So much pomp. So much circumstance.

We've logged a lot of air travel time over the past few weeks. The Brassart and Boswell families had a lot of celebrating to do- Amiee, Rachael, AND Brad all graduated within 48 hours of one another! To simplify our travel schedule for your reading pleasure it boils down to this: we all gathered in Jackson, TN for Union's graduation ceremony Saturday night, and Bill, Barbara, Brad, Claire, and I made our way back to Boston for Brad's ceremony at 1:00 p.m. on Monday. It was fast and furious.

I have lots of pictures to share, but I need to note how extremely proud I am of all of our

graduates. Amiee and Rachael both graduated Magna Cum Laud (!) and really invested themselves during their time at Union. Rachael played varsity soccer all four years, despite injury and obstacles. Amiee immersed herself in all manner of Union life: the elite choirs, Residence Life leadership, Student Activities Council (president!), and various elements of student government. SO, SO proud.

And Brad. What can I even say? He dominated his master's degree. With such class and character. He made nothing less than an A in all of his classes, which, by the way, were HARD. I am such a proud wife. Without a doubt, he deserves his place in the Ph.D. program at Duke. I could not be prouder.

All of the pictures of Amiee/at Union are courtesy of Haaken Reed Photography (with the exception of Rachael's picture). All the pictures of Brad/at Boston College are courtesy of me. 

Enjoy!

Kyleigh, Amiee, and Laura Kay. Roommates for 3 years. Also, Amiee and Laura Kay have been friends for 15 or 16 years.

Claire wasn't in her happiest mood...

The School of Theology and Ministry ceremony was great- short and sweet. The address was really wonderful. My favorite part was when he (the Dean) talked about vocation as the place where our greatest joys meets the world's greatest needs. Loved it. 

So proud of our graduates! Many thanks to Union, dearest Union and Boston College!

Things Locals Know

I would never presume to call myself a Bostonian. However, after living here for two years, I would venture to call myself a local at this point. As a local, there are things that I've learned about Boston/Massachusetts that I might not notice as a tourist/visitor. 

For example, anyone who visits here will quickly learn that the public transportation system is referred to as the T. The full name is the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), but everyone calls it the T. The T is made up of several differently colored lines (red, blue, orange, silver, and green). The green line (the one we primarily use) is also broken down into letters (B, C, D, and E). When referring to different lines, locals don't really shorten the names of the lines...despite the fact that MBTA is shortened to T. We don't say, "Hey, I'll be home soon. I'm on the green." We go ahead and say "I'm on the green line." That extends to the lettered lines, too (i.e. "Hey, it'll take a million years for me to get home. I'm on the B line." The B line is reallllly slow).

On a similar note, although both trains and buses are part of the T, if you say, "I'll take the T," you mean that you're taking the train, not the bus. If you're taking the bus, you usually say the number of the bus you plan to take (i.e. "I'll take the 86 bus."). Small little quirks, but they're pretty universal in Boston, I've found. I also found that it sounded really odd when I saw an instagram caption of a visitor to Boston that said he was "on the green." I literally had to notice that the picture was taken on a train to figure out what "on the green" meant. 

Another little local quirk that we caught onto really quickly was that Commonwealth Avenue (a major thoroughfare) is always called Comm. Ave. Always. Unless you are not from here. Or haven't been here longer than a day. It's not "Commonwealth Avenue" or "Commonwealth." It's Comm. Ave. Similarly, Massachusetts Avenue is "Mass. Ave." and Harvard Avenue is "Harvard Ave." (but not "Harv. Ave." Don't be ridiculous.)

Incidentally, almost anything with "Massachusetts" in its name is shortened to "Mass. ___." "Mass. Gen." is short for Massachusetts General Hospital (also called MGH), and the Massachusetts Turnpike is the "Mass pike." Boston, Massachusetts is "Boston, Mass." Any of the University of Massachusetts campuses are referred to as "U. Mass. Amherst/Boston/Lowell." A glaring exception: MIT. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is just MIT. Like, universally. Globally, and whatnot.

In the same vein of shortening names, Boston University is BU, and Boston College is BC. I don't even remember the last time I heard anyone actually use the full name of either school. People just don't.

Dunkin Donuts is on every street corner here. It's a New England-based chain, so they love it here. Boston isn't really into chains unless they began here (or nearby). They DON'T do Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, to New Englanders, is the beast. The sign of the end times. Target, however, is acceptable. Don't question us on this. 

It's expected that, if you live here, you are a Red Sox fan, a Bruins fan (that's hockey, folks), a Celtics fan, and a Patriots fan (we're not really Patriots fans, but we keep that to ourselves.). You're generally expected to know when games are, too. We bluff a lot.

September 1st is a day to stay off the streets. Literally. It's an across-Boston move-in/move-out day (of apartments), and it's NUTS. People will actually move all of their possessions out of the apartment and onto the sidewalk, as the next tenant moves his or her stuff in. The sidewalks are full of stuff, and man, if it's yours, you better guard it...BECAUSE it's also common knowledge that if something is left on the sidewalk and isn't locked up, it's fair game. We are proud owners of a sidewalk lamp and sidewalk bookshelf. Quality stuff, too. Not even kidding and not even ashamed.

You must know how to parallel park- or figure it out really quickly. Otherwise, you will not park, and you'll be driving your car around for the rest of eternity.

Pedestrians have the right-of-way...unless the cars want it...and sort of vice versa. Jaywalking is not really a thing here, so if you're a pedestrian and think you can make it across without a light, go for it. It's expected. You can even do it in front of policemen. They do it, too. We figured this out early on. You can tell who's from out of town, according to when they cross the street. 

These are just a few of my observations. There are probably a bunch of others that I just don't even recognize any more. Anybody that has visited Boston: are there any others I'm leaving out?

Spring Break: Boston-Style

Many, many weeks ago, Mom and Amiee came to visit us for a few days. They came up for Amiee's Spring Break...unfortunately for Amiee, because she's student-teaching, her Spring Break was connected to the school system's break and was a week off of Union's break. In an attempt to make it more interesting, we invited her to come to Boston. 

The first night they were here...Brad and I actually took our quick trip to Rhode Island. They claimed that they were more than happy to hang with Claire. :) We then proceeded to spend the rest of their visit partaking of some of our Boston favorites: Boloco, Cambridge (Mr. Bartley's Burgers, Harvard Yard, The Curious George store, Black Ink), lunch in the North End (Regina's and Mike's), and general hanging out. It was lots of fun, and I'm really thankful they came, seeing as we now know that we're moving. I wish we could have squeezed a few more things in; alas, it's rather difficult with a baby in tow. 

A few pictures as proof that they did, in fact, visit:

So, technically, this is not a picture of Mom or Amiee. And, it has little to do with their visit. It was, however, taken the day Brad and I returned from Rhode Island. I wanted documentation of some of the piled up snow in the parking lot of the Theological library at BC. This is after tons of it had melted, too. Winter is serious up here, y'all. Even now that it's May, I had to put a jacket on Claire yesterday.

We did this while Amiee was here. I made her pose for this shot.

Claire was SO cooperative...This is at Regina's, but you can't tell. Just trust me.

At Mr. Bartley's in Cambridge! It has been featured on the Food Network, and Mom actually saw it on there after I told her I was planning to take them there (but before we actually went).

I think this was just in front of some shops in the North End as we walked to Regina's. I think.

I didn't get tons of pictures, but we did have tons of fun. Thanks for spending your Spring Break with us, Ame! And, I'm sorry half of it was spent dealing with my whole eye incident...