5 reasons I can tolerate winter, and 5 things that make me pout

The good:

1. February is a short month.  We're almost halfway there.  Spring happens in March.  That is next month.
2. Twice this week so far, I caught the 5:20 train home from work, and it was still light when I left the office building
3. Running in nasty winter weather makes me feel like I'm a super hardcore athlete
4. With all the moisture in the ground, when the snow finally melts, you know there's going to be lots of green!
5. I've got great boots and a great poofy winter jacket

 The not-so-good

1. My black pants seem to be covered in "slush splash" and I think yesterday I might have ripped one of them walking in the snow
2. Dirty snow doesn't look as pretty as freshly fallen snow
3. There are still a few houses on the big hill on our street that haven't shoveled their sidewalks, so twice a day I risk breaking my neck walking across 3" of packed ice
4. Our street is so narrow and the snowbanks so high that we have to do a 3-point-turn just to back out of the driveway
5. Far too often I take off my boots and promply step onto a hidden puddle of dripped slush in my bare feet.

10 reasons why I appreciate my job

1. This Friday we have our annual holiday Gala at the Boston Harbor Hotel.  Prom for grownups
2. Sane working hours, especially compared to the craziness of New York City
3. The gym in the building basement, which includes weekly Zumba classes, and is dirt cheap, like $12.50-a-month-for-membership-cheap
4. Casual Friday, every Friday 
5. Kurig coffee maker, with more coffee choices than I can count, including flavored and fair-trade coffee.  Limitless juice, soda, and bubbly water too.
6. 100% covered health insurance, for both Osei and I
7. Casual-attire every time it snows. Occasionally, snow days too
8. Co-workers are all smart, good people
9. Lots of leftover snacks from meetings, and bagles for breakfast on Fridays
10. I definitely appreciate getting a paycheck

Top 11 Highlights of 2010

1. Let's start with the important stuff! On June 19th, I married the most amazing man in the world, Osei May. My name became an anagram, which is also pretty cool, but marrying my love takes the cake! I never imagined God would bless me so much by bringing Osei into my life, and that together we would get to enjoy a lifetime of adventures in marriage. Let the journey begin!
2. Jumping back to the beginning of the year, 2010 started out with a super amazing proposal on the steps of the Boston Public Library (that sweet nerd is now my husband). Osei made up some silly story about how we would meet some Smithie friend he knows for coffee and dragged me (complaining) outside the library into single-digit temperatures. He then signaled the Harvard Callbacks, an acapella group, to come down from the steps and serenade us while incognito crowds (our friends) gathered around us. After he kneeled down and ask me to marry him, an accordion player in a tuxedo played us a few more songs while we slow-danced. Osei planned an entire proposal operation via Facebook, complete with a timeline and assigned duties to guests. Ever the confident gentleman, Osei knew I was a shoe in, and indeed I said yes. Plus, by this point, we already had a wedding date, our deposit on a venue, and I had a wedding dress.
3. Comparatively, this was a year of slow running. Well, not technically "slow" in terms of speed, but for the first time in a few years, I did not run a marathon, and I only officially raced twice. (I bandit-ed another half marathon just for fun). However, in May, I set a 10K personal best in the Bolder Boulder (at altitude) and in October, I raced the Bay State Half Marathon. Out of 22 half-marathons I've run (not including the two halves in each of my full marathons) I ran my fourth-fastest time ever. Though I didn't run a marathon myself, I joined my husband for the last 9 miles of the Boston Marathon, and played pure spectator cheering for him during his first New York City Marathon.
4. In March, I traded in my Manhattan zip code for a Celtics t-shirt and moved to Boston! Somehow, the most outrageous logistical orchestration I could possible imagine for relocating actually happened. While still living in NYC, I found a cash buyer for my condo, signed a lease on a new place in Boston, was officially let go from my job (thank you, severance and unemployment benefits) four days before the moving van arrived to drive my stuff up to Boston, and closed on the condo sale at the end of March. This all happened practically flawlessly, though at one point I did have to drive all the way down to NYC and back just to hang a towel hook. Apparantly I wasn't supposed to take it with me!
5. Yes, I sold my condo. Admittedly, not a great time or real estate market to be a seller, but the new owners now have a sweet little studio overlooking the Hudson River that was my happy home for the past two years. As much as I loved the place, it is an amazing feeling to be free from a super expensive condo that kept me trapped in a job that I couldn't leave because I needed it to pay for my condo (and so on).
6. We had houseguests galore! Suz and Bryan spent a week visiting Boston around my birthday, and my mom and Grandpa visited in October. We took the Duck Tour, visited the Sam Adams Brewery, ate lobster and clam chow-dah, and walked the Freedom Trail. We also welcomed Osei's parents and some of his college friends. We had a mere 3 parties, but we wanted to set the bar low for next year.
7. 2010 marked five years of "grown-up-ness" celebrated with my five-year Smith College reunion. Osei and I spent a few days carousing around campus, catching up with old friends (many of whom I'd seen the month before at another Smithie's wedding), and sharing with Osei all of my favorite Smith places and memories. In fact, I had so much fun at reunion that I ran for class officer and won! I'm now the Vice President of the 2005 Smith College Class, which means I will be planning our 10-year class reunion in just a few more years.
8. Osei and I spent a week in Colorado before our wedding making centerpieces, playlists, and programs, writing our vows, and hanging out with friends and family. While staying with Suz and Bryan, we ran on the dirt roads of rural Colorado, ate delicious waffles under their pergola in the garden, played Rock Band in their basement, and spent a week of pre-wedding celebration surrounded by people we love.
9. After the wedding, Osei and I spent nine days driving across the country back to Boston on our (first) honeymoon. We wore flower leis the entire time (they are symbolic, of course), perfected our self-portrait-arm-photo in front of Mt. Rushmore, donated our blood to the mosquitoes while visiting lighthouses on the Northern shore of Minnesota, bought wild rice and Blue Willow china on the side of the road in Wisconsin, clogged our arteries at a roadside diner in the upper-peninsula of Michagan, walked across (and spit into) the lochs of Sault-Saint-Marie, and left our hair frizzy and wet from the mists of Niagara Falls. Finally, we unpacked our new home together in Jamaica Plain, Boston.
10. November felt like our heaviest travel month (but not to be outdone by the month of June, which took us to 9 states and Canada). After a weekend in NYC for the marathon, we flew 27 hours to the Philippines with a group of Boston-based volunteers. We spent a week volunteering with Peer Servants, a microfinance consultancy group, partnering with a local Christian microfinance cooperative called CCT to write case studies about microfinance. The trip was transformative and amazing to say the least! And, as if we hadn't traveled enough that month, the next week we flew to Colorado for a few precious days over Thanksgiving, which also coincided with my 10-year high school reunion.
11. Babies in the air, and I'm gearing up to catch them! This fall I began the formal process of becoming a midwife by starting a year-long training course. This is my first delivery into the birth world (a stretch I know, but I couldn't resist). To most, the transition from financial services to baby-catching does not seem to be the obvious career path, but it fits me perfectly and I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Unrelated to becoming a midwife (or not), I also have babies and pregnancy on the brain 24/7, so stay tuned to see what kinds of updates and adventures 2011 has in store!

Getting Dumped: The Pros and Cons

I like to make lists.  I also just got dumped.  What a better time to make a nice light list of the pros and cons (not that it was a decision I have a say in, or anything)

Why getting dumped just totally sucks:

1. The whole terminology, "getting dumped" just sounds yucky.  Isn't "dumped" what happens to things that are eventually flushed down a toilet?
   
2. All those new mutual friends he introduced me to... are no longer mutual.  He gets full custody.
3. Odds of ever getting back those 3 Brazilian Groove CDs:  slim to none.
4. I had been learning Russian and LOVING it.  Now I get to practice with... my boss?
5. Single once again in New York City.
6. My social life for the foreseeable future:  Me and my CFA books/practice tests, 5 more weeks of marathon training, and my robotic, workaholic colleagues.  Although I did just download a pretty picture of Colorado scenery as my new computer desktop.
7. Ben & Jerry's does not as of yet make a line of post-breakup flavors-though maybe we have some potential. Let's start with "Suddenly Strawberry Single-cake", "Cry Me A Raisin", "Just Got Dipped" or "Stupid Boys-n' Berries."
8. The whole "it's not you, it's me," isn't at all comforting, and admitting "he's just not that into you" is just so cliche.  Nobody likes rejection.  Let's start a movement to reject rejection.
9. Humor may be a band-aid, but moving from "boyfriend" to "ex-boyfriend" is a painful process.  Especially when you listen to the "our songs," look at old pictures, remember little inside jokes, or come across something that triggers a certain memory together... and then remember that you're no longer together.

Why there is most likely a rainbow on the other side of a breakup:

1. Think of all the extra time now I'll now get to devote to the CFA exam (aka my three other boyfriends, Charlie, Francois, and Alexander).
   
2. Learning Russian is pretty easy, so why stop now?  And even better, it has made me realize how much I like learning languages.  How about Chinese next?  
3. I guess this means I can throw away this Jalapeno-Ginger flavored butter he and a buddy made guilt-free.  Not a big Jalapeno fan.
4. That $100 Niketown gift card I won, and was planning on sharing with him so that we could go running together?  Hello new running shoes and new marathon-outfit!
5. Single once again in New York City.
6. I like garlic as much as the next person, but no longer do I have to eat full raw cloves just to stay kissably-competitive.
7. Though I am a huge fan of the NYC subway system, no more train rides to the very end of the line.  Which also conveniently minimizes the odds of running into him on the one day you leave your apartment in sweats, no makeup, and haven't showered in 4 days.
8. You have to get dumped before you can have that inevitable post-breakup encounter with the dumper.  At a time, of course, when you will look absolutely stunning and will be radiating total fabulousness, leaving him wondering what ever was he thinking breaking up with you? 
9. I have an amazing sister and some pretty fantastic girlfriends who are unconditionally supportive, will always take my side, and still want to hang out with me despite months of ditching "girls night out" for "date night."