Boy Have We Got a Deal For You

Come one, come all. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Now that Beth and I are all settled in we are accepting reservations. You get a spectacular futon to sleep on in our tiny living room, and maybe a little food to eat. You can enjoy a wonderful 10 min walk to the T stop each morning starting at 7 am. After which you will enjoy a 30-50 min action packed train ride. Following the train ride you have the option of taking the Beth or Bill route. If you choose the Beth route you get an action packed day with thirteen 3-5 year olds and one control freak. If you choose the Bill route you can meet people from all over the world and have a delightfully boring conversation with the boss. If your lucky and you come on a Tuesday or Wednesday and you take the Bill route can spend an entire 12 hours there. In the evening you will again have an action packed train ride and picturesque walk home. You get all this for only 2 or 3 good bottles of wine. This is an amazing deal and won't last long. Dates are filling up fast. So call today 781-848-2836 to book this amazing deal.

Marriage

My life changed very dramatically about 2 minutes ago. I answered the phone because Bill is teaching a night class and experienced my first telemarketer call as a wife. This was strange on many levels. First, the caller did not immediately become apparent as a solicitor without the "Is Mr. or Mrs. Guil..." followed by a long pause that I am used to. Second, once determining it to be a telemarketer, I used to have the power to decide if I should actually pass the phone to one of my parents, or pretend they were not home. In this instance I was immediately angry that I now have a easily pronoucable name that does not filter real calls and in such a state, I got caught in a trap of not wanting to interrupt the nice man. While he did his thing, I contemplated how I am a Mrs. now. No more pawning off solicitors to my mom and making her deal with them. It's funny what makes marriage seem real. You may think that standing in front of a huge church with a big white dress would do it, but no, telemarketers help me to feel married. Who knew they could be so helpful.

SO sorry!

I apologize whole-heartedly that some of you seem to need this Blog so desperately, that you do not understand the hours of contemplation that goes into each and every post. Actually, the real issue is that Bill is lacking in this posting while I am trying to deal with the reality that I am losing intellectual prowess daily. I fear someday in the near future, nursery school-isms will begin to enter into my everyday speech. Believe me this is not a good thing. Having a mother that slips into elementary language because of years on the job is understandable. A 22 year-old repeating the phrases "OOO... I'm sorry it's my turn now" and "Quiet hand please" is far less acceptable. However, I must be doing well in the classroom, because I am gaining responsibilities left and right. Now in addition to preparing snacks and placing resting mats, I am allowed to lysol the tables and use the computer. I still haven't earned phone privileges, but all in good time. Because it appears I was reprimanded by my own blood (whose last initial mysteriously changed), I am now going to attempt to write less, but more frequently. Now if I could only get that husband of mine to write...

Back again

Bill and I are now contributing members of society. We started orientation for work last week and had our first official day today.

Here's a short recap of orientation.
I met more Sisters (in the nun sense) than I ever have in my life. They are, for the most part, liberal activist Sisters, but Sisters none-the-less. All of them are very Boston with an undeniable South Boston twist. Bill is now Bill Hanna-r at work. The funniest part is that all of the Sisters have ridiculously Irish names as South Boston is HUGELY Irish. Bill works for Sr. Maureen O'Brien (one of three Maureens in the building) and I work for Sr. Jean Sullivan. It's great; I feel like a student in a Catholic boarding school circa 1940.

My first day was uneventful. I am working at a learning center where mothers can get their GEDs, and then find resources to go on to further schooling or get a job. The mothers receive free child care, which is were I come in. The center offers an infant room, toddler room, and a Montesorri Nursery School. I'm in the preschool with 13 3-6 years olds and 3 other teachers. It gets a little chaotic, but it's fun. The kids like to copy the teachers, so today everyone called everyone "Honey." Four year olds calling 50 year old ladies "Honey" is quite entertaining. I have some very important duties such as preparing the snack and getting the resting mats ready, so obviously I am extremely valuable to the classroom.

Because this post was a little too reporter-like for my taste, I've decided to include a list of Boston words and phrases that I hate.

1. Carriage for shopping cart. It is not pulled by horses.
2. Pocketbook for purse. Just an unappealing word all together.
3. Evactuation Day for St. Patrick's Day. The evacuation of the British from
Boston is much less remarkable than a holiday supporting leprechaun.
4. Wicked for every adjective ever.
5. Breakdown lane for the shoulder of a highway. This is a huge trick because
during rush-hour people can actually drive in the breakdown lane.
6. Pissah for bathroom. Gross.
7. Rubbish for garbage. Where are we? England?
8. Rotary for traffic roundabouts. AKA death traps because the yields are
apparently optional.

I'm sure this list will continue to grow. I'll keep you posted.

What you REALLY want to know...

Bill is so business when writing his posts. My goal is to give you the information that is perhaps less important in our daily lives, yet far more important in the scheme of things. With that understood, I've put together for your enjoyment, a list of 3 of the funniest things I've discovered about the Braintree/Boston area. Here goes...

1. The very first two things Bill and I did when getting to Braintree were register to vote and get library cards (figures, government major meets english major). While Bill was asking government-related questions, I found a local magazine type thing. Flipping through, I notice that in the for sale category, no joke, were goats. Yes, Bill and I have access to goats. So in case any of you are interested, just let us know.

2. The cottage game that Bill and I joked about selling (swing golf I think it's called) has made an appearance in Braintree. To impress our neighbors and to show them that fun doesn't always have to cost money, Bill and I created our own lawn game that is now dubbed, "The Wisconsin Secret".

3. I am quite confident in saying that while standing on any corner in the greater Boston area, you will be standing within a one block distance of a Dunkin Donuts. I have never seen a city consume so many doughnuts and coffee drinks. Unbelievable.

That's all I've got for now. We miss you all. Think about coming to visit... we've got goats AND Dunkin Donuts!

Quick update

We moved most of our stuff in yesterday. The couch, entertainment center, and box spring didn't fit however. Luckily the was an entertainment center left up there. We may try one more time to get the couch up, otherwise we will try and sell it and buy a smaller one. We are hoping we can store the box spring at Beth's Great Aunt Nancy's house. Our new address is 81 Hancock St. Apt. #3 (in the attic) Braintree, MA 02184. We are in the process of getting phone and internet to our apartment we'll let you know when we do.
~Bill