So the water here is unsanitary.

In case you didn’t know, Dirrty is the name of Christina Aguilera’s new song. If you watch “Making the Video” (and I know more do than would admit), you know exactly what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

I went to clean out a cup in the breakroom the other day and was baffled because I couldn’t get it clean. The water always looked cloudy in the cup and I was thinking, “what the hell did I have in there?” I ran the water straight into my hands only to discover that the dirtiness had another source. The ladies in the breakroom were laughing at me, telling me that there’s enough chlorine in the water to kill a puppy and this was my “Welcome to Boston!”

Other fun stories about water include the broken main that turned our pressure (and half of the city’s) into dribble the other night. Of course, Matt and Jeff’s water was just fine (how they avoid catastrophe is beyond me).

As an act of faith, on his part, God decided to let October 23rd be my first day of snow. Snow in October, it almost makes you want to cry. It looked more like little pieces of Slushy (or Icee) falling from the sky and I felt like an idiot gazing in amazement at the small pile that gathered on my umbrella. While everyone else was avoiding it under the rafters at the bus stop, I was staring up at the sky, trying to land some on my tongue.

By midday, though, things were back to normal and the sun even came out. It looks as though it was some sort of fluke and I don’t think it’s going to happen again anytime soon (knock on frozen wood). For those of you who don’t see the significance in 10-23, it’s all about high school and a special little number which represents the key to understanding chemistry. For three years I celebrated Mole Day with my geeky high school pals and I bet when I am 80 I will still think about it. We had a theme each year, I can’t think of them right now, and we had competitions as to who could create the coolest mole. We even sang songs.

God, I am a dork.

Fun things about Boston:

1. Store 24: Like the name implies, these convenience stores are open 24-7. Even the CVS doesn’t make such promises. And the best part about the store is its catch phrase “Store 24- ’cause you just can’t wait.”

2. There’s a big park in the middle. I didn’t know before I came that Boston Common referred to more than just a failed Thursday night NBC sitcom. Besides having symmetrical gardens, there’s also big Swan boats you can ride. What else do you need in life?

3. You get to listen to Northern accents and try to decipher what the are saying. Someone today told me that they are playing “dots” tonights. Dots? Is this a new game? I soon discovered that he meant “darts” and proceeded to make fun of him for it. In return, he started speaking in a fake southern accent and you can’t imagine how funny a northerner sounds trying to do that.

4. You can walk places. In DeLand, I would walk three blocks from my house and be in a senior community. Here, I walk three blocks and pass half a dozen Thai restaurants and Dunkin Doughnuts. No joke.

5. Dunkin Doughnuts are landmarks. They are on every corner and whenever you ask for directions they always involve passing one along the way. “Ok, when you get to the corner you’ll see a Dunkin Doughnuts. Just swing a left right after that.” They should call them DDs. Double Ds.

Stay tuned for more on the list.

It turns out Beth and I aren’t weaklings after all…

Remember how it was so cold in our apartment? Say, it’s in the 30s and we have no heat? Yeah. The landlady had told us that the heat automatically comes on factoring in the outside/inside temperatures. So we were thinking, hmm, it certainly should be on by now, but if we complain we will seem like Florida wusses (wusses being a real word of course). So we said nothing, continuing to frost over.

It turns out that our heat is broken. Phyllis (landlady) had to manually turn it on for us last night. You cannot imagine how nice it is not to wake up in the middle of the night because you can’t feel your toes. And walking around in a warm apartment at 7am, there’s nothing like it

Now that we have the heat thing figured out, it’s time to prepare for snow. That’s right, it’s going to snow this weekend. Everyone’s like, “what’s the big deal? Haven’t seen snow before or something?” Actually sir, not really. I have seen snow once, it was already on the ground and it was like 60 outside.

I’ve been trying on “winter” coats, trying to find one that doesn’t make me look like a big rectangle or a russian grandmother. When I have them on, I feel like the younger son from “A Christmas Story,” the one who falls down in the snow. “I can’t get up, I can’t get up!!”

Hmm, I wonder if it’s beach weather in Florida.

I can’t believe it’s cold outside. More so, I can’t believe the weather man keep describing the temperatures for New England. Why is it so hard to accept that I live in Boston?

I have been here since Aug. 24th, almost two months. I found a job through a temp agency and now work with the Nursing Recruiters at Boston Medical Center (fun fact: they are the largest charity hospital in New England. And who says that you don’t learn anything at orientation?). Beth found a WAY OUT (refer to London tubes) of her job and starts working in HR with me tomorrow. Fun stuff.

We just got back from New Hampshire- we went there this weekend to see the fall foilage. A relatively new term for this Southerner. We did the “touristy” thing, driving through the White Mountains and stopping at waterfalls and a basin (found out what that was finally) in an attemp to vacation like the Northern folk. We even picked up some leaves for pressin’. I’ve done it, I am now 30 years old. Hehe.