Our first dinner guests!

Last month we went to Daryn & Nichole's house for dinner so we thought it was time for us to have them over at our place. Conor and Kate also asked to hang out on Friday night so they came over as well. These were our first guests over for dinner and I think the night went very well!!! I made homemade lasagna (which Brian and I thought tasted really good) and Brian put together a Caesar salad and garlic bread. We cleaned up the house on Friday and it looked awesome! It was our first time pulling our kitchen table away from the wall so that we could all 6 sit. We knew our kitchen was small, but it was REALLY tight with all of us at the table. I liked it though. :) As we were sitting at the table with our new friends I just thought to myself that this is happiness! I was so happy to have them over and getting to know them better. They are all wonderful people and it is so fun that Daryn & Nichole were just married in August and Kate & Conor are getting married in December, so we have lots of fun wedding stuff we can talk about too. I didn't get any pictures of our dinner or guests, but these are a couple of the kitchen table. :)

On Saturday, we met Angel & Dan at Parish Cafe downtown for lunch where we also met their friends Amanda & Josh. They are from Virgina (and were actually at the BC vs. VT game we went to) and they moved here a couple years ago - Dan and Josh work together. We enjoyed our lunch at another great restaurant and then we walked over to the bowling alley. My first two frames were strikes! I was so shocked! Josh won the first game with a 144 I think (and I had a 142 I believe) and I won the next game with a 108. My total for both games was the highest with a 250! :) Brian was bowling really well too! We had fun, but our lane needed repairs - we had to go to the counter all the time because the pins wouldn't set up or they got stuck in the back or something. At least they gave us all free shoe rentals because of it! That was a $8 savings per couple :)

After bowling we walked over to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. I found out about it a few weeks ago when looking up things to do, so I thought we should check it out. It was free and we got free samples and tastings. It was fun - it was our healthy trick-or-treating!! :) After Amanda and Josh left, we walked around some more with Dan and Angel and then we left. They walked to the nearby subway station and we waited for the bus which was right outside the building (Brian pointed out that we were at that stop from when we came home from the zoo). So we waited, but then decided maybe we would go back in and buy some vegan pizza for dinner. By the time we got to that table it was gone, so we just walked around once more and sampled a few more things and then left, making it JUST in time for the bus! Perfect!

We ended up going to mass at 8pm at St. Clement Shrine. Brian and I were comfortable in what we were wearing except our faces and ears were freezing!! I believe it was about 37 degrees out at the time (the low that night was going to be 31). Mass was nice - another great homily by Fr. Peter!! It is pretty amazing how many young adults go to that church - I would say that mass had about 93% young adults!! Pretty cool. Unfortunately, it took us so long to get home because the subways were all so busy going in our direction - must be due to halloween although we didn't see too many people dressed up.

We had another wonderful weekend!! The trees are looking amazing, but the leaves are falling quickly it seems. I am worried that there won't be many more on the trees by the time we come home from our trip back to California. We leave on Wednesday to go back home and we are so excited to see our family and friends!! Our days are jam packed with get-togethers, including 2 weddings, but we are looking forward to it!!

Loving Boston!

It's been a while since I have posted so this will likely be a longer post. A couple weekends ago, we went to a party (more of a gathering) in Newton with some of Brian's colleagues from the doctoral program. It didn't start until 8pm, so we were going to try to get there a little after that, but by the time we wrote down all the directions and figured out our route(s) to and from the house, it was almost 9 when we were left our place. Thus, we missed our 2nd bus and the next one wasn't for an hour, so we decided to just walk (about 40 minutes through quiet, dark residential areas). We enjoyed our walk - it was a chilly fall night, but we got to see some new places and the smells were lovely. We stayed for about 1.5 hours, but we never moved from the house foyer! We didn't even make it out onto the porch where another group of people were. I met a lot more of Brian's classmates and their significant others, which was great. There were a couple girls there who are getting their Master's in nursing (to be Nurse Practitioners), so I really enjoyed talking with them. Then a lovely couple, Ben & Tara, drove us home which was so nice! I wish I could take more pictures for you, but it's just not right yet...once I get to know people a little better. :)

That Sunday, we went to 8pm mass at St. Clement's, which is a little further into town, but it is very easily accessible. I love that they have a 8pm mass - that would be great for nurses who work days from 7a-7p. Right after mass they have adoration, which is great too! The priest, Fr. Peter, gave the best homily that I have heard in a while! This is a little excerpt from it:

"When I anoint someone in the hospital I also bring a bottle of oil so everyone can see it. I tell them that back in the time of Christ, the most important item in your house was not the cat, nor your wallet. It was olive oil. Not only was it food, it was also your health care system. You could put it on your body and you could put it in your body. There is something about olive oil. Olive trees are very durable. You can't seem to kill them. A bottle of olive oil spells longevity. When the farmers harvest olives, they never pick all the olives from the tree. They always leave the olives on the lowest branches. Why? Then someone could go by and pick them. That is exactly why. All the widows and the poor in the village knew that those olives were left for them. It was the farmers' way of telling God, that they were grateful for providing the most important thing in their home. It was their way of telling God that their thanks were not just empty words. The leper who went back to thank our Lord let Jesus know that his thanks was not just empty words. We too have to remember to thank our Lord not just with lips but with deeds as well."

We decided to go back there this past weekend on Sunday, but at the 11am mass instead since that is when Jen and her fiance go. Fr. Peter gave another great homily, which I felt was directed to me right now. He talked about "the waiting room", which is a period of time while you are waiting for something great to come along and during this time it's what you do that builds character! This was so powerful to me since I am currently in a "waiting room" for a wonderful job. After mass, Jen usually goes out for lunch with a small group, but she had marriage prep instead, so Brian and I decided to hit up Newbury street for some winter gear. We stopped first at Patagonia and bought Brian a nice jacket and some pants, then we ate lunch at Sonsie (so good!!!), and over to The North Face we went. There we got some snow sneakers for Brian and I got a jacket. Then we just walked down Newbury street, went Olive Oil tasting, sampled some gelato (I tried sweet potato, which was actually pretty good) and eventually headed home.

The day before, Saturday, we went to lunch at Aquitaine in the South End and met Angel & Dan there. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but it was worth it! They have $10 brunch all day on Saturday and you get a good amount of food. After our lunch, we walked around a bit (it was pretty chilly!) and then went to see The Town, which we really liked. It was fun to watch it and recognize certain places/things since it was about Boston/Charlestown. Definitely a movie to see if you haven't done so yet. Then we headed home and while we were on the subway, Brian got a message about some classmates meeting at a restaurant really close to our apartment called "Joshua Tree", so we stopped by there on our way home. We had dinner there, which was also very good, and had a wonderful time hanging out and getting to know people. There was about 8 of us total there, but we primarily talked to one couple, Conor and Kate, who I just met at the party the previous weekend. Kate is one of the nursing girls in the master's program at Mass Gen. She and Conor are getting married in December and so we have a lot of things in common that we can talk about. They're really nice.

We are really enjoying Boston! We are getting to know so many wonderful people from all over the country! We have friends from Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Indiana, and even Canada! Some people don't even have cell phones, which is a huge change from OC where 99.9% of the population has a cell phone, with a large percentage of people having iPhones! Everywhere we have eaten has been fantastic! There are so many places to eat around here and very few of them are big name restaurants, which makes it even more fun/better!

Lastly, the trees are beginning to change color and it's absolutely beautiful!! I love the weather here right now, especially now that we are prepared for the cold. :)