Well!

That was the most anticlimactic (least climactic?) hurricane I’ve ever been through.

Then again, anything short of Al Rocher escorting animals two by two into a giant ark while humanity was swept away by the tsunami wave from 2012 might have seemed anticlimactic after the news coverage this week.

(Now what am I going to do with all these D batteries?!)

Okay, I’m kidding. But in all seriousness, for all of us these storms mostly skipped over, there are thousands of people out there who were not so lucky, and relief efforts for them are ongoing. Take a minute to find out what you can do to help at the American Red Cross’s website, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

(Every text you send is another moment you can delay picking up all those leaves in your yard…)

And so it begins…

These two photos were taken from my house on Saturday afternoon in Medford, outside of Boston. I cannot get over how HUGE this storm is — the center of it is still down in North Carolina, and we’re already seeing the start of it up in Massachusetts!

We’ve been getting ready for a couple of days, but this morning my landlord and her husband came over to help us finish preparing the house. He cleaned out the gutters, and she helped us close all the storm windows. (To close mine, we had to take on a beehive in the corner of my window with only a hockey stick and some air freshener. That was fun.)

Right now, my car is in the driveway within shot of a tree and a telephone pole. I’m going to try to move it to a covered garage in the area tomorrow morning, but it might just have to stay put: right now, the garage isn’t planning to open to the public until after 70 mph winds are supposed to hit us, and there is no way I’m walking home in that, lol!

Hang on, East Coast!

Paris, ca. 1957.

From my grandparents’ slide collection — more details here.

Around the house… my new place in Medford.

The nice thing about moving to France after college is that, by comparison, everything afterwards seems so much easier

It’s been a long week without Internet, but it was finally installed today, so I can post these photos from Monday! The drive up wasn’t too bad, aside from how it began raining the moment I crossed the Massachusetts state line. That didn’t seem to bode well, but it let up by the time I got into my house, and I was able to unload the whole car that first night.

Since then, I’ve just been unpacking my room and the kitchen and watching a lot of TV on my laptop while I waited for the Internet to be installed.

Speaking of which, there are many things I miss about France, but there are times when I’m really really glad I’m back in America.

Like when I need an Internet connection.

In France (as you may recall), I had to go to the office in person, lug all the equipment home myself on the tram, wait several weeks for the first appointment with the technician in which he told us the line was faulty, get my landlord to sign an authorization slip, make another appointment with the technician… and finally got working Internet one month later.

In America, I called Comcast on the phone, got their earliest appointment, waited three days for the technician to show up with everything he needed, discovered the line had to be rewired, watched the technician rewire it on the spot, and voila! had working Internet one hour later.

So congratulations, Comcast — I’m sure I’ll complain to high heaven about you in the months to come, but at least you’re faster than the French.

(Then again, Whole Foods does not know how to properly bake a baguette, so…)

Moving day!

Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

Moving to BOSTON! (I’ve been waiting months to say that.)

My car is so hilarious right now, pictures can’t do it justice. There’s barely space for me inside, and somehow tomorrow morning I have to find room for one more bag of clothes and my laptop. Um. We’ll see how that goes…

A walk through Annapolis

If you’ve been watching the news, you know that the weather’s been pretty miserable around here lately. Yesterday it finally improved slightly (by which I mean it was only in the mid-90s and was slightly less humid) so I finally made it down to Annapolis for a photo walk.

Although I brought my DSLR, I ended up deciding to just work with my iPhone. I’ve been looking at a lot of people-focused street photography recently, and my goal was to practice photographing the people that I came across — something I thought I could do less conspicuously with my iPhone.

Of course, my walk went nothing like I’d planned. (Spoiler alert: there are no real photos involving people in this post. Well, except for my feet — my frequent subjects whenever I’m procrastinating. I mean, they may not be particularly exciting… but they’re always there.)

First of all, Annapolis on a Tuesday afternoon, as it turns out, is an unfortunate choice for shots of people. There were very few people out and about, all of whom were dressed pretty conservatively and liked to make eye contact as you passed them. I think I need a bigger city where people ignore each other.

Second, it was hot. 95 degrees might be cooler than 115, but it’s still pretty damn uncomfortable. So I wound up cutting my walk much shorter than planned. (Of course, now I’m thinking, “Why didn’t I focus on that? Stake out water fountains? Look for packs of legs in shorts?” Lesson learned: next time I’m setting out with a plan.)

Lastly — and I didn’t realize this one until I got home — after awhile, I sort of… forgot about the people. I did what I always do when I’m exploring a new place: I got sucked into the architecture, and the history of the buildings, and the atmosphere, and started focusing on the details that caught my eye. And that wasn’t a complete loss — I got some photos that I really like. But I don’t think it gives you a complete picture of the place.

Then again, maybe that’s a tall order for one photo walk.