Hello and welcome to my BLOG. I wanted to invite everyone who may want to read up on my adventures in Boston. So this is my first ever blog space and my second full blog. I thought by making a blog it would be easier for you to keep up with me, instead of me sending out numerous emails all the time. So all you have to do is check back at this page every so often and see if I have made any updates or postings. You can also request that I add you to the blog reminder email list. Soon another component will be added to the blog so that you can join on your own and get reminders automatically sent to you whenever I post something. So really it is up to you how much email you still want to get from me. LOL

Don't forget the highlighted and underlined words are links to webpages specific to that word.

I have been in Boston for a month now and I still feel like I am on an extended vacation. We are still in temporary corporate housing right now in downtown Boston next to Historic Landmarks and
busy shopping districts and of course thousands of tourists. At night the loud nightclubs and bars are teaming with people and when they let out, it can get rowdy down here, especially on the weekends. I have seen fights and brawls from my window and there is always an ambulance or two streaming down the street at 1am or later. We have Marie our real estate agent that we really like. She and I go out about twice a week looking at the new listings in our price range. Jay and I also get out on Sundays to all the open houses. Properties don’t stay on the market long around here especially with the weather warming up. Oh, and the weather? Well, that is another adjustment. It is dryer out here and in the evening when the sun goes down so does the temperature by about 10 degrees. We have now narrowed down the neighborhoods, but I tell you it was great to get out and learn all the areas in the beginning, but it is wearing on us. We figured out that we cannot live in 400 square feet together and that we at least need a separate bedroom. We are trying to stay as close to downtown as we can. An example of the prices here; If you take the space of my old salon and ad them together it would be about 500sf. At $300,000 in downtown Boston that is how much living area you get. So can you imagine our entire 2500sf house fitting in that? (insert raucous laughter here). So we compromise and live a bit away from Government Center (down town center) which the equivalent in St. Louis is from the Arch to Forest Park in distance. That distance is approximately 5 miles from downtown and we get 800sf for the same price.

I am constantly out and about going into salon after salon. I even worked in two salons, this way I get to see how we all got along and if I liked the places. I really like Àcôté I am getting closer to a decision on where to work, but I still need a bit more time to get to even more places. I want to make sure I make the right decision. I also found Pure Pure is a small neighborhood booth rental place and is in the South End which is similar feel as the Central West End. If I did decide to go with them, WHEW, it would be tough and I would have to get a part time job as well to support myself. Being independent is important to me. I have been to over 25 salons and only a dozen or so interest me. It is a tough market out here, very competitive on Newbury Street, which is wear all the big salons and of course all the upscale shopping is.

Overall I am enjoying the exploring and learning about Boston. The people are not bad either as some can make the east coast out to be cold and distant. Everyone goes about there business as usual and pretty much tolerates the diversity. There is so much more diversity and culture here. The accent is definitely noticeable. Although even native Bostonians often try to refrain from the thick accent themselves. They all have subtle ways of reminding us that we are not from here. I have a natural keen instinct for remembering streets and directions, so I am becoming somewhat familiar very quickly. Often times people who live here will actually know about the area in which they live or work so I feel I am getting a unique opportunity to learn downtown and other areas while searching for places to live. We love the North End for example, which we live just a few blocks away. The
North End is an all Italian area full of wonderful restaurants, bakeries, Gelato bars, Coffee shops and mom and pop groceries. It feels like you walk into another country when you go down there.

As you can imagine there is so much to do here, as with any city really. I can always find something to do. I have already joined to walk in the Boston AIDS Walk, and been to one Pride meeting. We have been to a play, a benefit for PFLAG in the Boston Ballet building, the movies, the Science Park as they call it. I have been to the Art Museum, Harvard University area, the U.S.S. Constitution, Dunkin Doughnuts, took a harbor ferry to Charles Town. Been in Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, walked by the site of the Boston Massacre, shopped Filenes Basement on numerous occasions, and walked and walked and walked. Of course the “T” (subway and trolley) is great, but it has its limits.

So next time I post I will have a new home (Condo) and a new job. Cross your fingers and wish me luck. Thank you and I miss you all.

Love
Shan

WHEW, the stress.. All the moving... All the boxes with no place for them to go. Finally after having all our stuff in storage somewhere in Boston since April we rejoin with our belongings. The 5 movers brought it up box by box by box. Funny how less important things become when they all can't fit into a 515 sq foot condo, which by the way is pretty much an apartment and that is even what the locals call it even if you bought it. The US post office even lists it as an apartment. We closed on the place on the 30th of July and immediately began work on painting and prepping it. It took us about two days total to paint the entire place which included the kitchen, the one small bedroom and bathroom. I decided the trim was livable and just scrubbed it down. The Kitchen really needed some serious cleaning before we tackled any fixing in there.
So Jay packed up our temporary 850 sf apartment downtown in an afternoon, since all we had there was some clothes and toiletries and rented the ever so popular Zipcar to transport it over to Park Drive. I think I have driven five different cars in the last two weeks with all the errands associated with moving. We had to rent a U-Haul so that the furniture and all other boxes that we DID want to keep could be transferred into it on moving day. The 5 guys started at 11am and they systematically read off the tag numbers and we began the process of checking off all the stuff. Some of the items went into the U-Haul and some upstairs. About 2pm we finished up and immediately took the U-Haul to our 5 X 15 storage unit about 2 miles away. We exhaustedly unloaded the 500lb antique barber chair, the BIG old salon mirror, our entire bedroom suite and 20 or so boxes and locked the door.
I believe that same evening we began to dig ourselves out of boxes. I just unpacked and unpacked. We didn’t officially sleep in the apartment till just this past Monday, Aug 6th, and for now we are sleeping on a mattress on the floor until our custom built Murphy bed will be completed sometime in September. They empty the Dumpster behind our building every Tuesday and Thursday, so we moved in on a Friday and by Sunday, had filled the dumpster with boxes, trash, packing paper, crap we didn’t want, sheets, junk, and thing we didn’t have time nor want to pay to rent a car to donate. However Michael from Pure did offer to help take a few loads to Boomerangs thrift store in Jamaica Plain. Boomerangs take its proceeds and gives it to the AIDS Action Committee. So we took an entire hall way full of more crap I wished I had the insight in St. Louis to get rid of.
With the storage unit being full and the apartment being all stung out and disorganized here we are finally in a permanent place. I tell you I miss the space downtown, but I don’t miss the tourists and the late night drunk crowds piling out of the numerous clubs. Fenway is a nice place; we went to the Fenway Young Professionals meeting yesterday and met a few locals. Fenway of course as I have said in past blogs is in the city and borders other neighborhoods such as the South End where I work (20 min walk to work for me) Back Bay, Brookline, Mission Hill, and Roxbury. The Metropolitan Fine Arts Museum is in our neighborhood so is the ball park of course and good number of popular late night clubs and great restaurants, Longwood medical, Beth Israel Hospital, Northeastern University, and many more I yet to know.
So with all that, I am a bit stressed..LOL, but things will improve, just a bit overwhelmed with the move again and having to sort through all of our stuff again and decide the fate of keep sakes and collectables; I know in the long run it will feel great to purge all the belongings. It is also the daily grind here, It is such a process to get to work and do other mundane things. The people are certainly more abrupt and often times rude. It is tough here. I feel a visit to St. Louis coming on. Missing home.