The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

It's almost 2009! Like most people, these last few days of the year leave me time to reflect back on where I was last year, and where I would like to be next year. It also gives me time to be thankful for the experiences I have had, and I think that '08 may go down as the best and biggest experiences for me yet. Last year I had just started at the Treatment Center, my first big girl job since finishing grad school. I was just beginning to figure out how to balance a career, a social life, and my own needs and dreams. I had a great support network of friends here and afar. I was single, but no longer as broken, and much more open to the idea of not being single any longer; unfortunately I was still unable to meet anyone that I wanted to give that up for. I was looking forward to '08 for what it would bring professionally, but also still hoping and praying for what it might bring me personally. This year I am in my second big girl job, after moving on from the Treatment Cente...

On Monday evening this world lost a tremendous woman, while heaven welcomed home a beloved Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Aunt, Friend and Christian. I feel absolutely blessed to have known Janet O'Shea , and to have been privy to her stories, her wit, and her elegant way of living and allowing others to live. She was a woman of tremendous grace and love, and will be missed by many. I am lucky to have spent this past year getting to know her and the beautiful family that she has; I am luckiest of all to have witnessed the incredible love between her and my own love, Matty. Witnessing the love and care that he had for his Gramma was inspiring, and further solidified my commitment to raise a family with him with all of the honor that Janet raised her own family. Further, it was proof that there is something so incredibly awe-inspiring about the O'Shea men, that you can't help but love them with everything that you have inside of you. Thank you Janet, for welcoming me into your fa...

The holiday season is definitely here, I can tell by my jam packed schedule, the Christmas cards in the mail, the ones I need to get sent out on the table, the mass baking going on in our kitchen, holiday parties every other night, the onslaught of phone calls from relatives, and an overall feeling of...bliss? Yep. Let me explain. I was talking to Nina on the phone last night, something that doesn't get to happen nearly enough, and she was telling me what she's been up to (grad school finals up the wazoo, working too much, taking care of the hubby) and as I was telling her what I've been up to (baking cookies to make yummy plates for co-workers, decorating the tree, watching Christmas movies, having a glass of wine) she fell silent before pointing out the fact that I am in total domestic bliss . The words "I haven't really been out, I've got so many cookies to bake and I need to wrap Matty's presents, and I've got this volunteer project next week" ...

Here it is - the last month of 08, and what a year it has been! I had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and so much to look forward to as the year ends and a new one begins. I spent the holiday with the O'Sheas, and it was lovely as could be. Matty's Aunt Jane is an amazing cook, and she made enough to feed an army...or 9 of us. It was so much fun to hang out with the family, especially Matty's Dad, who may just be one of the funniest people on the planet, and definitely the best story teller ever. We traded work stories, and found out we have come "clientele" in common. Matty and I had spent that morning baking and watching the Macy's Parade, and spent the later evening hanging out with Emily and her sister. The next day we got even more family time in with Matty's sister - who turned another year more fabulous - over lunch and presents for the birthday girl. We got to spend a lot of time with loved ones, and the whole weekend together, which ...

I've been spending a whole lot of time, energy and emotion into deciding where I am going to be for Christmas, and it has been incredibly tiring, exhausting, and has just plain been taking the fun out of the whole idea of Christmas. I LOVE Christmas, with a passion. I love decorating the tree; Christmas movies like the original Grinch and Christmas Story; my iPod library of Christmas music that ranges from Dean Martin to the Ramones ; baking cookies for strangers; walking around the Common and looking at the lights; buying gifts; receiving gifts (it's my blog, why lie?). I just plain love Christmas. I think it's a good time just to be happy and enjoy the fact that people are extra nice and giving to others around this time. Christmas has also been a very family oriented time for me, and I have only spent one Christmas away from my Mom in my whole 26 years on this planet. That was my first Christmas here in Boston, and it was pretty fucking miserable. It was Richard and I...

Happy voting day! Matty said it best when we woke up this morning: "today is a beautiful day to get the Republicans out of the White House." It is still early here on the East Coast, and I found out Alaska's polls are open until midnight EST, so I plan on pulling a late night, and hopefully a late celebration. I told Matty not to drink all the High Life so that we have some champagne to pop. I am hopeful that Obama is going to take this by a landslide, but we do have a plan B, just in case McCain and Palin somehow pull this off (ie. ballots at the bottom of the ocean, Florida style). Matty's company owns a plant in Belgium, and they love social reform there (including for prisoners, yay !). Couple that with our love of Allagash and Duvel and my ability to speak French and well, you get where this is going. Au Revoir to the decline of Western Civilization and Bon Jour to socialism! I'm happy to see all of the young people out there voting, as well as those wh...

Well, so much for my original intention of this being the way for everyone to keep up with my life! Apparently even I can't keep up with my life sometimes, but I'm going to give this another go and promise (again) to stay more current. As I announced in my last post, I accepted a new position and made a career change, and it is now just over a month and I couldn't be more happy with my decision. It was incredibly hard to say good-bye to my last position - my last two weeks were spent mostly doing closure with the men that I worked with, and it was extremely emotionally tolling. I wanted to be able to sit with them and talk about their futures and give them whatever parting words I felt I could. It was also an opportunity for them to say good-bye to me and allow them to explain the impact that I had on their lives. This was probably the most emotional process; I knew that I was making a difference in their lives, but I had no idea what a huge impact I personally made on them...

First and foremost, I dedicate this blog to my bestie Emily, who also happens to be my number one fan. We skipped out on Petco so I could put fingers to keyboard...and we were a little PTSD after going to Target on a Sunday. This is never, ever a good idea, made worse by the fact that my beautiful city is infested by terrible, loud, filthy students...thousands strong. This is my least favorite time of the year for so many reasons, including: 1) September 1st aka Boston's moving day. The day that thousands of students swarm like polo-shirt wearing locusts with their ridiculous WASPy parents in tow to clog the streets with U-Hauls of dorm-style furniture, and the ones going back to whatever mid-Western hole they climbed out of leave their entire house's furniture on the curb. Fucking nightmare. 2) Said locusts, who are free from their parents for what seems to be the first time in their lives, get wasted on Jaegerbombs , walk around, and ensure that they are as loud as possib...

It occurred to me today that I have moved 5 times in 5 years - that's more than some people move in their entire lives! It's stressful, tiring, and dirty...but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel when you get into your new place. At least that's how it's been for me. I always like to purge a bunch of crap when I move, it feels kind of liberating and quasi-minimalist. I somehow managed not to horde too much stuff this year, so it's been fairly, dare I say , simple. I am actually almost done aside from the kitchen and stuff that I still need around my bedroom. Not bad, considering I once decided to move without packing first and invited a bunch of people over for a blitz-fill-up-the-box-and-run party. It was ridiculous. As of the 1st (and maybe, fingers crossed, even earlier) Matty and I will be official Allstoners. It is quite a change for me...a whole number in my zip code and no more Brighton! Good thing it's only a few blocks away...and closer to...

Wow, this was a crazy busy weekend. Here it is 8:30 and I am toast. Friday I tried to go to the game against Toronto but, as Adam pointed out, I am the master of the rain dance, and the game was postponed. There have been two rained out games this season, and I've been to both of them. I'm from Nevada - shouldn't I have better luck? The best was definitely made out of the situation though, I was at Beerworks and there was Watermelon beer aplenty, and it gave Dave and I a lot of hang out/catch up time. Even though we live together, our schedules are pretty opposite, so we rarely get the chance just to hang out and drink beers anymore. And like old times, we accidentally drank a lot of beers. By the time they called the game at a bit past 8 we were both a little sauced. I wanted to go to JP to meet with an old friend but the combination of beer, the torrential downpour outside and the slow ass T made that impossible. Instead Emily, her Amy and I went to Deep Ellum for moscow...

It began like this...I awoke at 4:30 am with little recollection of going to sleep and the worst case of the thirsties ever. Crap. I got totally wasted last night. Again. After chugging an entire Nalgene of water I attempted to go back to sleep until my alarm would go off and I would have to go to work. It didn't happen. I got up and went to the bathroom and did some serious puking. This is totally unlike me, as I never, ever throw up due to anything drink related. I knew this was a bad sign. I was also feeling a residual bummed out feeling over the further realization that I had last night of how unhappy I really am at my current career position (sorry, that gets it's own blog later). I knew I was not going to be able to go to work, which is such a dick move considering I just got back from vacation. Shit. I woke Matty up to get some advice on my predicament, which he resolved by lulling me back to sleepy feeling and telling me to call work and get back to sleep. I did. Then t...

If this were Sesame Street, T would definitely be the letter of the day. T is for tired. I never, ever get jet lag but taking the red-eye home from LA totally screwed me up. I haven't been able to get to bed as early as I would like to, and getting up is like getting in line for a punch in the face...totally not happening. Emily and I decided that there is something going on in the atmosphere because she is also having the same problem. Even Matty and Louis have been insomniacs lately - both of whom are usually deep in snoresville by the time I roll over to tell them good night. Emily and I have decided to blame the upcoming change in weather, the full moon, and the meteor shower that is going to take place tonight (I just found out about the latter...we should be scientists Em). Tonight I really want to get some sleep, we'll see if it happens. perhaps Mr. Sam Adams in my hand will help (Summer Ale will soon be gone!). T is for TRP board. aka. the Treatment Review Panel boa...

You may be asking yourself now, "why the hell does Stef need a blog, she spends too much damn time on myspace/facebook/perezhilton as it is". Well, I have one because I need one. I get writers cramp too bad to keep a journal, and I can drink and type with much more ease. But really, I think this will be a good way to organize my thoughts, and keep my scattered friends better posted on my life. When your closest friends span from Seattle to Spain, it can be hard to keep them up to the minute on the important things in life - like what I'm doing on any given Monday night. (The answer tonight is sitting on the couch watching the Red Sox, while Matty reads the Augusten Burroughs book I just finished, having just ate a super yummy "smothered pork chop" dish that said Matty made, and applying for jobs at the Crime and Justice Institute). I really just plan on rambling on about my life, and sharing things that I think you ought to know like if Matty and I went for a bi...

So, let's face it, I'm totally fascinating. You know, in that "I totally set my DVR to that and am checking Perez Hilton every 24 minutes for updates" sort of way. Except not really. I'm just a girl, in a city, with a lovely cast of supporting characters. My best friends are amazing, and my boyfriend, to die for. I do funny things. I do nice things. I've done some crazy things. Chances are I'll do more funny/nice/crazy things. I eat lots of food and drink lots of beer. I read books and see movies. And I talk mad shit. So I need a blog, because I am fucking interesting, damnit.