Hurricane Harvey

I've been watching news coverage of Hurricane Harvey off and on over the last few days. What's happening in Texas reminds me of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Super Storm Sandy in 2012. 

 

A friend of mine from college is currently in that part of Texas, volunteering with the Red Cross. She was supposed to fly to Chicago yesterday for a doctor's appointment (and to visit her brother, who lives there), but her flight was cancelled on Saturday. She was in Texas for something completely unrelated to Harvey, but her plans obviously changed once the storm hit. She was OK as of last night. I hope that she remains OK going forward.

I want to "do something". I think that the only thing that I can do at this point is maybe donate money to one of the groups in Texas who are helping people down there - the Red Cross, local homeless shelters and food pantries, etc. 

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In other news, I visited the Peabody Essex Museum last week. They have this really cool exhibit there right now called "It's Alive!: Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection". This exhibit will be at the PEM through November 26, 2017. Adrian took three days off from work next month for his birthday, so I think that we might go up to Salem one day during that time so that he can see the exhibit for himself. 

I saw a movie at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge recently called "Dave Made a Maze". I enjoyed it quite a bit - more than I thought I would, to be honest. I thought that it was both really weird and really creative.

Maine and Eclipses

Adrian and I spent part of the week of our anniversary in Portland, Maine. We stayed at the Chadwick Bed and Breakfast, which we've stayed at before. 

Here are photos of two of the breakfasts that we enjoyed during our stay. The top picture is a photo of chocolate chip pancakes with a side of bacon and fruit. The bottom picture is a photo of  a croissant stuffed with eggs, avocado, and ham, with a side of fruit. Both were very tasty!

We spent one day in Ogunquit, Maine, where we saw a production of "Ragtime" at the Ogunquit Playhouse. This was our first time seeing "Ragtime", and we enjoyed it. I think that this show is still very relevant today. 

We also visited a restaurant in Portland called Duckfat. They are known for their milkshakes and their Belgian fries, so that's what we ordered when we went there.

Fries! Delicious, delicious Fries!

Me, enjoying my vanilla milkshake. 

View of the water.

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Today was the day of the Eclipse. I went to the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) Clubhouse in Somerville to watch NASA's live stream of the eclipse. I thought that it was pretty cool how they showed the eclipse from various locations in the U.S., like Oregon, Idaho, Missouri, Kentucky, and South Carolina. While I was watching the NASA live feed, I was thinking about my friend K., who lives in Portland, Oregon, and who works at a hotel in that area. Based on her Facebook posts from the last week or so, it sounds like A LOT of people are in Oregon right now, for the eclipse. 

I confess that I am thinking about planning a vacation around the April 2024 eclipse. It's less than seven years away (roughly six years, eight months in the future). Maybe we could travel to one of the spots in New England or New York state that is in the line of totality. We'll have to wait and see.

Pre-Anniversary Post

Tomorrow (August 9th) marks three years since Adrian and I got married. It doesn't feel like it's been three years. If you want to be technical, then we've been together for more like eight and a half years. I met him in the fall of 2008, but we didn't officially start dating until January 2009. 

During our time together (both dating and married), a lot has happened. 

We went from living in separate apartments (Adrian in Cambridge, me in Boston's Allston neighborhood), to living together (with roommates) in Cambridge, to eventually buying a condo and moving out to the suburbs. 

I graduated with my Master's degree. My maternal grandmother died. Adrian got his Bachelor's degree. My two oldest cousins both graduated from high school and college. My oldest cousin graduated from graduate school, and got her first "real" post-college job in her feel. My younger cousin is moving to Alaska for a job. Our friend Carl died from health complications relating to his heart.

I had my wisdom teeth removed in February 2015. I had outpatient surgery to repair the labrum in my right shoulder in December 2009.

I visited Los Vegas and California for the first time in 2010 to meet Adrian's family. We also went camping on the Boston Harbor Islands last year, a first for me. 

Here's to the last three years, and here's to the next three, and the three after that, and the three after that, and on and on and on.