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Jan. 24th, 2005
Providence's Great Blizzard
Jan. 24th, 2005 11:37 amI was a young child during the Great Blizzard of 1978, and I can't say I really remember any of it. My friend Keith can't remember a thing of it, either, although I vaguely remember some sort of story about him having to go to the hospital for something-or-other (he was a newborn) during the blizzard and the only vehicle that could get through was a firetruck. Awoooooga!
Anyway, on those cold or stormy days when we'd worn out all of our traditional means of entertainment, namely pretending we were Ghostbusters or zombie hunters, or terrorizing his grandmother, we'd whip out the board games. Keith's grandmother had a couple of the old standbys - Monopoly and such - and we would tire of them rather easily. And then we would pull out the bizarre box emblazoned with the 70s lettering, "Providence's Great Blizzard!" Yes, some local yahoo had made some money making a board game of the Blizzard of '78. This is where we got most of our information about blizzards.
The game was actually pretty freaking boring, with two sides to the game board - the "sunny side" was the first (pre-storm), and then eventually you had to flip over to the actual storm side. We rolled our dice and walked our pieces around until that fateful moment when we, too, got to relive Providence's Great Blizzard! (Thankfully this was not at all like a Jumanji board, and no snow ever crept inside our windows.)
Would you believe that, like the storm, I can't remember anything else about this game but how boring it was? I don't think we ever finished an entire run before moving back to zombies and ectoplasmic residue.
I wonder if someone will make a game about the Blizzard of '05. It doesn't have that snappy ring to it that "Blizzard of '78" does, but who knows? It could happen. I wonder what Keith is up to now.
Anyway, on those cold or stormy days when we'd worn out all of our traditional means of entertainment, namely pretending we were Ghostbusters or zombie hunters, or terrorizing his grandmother, we'd whip out the board games. Keith's grandmother had a couple of the old standbys - Monopoly and such - and we would tire of them rather easily. And then we would pull out the bizarre box emblazoned with the 70s lettering, "Providence's Great Blizzard!" Yes, some local yahoo had made some money making a board game of the Blizzard of '78. This is where we got most of our information about blizzards.
The game was actually pretty freaking boring, with two sides to the game board - the "sunny side" was the first (pre-storm), and then eventually you had to flip over to the actual storm side. We rolled our dice and walked our pieces around until that fateful moment when we, too, got to relive Providence's Great Blizzard! (Thankfully this was not at all like a Jumanji board, and no snow ever crept inside our windows.)
Would you believe that, like the storm, I can't remember anything else about this game but how boring it was? I don't think we ever finished an entire run before moving back to zombies and ectoplasmic residue.
I wonder if someone will make a game about the Blizzard of '05. It doesn't have that snappy ring to it that "Blizzard of '78" does, but who knows? It could happen. I wonder what Keith is up to now.
Ms. Grass Is Greener
Jan. 24th, 2005 10:08 pmI received a Christmas card from my old boss at UMaine (this is actually the first year I didn't send him one, and I felt so bad when I received his card) and decided I would write him a little note to thank him for the card and let him know I moved. I really love and adore my old boss, Bill. Truly, he was one of the best things that came out of my stint in Maine. We had such a great relationship and clicked instantly the moment I came in to interview. He grew up in Rhode Island too, and we shared lots of good times and stories. He also had one of the most over the top and ridiculous senses of humor I've ever encountered. I love it!
(For example, he loved to give stupid answers to things in public places. One time we were all at some sort of training or conference and there was this ice breaker exercise where the facilitator said to take out your wallet and pull out the thing that had the most meaning to you. Then everyone had to take turns sharing with the group. He stood up and told everyone with a very straight face that he had chosen his Sam's Club membership card, because in these solitary, isolated times he always feels so special and secure to belong to an elite group like Sam's Club. He was just one of those people that liked to have the people around them think, "Is he serious? Is he insane?" Love it.)
That got me to thinking how extremely cushy that UMaine job was, aside from the terrible pay. (I think I was making $20K with a Master's degree, which was enough for central Maine but so, so low.) After all, Bill tended to encourage lots of time off, closing the Institute for at least a week between Christmas and New Year's (paid! without taking vacation!), and was always pushing me to go home early if things were done. Not to mention all of the free time I had doing my own research (I'm so psyched to see they still have GLBT youth in Maine schools, my personal research area, in their list of projects!), minding my own business, and tooling around the internet.
It got me to thinking how much I miss having a job where you just go to your job, do your job, and then go home. I really miss working in an office somewhere and having stuff come to me. It is so frustrating to travel around and do home visits for work because you're at the mercy of the weather, the traffic, and all of those other factors, and you waste so much of your day just driving around. Sure it's nice to have a little flextime but I'm not sure it's much of a trade-off.
In my little note to Bill, I mentioned that Jennifer and I have moved back to Boston but we're not likely to stay forever since we want to buy a house and it's just not happening here. Ever. I teased that he should just let me know when there's an opening for me at the Institute and I will be right there. And then I started thinking, "What if he actually made a professional position for me? Would I seriously consider moving back to Maine?" So then I went to realtor.com (my little fantasy world) and saw all of the extremely cute houses one can buy in the UMaine area for affordable prices. And then I started thinking, "Why am I even looking at this stuff when I was so miserable there?"
Sometimes I'm a total nutcase. Seriously. I don't know what's up with me. You can just call me Ms. Grass Is Greener. Who desperately needs a freaking haircut.
(For example, he loved to give stupid answers to things in public places. One time we were all at some sort of training or conference and there was this ice breaker exercise where the facilitator said to take out your wallet and pull out the thing that had the most meaning to you. Then everyone had to take turns sharing with the group. He stood up and told everyone with a very straight face that he had chosen his Sam's Club membership card, because in these solitary, isolated times he always feels so special and secure to belong to an elite group like Sam's Club. He was just one of those people that liked to have the people around them think, "Is he serious? Is he insane?" Love it.)
That got me to thinking how extremely cushy that UMaine job was, aside from the terrible pay. (I think I was making $20K with a Master's degree, which was enough for central Maine but so, so low.) After all, Bill tended to encourage lots of time off, closing the Institute for at least a week between Christmas and New Year's (paid! without taking vacation!), and was always pushing me to go home early if things were done. Not to mention all of the free time I had doing my own research (I'm so psyched to see they still have GLBT youth in Maine schools, my personal research area, in their list of projects!), minding my own business, and tooling around the internet.
It got me to thinking how much I miss having a job where you just go to your job, do your job, and then go home. I really miss working in an office somewhere and having stuff come to me. It is so frustrating to travel around and do home visits for work because you're at the mercy of the weather, the traffic, and all of those other factors, and you waste so much of your day just driving around. Sure it's nice to have a little flextime but I'm not sure it's much of a trade-off.
In my little note to Bill, I mentioned that Jennifer and I have moved back to Boston but we're not likely to stay forever since we want to buy a house and it's just not happening here. Ever. I teased that he should just let me know when there's an opening for me at the Institute and I will be right there. And then I started thinking, "What if he actually made a professional position for me? Would I seriously consider moving back to Maine?" So then I went to realtor.com (my little fantasy world) and saw all of the extremely cute houses one can buy in the UMaine area for affordable prices. And then I started thinking, "Why am I even looking at this stuff when I was so miserable there?"
Sometimes I'm a total nutcase. Seriously. I don't know what's up with me. You can just call me Ms. Grass Is Greener. Who desperately needs a freaking haircut.