This man is an idiot. He likens the lockdown in Boston to a "military style occupation."

For those of you who weren't locked down, which includes this idiot, we were not forced to stay indoors. If you follow my Facebook page, you no doubt saw my pictures taken from outside my front door.

The lockdown was more of a request that everyone stay inside.

We weren't being forced at gunpoint to get back into our houses. When anyone did encounter law enforcement, they were simply asked to go back inside. Neither did we have any of our other rights taken away, i.e. we weren't told we couldn't vote, or what religion we were supposed to be.

I think what makes me angriest of all, is that he says "we have been conditioned to believe that the job of the government is to keep us safe, but in reality the job of the government is to protect our liberties."

There are so many things wrong with this statement, but suffice to say if you want to make this argument, then you are not allowed to claim that the 2nd Amendment and the right to own a gun is so that individual citizens defend their liberties. I am sorry, sir, but you cannot. It is a poorly reasoned argument.

Springtime in a Bottle

Ugh, Day whatever and that cigarette smell is still here. I think I should order some Febreze for the office.

Hey, I'm gonna chanel Mindy Kaling and do Things I Love!

Febreze!

This stuff is awesome. It needs to be on your dresser or in your purse as if it were a moisturizing lip balm that you can't live without. It solves almost all laundry problems (by which I mean, you didn't do your laundry and want to re-wear something that you're pretty sure is questionable). It deodorizes rooms (great for getting rid of early morning smell). And it can have you smelling fresh and clean as a daisy for work (after an all-night bender of partying, leaving you little time to actually change your clothes for work).

Nota bene: it does not freshen breath.

I was first introduced to Febreze when I lived in Japan. I gave private English lessons to a woman who worked at a public relations firm in Tokyo. Febreze was one of their clients. She and her coworkers had been given samples to test. She tested hers by staying out all night (as is the norm in Tokyo) and then febrezing herself at the end, in time to go to work. I kid you not - smelled as fresh and clean as a daisy.

Nota bene: daisies do not actually have a scent.

As part of an English lesson, I encouraged her to describe and "sell" the product to me. She did such a good job that one could say that it is a testament to my teaching abilities, or one could say that she is very good at her job. idk, one or the other.

Nota bene: I didn't make a lot of money as a teacher.

In any case, that's when I started using Febreze. I have used it after all night carousing in Tokyo. I have used it on a former roommate's towels, which she NEVER washed. I've used it in cars, shoes, bathrooms, clothes hampers, curtains, and couches. Once I even used it on my hair.

I don't know where it gets its magical powers, but they should bottle and se ... oh wait.

Today I am working in the store all alone again. It's not such a big deal really. It saves me money in my budget, and I get endless hours of web surfing. The only thing is that trying to do office work from the store is a lil' difficult. It's very distracting here. 

Also that cigarette smell is back! Argh.

It might have been the reason that we had a fire alarm go off in the building. And for the first time in a long time, we actually evacuated the building. The alarm goes off all the time, and we almost never evacuate. Everyone waits a few minutes for the announcement that it was a false alarm. But no one waited this time. Not after last week. 

What a fun evening I had last night. I went out to dinner with a very good friend of mine.

We went to a great restaurant here in Boston, Toro. It's a tapas restaurant by Ken Oringer - my inner food snob rejoices. Excellent food. I highly recommend the grilled corn with aioli. Yum. And the Paella Valenciana was very good, if a little too al dente. But this is from someone who never liked Paella. Also, it's a wonderful place to try Iberico ham - if you don't mind paying a LOT of money for ham. I would pay anything for it. 

The best thing about going out to good restaurants with this friend is that he's a chef. So I always know it's going to be good food. Of course, he's pretty even-keeled in his opinions of other restaurants. So I've never heard a blatant criticism. However when the bill comes to $122.24 for two people, you expect good. or really good criticism.

Tonight I have a date. I met him online. After a brief email exchange (which I prefer) he asked me appropriately out for a drink. So we'll see how it goes. I am hoping that this will be normal date. Of course, I'd like sparks, but if that is not in the cards, it would be reassuring to know that there are at least normal dates to be had. 

Smoke Signals

I'm working in the store today, and it's very warm. Two of the walls are glass and they magnify the sunlight. It's soooooooo warm.
Also, it smells like cigarette smoke in here. This is very frustrating because it's not coming from inside or just outside the store. It's actually coming from the air vents. Which means that some idiot has decided to take his/her smoke break right by the air intake. I really want to go out there with a sign and a blunt instrument.
Do I sound nasty? Sorry.
I was having a good day up until the cigarette smoke. This is the 2nd time this week.

My only consolation is that cigarette smoke is BAD for that person.

Boston - You're my home.

So, I haven't been on this blog in over a year. I had just about given up blogging. Why come back? Because Friday, April 19, 2013, I was on lockdown in Watertown, Massachusetts, less than half a mile from where they arrested the 2nd suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. And for some reason, I feel the need to blog about that.

I think most people have this idea that I was in my apartment all day, quivering in fear and trying to avoid the windows and glass. Not true. At about 12 noon, we started drinking. I had already cleaned the living room and bathroom. Then I swept the kitchen floor. I wasn't going to do an all-out kitchen clean because I just didn't have it in me after the bathroom. Then I baked a chocolate cake. That's what we had for dinner.

I had a couple of friends ask me if I wanted to speak to the news stations in their home towns (Richmond and Raleigh). I felt uncomfortable with that idea, not because I had any kind of personal protest, but because I just didn't know what was going on, so I didn't know what I could say.

News Anchor: "Can you describe the situation where you are?"
Me: "Yeah, well, the bathroom has mildew in all the little grout lines, so I spent about 20 minutes working on that."

It probably didn't help that I'd had a couple of drinks too. Ultimately, my propensity for joking during times of crises is probably not what the news stations were looking for.

I get it, of course, from my mother, who upon being alerted that my roommates and I were in lockdown in our town, said we should just have a party and drink.

We drank, but it was not a party. We kept the mood light, but that was only because the tv blared nothing but news all day. Incorrect news. Wild accusation news. I felt like running out to the Fox TV camera crew right outside of our house and begging them, "Please get just one thing right!!!"

We also listened to the police scanner all day. That felt like the most accurate thing that we could listen to. It kept cutting off, and at one point, the police went on radio silence. Probably because everyone in the United States was tweeting everything that they heard on the police scanners. But you have to ask yourself, if the police don't want everyone to know what's happening, why are there apps?

Mad bomber on the loose in your town? There's an app for that.

That's not to say that they weren't some scary moments. At 1am that morning, my roommate woke me up to tell me that something was going on. We saw the emergency vehicles flying by on our street. EVERYONE. Not just Watertown, there was Boston PD, fire vehicles, ambulances, FBI, ATF. (Later that day, we saw more of the surrounding town PDs and even a SWAT team from New Hampshire!) My roommate and I listened for 3 hours to the news and police scanner trying to determine what was happening. I had my Google maps open on my tablet to try and track exactly where they were. Comically, the traffic app told us exactly where the road blocks were and hence outlined the cordoned-off search area. At about 4am, we heard the police scanner announce that they were falling back to an HQ set up in the mall parking lot, and they would resume their search at daylight. At this point, it still seemed pretty exciting.

I went to bed then, thinking this will all be over when I wake up. But at about 7am, I heard my roommates in the living room. I was surprised to find them dressed. Through the front windows, they were watching the police search across the street. Only the exterior, yards, bushes, parking lots, etc. But then they saw them storm the Starbucks. (For coffee?) In that moment, I had to make a decision that I didn't like contemplating. Wait and see? or be ready to be searched? Hope for the best, prep for the worst. I got dressed, I brushed my teeth, I got ready to go outside.

I think what made that decision so heavy was the realization then that they still hadn't found him. At that hour of the morning, having seen so many law enforcement arrive, I was thinking, "why haven't they found him yet?" And the only answer that made sense then was, "Because he's escaped."

That was the most frightening thought of all.

Of course, when they did find him, it made perfect sense why not. They didn't find him because he'd actually found a really good hiding place and hadn't moved all day. The dogs couldn't trace him because they didn't have anything with his scent.

This doesn't explain why a regular guy who's been in lockdown all day because of a manhunt for a killer with a gun and bombs thinks the reasonable course of action when he sees a trail of blood and a ripped tarp on his boat is to just go check it out all by himself.

World's luckiest guy.

It does reveal that the guy, the 2nd suspect, the 19 year old Chechen, is just a scared, stupid kid. I hate what he did. And I feel so bad for him.

Meanwhile, Boston can surprise you. These are a loud and aggressive people, whose very idea of entitlement allowed them to say, "F*#$ you, King George!! We'll start our own freakin' country!" They are tenacious. They found him.

And they are grateful. They poured out in streams to cheer the law enforcement at the scene. Right at our intersection, there were hundreds of us, cheering for each and every one who passed us. For the whole weekend after, the pride continued. People thanked them on the street. People bought coffee for them randomly. There were thank-you signs everywhere.

The heart swells.

So I updated my Facebook page to say that I'm currently living in Watertown, MA. You know, now that everyone knows where it is.