I've been feeling a little wrung out lately. Tired, uncentered. I thought maybe my seasonal affective disorder was hitting me earlier since I moved four hours north and a little bit east. Then I took a look at my calendar. Since I moved to Boston thirteen weeks ago, I've been out of town six weekends. I've had visitors three weekends. One weekend I had to attend an all-weekend work meeting here. That leaves exactly three weekends to settle into my new home and my new city, two of which were the second and third weekends in September and one of which was last weekend. Tomorrow I'm heading to St. Louis for a conference, next weekend I'm going down to DC for one of my favorite days of the year (Pre-Thanksgiving!), and then later that next week my parents and Dave's parents arrive at our place for Thanksgiving. Whew! I'm sorry if you wanted to come visit before the holidays, but we are not hosting anyone the first two weekends in December, because I. need. a. break.*

On the upside, reviewing that insane schedule reminded me that this year I've traveled more than I have since college, if not more than I ever have in one year. Since January, I've been to Arkansas, California, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts (Western and Boston), New York (City and Upstate), New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington DC (four times, including twice in one week)! Before the end of the year, I'll go to Missouri, Washington DC, and Western MA. And that's just counting the places where I spent at least a night. I got to see several cities I've never seen before: Little Rock, Bar Harbor, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Alexandria.

I've already started thinking about the new countries I'm hoping to go to next year (Thailand, Germany, Scotland, England), as well as the visits to friends and family, and work trips, I'm hoping to make to Seattle, Portland (OR), New York City, Vermont, Kentucky, South Carolina, Washington DC, and who knows where else!

*Which is absolutely not to suggest that I don't love seeing everyone who comes to visit, because I do, and you should definitely come see us, just after mid-December, and it's also not to suggest that I haven't had a great time visiting you on my personal travels, because I have, but I just need two weekends in a row to chill out.

I'd also like to note that I would not have remembered all these trips (all the work ones blend together after awhile) if I didn't have my calendar and my Flickr stream to remind me, especially my set of hotel pictures.

President-Elect Barak Obama, originally uploaded by zannect.

YES WE DID.

FINALLY.

I've been waiting for three years and 364 days for today, for the chance to cast my vote and kick the Republicans out of office. Or, I suppose you could say I've waited seven years and 364 days. I cast my vote for Obama this morning, after checking about 22 times to make sure I had it right. I was somewhat disappointed not to vote on New York City's old school-lever pulling machine, which makes the most satisfying clunk when you vote, and which feels very serious, but it was still awfully satisfying to fill in that arrow with a neat and strong line.

I had taken today as a vacation day and planned to go up to New Hampshire to do voter support, but I got sick, so I had to stay home. I did make it over to the Cambridge/Somerville Obama headquarters for an hour to make some calls, and I spoke to one elderly gentleman in Virginia who told me that he had gotten up at 4am and had been the first in the line to vote. That was pretty inspiring.

Now I'm anxiously crossing my fingers for another four or five hours till we start hearing the poll results...

Laconia, New Hampshire, originally uploaded by zannect.

I've been spending a lot of time in the last couple of weeks volunteering for the Obama campaign, because, hi, he has to win or the world will end. Or, the US as i would like it to be will, at any rate.

I've mainly been doing phonebanking, but last weekend I went up to Laconia, New Hampshire (near Lake Winnapesaukee, right in the middle of the state) to do voter canvassing. It was a very interesting experience and I really enjoyed talking to people about their concerns and what they were thinking. It was also an unseasonably gorgeous day for the last weekend in October in New Hampshire--well over 60 degrees--so it was an unexpected treat to walk around in the fall scenery as well.

I didn't manage to take any photos of the gorgeous foliage, but I did take a picture of the best intersection ever!

Dave and I took a great, and action-packed, trip to California last week. Eric picked us up at Oakland airport late on Wednesday night and we went back to crash with him in Berkeley. Thursday morning, we met up with Steve and his girlfriend Shannon for brunch at Boogaloo's, followed by really good coffee. Dave picked up some cds and I bought some fabric and then we headed out to Greens Restaurant for a fantastic lunch with Steve and his fellow farmworkers. The lunch was particularly special because Steve has been a member of the team growing much of the produce for the restaurant over the past summer. We got to meet the chef and enjoyed a delicious meal, especially a grilled fig salad and a chocolate torte. After a quick drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and a stop to admire the view, we headed up to Green Gulch Zen Center for a few days. Steve has been living, working, and studying there since March and we had a couple of days to see the farm, meet his friends, visit Muir Beach (and see pelicans!), eat the best croissants ever, and get up at 5am for morning zazen. We also got to help prepare for the weekly farmer's market, by helping pick spinach (before breakfast!) and then washing it, washing and boxing the salad mix, and picking edible flowers. Green Gulch is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and the time there was incredibly relaxing.

Saturday, we met up with Bahar, Satish, and Manav and headed back to the city. Saturday night we met up with Eric for California-style burritos, and a trip up to Chabot Observatory for their free weekend night views. We looked through some antique telescopes to see distance star clusters and Jupiter and three moons. Sunday we met up with Steve and Shannon again for a trip to the new California Academy of Sciences (penguins!), which was beautiful, but way too overcrowded. We escaped and headed across the street to check out the de Young museum's sculpture garden. Next, it was back to the Mission for some amazing Vietnamese food and caffination at Tartine, and then off to Dolores Park to meet up with Shannon and some of her friends. At the park we met up with Eric again, and headed back across the Bay to Oakland, where we all feasted on amazing homemade Indian food, cooked by Bahar, Satish, and Bahar's mother. The next morning, we headed back on a 11-hour odyssey back to Boston, which included an unplanned layover in Chicago to fix the plane's broken toilets. yay! Have you ever wondered who those poor bastards were who got stuck de-planing on the tarmac? That was us. Finally we got back home, and fought jet lag to head into a work week!

Lots more pictures on Flickr, but I was having too much fun with Bahar, Satish, and Eric to remember to take any pictures...so they are mainly of Green Gulch and the museums.

Dr. Allan Rosenfield, the former Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health, and one of the most amazing people I have ever had the honor of meeting, passed away on Saturday. He was 75 and had ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). It is not an exaggeration to say that Dr. Rosenfield's work has saved and improved more lives and done more to improve reproductive health than anyone else I can think of. Through his work and his tireless advocacy, Dr. Rosenfield has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, primarily women and girls, as he pushed the field of public health, and the world, to focus on preventing maternal mortality and to "put the M back in MCH" (maternal and child health), as his seminal article was titled. He grew the MSPH to the major force it is today, and oversaw the training of thousands of students of public health in his 22-year tenure as Dean. He helped to found my department there, Population and Family Health, and so had a very real role in my life, although I never had the honor of studying with or working for him directly. He was Dean while I was a student there, and in addition to the work of running the school, raising money, researching, advising major foundations, and participating in the boards of every major repro health organization, he was very involved with the student body and eager to attend our events, hear our concerns, and mentor individual students.

Dr. Rosenfield is one of my heroes. I am so sorry we have lost him, and so grateful that I had the opportunity to be inspired by him. My thoughts are with his family and friends, and I hope that the work I do can be just a tiny part of a monument to him.

apartment mosaic, originally uploaded by zannect.

Dave and I finally finished hanging our pictures this weekend, so here are some photos of our new place. Of course it looks messier in the pictures than it did in real life when I was taking them! More details on Flickr. I did not take a picture of the washer and dryer, as they are in the basement, but you can imagine them with halos and choirs of angels singing.

It's National Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read.

According to the American Library Association, here are the top 10 banned books in 2007 (annotated by me):

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
I've read this and it is one of the cutest children's stories EVER. What's not to love about penguins in love who want a baby?

2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
I read this many years ago, probably in sixth grade or so--I'm surprised it's still on the list.

3. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
I haven't read this one, but it sounds really good.

4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
This is a fantastic series...really interesting world, complex characters, strong female characters, good writing.

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism
I read this years ago, as well. It's such a part of our culture--a friend just made a joke about painting a fence that referenced this book last weekend--I'm not sure how you could ban it.

6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
Another book I read many years ago; I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember it, so I'll have to add it to my library request list.

7. TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
I haven't read this, but something tells me I'm not quite the right age for it.

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit
I remember being amazed by this, but it's another one I need to re-read.

9. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
I haven't read this, but given my professional field, I probably don't need to.

10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
I haven't read this, but I like the title...maybe it'll be another library book.

I took a look through the list of top-ten banned books since 1991, and I've read and love many of them. As an avid reader, I know I first grappled with many serious issues through books...I can't understand why parents would prefer their child to learn about sex by, say, having it, or reality tv, instead of reading Judy Blume? I mean, they do know that pretending it doesn't exist doesn't actually work, right? Oh wait...no, that's why we still have abstinence-only education. Anyways, I don't have a week to write about all the books I love on the banned books list, but one of these days I'm going through it, or perhaps the Radcliffe top 100 list, and read all the ones I haven't yet.

Banned Books Week always makes me think of another favorite, Farenheit 451, which may be at the root of my love for dystopian novels.

Our temporary roommate hung out in the fridge for a week before we discovered him munching on the kale we got from Dave's parents.

Also, I am learning how to sew, now that I live way out in the country. Here's the first thing I made at my sewing class:

It's not super exciting, but just wait! No longer will I be paying someone $15 to hem every single pair of pants I buy. THAT is exciting. Next class: aprons.

Yeah, yeah more excuses and more posts about leaving New York. I've been trying to think of a post the last few days, and honestly, my life has just not been that exciting since I left New York. Or, at least exciting enough to write an interesting post about...there are lots of things I'm excited about (we finished unpacking the apartment; I found a fantastic sandwich shop around the corner from my office; my bangs have finally reached my eyebrows; I set up my drum kit and the cats are obsessed with it)....they just aren't really worth an entire post.

But this morning as I was walking into work, I realized that my new office and my old office perfectly encapsulate the differences between living in New York and living in Boston.

My old office was right on West 125th St, just down the street from the Apollo Theater. It was noisy and always crowded and full of crazy traffic and tour buses and a million things going on. I worked in one of the ugliest buildings (a new-ish concrete monstrosity), surrounded by a combination of decrepit old buildings, restored old buildings, amazing cultural landmarks, and new construction. There were a ton of places to eat soul food or fast food, but it was almost impossible to find a salad for lunch. We shared the building with a range of other organizations and companies, meaning there were always lots of people of all ages and types in the lobby. We were forced to take the elevators up to the third floor as the staircase doors were locked from the outside; sometimes you'd have a nice chat with someone else in the elevator, but I never hated this more than the morning the small child going to the health clinic on the second floor vomited all over the elevator just before the doors opened. I would see tourists in the neighborhood and they usually seemed excited to be there, rather than catatonic as they usually look in midtown or Times Sq.
My office had a long wall of windows overlooking 125th St, facing south, and every time I wandered out of my little cave to look outside, I would see a panorama: just below me, the hustle and bustle of 125th; further away, the skyline of Manhattan. You could see the weather coming in across the city, and the sunset at the right time of year, and hear sirens and car alarms and yelling all the time. My personal office lacked windows, and in fact there was a large conference room and a couple of offices between me and those windows, so I only saw daylight when I left my little office; in the winter that might mean 10 minutes of daylight total, all day. But my office was comfortable enough, and in fact was larger than the bedroom in my Brooklyn apartment. Every major train line and several major bus lines were within walking distance of the office, making it easy to get anywhere in the city; and my coworkers lived everywhere from Washington Heights to Astoria to Cobble Hill to Westchester County. I worked in a number of neighborhoods while I was in New York, and Harlem was the one I liked the best (of my work locations). It felt the most like New York City, full of life and excitement, but it also felt like a neighborhood--I would see the same people on the street every day, there were lots of small businesses (although less and less as time went on), there was a strong sense of history and community.

My new office is in the clock tower of a historic building (not the one pictured above, but similar). It's surrounded by a number of other 200-year old buildings, all built facing a small plaza with trees and benches. It's a gorgeous old brick building surrounded by trees. It's sort of out of the way in relation to public transportation. There is not much traffic and according to my coworkers, it is possible to find free street parking if one gets there early enough. I take a curving staircase up to the third floor, and then ascend to a loft space that's actually in the clock tower, which I share with two other people. (I had to re-arrange my desk to make the hatch to the clock accessible.) My desk faces two large windows, through which I see trees and rooftops, and the weather coming in. It shakes and creaks when it's windy out, and you can actually feel the air coming in when it's stormy. I imagine it will be rather chilly in the winter. At this time of year, we get so much sunlight we have to close a shade in the late afternoon in order to be able to see our computers. Occasionally I hear a siren, but other than that it's just the wind or the building creaking. The best sandwich shop ever is right around the corner, but other than that, there's not much--pretty much every place you can walk to just has sandwiches, salads, and soup; maybe pizza if you're lucky. We share the building with a very fancy design studio, meaning the people I see in the morning are very well dressed and not that friendly, but at least they aren't vomiting in the elevator. (Obviously I have high standards now.) Once in awhile I miss all the buzz and energy. But I realized this morning that at this point in my life, seeing trees every day and being able to look out a window is even better.