De-lurking on my own blog

I was just telling a friend that for the past few months, I've had a tough time aligning both motivation and time for this ole blog. The moments when motivation is high are usually extremely inconvenient - just as I'm drifting off to sleep, or in the middle of a bike ride for a series of errands, etc. Then when I have time, blogging isn't how I want to spend it.

I'm not sure if this is a phase or if, after 5 years of on and off posting (first on livejournal), I'm just no longer in need of this medium for expressing myself.

I'll just dabble with a few posts and see how it feels.

Things that make me happy these days:

My new city. Well, "cities" really. Living in Cambridge, working in Boston. I'm trying to make it a point to take little excursions whenever I can to quickly get acquainted with the area. Its working great so far, and it definitely distracts me from the fact that I don't have a regular network of friends up here.

• The candy factory in my neighborhood - I pass by it every morning and it smells delectable. Sometimes it smells like Thin Mints, though after reading about this division of Tootsie Roll Inc., I bet its probably Junior Mints I'm smelling.
• Knitting groups - on Tuesdays I hang out with a group right in my neighborhood who quickly made me feel at home. Less often, I join a group in JP who are equally welcome but are less conveniently located for me. Just like when I moved to DC 5 years ago, I'm enjoying the instant cameraderie that comes from joining a knitting group in a new city. I certainly miss my DC group though. Thankfully, I have to travel back there for work every so often so they haven't gotten rid of me completely yet.
• The MFA - well, I haven't actually been yet. But tonight is pay-what-you can night and the idea of that makes me happy. I was spoiled by all the free museums in DC, but with a little planning it seems like I won't go broke trying to visit the best of Boston's museums.

Water - let me count the ways.

• My commute involves riding over the Charles twice a day - gorgeous.
• We joined Community Boating to learn to sail and use their kayaks. I love grabbing a 1/2 hour or more after work in the kayak - such a relaxing stop off on my way home.

• Boston Harbor Islands - I took my first trip over to 2 of them last Sat. I checked out Spectacle and George's. It was such a wonderful solo field trip. All I did was enjoy the sun, walk all over the islands, and read my book. I'm hoping we can work in a camping trip to Bumpkin or Lovell islands soon.

• Esplanade - I love that my commute home involves several minutes along the Charles River Esplanade. (my to & from routes are different because of some one-way roads that make getting back to the Longfellow bridge too much of a challenge). Sometimes, I stop off at 'my dock' as soon as I cross Storrow and land on the Esplanade. I just park my bike and sit looking at the boats and clouds, musing over how lucky I am that I get to do just that. One of these days I'm hoping to stop off at the Hatch Shell for an evening concert or movie.

• And of course, the Ocean State. Living closer to family means I can pop down and join them on the boat every other weekend (when its not raining of course). E* can't join me in all these adventures sadly because his schedule is that of a typical intern - miserable.