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sports thoughts...

- the red sox have their work cut out for them this october to pull off the repeat, but it's going to be fun to be here while they try.

- the giants will likely to do one dramatic thing this off season (no sure yet what it's going to be)

- i finished second in my yahoo winner's league.  this is a small miracle considering the hole i got myself in during the may-june stretch of neglect my team experienced.  my two great regrets on the season: i contemplated adding carlos quentin to my opening day roster and i didn't...i ended up trading for him much later in the season...could have had him for free.  also, i had ryan ludwick for a day in april and then dropped him...and he went on to have a ridiculous season.  if i had kept those two guys, i might have pulled off the repeat!  nonetheless, i still won my college buddies' league for the second year in a row.

- the premier league is off and running and arsenal is once again at the top of the standings...and once again we'll see if they can actually stay there this year.

- usc broke our hearts this week =(  otherwise, i don't really care about football.

- amy and i got to go to a Revolution game this saturday.  so much fun!  (mls soccer for those who are wondering).  if anyone wants to help kick in for season tickets for '09 let me know (only 700-900 bucks).

peace

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boston observations

- the radio stations play lots of 90's music...lots of it...pearl jam, nirvana, sublime, red hot chili peppers, etc, etc.

- this is the most humid place i've ever lived (also the weather here is crazy in general...even more so than colorado)

- lots of bad drivers

- many excellent places to eat

- good/interesting public transportation

- not very mexican friendly

- sports=life...not just the fact that the teams are really good (which they are), there are a lot of active people (running, biking, hiking) too

- people who live in cambridge and beacon hill (and places like that) are essentially disconnected from life in dorchester/roxbury/jamaica plain

- people don't know how to say "oregon" and also say a lot of other word weird too

- dreyers=edy's

- the red line is way faster than the green

- the mayor's name is on everything

- there are a lot of huge catholic churches

- sprinkles (that one would put on ice cream) are called "jimmies"

- people definitely dress differently than in california...and that's not because of the weather...it's hard to describe, but it is kind of fun to make fun of (for example: pink polo shirts with popped collars)

- there aren't many old people in the city

- the roads have tolls (lame) and the streets are not always clearly marked (frustrating)

...and a bunch of other stuff, but i think that's it for now.

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so, something that's been difficult about living in the city has been dealing with the reality of "hollerin'"...this is a phenomenon where a male will "holla" at a female using a variety of methods including words, whistles, and body gestures.  the goal is to let the female know that she is physically appealing to the male.  awesome.

consider the following examples:

1) tiffany, my TA at Bird Street, gets "holla'd" at every time we take the kids outside.  it's pretty ridiculous, and she has a good sense of humor about it, it's become somewhat of a running joke, but is still totally inappropriate...do these guys not see the 20+ kids running around and realize that maybe then is not the time?  then, and this is not funny to me, one of the parents called her on our school phone to ask her out.  

2) on sunday, walking home from church, some dude yells at me: "hey man, your girlfriend's beautiful."  i said, "that's my wife, knock it off!!!"  and then he had a bunch of other things to say, most of which i didn't hear as he was (luckily) on the other side of the street.  and he was probably only 16!  what the heck.  amy was grateful for the "protection" but also glad i didn't get punched in the face.

3) i've even seen at starbucks on charles street (a very different area of boston!)...our manager had to ask a guy to leave because of some of the things he was saying to my co-worker abby.

all this in the span of one week.  i'm sure most, probably all, the female can offer their own examples, i've just been a little overwhelmed with the concentration of incidents here in the last couple of days.

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- wrapping up my first week of "full-time" work between starbucks and bird street...it's been busy but fun: learning drinks, getting to know the kids, seeing two very different parts of boston.  it's tiring but i am enjoying it.

- tomorrow we'll be with the quincy street gang.  check out our friend kim's blog.  she had some fun stuff related to quincy street on there.

- also, you could, dear readers, pray for amy and i as we attempt to make a rather large life decision.

- last: i really, really, really dislike the back and forth sniping between presidential camps (all in the name of "campaigning"), but in the middle of that both candidates do have some insightful things to say (you have to do some sifting, but after a while you find gold).  anyway, here's Obama on the community organizing comments that got me riled up (just click on the thumbnail):

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some updates and thoughts after a busy week...

- school has started which means i have officially begun my work as the site coordinator for one of bird street's after school programs.  i am at the nathan hale elementary school and it's already a bit crazy.  one of my TA's got a different job yesterday, so i'm understaffed right off the bat.  also, i feel like we have not been prepared well at all.  i am struggling with finding a balance between "humble new guy in a different culture," and "knowing a 100 better ways to run this program."

- furthermore, the decision was made a few weeks ago to make all site-coordinators part time (26 hours a week)...i am discovering that this might not be enough hours to actually do this job well!  nonetheless, it also isn't enough hours to meet our household budgetary requirements so i have been searching for other jobs.  a good possibility would be to sub at a high school down the street from the elementary school...however, that vision may not be realized for weeks, if not months, due to the extremely slow moving behemoth that is the Boston Public Schools.  so, i will be donning an apron starting monday, and embarking on yet another random job in a long line of random jobs: starbucks barrista!

- amy and i have a lot of cool church opportunities developing as well.  we are strengthening our connection to the quincy street/sojourn community that live close by and we are really excited about some of the relationships forming there.  we are going on a leadership retreat with them (sojourn) this weekend.  we also will be leading a small group through reunion starting up in a couple of weeks.  the community pastor has been heavily recruiting me to help with many aspects of small groups in reunion.  finally, hank, the lead pastor, and i have been able to connect and he invited me to a church planting forum at the end of the month, so that should be fascinating!

- finally, i've been following the convention(s) coverage in an attempt to be well-rounded and well-informed.  i'm afraid it's just making me more cynical.  all this talk of change and non-partisan/bi-partisan politics and it sure feels like business-as-usual to me.  like i said, i'm trying to be open to both sides in order to make a well-informed decision (as a registered independent i'm a coveted voter in this election!), but i have to say the republicans turned me off big time when they started dissing Obama's community organizer background.  do they not know what a community organizer does?  certainly there are legitimate questions about his "lack" of experience, but to me this shows just how far out of touch republicans are with the inner-city.  yikes!