The Bostonian Abroad

For the first time in years I actually have a bit of the ol' Christmas Spirit! The weather has turned cold, the leaves have fallen off the trees, and it gets dark early! How odd that I should appreciate something so much which is so mundane! And this over Hawaii no less! I got used to never-changing beauty, perfect weather every day, always leaving the windows open, day and night, 24/7. It became desperately monotonous and made the daily grind that much more difficult because it echoed the sameness of the sterile and generic office environment. So much has the spirit returned to me that I have recently put up Christmas lights, a large stocking on the front door, and smaller ones on the fireplace mantle! For the first time in my life I can imagine Santa, someone in whom I was never permitted to believe in the first place, coming down my wee chimney and through my fireplace, ready to leave presents under my tiny rosemary tree I bought at Home Depot. I'll even leave cookies

Tessie, 'nuff said! 

Yesterday was a bad day. I got dressed up early in order to go down to the DMV and get my new driver's license. I had a long list of things I was going to accomplish that day, and, based on my achievements the day before, I was hoping to carry on the momentum. Alas, it was not to be. I arrived at the DMV and began to wait. And wait... After about 20 minutes, I began to appreciate the fact that we were given chairs instead of having to wait in a long line - like in Hawaii. I also began to fret that I might not have the requisite paperwork to get the Hawaii car registered here. I called Lorrie and asked her to get ready to fax something over in case it was needed. I was sure that this would be all that I would need and that I would be able to get what I wanted to get done. Nope. When I got called up a half hour later - not bad by DMV standards - I was told that I needed to have my wife present in order to change the registration because the car was in both our names. Damn.

After a few months of transitions, we are finally settling in at our new home. Thus far, it has been entirely pleasant to be here, and with each passing day, I feel that our decision to move here was the right one. Of course, this is, as always, a developing view as we have not yet begun to look for jobs. However, we have socialized a couple of times, and in these tentative socail interactions, we have felt welcome and accepted. It's amazing to me that in our short time here, we already feel more positivity and acceptance than we ever felt in our torturous five years in Hawaii. When people ask us why we left, or how we could ever think to leave such a beautiful place, I really feel guilty in having to tell them of all our problems there. It feels like I am ruining their idea of the place by throwing in our reality. At the same time, I feel a bit bad to speak ill of the place; isn't that funny!? Five years of unhappiness at virtually every aspect of that place save the we

We arrived in Milan about four days ago and spent 24 hours there. The food was okay, but our take on the place was that it was dirty and crowded. We were quite happy to leave for our next destination: Firenze! Firenze, or Florence, is wonderful! It is much smaller, cleaner, more relaxed, and congenial. The food is excellent, and the sights are exquisite! We have eaten such delicious food that I can't even come close to describing it. Each morsel forced my eyes closed to better focus on all the flavour I was tasting. The wines that came with our meals were of a quality I had never known, and the desserts! I am surprised people are not fat! But then, with such quality, one does not feel the need for volume! We went on a wine tour recently with a guide from NJ, and we were the only ones on the tour! Such is the way in the off-season. We drove up and down little hills, on narrow streets, seeming to go in circles, but in the end, we found ourselves surrounded by colors seen on

After 5 years of trying to like Hawaii and failing, we have finally gotten out of that terrible place. Sounds counter-intuitive to say it,"Hawaii sucks!" And those who have not lived there at the middle-class level or below it are never going to understand me when I say that Hawaii is a terrible place to live. I have written many times about it, so one can look over these previous posts to get a sense of the pain we suffered there, but still, those who refuse to believe that Hawaii could ever be miserable and hellish will forever say that I am insane or irretrievabley cynical. So be it. I tried to make friends there, and 99 percent of the locals would not allow it. I would try to smile in a friendly way and nod hello to strangers everywhere I went, but they always either ignored me entirely or gave me a cold, unmoving glance and not return any hint of friendliness. When I did make friends, it was with mainlanders like myself, who would always end up moving back to the mai

Went back to Boston recently. It was more of a pilgrimage really. My accent came back with a vengeance, and I thoroughly enjoyed "awdarin a medium regulah at the DnD," eating what I call "Chinese food", and trekking around the "Nawth End" of Boston. The high point of the trip was, of course, Red Sox related!!! When I arrived in Boston, I immediately knew that I had arrived in the land of my people! Sox flags, hats, bumpah stickahs - the whole range of iconography, showing love for the home town team. It was so nice to be enfolded in the warm and loving embrace of Red Sox Nation!!! L and I took the green line into Kenmore to see if we could even get into Fenway to see a game. We saw a dude standing just outside the T station and we bought tickets, at 75 bucks a whack, to get decent seats in right field, home of the outsiders. At least I was in the frickin' place!!!! It was better than any amusement ride! I got a hat, ate a dog and drank a 6 dol

The time has finally come to abandon this dreadful location, so the preparation has begun: Getting the house ready for sale. Scouting new places to live. Going home to recharge. Soon, hopefully, we'll be heading off to new adventures, to places where we have more opportunities, to places where we can feel more at home than we've ever felt here. What a contradiction it seems: to be so disdainful of such a place as this "paradise", but it is utterly true that the people are what ruin this place for us. The ignorance, the baseless superiority, the inflexibility and lack of professionalism, decency and courtesy - all of these aspects, coupled with the isolation and all its attendant costs, make for a very inhospitable place to live. The only thing now is the waiting to leave. I've distanced myself from friends; I've left already in my mind, and in my heart. It isn't necessarily the right thing to do, but it is happening nonetheless. This is the only

I went to see "Fever Pitch" when they were holding a sneak preview at the local theatre (in an old pineapple factory), and I was struck by the level of fanatacism displayed by the accoutrements of the main character. But I wasn't struck as much by the ridiculous level to which his Sox mania soared, as by the stark, raving mad envy it caused in me. I want that stuff too! Ever since the ALCS, I have been thinking more and more about my beloved Sox. It is still amazing to me that they/we accomplished such legendary feats last october. I've become more and more rabid as each day passes. It started with t-shirts, then team jerseys, then flags, and now I am hungry for anything BoSox! I'm tempted to buy pins, placemats, pictures to hang, seat covers, car accessories and more . . . It is becoming an all-consuming desire! And I must admit to feeling a bit guilty. This happened during the post World Series celebration at our favorite pub. This guy comes up to me an

To anyone thinking of moving out here, I have some advice: DON'T. But then, I ought to qualify this a bit. If you are rich or retired, and don't want to do much more than hang out at the beach, okay, this place is fine for you. If you are a young student who is physically active, and loves to party, okay, this is fine for you too. If you are a middle class commuter-type with a mortgage and a family, then disabuse yourself of the notion of ever living here. Living here requires a certain amount of nonchallantness about things like: Racism - It is everywhere, and it's all anti-white. (Mainland Haoles need not apply.) Intelligence - logic does not exist here, nor would they want such mainland ideology. Efficiency - It's true what they say about island life, infuriatingly true. Politeness - common courtesy does not exist in the land of "aloha"; try making your way through Pearl City Sam's Club, and you'll see what I mean. Professionalism - This was tosse

Some of my earliest memories are of my first friend, Jimmy Hayes. He lived across the street on Burnside Ave. in Somerville. We used to go exploring, play pick up games of baseball, go to "John's Store" to get a bottle of Coke and a Ding Dong. Those days were magical for me. We'd play in the street all day and well into the night in the Summer time, and whenever someone would drive up our small side street, we'd all move off to the curb and yell, "ONE WAY!" In 1977, we moved away, to "the sticks", as we thought of it. Actually, it was only to Lynn, but it seemed to my 7 year-old mind, that it was the farthest thing from Somerville ever. For years after that, I would get someone to drive me back there once a year to visit with my old friends Timmy, and Jimmy, and to dirty-look Scott, who broke my watch in a fight one time. (My sister Debbie, beat him up in revenge, then beat up his big sister too!) Every once in a while, Jimmy would com

I don't remember the specifics of a great many things. I do, however, remember where to locate these specifics when need be. And when referred to quite often, these items may or may not become permanently accessible to me, without the aid of external reference. The point is that a test does not reflect reality at all. When we are doing a job, we have access to all sorts of information-bearing devices. But for some reason, I'm sure, very powerfully laid out - full of sound and fury, signifying nothing - one is not permitted to have these devices during the test. One may only access the information stored within the cholesterol repository located in the skull of the test-victim's head. Why should we be forced to use only one memory storage and recovery device, when technology offers us so many additional options? Personally, I am embittered by my many varied and painful experiences with such traditional notions, and find them to be entirely without merit. They are obvio