One Week Mark

Today marks two one-week milestones. It's been one week since my surgery. My eyes are exhausted and I'm guessing it's from my first full day of work since surgery, which was yesterday. Staring at the computer all day would make anyone's eyes tired, and I think my recovering eyes were just not quite ready for it.

Otherwise, I feel great. The stitches are dissolving and thus the incisions are healing, which means they're itchy. Almost burning sometimes. But it's a good sign.

Today is also one week from my first day in the office. Because I'll spend my first day as a Dana-Farber employee in a daylong orientation with all the other new employees (physicians, nurses, interns, etc.), my first day in my office with my new co-workers won't be until Tuesday.

Guess what day it is?

This commercial is one of my current favorites, along with Snuffy the Seal.


So when my boss suggested we invite over the colleagues we actually like (there aren't many of them) for happy hour on my last day here, I asked if I could make the invitation. Here's how I spent an hour of paid working time today:

OK, it wasn't really an hour. More like 8-10 minutes.

Juls and I have long been talking about starting our own event planning business someday. She's an excellent chef and party planner, I'm getting lots of experience with planning her shower, and I'm pretty awesome at making marketing materials. So needless to say, this WILL be going in our portfolio.

Successful Saturday

I'd say yesterday was pretty successful. I woke up at 6 a.m., was on the road by 7:30 a.m., and in Woburn looking at a condo at 9 a.m. The condo is owned by a guy named Frank. He's 33, works in marketing, and is renting out one of the bedrooms. The house is literally 1.8 miles from Julia and Donny. He's cool with Rags, and since he works out of the house most days, he even said he'd be happy to let Rags out when I'm at work all day. The condo is immaculate - he keeps it really clean and is surprisingly good at decorating for a guy. There are three levels - upstairs where the bedrooms and a full bath are, downstairs where the living room, kitchen, dining room, and a half bathroom are, and a fully finished basement where the washer and dryer are. The yard is enormous and since this is part of a condo association, they take care of all the maintenance, including snow removal. Score!

After visiting the Woburn condo, we went in search of bridesmaid dresses. After trying on probably two dozen dresses, one big disappointment when the dress we all fell in love with turned out to be discontinued and thus not available, we finally said yes to a dress. It was actually not at all what we thought we wanted but Juls loves it and it looks great on our bodies and - the most important part - it comes in the colors Juls wants! We got it at Bella Bridesmaid on Newbury Street in Boston. I can't say enough about Britt, the owner. She didn't mind that we were late, sweaty, and smelly. The dress we chose was her idea, and we are so grateful that she thought to bring it out.

We need to order (i.e., pay for) the dresses by July 15 in order to have them by the end of November. Britt gave us a 10% discount so that helped a lot. Now we need to figure out how to "dress them up." The dress is elegant as is, made from chiffon, but Juls wants some sparkle so we'll either need to add a belt or just some beading. That's the fun part!

After a short picnic on Boston Common, we went and looked at another potential place for me. The apartment was cute but small and in a really rough-looking part of Boston known as Mission Hill, but it was really close to Roxbury. And my potential roommate admitted she smoked pot and that her boyfriend was "around a lot." No thanks.

In the car on the way home, my mind was made up. I talked to both of my parents and made my final decision. The only negative is that the condo isn't available until August 1 (his current roommate is a 22-year-old girl who is moving out to "grow up and be on her own") but my job starts July 15. Julia and Donny have graciously offered me "my bedroom" in their house for those two weeks. This means I can't bring Rags - he's a jerk to Buster - but it will give me flexibility with my schedule so I can get adjusted at work, go out for drinks afterward, and not worry about rushing home to Rags. I'll come back to Longmeadow on the weekends to spend time with him.

So, without further ado, here's my new home.

Exterior:

    Upstairs:
   

Downstairs:

Basement: