In the last week we've been so busy and with sporadic internet connectiveness (or a need to share a single plug) that doing anything more than simply checking e-mail and the usual news columns has been of a lower priority. Now that Keith and I have purchased a new wireless router (our first since moving to Massachusetts in August 2003), we decided to put it to good use at Mom's house so that Keith and I and everyone else for that matter can be on the internet all at once. The signal's not as good as our apartment, but not bad.

On the 25th we had a leisurely breakfast and lunch with Keith's folks and took our leave to head to my Nonni's in West Chester, Pennsylvania just as Keith's aunt and uncle were leaving with their kids to head back to Guildford, Connecticut. We drove 20 minutes before realizing we had forgotten our camera, headed back , and were then again on our way. In any regard, we arrived before any other family members--which always gives us a nice opportunity to speak with family before the crowd arrives. By crowd, we mean the total of 35 people that showed up at Nonni's house on Christmas Day. After all the hubbub, and a toast drank to my new grand uncle and his fiancee (he is 57 years old and never married and we were all pretty confident he would stay that way) Keith and I headed back to his parents to stay the night.

On the 26th, relatively early onwards, we headed to Bedford County for Phase Three of the holidays. We left our holiday booty in Lancaster, knowing that we planned to return on January 1st in the evening to spend the night. Mom believed that we didn't intend to travel to Bedford until the 27th which was fine, giving Keith and I an opportunity to be by ourselves and take a break from constantly being around family. Even so, we called up my dad's parents to see about coming by to visiting them and we saw them for the late afternoon and evening and had a grand time looking through old memorbilia and photographs. Later, we went out to dinner with them and my father.

On the 27th my mom, David, and Jimmy weren't arriving until late that day, so we visited Grandma and Pop-pop for lunch and more sorting through photographs and other such items. The best part of the day, perhaps the whole holiday, was my grandparents inviting my mom, her boyfriend, and Jimmy to have dinner with us at Ed's Steak House. It means a lot to me (and my brothers as well, I suspect) when my dad's side and mom's side can "bury the hatchet" at least for a little bit and make our lives a little easier.

I think the hardest thing about being in our situation (recently married with my recently divorced parents) is having to juggle holidays. I didn't spend holidays from Easter 2001-Easter 2006 with my father or father's family (didn't really speak much or at all with my Dad from 2001-2005) so with our engagement in 2003 we were balancing between Keith's family and my mom's family. Then with reconciliation and marriage in 2005, that meant balancing demands between Keith's family, mom's family, and dad's family. While it isn't always explicitly said, we suspect that no one is happy with their share of time. Keith represents "half" of us, but his family sees us 1/3 of the time. My family makes up 2/3 of the time, but never sees us for Thanksgiving, and only one gets us for Christmas Day. The part of my family who doesn't get us at Christmas gets us at Easter, but then everyone else wants to see us as we pass through on a very short Easter weekend, so that takes up time. In these scenarios each is met with the interrogation and moaning of "Where are you going?" "We never get to see you," "You live so far away!" and "Do you have to go now?" They probably think its loving or flattering, but for us both its incredibly frustrating and makes us have impulses to just stay home with our cats. In addition to this, so many times we end holidays completely exhausted from travel and regretting the lack of privacy or down time for ourselves to enjoy Thanksgivings and Christmases as a couple--our own family unit.

Someday we'd love to host a holiday, but, we know this is always going to be impossible--even if we had a big huge house in Boston. My family is huge. With 25 people (est.) on my dad's side, and the 35-40 people who have been showing up to Nonni's--that would be a huge deal for us both to take on that cost and time. The reality is that many wouldn't come, but then would be resentful that we were taking away the people who we both care about and share (like mutual parents, grandparents, etc). So many family members that we know others would find essential to the enjoyment of the holiday would not come, stating (correctly or falsely) that they *cannot* travel. So, we're doing the best we can do for now. When we have kids...something will have to give. We love Boston and we are not giving that up for what amounts for a few holidays a year. We will not consider a move back to Pennsylvania as we suspect that even Lancaster might be a huge letdown given the life and social and cultural opportunities we've found living in a large, historic urban area. Neither Philadelphia or Pittsburgh appeal to us personally, even though they are fine cities.

The 28th was a relatively *down* day, which was great, because we were exhausted from traveling and visiting and being constantly engaged the 23rd--27th. However, we started it off very early by Dad picking us up at 7 am for his Rotary breakfast and then meeting him for lunch at the Gateway that day. We had some company for dinner, but ultimately, I ate, read a little and went to bed. I was beat.

The 29th started late, but finally we all got off to Pittsburgh to see Steven and see some sights. We got there, did a gift exchange with Steve, and saw his townhouse. For dinner we ate at "The Olive Garden" and I overindulged with some manicotti. I indulged so much that I was unable to bowl (stomach pains). The combination of wine, lots of ricotta and mozarella, and tons of tomato sauce was not kind to Alyssa's stomach. After dinner we hunted and purchased one of the Christmas presents Keith and I decided to get--a new camera for us since the other one is so dodgy and fussy. Its a Kodak C875 and highly user intuitive with 8.1 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom. I played with the camera and experimented with its settings while everyone else bowled (again, I wasn't feeling so hot). We spent the night in a hotel.

The 30th was a morning breakfast at Denny's and then a visit to the Pittsburgh Zoo. More about the Pittsburgh Zoo later (we have photos). We ate at Applebees and then headed home sans Steven.

Today the 31st we arose early to go Wii hunting. Jimmy is becoming borderline desperate to find one--and its not easy in South Central Pennsylvania where the nearest mall is 45 min-1 hr away. Of course, none of the stores are particularly forthcoming with information regarding what they have/expect to have in stock before setting out. Now we are sitting here. Keith and I successfully managed to find Settlers of Catan and its expansion pack to perhaps play tonight and then take home to Boston. We frequently play it with Dan and Mandy when they bring their copy--but now we have our own + the expansion. We'll probably buy some more expansions in the near future.

This is going to be the most tame New Year's Eve in a long time. As a teenager, I always privately lamented that there were no activities, no things to do, and even when I came of legal drinking age all I would be able to do in Bedford was bar hop. Since being in Massachusetts Keith and I have dined out at nice restaurants and retired home (2003), attended a party at our neighbors (2004), and hosted our own party and visited Boston's First Night (2005). I don't exactly recommend First Night as it is meant for families (as in hosting comedy improv and story telling as late as 10 pm--storytelling at 10 pm!?) and not really for young professionals looking for a good time.

Tomorrow we have a late afternoon and evening with the Bittners so we can see family members we couldn't see at Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, a departure by 8 pm for Lancaster, and a drive back to Boston January 2nd. It will be back to work the 3rd--a very tired Alyssa (and Keith as well) will sit down to their desks with a ton of work to get done.

The annual drive-to-Pennsylvania family holiday madness extravaganza has begun! As I sit here, sated from my annual dosage of fish, mushroom pierogies, and chrusciki and makowiec, and watching Elf with my in-laws I thought it would be apt time to discuss recent events.

The past week seemed to go for an eternity. A literal eternity. Despite being chock full with retirement and holiday parties at work, I barely had time to go to any of them. While the anticipation of being free for an entire week (yes, those of us working in higher education do not work between Christmas and New Years) it adds to a sense of desperation to get things done before the New Year. Keith worked late because as he does not work at a college/university, he is NOT free from the 26th to 31st. Therefore, he has worked extra late in order to be away from his desk.

Operation "Let's flip this PS3" was not successful. To say the least, we paid for a schwanky listing on eBay only to have a bunch of cheapos not meet our totally reasonable reserve price, so we were out $40 and we returned the PS3 to Costco anyway. As we went to Target today to pick up some last minute supplies, we were surprised to see two (or more) PS3 units waiting for some shopper to just stroll in and buy. Something tells me that the Sony Corporation is not going to be happy when those 4Q sales figures come rolling in...

The holiday season had all the potential to be a vertible record of organization for me. There was no Christmas shopping the night before driving to Pennysylvania--I think this is the first Christmas ever since leaving college where I was not up until 3 am the night before wrapping gifts (and mind you, Keith and I don't even have kids yet). After Thanksgiving there was all the potential to do everything I never have time for (like cookie baking) but cookie baking did not happen. Why? Because I was friggin tired. I did manage to attend an awesome cookie decorating class at HBS hosted by the pastry chef--so that's not a huge loss. I got cookie decorating out of my system even if I had nothing to show to my family/friends.

But still, the whole exercise could have been a lot more leisurely. I really like what we did by starting to shop in October, I'm vowing to start even earlier next year. Sometimes it seems like being more prepared this year made the season go by even faster.

Keith and I are literally going to go everywhere in this state. Now we are in Central Pennsylvania (Amish Country) and tomorrow we're headed to West Chester, Pennsylvania (just outside Philadelphia). On Tuesday we're headed to good ol' Bedford (my homestead in Western Central Pennsylvania) and we're going to be in Pittsburgh (the Steel City) the 29th and 30th.

This is the second time I've started this post. Despite asking to save my previous draft, Blogger seems to think it would be better for me to start all over again.

The month has been a blur. It is but a week from Christmas, unbelievably. Since the last post was December 5th, I'll have to think back and look at iCal to get a hint of what exactly I was doing when I was doing it. Let me check....

*a couple minutes later* Okie, now I'm back...

The week of December 4th was dominated by recruitment in the OB Unit. Since Jeff (one of the faculty members I assist) is the head of the commitee, it falls upon me to assist him in the various administrative duties that come with selecting a candidate to join HBS. That week, it meant getting boxes of materials to each faculty member within the department, which is in all about 260 files (13 candidates in total x 20 faculty members). Thick files, usually with several scholarly papers each. Even after the boxes were distributed, I still had a addendum to add and a lot of organization was needed. So a temp was called in December 6th to help me manage. I spent the 7th and 8th in a semi-fog, exhausted, but able to putter through to the weekend's start.

On December 9th Keith made our weekly pilgrimage to Costco, where after buying groceries we had our weekly hotdog. As we sat at the picnic tables provided for this use, I noticed two Costco workers bringing out a palette of Playstation 3s. Yes, you read me right. Playstation 3s. After a quick vehement exchange, I got Keith to buy one of the bundles (retail value $735) to see if we could attempt to flip it. A week later, no such luck--all the contacts we've gotten have been crackpots trying to fraudulently dupe us (we're smarter than that) or people making ridiculous offers (including a used PS2 with games, a used washer and dryer, a dirt bike, some kind of a boat, etc, etc). We're probably going to return it. Who knew a simple local exchange in Boston with a cash trade would be such a big deal, considering there are so few machines in the US and the rest aren't going to ship until 2007?

The one trade we might have been willing to consider was a Wii + cash difference. A Wii retails for $250 and the bundle cost us $735--so a Wii and $485 would be great. Or even better, two Wiis (one for my brother who wants one for Christmas) and $235. Otherwise, we want a cash profit--this is our rent money we're placing in escrow so, we can't very well pay Rick in a used PS2 or a washer/dryer.

Anyhoo, also on the 9th we visited Corrie and Phin for a Christmas party and we mingled with people, some new, some old. Interestingly we talked with our friends new neighbors (the people who took our old apartment). Even though Corrie had told them our reasons for leaving (after the burglary) apparently, they had blocked that out and forgotten. Ooops. I guess I have to say that I'd rather know than NOT know.

The 10th was relatively quiet. I don't remember much of what we did that today, probably not much except answering inquiries about the PS3 from complete nitwits.

Then came Monday. I had a pretty typical day at work and then left early to see Al Gore speak. (See post from 12/15/2006.) Keith and I have always meant to see "An Inconvenient Truth" as we've heard its really good from a lot of people.

Then came Tuesday. Another pretty typical day at work, followed by a late night meeting with our insurance guy.

Then came Wednesday. Another day, another dollar. Both Keith and I were completely exhausted by the previous night's late night.

Thursday the 14th. A hectic day at work followed by a run to the veternarian by Keith (yearly kitty check-up) and cookie decorating class for me run by the pastry chef at HBS. The cookie event was fun, filled with wine, and a few people I knew were there. This was marred by commute home, where the bus driver didn't come to a complete stop as I stepped to get onto the bus, fell, and the cookies with it. They were still edible, but my beautiful cookies were now all in pieces...

Friday finally came and with it both Keith and I were exhausted. We had an early morning appointment followed by our day at work. What is currently routine at my job is to meet with the faculty support coordinator to discuss my work. Up until this point, there has been nothing but praise, but now....someone in faculty administration criticized my e-mail style (lauded by several of my faculty members as "extremely professional") as too terse and criticized my use of M.Ed. in my signature even though it is a earned title and one DIRECTLY related to my work as a college administrator, no different than what a CPA uses in accounting or a MLS uses in librarianship. The only reason I could get for this request (I haven't seen it as written policy) is that it might make other support staff jealous or uncomfortable. I stated that I believe that that's their issue--its certainly not like they don't have the opportunity to go across the river and earn one in their own time if they choose. If they don't choose, that's their choice too. I feel this kind of logic is incredibly unprofessional and undermines the caliber and competency of the staff that Harvard attracts.

I'm glad that family and friends are able to follow Keith's and mine comings and goings on this blog, but I am continually frustrated in not having a forum to talk about things that...are just...more private. I wouldn't really mind talking about the above issue with my academic credentials with family and friends, but then there are plenty of published stories of people being fired for what they do/say on their own private time. I feel like people are entitled to their opinions, and if they are not blogging on company time or divulging proprietary information, so be it. But, I guess we don't have that luxury in the US anymore.

Today's Saturday and I'm still furious. I'm not sure what steps I'll take, but this principal is of extreme importance to me as my identity is really wrapped into learning and education. I'm not sure how much, if at all, I'm willing to compromise on it. In the meantime, my morale has taken a severe blow and I'll be putting a lot of thought into it over the Intersession pause.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to see Al Gore, former Vice President (or as he likes to joke, the former next president), speak about business and the environment.

You can read about his talk here:

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.14/11-gore.html

Ultimately, I found his speech incredibly inspiring. He approaches topics not just from a straightforward scientific viewpoint, but also examines the philosophical attitudes of how we look at Earth. I agree with him that in all things, not just the environment, people think way too short term (or for the current folks running the show, their kids and grandkids can deal with it--verrrry admirable).

More later this weekend.

For those of you who we don't have a snail mail address, I am posting our annual Christmas missive onto our blog for posterity's sake. So here goes...2006 summed up in a nutshell.

"December 2006

With Warm Holiday Greetings to Our Family & Friends!

We write this note having made it through our first year of marriage and over six years as a couple. 2006 was certainly an eventful year, and we hope that for many of you who our contact with is infrequent are well and that you’ll let us know how you are doing!

For us, 2006 began rather quietly and predictably. After finishing classes in December 2005, Alyssa graduated on January 25 with her M.Ed. in Policy, Planning, and Administration from Boston University’s School of Education. Life was pretty much “business as usual”, with Alyssa keeping an eye out and applying for more appropriate (and hopefully better paying) professional opportunities given her experience level and newly attained masters degree. It goes without saying that given the stressful atmosphere working with so many over-anxious, hyper-involved parents that she was ready for a change.

Unfortunately, with the spring came a completely unpredictable event. Our home was burglarized on May 10 and gone with it was nearly all of Alyssa’s jewelry (including her wedding jewelry, class rings, and heirlooms passed down to her from her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother). This certainly dampened Alyssa’s graduation (she walked in Commencement ceremonies May 14) and made for a very anxious spring/early summer. This event was the catalyst for nearly all of the remaining highlights of the year.

For starters, after a tussle with our landlord, we were able to reasonably secure our residence, break our renewal of our lease, and then we had to find a new, more secure, apartment (no easy feat in late June/early July, when much of the apartment inventory has already been commandeered by students). This was even more difficult as Keith’s status as an employee was still on a consultant-basis (the result of much bureaucratic wrangling) and Alyssa was seeking a new job—so we didn’t know what would be the best combination of security, convenience, and cost. We snatched up the first place that seemed to fit the bill, still in the Allston area, as it was an area we were familiar with and the best combination of safety and price for staying within the city since we enjoy an urban lifestyle.

At the same time, Alyssa, frustrated with a lack of support helping her find a transfer within BU, decided to go ahead and give notice July 7 to assist with the move and work more on finding a better job. Her last day was July 28, and she parted on amicable terms—expressing that it was simply time for something new. August was filled with packing, scraping, painting, unpacking, arranging furniture—in addition to traveling to Alyssa’s hometown to throw a bridal shower for her best friend. September came with retrieving furniture Labor Day weekend (a far cry than what we had done the year before) and more unpacking. After applying for a few positions, in mid-September, Alyssa was pleased to receive offers to interview at several local universities, most of the offers coming from Harvard University (her first choice). After weeks of interviewing, Alyssa was hired on October 19 to work at Harvard Business School as a faculty assistant within the Division of Research and Faculty Support beginning October 23. To date, things are going very well at HBS and Alyssa is psyched to be able to take advantage of all of Harvard’s extensive classes, workshops, and benefits as well as the nice pay raise and less stressful environment.

As of September 1, when Keith’s arrangements for permanent employment were continuing to be delayed, he decided to post his resume and other portfolio details online on Monster.com. For the next month, Keith was called almost on a daily basis by recruiters interested in his skill set and experience. On October 25, only two days after Alyssa started her job, Keith was offered employment at P3I, a government contractor, working at the Volpe Center in Kendall Square, Cambridge. So now we are both working on the other side of the river, but our move to 65 Ashford has proved very convenient for Alyssa’s commute, and not bad for Keith either.

Looking ahead to 2007, we are looking forward to settling into 65 Ashford Street, and we will likely stay here (if possible) until September 2008. It goes without saying that we both hate moving and are not up to another relocation at least for another 2 years. After that, we hope to be able to purchase a condo within the city or a single-family home outside of Boston, relatively convenient to our places of work. Luckily for us, Harvard has extensive workshops for would-be homeowners, and even its own real estate office, so we will be taking advantage of those opportunities. Also on the agenda for Summer 2007, we hope to be able to travel (as we were completely unable to this summer). Alyssa, as many of you know, spent a considerable amount of time in Sweden in her youth and is eager to return to see the sights and those she still keeps in contact with. Thanks to us both having nice paid vacation packages this is now possible!

We wish you all the very best this upcoming year and hope that you will drop a line—especially if we haven’t heard from you recently!!!


Cordially,
Alyssa & Keith"

I'm sitting here in the CLER lab at HBS, waiting for my second training of the day to start. So, being that I haven't updated this blog with anything lately, (nor can I say that today's entry will be anything of substance) it seemed a good idea to go ahead and write something.

The weather in Boston lately is one of contrasts. On Friday the 1st (Keith's birthday) I was frantically walking towards Spangler Hall to drop off more items to be copied. Lo and behold, I saw cherry blossoms on a tree as I rounded Cumnock Hall. Cherry blossoms, I tell you! That Monday the 4th as I commuted to my job, it was snowing. That's the kind of craziness its been. 65 degrees one day, generally nice over the weekend, rain Sunday, and then full blown winter Monday.

Our tree is up, a good many of our gifts purchased, but there's still so much shopping to do, gifts to wrap. I wanted to bake cookies this year, but am re-thinking this. With all the holiday festivities in front of us, it seems foolish to add more calories to the mix. Keith and I have discussed his joining a gym in January, I have joined (Healthworks made me a pretty decent offer that included no enrollment fee and $50 club cash) but with working major overtime or coming home completely exhausted--I haven't had much time to go. I had my two complimentary sessions and got my ass whupped on Sunday by Amanda, my new would-be trainer. I'm seeing the futility of signing up for training this month, with all the holiday hubbub...but hopefully Santa will be nice and I'll use some of the funds to get my ass back in shape. I'm literally furious with myself for not only gaining all the weight back I lost for the wedding, but also adding 15 lbs to that. Bad, Alyssa, bad!!!!

Already Keith and I are thinking about summer travel plans, prompted by hearing from my ol' host family back in Sweden. Our last vacation was our four day honeymoon to Munich in October 2005. A joke, considering most people get to take at least a week. I'm thinking late June (about the 27th) to early July (8th, 10th?). We're going. I don't care if we have to eat instant soup for two months. Its been five years since I've been to Sweden (last was May 2002) and friends over there have never had the opportunity to meet Keith. By the time of the trip we will have been married for almost 2 years and together for almost 7. It's time.

Our landlord has already contacted us about renewing our lease here. We probably will. They are upping the rental pirce slightly (I'm a wee bit irked, I don't see how life here has improved to justify a rent increase, and its already pretty high) but it beats moving again and fees and all that jazz. We'll likely leave when we can afford a home of our own (hopefully summer 2008).

All in all, that's the stuff that is going in and out the periphery of my brain at this juncture. A lot going on. Work is hectic to say the least, so all these thoughts have to be a minute here, a minute there. More later when I get a chance.

Jury duty sure was interesting.

I was impaneled and served a total of 4 days on what turned out to be primarily a drug trial. The indictments were:

• Assault & Battery
• Drug Trafficking (Crack cocaine)
• Drug Trafficking in a school zone

The long and short of it was that the accused got into an argument with his girlfriend and took the car they had and drove off to her apartment. She called up a friend and went to get back the car (and her house keys and purse, which were in the car). When they got there, he was coming out.

The friend (who was, to say the least, a big girl) grabbed at the guy and eventually began hitting him across the face (splitting his eyebrow). Since they were struggling, the girlfriend called outside for security, and after a brief chase, the accused was tackled and cuffed. While they hoisted him the ground, 33-odd grams of very pure crack cocaine popped out from his waistband.

At the end of listening to the trial and deliberating - the defendant was found guilty of the two drug charges. It was basically a king's random of crack - and much purer than one would find on the street.

After we delivered our verdict, the judge came up and talked with us to answer questions. What we learned however was that when he was picked up, he not only had a history of other (lesser) drug charges, but he was also out on bail at the time for a murder 1 indictment. W00t! We gave him another extra set of years.

Thanksgiving was short, but thank God it was only a couple of hours away in CT. On the way home, we picked up a Christmas tree and on Saturday the 25th spent most of the day decorating.

The rest of the last week went pretty good - back to work and getting into the swing of things. Its not all too dissimilar to working at NIS in terms of the type of work, but it does seem a little bit more laid back. Perhaps it will pick up once I get settled in. Either way, it seems like a pretty good job.

This weekend we had ourselves a Holiday/Housewarming/Birthday Party. We spent much of the day yesterday making food and getting the place looking presentable. A good deal of our closest friends came over and we had tons of food and drink and had a great time. I got a few birthday & housewarming gifts, but since a few of them are best understood as inside jokes, I am not going belabor it. Needless to say, there was much laughter and merriment and we all went through a bottle of port on top of everything else, after the meal.

Cleaned up and relaxed most of the day. Nothing altogether too interesting... except for the fact Blogger is working for a change.