I'm looking for someone to fill my room for June 1 or 15, though dates between then are negotiable.
Rent is $800 (heat not included), lease is month-to-month.
About 8-minute walk to Davis or Porter stations. Lots of permit street parking.
Free laundry in basement.
The apartment is on the second and third floors of a two-family house. There is a front enclosed porch, living room, dining room, shared office, back enclosed porch, back deck, large kitchen, and abundant storage throughout. The available room has two closets, two windows, ceiling fan, and cable hookup.
The roommates are two friendly, professional men in their early 30s.

No cats please.

Pictures and contact are on craigslist.

I just put a wooden frame for a single-person futon out for the trash in front of 45 Bromfield Road. If someone has a use for it they're welcome to it. It's 3 wood pieces, would probably fit in a normal-sized car. (It's light enough wood that you could probably carry it away with a few friends.)

Hipsters, artists, students, LJ'ers citywide: Share your Somerville love - design a t-shirt for the city!

The winning design will be produced for sale citywide, with any proceeds benefiting Somerville Homeless Coalition. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 16, 2008.

Contest flyer with details (large picture)

( Read more )

Be aware that they're not letting anyone on the Red Line at Davis this morning at 0900; the MBTA web page reports "Somerville Fire Department activity" without further details. My morning commute is off to a rocky start...on the other hand, I suppose it beats smoke inhalation :-)

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2008/05/sunday-secrets_09.html

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail
in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.


















-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 9:13 AM
Subject: stretch marks and motherhood

My first child is due on Wednesday and stretch marks appeared just this week. I could care less . . . I just want to meet my daughter!






-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 2:37 PM
Subject: Mom and cancer postcard.

My mom died of cancer when I was 17. I'm almost 24 now and I'm still angry and I'm still sad, but I'm finally having a good year. Kids like us are everywhere. We find each other. We help each other feel a little less alone.






-----Email Message-----
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:56PM
Subject: Mothers Day

After I read through all the Mothers Day secrets, I emailed the link to my mother. She called and we just finished sharing some of our family secrets over the phone. But here is one more I didn’t tell her.

I am going to surprise her with concert tickets [today].



Florida PostSecret Exhibit



The Brevard Art Museum will be hosting over 400 PostSecret postcards. The exhibit opens to the public this Friday (May 16th).

1463 Highland Avenue | Melbourne, FL 32935 | 321-242-0737

The PostSecret exhibition tour is directed by International Arts & Artists.




"Each of the Post Secret books gives you a window into the human soul. Sending in a post card is a cathartic experience. Laugh, cry and connect with insightful journeymen in the human experience. Read the books. Share them with friends. Subscribe to the blog."
-- Amazon Reviewer, Irish Eyes
All four PostSecret books are available at bookstores or Online.




PostSecret won four Webby Awards this week for Art and for Blogging.

Only through your participation are these awards, and this community, possible.

Thank you.

Good news! The dairy bar next to Kick*ss Cupcakes is now open. They have organic and regular milk from Shaw farm. Eggs from free-range New Hampshire chickens. Cow and goat cheeses and butter from farms in New Hampshire and Vermont.

I asked if she’d consider getting meat from grass-fed cows, and she said she’s thinking about it if demand is there. She also mentioned something about Vermont bacon, and produce and flowers from farmers’ markets, which would be great because the dairy bar is open until 10 seven days a week (if I remember correctly), and people wouldn’t have to schlep all over trying to find meat here, eggs there, milk somewhere else, and produce in still another location.

I think it would be terrific to have a local one-stop place to get healthy, locally grown food from nearby farms.

Karin competed in her first karate competition today. She was in the 8-year-old girl's group, competing in kata, which is a short, choreographed series of karate moves. She was pretty nervous about it, but thought it was a lot of fun, and she came in 3rd place! Not too shabby! :) She got a huge 3rd place trophy along with her participant medal and a new t-shirt. Read Karin's summary of her accomplishment.

http://www.dadgonemad.com/2008/05/wow.html

One night, about a year ago, I decided to quit dreaming.

Every day, every night, for 20 years, the dream was exactly the same – same props, same characters, same outcome. I could picture all of it with vivid clarity, but the fantasy never survived the transition from sleep to the real here and now. It burned up on re-entry. It lived only in the ether of my mind.

In the dream, I was an author. I wrote books. I spent my days on safari in my own imagination. I was satisfied. I was doing what I loved for a living, and that contentment permeated every hard, dark corner of my existence. Then suddenly I was awake again, and the reality that I was NOT the person in my dream washed over me like rain cloud.

So one night, about a year ago, I decided to quit dreaming. I sat down at my keyboard and began to write. I began to create the trappings of my dream in real life.

It has been the hardest year of my writing life. Rejection has reigned. Every small victory has been countered by enormous disappointment and despair. I have neglected friendships, responsibilities, family obligations. Phone calls and emails have gone unreturned. I have opened my soul to criticism, and I have convinced myself that this is my last best chance to accomplish something for myself – to escape the rut of cubicle jobs, financial desperation and career aimlessness.

Thursday morning, my agent called from New York.

“You have a book deal,” she said.

Just like that, the dream became real.

Just like that, my life changed direction.

It has taken me three days to come to terms with what has happened. I have shared the news with family and friends, and although their expressions of pride and joy have filled my spirit, the accomplishment didn’t seem real to me. This isn’t the kind of thing that happens to me. I’m just a copywriter. I’m not accustomed to achievement or satisfaction or…winning.

I did it. I actually fucking did it.

I wonder what I'll dream about next.

seattle filmworks, print film, 20 exposures per roll. It is old, probably 10 years +, but it has been stored in a cool dry dark place so I imagine it is still good. Yours for free, come by and pick it up.

May 9, 2008.
Beth's Birthday.
Mad Tea Party.

http://www.strangelittlemama.com/?p=386

We had a Mother’s Day tea at Miss V’s kindergarten this morning. It was very sweet and I absolutely adore her teacher so much that I worry that 1st grade will never match up to the wonder of her kindergarten experience.

I was teary throughout. It’s all evidence of the conflicted feelings I’ve been having coming up on Mother’s Day. Since having children, Mother’s Day has always been bittersweet, since I inevitably miss my own mom while at the same time get an entire day to bask in the glory of the best thing I have ever done, becoming a mother. However, this will be an unusual year. My first as a single mom. I will give T credit that he always did a fabulous job of spoiling me along with the kids– letting me sleep in while they prepared breakfast, waking me up with coffee and handmade presents and generally letting me get my way all day. So, I have wondered what this year will feel like. I know the kids will do their very best and have been plotting together about me sleeping in and making me breakfast, which is really a little frightening.

At first thought this year, I felt selfish. I thought, damn if I ever deserved a spa package for Mother’s Day, it’s after this, the hardest year of mothering I have known. But, right, who’s going to arrange that for me? And I thought of T’s mother, with whom I am very close, and at first I felt very resentful that, as with pretty much everything, I have always taken care of doing something special for her on Mother’s Day. T left that up to me. Of course he did. And to be blunt, it pissed me off knowing that it would still be up to me, even though she’s his mother and I don’t even have my own. But then I realized, it’s been the hardest year she has ever known as a mother, too. She is deeply disappointed in her son and how things have turned out. There’s plenty to this story that I won’t share here, but trust me when I say that this year has been devastating for her. And you know, I love her. So I will be happy to share “my” day with her.

And given that Ms Scout is out of town, jet-setting about Italy, I’ve invited her kids to spend the day with us. I thought they might miss her extra on Mother’s Day, and I feel almost like a second mom (our kids are much like siblings!) so I want to include them as well.

It’s all about re-inventing tradition. It’s all about re-inventing this life and what we expect from it.

http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/Star-Wars-Clone-Wars/1809991325/trailers/133/880

I suspected all along, ever since Return of the Jedi. The Ewoks were like the first symptoms of a terminal disease, something you could put out of your mind or ascribe to something less mortal. Later, Ewan McGregor and Christopher Lee gave some faint hope in the face of Jar Jar, Hayden Christensen, and some of the worst screenplay dialogue in the history of Hollywood. But this - this is unequivocal, undeniable.

It was a fun ride while it lasted.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080509/ap_on_re_us/18_kids

18 children. Eighteen. I suppose if they aren't on the government dole, and the family is stable and happy, it's none of my business. But sweet Jesus, I think if I was that guy's surgeon and I had him under the knife, I'd throw in a vasectomy free of charge.

*scrambles to google Guinness World Records' website*

Sick of spaghetti? Had it with peanut butter? Hope you never see another tuna salad sandwich again? TONIGHT ONLY!* Take all that canned & nonperishable food that you hate and stick it in a bag, and write STAMP OUT HUNGER on the bag. Put it out by your mailbox, and tomorrow morning, May 10, the mail carrier will get rid of it all for you!

*Offer only good in USA.

Brain implant cures drug-induced gambling addiction. On a related note, loss of the gene for Nr-CAM lead mice to embrace risky behavior.

Immune to the high - using the immune system to fight addiction.

Taken by seismic.

"There are no switches, everything's a dial."

- Stuart Firestein, discussing biological signaling

Does jetlag get worse as you get older? Or is it just my crazy life that has eaten away the foundation of my stability and left me unable to balance evenly? Nearly a week since my return and I'm still waking up at 4 a.m. every morning...of course that could be the fault of the BRIGHT SUNLIGHT streaming in at an ungodly hour and the fact that still, after nearly 6 years in this house, the windows in our bedroom remain shade- and blind-less.

Wednesday was choir (first practice in 4 weeks—croak!) and yesterday my husband celebrated a birthday. It's been gorgeous all week, with beautiful sunshine and lovely temps and we've suddenly slid into full-blown summer. The lilacs are popping out all over and the pansies in the pots are running riot, literally, all over the yard.

Tomorrow a niece gets confirmed in the Swedish church and Karin has her first karate competition, and Sunday is Mother's Day, though not here in Sweden...however, the kids are "taking me out" to lunch anyway.

I keep thinking, as I go through my day, O! I have to remember this! I have to write about this! I have to ...what was it I was going to write about again?

Bedtime Routine
Liz: Good night!
Karin: Good night!
Liz: Sleep tight!
Karin: Sleep tight!
Liz: See you in the morning!
Karin: See you in the morning!
Liz: ...what was the last one? I can't remember. Hmmm...oh yes! I like you!
Karin: *rolls eyes* No, mama.
Liz: You're OK! ...no, that's not right.
Karin: NO mama.
Liz: *brightly* I guess you'll do! *inquiring look*
Karin: *patiently* NO mama.
Liz: Hrmmm...what was it again? oh I know! *nods* You're a good kid, I think I'll keep you!
Karin: *laughs and makes big bug eyes at me*
Liz: I love you! *smiles*
Karin: I love you!
Liz: *leans over for a kiss, bumps lip into Karin's tooth* EW! I just kissed your TOOTH!!
Liz & Karin: *giggle madly*

Biggest Bestest Birthday Wishes EVER to my Swedie Anders! (though posted 1 day late)