Oh How Time Flies

My blog dashboard tells me that my last blog post was in the fall. Ouch. I will attempt to update the last four or five months here, now. If I could do it in 140 characters or less I could tweet you our update, but alas I am anything but short-winded.

Winter came and stayed...that pretty much sums up the past 3 months. We expected harsh temperatures, chilling winds, and snow...and boy did the infamous New England winter deliver. We have had a record amount of snow this season, and even after a few weeks without snow fall and several above freezing days they are still hauling snow away in giant dump trucks.

Snow in Boston is interesting. Or, rather, the way the city deals with the snow is interesting. First, there are the 'snow emergency' alerts. If, before and during a storm, you go to weather.com or other weather information sources there are GIANT, RED ALERTS for a weather EMERGENCY. Then these alerts start flashing on the television, radio and through list serves on email. School closures begin to be announced on a ticker tape on all local channels the night before the storm, performances get canceled, and everyone is strongly encouraged to stay home. Not clear exactly what I mean? Imagine Chicken-Little and THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING. Second, things do actually SHUT DOWN. But only for the day. Then, as if the sky didn't break into a trillion tiny pieces that accumulated into 2 feet of snow over 6 short hours, the city returns to normal the second day. Boston citizens wake up to clear, albeit salted, streets, buses and trains return to their normal schedules, commuters get gritty and bear the icy sidewalks and blistering cold, and the city returns to its usual, bustling self. It all happens in the blink of an eye. The infrastructure is really quite remarkable. But, after so many massive storms and weeks and weeks of below freezing temps (and often sub zero), the streets are clear, but their are 6-9 foot towering drifts of snow all over the city. These are the target of the bulldozers and dump trucks as we sleep at night. Now we wake up, after weeks of looking at these beasts of snow, with magically cleared bike lanes and parking lots. Where is the snow being taken? Good question. No idea. The great snow-drift graveyard?

But, you might wonder, how are WE doing with the snow? We. Are. Ccccold. I'm kidding, we are GREAT! Macy has her coats (yes plural), and little orange booties (orange is the color for spring 2011 you know). We wear giant parkas, faux-fur lined boots, hats--with ear flaps, and gloves, EVERY time we venture outside. We take shifts shoveling, we do 'rock-paper-scissors' to decide who will walk Macy, we salt our sidewalks, we guard our parking spot with buckets (one of many interesting New England idiosyncrasies). We have thoroughly enjoyed our initiation to New England winters...despite the terrifying cost of heating (you don't want to know, it would stop your heart cold). And today, with sun shining and promised temperatures in the 40's, we are looking forward to spring in 33 days, but whose counting?

We're Still Here

Life in Boston is MUCH busier and more full than either of us had anticipated. We agree that we are blessed beyond measure by the enormous opportunities and experiences that exist for our taking here. We LOVE it! Sadly however, our busy lives have left me little time for blogging...I do hope you'll forgive me!

In the adjustment to our new life I have learned a few things about getting to and from work. First, parking at my office is $165 MONTHLY....so I do not drive. Second, taking the train and bus (or train or bus, depending on time and day) takes, in most cases, about an hour each way (the same as Corvallis!). Third, cycling to and from work is free, and EASY! We live only about 3 miles from work and there is a bike path that allows me to ride nearly entirely off the street the whole way to work! Cycling only takes about 20 minutes to get to work, and despite my initial concerns about vanity (messy hair, sweaty, mussed clothes) the ride has proven to be easy and quite enjoyable. That is, unless, I am caught in a terrible and earth shaking lightening storm, as I was today.

This morning I had a lovely start to my day. I got up extra early so that I could sit on my lovely porch and drink coffee on my newly refinished (by me!) red wicker love seat. Anyway, after my coffee there was a little rumbling in the sky and some clouds. I knew that there was a POSSIBILITY of rain this morning. But, being the NW girl I am I was not scared off by the threat of rain (forecasters reported a 30% chance…that’s any sunny day in Eugene!), so I hopped on my bike and took off for a day of writing at the office. About 1/2 mile from home it started to rain, but I was sure it was going to either quit or lighten, so I continued. Another 1/2 mile and the sky opened up and began to dump SHEETS of water. As if my being drenched wasn’t enough to the bone, the sky darkened notably and then fierce lightening shattered the sky with LOUD ‘CRACKS’ followed IMMEDIATELY by deafening thunder. I pulled over, drenched to the bone and waited for a reprieve. Realizing that I was never going to sit at work soaked to the bone (I’d freeze with the air conditioning), I figured I might as well ride home in the storm to change and get dry. So, I hopped back on my bike and rode all-out through the cracking, crashing storm, wind blowing the rain sideways into my eyes, water dripping from my
helmet….clothing stuck to me like I had showered in my khaki trousers. I could hear the song from the Wizard of Oz playing in my head: “the house began to pitch, the kitchen to slitch….” Followed by the wicked witch of the west song….

But have no fear. I got home. Dried off. Redressed, redid my hair and make up and took the train in. Thank goodness I do not melt in water!!!

Wow, there I am!

For those of you wondering what the heck I'm doing here in Boston: One of my many extraordinary opportunities is participation in the LGBT Health Research Summer Institute. I started this on July 26 and it will continue until August 20. It's a remarkable experience and I'm having a great time learning a lot about methodology, analysis, topics related to my research area and generating manuscripts. We (being the fellows and students in the institute) made the paper last week:
Bay Windows - New England's largest GLBT newspaper

Enjoy!

Saturday Fun

Weekends are becoming the sweet, delicious dessert at the end of our work weeks here in Boston. I am working less on the weekends than ever before, and we both seem to have a renewed sense of adventure. Yesterday we spent the day exploring areas new to us here in Boston, namely, Back Bay. The Back Bay neighborhood, situated in the heart of Boston, just a stones throw from fancy boutiques, posh cafes and the financial district, is characterized by the beautiful brownstone buildings that we all think of when we think of 'Boston' neighborhoods. The streets of Back Bay are lined with gorgeous old trees, and the median on most streets is a gated garden or park space used by residents in each block. Back Bay is also dotted with several insanely beautiful public parks including the Esplande at Charles River, Boston Gardens, and Boston Common, to name only a few. These parks are like little jewels of the urban landscape, overflowing with fragrant flowers, lush green spaces, old and stately trees, old and oxidized water features and countless bronze statues paying tribute to innumerable historical events.

Like many of the most beautiful Boston neighborhoods, Back Bay is highly sought by locals, well, locals with bundles of cash filling their pockets. For the commoners like us, Back Bay is a highly sought after day trip. Back Bay is easily accessible from our neighborhood (JP) on a very short, 15 minute, bus ride.

Again and again we are delightfully surprised by the quality and beauty of the parks in Boston. The citizens and city have done a remarkable job preserving and investing in urban green spaces. Charles River, one of Boston's most prized and popular parks in Boston, is a prime (perhaps THE prime) location for long runs on it's more than 20 miles of paved river-front running and walking paths. For endurance runners, like me (who have GI issues), this running path is particularly wonderful for it's clean and readily available 'powder'rooms. The views of Cambridge, sailboats, kayaks and bridges along the water are stunning. And, if you squint just right it feels a little like walking along the Thames River in London.

Boston Garden and the Common will require another trip to Back Bay (and another post, you lucky ducks!) though we did appreciate their loveliness from afar during our adventure and mission to find lunch yesterday.

Happy Friday!

The productivity at my new job continues to grow. I am showing all of the 'hallmark' signs of being a full-fledged 'post doc': losing several hours at a time staring at data, running and rerunning analyses for the sake of exploring new ideas, reading articles, writing papers and developing manuscripts. I arrive at the office at about 7:45 a.m. and leave around 4:00 p.m. and all of the hours in between overflow with nerdy-delight.

Weekends in Boston are the time that we are tourists in our new city. However, I have to say, it is very difficult to 'squeeze' everything that we would like to see and do into the weekends. It turns out that 'regular' life came with us (it must have piggy-backed on the roof of the prius!) and we still have to spend weekend and evening time doing laundry, cooking, grocery shopping and, gasp, cleaning. It is unclear to me today why I imagined that we would have so much 'extra' free time after arriving in our city. It turns out that there are still only 24-hours in a day, 7-days in a week out here in Boston.

Nevertheless we have committed to seeing something (anything) new in our city each week. Last week we visited Newbury Street....a ritzy shopping district in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. It was more than 90 degrees, giving us PLENTY of reason to duck into every charming (read: air conditioned) boutique that we fancied. In addition to ooing and awing at lots of exorbadently priced items, we also found a few FAB-U-LOUS second hand boutiques. But more than anything, it was wonderful to spend an afternoon together doing something that did NOT involve our adjustment.

This weekend it promises to be equally as hot so we may stay close to Myron, our new airconditioner, and visit a few neighborhood venues a little closer to our new home. There is so much to see and do....it would be really helpful if some one would come out and visit...help us see some of these tourist attractions!

Today was the second day of really fantastic, off the charts workout since our arrival in Boston. After we unpacked and felt relatively settled we started back to our daily movement routines. Naively, and despite everything we know about exercise and the influence of life transitions on exercise (and other healthy) routines, we thought I would just immediately pick up where I left off working out a few hours a day. It turns out that the emotional and physical disruptions that naturally characterize a relocation DO indeed interrupt previously well established exercise routines. Something seemed to come up every day that kept us from getting to the gym or the park (for a run). So, instead we have been doing a ton of walking and recently returned to running short distances.

This week however it seems that we have turned over a new leaf. We have tried MANY gyms since arriving in Boston (see my heart is still in it!), but nothing really fit. Despite the mismatch we have had a few really terrific interval workouts in which I combine intense cardiovascular work with high rep/low weight strength training. I have also had a great heavy strength training workout this week.

Today we picked a new gym, located only 1 mile from home, that seems to be a much better fit. I ran nearly 3 miles and felt terrific! I could actually feel my bad mood slipping away under my pounding feet. The bonus was that my lady joined me...is there anything better than running beside the love of your life? I have also found that the time I've taken 'off' from heavy training has given new life to my legs for running and all of my 'lifting' muscles. Turns out these 'exercise-experts' may know a thing or two about 'rest' and 'recovery'.

So, here's to turning over a new leaf in Boston where everything is the same but oh so very, very different!

By the way: have attempted to locate stylists and waxers (aesticians)...boy what a post have I got for you. I have never had such an aggressive, intense, hold me down sort of eye brow wax before. I knew that they were bad, but man-alive...what was that?

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho It's Off to Work I Go

Go Terriers!
Give me a T.
Give me an E.
Give me an R…....
anyone tired of this yet?
Go Boston Terriers!

I love my new job and I love the institution, Boston University. I love it so much I may never want to leave…well, that might be a stretch (have you seen the weather here today? I’m melting all over my key board). Back to my point: I love BU because from what I can tell so far they do a great job taking care of employees (classified and unclassified) and seemingly make an extraordinary commitment to students with teaching excellence and educational support. Boston University is ALSO a world renowned research institution…’world renowned’…go figure. Turns out that BU is kind of an amazing institution to be affiliated with…huh. I am going to just being grateful and hope that they don’t realize who I am anytime soon and realize that they’ve made some mistake!

My first days of work so far have involved orientations, meetings, and generally getting set up at my desk and with IT. Today I spent a bit of time actually working. This involved locating and selecting literature for reading as I prepare a little mini project for a future conference. The topic involves the role of physical activity and social support in cancer survivors and how ones participation in physical activity differs by years since diagnosis and how physical activity influences cancer survivor outcomes. This is the very rough, preliminary ideas and product of my work today, but I’ll keep you posted on how it develops. But for those of you who wondered what my days would be like, today involved researching articles, reading and looking at available data. Go Terriers!

You can see here that my office is located in a very urban area, in the South End neighborhood of Boston. I take the Orange line train to get to Massachusettes Avenue, followed by a very short bus ride down ‘mass ave’…aka, Massachusetts Avenue (‘locals’ call it mass ave, so I will too) where I get off at Boston Medical Center.

From here I enter the “Cross Town” building (this is the name of my building) and take the elevator (locals call this the ‘elevator’) to the fourth floor.
Here are a few pics of my little workspace.


In my department there are real offices with doors (for faculty, professors etc), large ‘cube’ workspaces (for post docs, research coordinators etc), and smaller ‘cubes’ for temporary students or research assistants. I was given a large ‘miranda’ cube workspace near a very large window. You can see from the pictures that my workspace is ample for research and writing, and the window with view of medical buildings are perfect for day dreaming, or I mean contemplating unique analytic and methodological techniques I will use. Go Terriers!