Take me out to the ball game!

What's a better way to kick off the unofficial start to summer than a Red Sox game? The weather may have been muggy, but inside the park it was cool, breezy, and the atmosphere was ready for some good old American baseball.

 Jon Lester was pitching for the Sox, I thought it was pretty awesome since the last game I went to, on Labor day was also pitched by Lester. I hoped it was a sign. Sign or no sign - he's a great pitcher.

We had standing room only tickets (that is what you get for buying tickets for the Memorial Day game 10 days before the game!). So when we arrived we headed down to the third base line to watch batting practice. We hung out there until we got kicked out leading up to the opening ceremonies. 

 It was really special to be there on Memorial Day. The Sox really honored our fallen soldiers and veterans and those currently serving.  They introduced each member of the Sox organization who once served for the US, each was welcomed with a roar of applause. Then after a brief moment of silence, in which the ball park was so silent a dropped pin could have been heard (they even turned off all the big screens), a massive flag dropped over the Green Monster and a beautiful version of the national anthem was sung.

 A 94 year old World War 2 veteren who was a POW at one point during the war threw out the first pitch. I hope I can throw a ball as well as he did when I am 94!

Then it was time to play ball! Lester had a bit of a slow start, he struck out the first batter, and then let two runs in. But, anything can happen in baseball!

 The Sox came up to the plate and showed the White Sox whose boss, they scored one run in the bottom of the first, and then scored two in the bottom of the third. The crowd went nuts when Jacoby Ellsbury smashed in a two run RBI. Well, the crowd went wild every time a ball went flying out towards the bleacher section, Boston fans are super cool like that.

Of course there were the usual sites and sounds at the ball park. Take note of the "Foul Balls And Bats Hurt" sign, it is important later. I saw a very original way to store your camera during the game, in a cup holder, and we saw a man propose to his girlfriend! She said yes, and once again the crowd went wild!

By the time night fell, so were the Sox. In the top of the 6th the White Sox scored 4 runs and after two pitching changes the Sox held them at bay, but sadly weren't able to tie it up or score the go ahead runs. 

 There was some excitement though in the 7th inning. I went to get Emily and myself some ice cream since no game is complete without ice cream in a souvenir red sox cap. I came back to our awesome seats* (which we didn't pay for, but look at that view!) and Emily looks at me and goes, "you would have died." I thought I may have missed a play or something.
*we paid 20 dollars for standing room "seats" and were sitting in seats that cost 99 dollars each!

Nope. This ball. Being held by the nice guy sitting behind me, came flying (the pitch was 93 mph) to my seat. It smashed into the top of the chair, where minutes before my body had been. Folks, ice cream SAVES LIVES! We all examined the ball and I counted my blessings. That smudge on the ball is from the bat, talk about force.

In the end the Sox lost, but the game was super fun. We saw some great plays, tons of broken bats (no corking in Fenway) and all sang along to Sweet Caroline! It was a great way to spend Memorial Day and I am super impressed that the Sox organization made a point to honor our fallen soldiers, veterans, and active duty soldier! 

Happy unofficial start to summer!

Put your best foot face forward

I took close to 800 pictures this month. And most of them were of Noam. I mean, can there be a cuter little guy to take pictures of? They are all amazing, even the blurry ones, and each of them show his awesome personality. But, there is something about this picture.  Those eyes, so piercing, so blue.  Can you possibly say no to this cutie? Guess it's a good thing I am his aunt, we're not supposed to say no! 

 Love you something crazy Mr. Noam!

Note to self.

Note to self 2: edit your grammar before posting facebook statuses...

Could it be?

Could it be? Is the prolonged winter/dreary/damp/chilly/snowy/etc season finally coming to an end in Boston? 

Yesterday I finally traded in my jeans for my bermuda shorts, I finally didn't need a jacket, just a light sweater, I wore flip flops without my toes being cold, and the sun was out! I am beginning to think that spring-like weather and summer are actually going to make an appearance in New England. 

This morning I woke up to the birds chirping outside , the sun streaming in through my curtains, and the crisp cool air blowing in through my windows. Today it feels like the days of sweaters and socks, hot tea and gathering around the fireplace for warmth are over. 

Today, a new kind of warmth is making its way to Boston.  The cozy warmth of the fireplace is being replaced with the warmth of the sun.  Days spent inside left behind for days out in the sun. I thought it would never happen, but I think it's here.  I am so ready for this weather, now it better stay around.

Blown Away by Chihuly

The Museum of Fine Arts has the most amazing exhibit right now.  It's Chihuly and the amazing blown glass sculptures he has created over the years. He has designed glass works for the Venetian and the creations were just awe inspiring.  For the entire 20 minutes we were in the exhibit (and we went through twice!) my breath was just taken away. I felt like I had walked into Wonderland or Willy Wonka's chocolate factory! There really are no words to describe the beauty that was there and the picture speak for themselves!

 I felt like I was in Willy Wonka's chocolate room while walking around this display!

Yellow

Yellow is not one of my favorite colors, I am more of a blue and purple kind of girl.  But, yesterday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts and saw the AMAZING Chihuly exhibit.  I have never seen such magnificent and awe inspiring blown glass.  And there was tons of yellow glass to ogle over!

 This was in an awesome room where the ceiling was covered in amazing blown glass pieces and the lights shown through it leaving amazing colored reflections all over the walls.  Everyone was speechless at the amazing beauty in the exhibit and this little girl was quite sullen despite the beauty around her. Maybe one day she'll appreciate the amazing art that was there!

PS - come back tomorrow to see the rest of the AMAZING pictures from the exhibit! They'll blow you away!

A boy and his dog.

Mead Releases New Grad-School-Rules Notebook

This was a page in my Onion day calendar a few months ago.  Now that I have been a grad-student for two full semesters I realize this is so true! There is never enough room on my paper.  Looking back on some of my notes now that the semester is over I realize that in some places I wrote two lines of text in one line on my page.  The onion may have some ridiculous headlines, but this one is actually a somewhat realistic and good idea! 

 Richmond, VA -- After decades of only offering rules notebook paper suitable for college-level education and below, school supply giant Mead introduced its new grad-school-ruled notebook Monday, which features lines twice as narrow as college-ruled paper.

"We here at Mead understand that as students get older and wiser, they need notebooks with increasingly narrow lines," Mead CEO John A. Luke told reporters.  "In college, people are at a stage in their education where they require 9/32nds of an inch between each line, which is why we are making college-ruled notebooks.  But I think we can all agree that grad school is a completely different world than college - a world where 9/32nds of an inch is simply too much room."

"How can we expect graduate students to learn to gather information and construct knowledge independently within their specialized field of study using college-ruled notebooks?" he added. "These students need a narrower-lined notebook, and at long last, they have it."

According to Mead's website, the ruling in the grad-school-ruled notebooks will be placed 3.55 millimeters apart, making them "infinitely more practical" for postgraduate work than the 7.1 millimeter college-ruled notebooks. In addition, the standard 1.5-inch top margin normally provided for dates and headers will be halved, and the left-hand margin will be eliminated entirely.

Gone are the days of graduate students having to tediously pencil in new lines between each existing college-ruled line just to make the notebooks usable," the press release read in part. "And with the time you'll save by not having to flip a page every 33 lines, you could earn your Ph.D. a year early."

"When you're in grad school, every millimeter counts," he added. 

-- From my Onion desk calendar - and to darn funny not to remember forever.

Pizza! No, Zayda!

When I was in my toddlerhood I was extremely active.  Not in a malicious way, but in an intrigued and fascinated with my world way.  As a result of my very active ways, mom had a tough time preparing supper some nights since it usually came down to keeping me from climbing onto the roof or putting dinner on the table.  So apparently, we ended up ordering in take-out a bunch.

One night, when I was two the door bell rang.  I ran to the door, threw it open, and shouted: "PIZZA!"

Standing at the door was my grandfather.  He exclaimed: "No! ZAYDA!"

Apparently, I wasn't too pleased to see my Zayda and not the pizza delivery man and said, quite emphatically: "PIZZA!"

We went back and forth like this for a bit and then, being the feisty pizza loving two year old that I was, I threw myself onto the floor in a pizza craving rage.

Of course, mom had to explain to Zayda that we had been ordering pizza a bunch lately, which was why I was throwing open the door and insisting there be a pizza waiting for me.  Although at that point, he may have gotten the point. Needless to say, we didn't order in pizza for a really long time...

I made pizza for dinner last night using Udi's amazing gf pizza crusts (!), and I thought of this story.  Avi and I were recalling it while we were at the coast a few weeks back when we had ordered in some gluten free pizza one night.  I have always gotten a chuckle out of this story.

I loved Zayda so much, but that one night, I really loved my pizza a bit more.  Now, I still love my pizza, and I really appreciate being able to make it with a nice gluten-free crust, but each time I make a pizza and sit down to eat it I really wish I could have opened my front door to see my Zayda standing there, with a pizza.

Family.

Little Somethings has me thinking all about family today.  For years I only defined family by those I had blood ties with.  I cherished the dear family friends I had, but never thought they could be part of my family. Than when I took an anthropology class in college I learned that family means so much more than a blood and DNA relation. 

Now, I personally feel that anyone who cares about me and has played a major apart in my life over the years is a member of my family.  I am honored to feel like I have a large extended family of people who care about me and love me for who I am! 

And now I am also honored to watch one of my closest family members, my sister, begin to start a new family.  Technically, Avi and Ben have been a "family" since they got married nearly six years ago, but now they have Noam and they are beginning the next chapter in their family life. 

This picture just shows me how much love is in this little family.  And I love being able to call these three awesome people my family!

Are you smarter than a 6th grader?

Am I smarter than a 6th grader? I'd seriously like to think so. 

This weekend I took my 4th out of 5 MTELs.  I took the General Curriculum - General Subject test.  It's basically information ranging from science, literature, geography, history, the arts, and such and such.  I'd heard it was one of the harder MTELs and really studied like crazy (on top of a hectic and busy semester). 

I'd heard there weren't many official MTEL study guides for this exam and that using a series of books called "What Your _____ Grader Needs to Know" was a really useful way to study. And study I did. 

While studying for and taking the MTELs is a bit annoying, dare I say that I enjoyed reading these books?  And the crazy thing is, I actually was learning about things that I totally did not learn when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I now actually know what the Progressive Era and New Deal were about and why deserts have little to no rain fall.  I always thought I was a fountain of random information, but now I am a serious fountain of information! Of course, I'd love to know why I didn't actually learn this information in 5th and 6th grade, but I guess better late than never.

In true Tamar fashion, I was pretty anxious.  The test was actually pretty challenging.  55 multiple choice questions and a 300 word essay.  Two and half hours later I felt my brain hurting.  Some questions I knew the answers the second I read the question and plenty of others I felt my eyes bulge out of my head.  I really think I did well on the essay, which hopefully makes up the multiple choice questions I was unsure of.

I don't think I bombed it, but it's all about the magic qualifying score.  Now I wait six weeks to find out if the MTEL thinks I am smarter than a 6th grader.  Regardless of what my score report says, I know I am smarter than a sixth grader and that I tried my hardest - and Jeff Foxworthy I'd like to lock in that answer!

Then Sunday night I went out for drinks with some friends from Wheelock.  The pub we went to happened to have pub trivia that night, so of course we had to play along.  What was our team name? I Am Smarter than a 5th grader.  We did pretty well. And by that I mean we came in second to last place out of 5 teams.  We nailed some really random questions though! Like: This Italian made form of transportation is named for the sound it makes and roughly translates to wasp.  Vespa!! We were super stoked we got that one.  So we may not have won, but we are definitely smarter than a 5th grader!

I Heart Flowers

I Heart Faces is all about flowers this week! Totally up my ally, too, I have loads of pictures of flowers on my computer and love finding new and different flowers to take pictures of.  

 There is a stunning botanical garden in NY where were love to go and tend to visit gardens when on vacation as well.

 The colors are just stunning and really make you appreciate the pure and simple parts of nature.

Reasons...

....why the English language is hard to learn:


the bangage was wound around the wound...


the farm was used to produce produce...


the dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse...


he could lead if he would get the lead out...


the soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert...


since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present...


I did not object the object...


the insurance was invalid for the invalid...


to help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow...


there was a row among the oarsmen about how to row...


Confused yet? I learned these in my reading class this semester.  I can go into a whole shpiel about context, semantics, and sytax, but I'll just say that being able to read and decode is something I do not take for granted!

Has it really?

Now that all my grades have come in, I am officially finished with my second semester at Wheelock and the fact that I graduated college one year ago is suddenly really sinking in.  Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday and other times it feels like my undergraduate days at American were eons ago.  

 The last year has been filled with so many wonderful events.  I packed up and left DC after 4 fabulous years there for college, I packed up and moved to Boston for graduate school, I have successfully completed two challenging (but enjoyable) semesters of graduate school, and I have passed 3 of the 5 required state license exams.

 I still have such strong memories of my graduation weekend.  The excitement I felt about moving onto the next chapter in my life, the chill that went down my spine when my name was called by Dr. Riley, the roar from the College of Arts and Sciences' graduates as we moved our tassels from right to left (or was it left to right?). I think the size of my smile that day was as big as it has ever been.

 And now, I am nearly halfway through my time at Wheelock.  It's amazing, I am so proud of everything I have done, academically.  I've worked super hard over the past two semesters and I am loving everything that I am learning and everyone I am meeting.

Graduate school may have delayed my entry into the "real world"- but I definitely feel like in the past year, since I walked across the stage, I have entered a wonderful new chapter in my life.  I am loving my life in Boston, loving the choice to come to Wheelock, and loving looking forward to what the future holds.  What a wonderful year!

Weekend on the Coast

We spent a really nice and relaxing weekend on the Oregon Coast.  Avi and Ben have friend's who have a cabin in Manzanita so we all camped out there. No internet, spotty 3G service, and no TV.  We played Scattergories, roasted marshmellows and made s'mores, and overall just vegged out. 

Noam also got to experience the sand and ocean for the first time! We all headed down to the beach one afternoon and had some fun.  Being raised next to the Atlantic Ocean it's great to get some time in at the Pacific ocean too!

 Noam loved the sand, he even had a mid-afternoon snack of sand.  We buried him in the sand and he was covered in the stuff in no time flat.

Avi and Ben were having a blast with Noam.  Ben dug a hole and had Noam buried up to his waist and it reminded me of playing on the beach with my dad as a kid, just wait until Noam thinks knocking over sandcastles is the best thing ever! 

 It was really ideal weather, too.  The forecast had been for rain, and after some spotty showers in the morning it was sunny and mild the rest of the day! Manzanita is a gorgeous beach and it was so nice to be next to the ocean and hear it's roar. Even Noam's BOB got to dip its wheels in the Pacific.

 Of course, the trip to the coast wasn't complete until Noam put his toes in the ocean! Avi and Ben found a pretty creative way to carry the little guy to the water.  He wasn't too sure at first, but then again the water was around 50 or so degrees!

 Avi took these of me as I ran/skipped into the water.  I really do like being near the water and it was so amazing to think that over that ocean is Japan and China, I'm used to looking out over the Atlantic and "seeing" England and Europe!

It was a fun, sandy, relaxing weekend!