quiet for a while.

I should add that we probably spent more money that weekend on finding the best local seafood joints we could, than lodging and gasoline. I can honestly say that I had some of the best clam chowder and oysters while we were on this trip. I do have to say, though, that a local place just up the street from us in Philly actually wins the best mussels award so far!

I learned a bit about the arrangement of some more of the New England states, which I could not have explained before this trip. To get to Boston from from Philly (and back), you have to go through New Jersey, then a tiny bit of New York, then Connecticut, then Rhode Island, then Massachussetts. It's crazy how conglomerated so many states are, at least to me, a midwesterner. It -- very literally, because we timed it -- took us 38 minutes to cross the entire state of Rhode Island!!! And that was the LONG way (from SW to NE corners)!!! Myth confirmed! That was pretty awesome. I also have heard (especially now these days since Philly is just over the border from NJ) that New Jersey is often called the "armpit of America," but I found the Garden State to be the most pleasant drive on the trip next to the Cape. The Garden State Parkway was also a great alternative to having to drive through the heart of NYC to get around the Big Apple to get to Connecticut. All in all, our road warrior, the '94 Nissan Sentra held up well and continues to carry us to amazing places. Here's hoping we can get that Ford Fusion Hybrid soon........(we're currently working on that!!)

With the cash I got for my birthday, I decided to spend it on an awesome gadget I read about in one of my favorite mags: Wired. I RARELY read about a new techie gadget and say to myself, "I HAVE to have this!!," but for some reason this one just jumped out at me and stuck. I went ahead and bought myself a Nike+. Currently somewhere in USPS or UPS land, my gadget is going to attach to my shoe and another bit my ipod, and then when I go for runs, track data about my running that I can upload to a computer program and track my progress (or lack thereof...). I've always wanted a better way to motivate myself and I've read tons of good things about this gadget, so, here's hoping for an awesome new toy!! If you've tried this thingy, let me know how you liked it (or not). :)

This month is the concluding month of my 10-month long internship with the Near Eastern Section at Penn. I'll be happy to have gotten great professional experience and made some great new contacts, but I'll be equally as happy to get to scratch the itch that is getting away from my supervisor. However, I asked to stay on for the month of September (and maybe part of October until we move) to work (read: volunteer) with the Loans Registrar, whom I've become acquainted with and like. This is one area of museum registration and collections management that I've been dying to more of, that is, work with loans (of objects/artefacts to and from other museum institutions, for ye laypeople). There is alot of work that goes into organizing and making loans happen in a museum, including but not limited to dealing with US (and foreign) customs, (often international) shipping, agricultural depts, etc. For instance, what do you do if it is your job to get an object back that belongs to your museum for which the period of the loan (per the contract) has expired, the borrowing museum has poorly planned finances and now has no money to ship (or courier) it back to you (more than 2,000 miles away across an ocean), and the object is a 1,000 pound, life-sized Buddha statue, and the US Dept of Agric. tells you that you can only ship it in a crate made out of a certain type of wood? Yes, people, this is what I want to learn more about and would love to do professionally, for real. I want to build my skills! So that's what I'll be doing in September and I'm looking forward to it. :)

Nate and I are also apartment hunting in the west metro area for October, so if you know of anything that sounds good, let me know!

Here's some recent pics:

Me, doing a lil dance cuz I'm so happy to be at the Cape!

Nate and Plymouth Rock

Me, at Ye Olde Union Oyster House, one of the Kennedy hang-outs

Boston Harbor and downtown Boston

Nate and I in front of the original (not the replica!) Cheers bar!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles......and Moving Trucks!

Costa Rica's flag

Nate and I are officially moving back to Minnesota.......
at least temporarily.
haha...

I figured that at this point, that is my biggest, practical announcement. We are moving back to St. Paul to my grampa's (Arne's) old house off of WB Ave & Hwy 36, near the White Castle...whooo for sliders! We will be hauling the moving truck up next week on the 14th, in case any of you lucky readers are inclined to help us move in that day or the next. Any help would be greatly appreciated! (I am not going to be shy about asking for moving help, that's for sure). :)

Also, last week I had a job interview in Philadelphia, which went as well as I could have hoped. It is now up to the selection committee at the University Museum to determine whether I beat out their other candidates. I know I was the last to be interviewed, so selection, I was told, will take place this month. My fate now lies between my competitors and the Museum. I do really hope I get it, but at the same time I have been trying to convince myself that it would be "OK" if I didn't get it, too. I can live in the twin cities for a while and re-group with my family and friends whom I feel I've alienated to some extent over the last few years with all my schooling and traveling/living far away. For a while (or longer?), it would be nice to be around when people are getting married, or die, or have babies. You know, all those 'normal' aspects to living near family and close friends. We'll see. I'm not making any plans except getting married on September 27th!

Nate has been in charge of the honeymoon planning and has been diligently researching locations, prices, etc., literally, for MONTHS. I give him big props for continually adapting to changing/unknown moving plans. After my Philly interview, I was finally able to derive the flexiblitiy of start-date for that job, which is "very flexible." So, that was a BIG relief. We now know that we can even HAVE one at all! We were worried for a while that IF I got the job, and IF they weren't very flexible about start date or immediate time-off, that a honeymoon right after our wedding would be out the window. We would have been really bummed if we couldn't go right away, but accepted that we might have to go at the later date, which in my humble opinion, might never happen which would be even sadder. So, with under 2 months to go, Nate has finally found what looks like a great place: Costa Rica!!! For the geographically challenged, that's Central America, between Nicaragua and Panama. We would be going to a place on the Carribean coast (east side), which apparently rains least in September-October and rarely gets hurricanes because it is so far south from the hurricane pathways. Also, the crime rates are very low and the resort has security, as well as being much less commercialized that, say, Acupulco, Mexico. I.e. No McDonald's, BK, or KFC. You can't book it through Expedia (or the like), so prices stay low and booking late still works, as well as some other perks. Nate had looked at Trinidad and Tobago islands (off North coast of Venezuela), but apparently there is alot of drug traffic that goes through there with much less resort security, unless your're a celebrity with personal security. Not us. Anyway, Costa Rica looks really nice and we're in the process of booking that. YAY! Oh yeah, did I mention it is SOOOOOOOOOOOO cheap!! WAY cheaper than anywhere else (seriously) that we've looked at in Mexico and the Carribean so far-- and that's alot of places!!! The cheap also comes without losing quality, too, so again: YAY!!

I think I'll leave this post as is now. I've got so much to do before next week!
Also, feel free to leave msg's below so I can hear what YOU are up to! :)

-cmm

P.S. Nate has now booked our honeymoon to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica! So excited! Never been to any of the central or south Americas before!