62. September 27th, 2010 Picture.

Since moving to Boston proper a few years ago, I have been involved in a city initiative called ONEin3.  It was created by the Mayor to serve the one-third of Boston’s population that is between the ages of 20 and 34. The program connects Boston’s young adults with resources related to home buying, business development, professional networking, and civic engagement.  At first I was involved on a neighborhood level, planning events and getting involved with South Boston, and then I was selected to serve a 2 year term on the advisory council.  Since my time has since run out on the council, I’ve gotten back involved with the neighborhood sector of it, plus joining a brand new Alumni group of others who have since ‘graduated’ from ONEin3. 

The first Alumni event was at bar downtown called McGreevy’s, which ‘claims’ to be the oldest sports bar in America.  I mean, it’s not.  It openned originally in 1894, but then closed during Prohibition.  It was closed for 88 years before it was reestablished.  I don’t think that counts.  Anywho, the whole reason I am talking about this place, is not because of the loose definition of ‘oldest’ or its general fabrication of history, but because it is owned by the Dropkick Murphys.  Anyone who knows/appreciates Irish music probably knows, should know, about the Dropkicks.  They are a Boston institution, and their song ‘Tessie’ is played after ‘Dirty Water’ when the Red Sox win games at home, and ‘Shipping up to Boston’ will always conjure up images of ‘The Departed’ and Papelbon dancing in a kilt.  Sometimes the bar will do events where the Dropkicks will be the bartenders for the night - it's a pretty cool concept when you think about it.  


I snapped this picture of my receipt, thinking it would be a nice way to mention ONEin3, plus offer a little Boston trivia.

62. September 26th, 2010 Picture.

Since the weekend was a little hectic, I figured I better catch up on errands and such that Sunday.  I 'convinced' Ratty to go to the Christmas Tree Shop with me, and promised a stop at the 99 for dinner.  Ratty had a gift card to the Nines, but my cravings and motive for wanting to go was completely genuine.  Promise.


I love the Christmas Tree Shop, but always manage to come home $100 poorer and have absolutely nothing substantial to show for it.  I'm totally okay with it though.  Where else can you buy framed pictures for $10, pick up a Yankee Candle, and see the largest selection of travel toiletries on the planet -  or at least in Somerville, Massachusetts?  I could wander up and down the aisles forever, somehow convincing myself that I really do need a complete new set of coffee cups, and that the soup spoons I have just simply won't do.  I do have a deep love for all things soup, especially soup spoons, so this is a completely legitimate want.  I always come home a set of Amy stickers and a pad of paper that says 'From the Desk of Amy'.  Wait, they're only a DOLLAR?!  I'll take twelve.

After leaving the Christmas Tree Shop and filling up the car with all our random purchases, Ratty proclaimed to me that he was really great at pushing the cart into the little cart corralling area.  This was such a random declaration, but thankfully he was willing to demonstrate.  High kick and all.  I had never met someone who was as proud of this type of skill before.  I had never heard anyone decree that they were 'The Best' at it either.  Next time I am obviously going to need to challenge him and see who is really better.

And finally, showing off the 99 gift card.  Thanks to Ratty for using it, and thanks to my mom for giving it to him.  

62. September 25th, 2010 Picture.

 Sept 25^th was a Saturday, a nice Indian summer day, and my friend Kelly had invited me and Ratty over for an impromptu BBQ.  I told Kel that I’d bring some dessert, so Ratty and I stopped off at Sweet Tooth bakery in Southie, which has an amazing selection of cupcakes, ranging in flavors from Boston Cream Pie, to Red Velvet and a chocolate ganache dipped one with a fortune cookie on top.  We grabbed some coffees and were on the road. 


I was so excited for this little party, and it would be my first chance to meet the new lil baby!  Sophie was born at the end of August, almost a year to the day of Tom and Kelly's first wedding anniversary.  I'd be dying to visit, but they were still getting accustom to being parents, obviously, and I didn't want to intrude during a quiet Sunday afternoon and disrupt the new balance of their family.  

Once at Kel's, we sat outside in the nice warm weather and chatted.  It was myself, Ratty, Kelly, her husband Tom, their friends Jen and her husband, and our sorority sister Ashlen and her fiance Joe.  It was the first time that we had all been together since Kelly and Tom's wedding, so it was a great change of pace to be relaxing and catching up.  I obviously stole Sophie and held her the entire time.  I really hope no one else wanted a chance, because there was no way I was giving her up!

After taking about 1 million pictures of her sleeping on my lap, I decided that I needed to be in one of them.  Look how teeny she is!  Or was rather, I saw her recently and she has gotten so chubby!  So chubby but so so so so cute.

All the desserts Ratty and I brought.  I didn't realize that Sweet Tooth did the cupcakes for Kel's baby shower.  I was there obviously, but didn't realize they trekked all the way to Southie for the desserts.  They are pretty awesome though, totally worth it in my book.

We pretty much spent the entire day at Kelly and Tom's.  I think we clocked in at 7+ hours.  There were beers, food, college football and lots of baby holding.  I absolutely love holding babies, and I think they really like me too.  Except right after this picture was taken because as I went to burp Princess Soph, she projectile vomited all over me.  Good thing she is so adorable!

Once she was all fed, she got sleepy.  Looking at this picture, I still can't figure out if she looks more like Tom or Kel.  I think that she is the perfect little mix of both.  If you asked either of them though, they would both say she looks exactly like Tom.  I like to give Kel some credit, she did give birth to her, you know.

Ratty doesn't really like holding babies, he is afraid they are going to roll right out of his arms and break somehow.  He has told me that the only time he has held a baby recently was when he was sitting on a couch, surrounded by pillows.  I tried my best to inform him that she most likely wouldn't roll right out of his arms, and if he has any upper body strength at all, he would be able to support her for at least 5 minutes.  He wanted nothing to do with it, and instead just watched me hold her all day.  I did try to give her to him at one point, when he was sitting in the recliner, but that lasted .5 seconds.  After that, he just looked at Soph, see above.

Overall, it was a fantastic day.  I got to see Ashlen, the first time since she got engaged, met the newest little Gamma Phi legacy, hung out with some great friends and enjoyed a pretty spectacular September day.

62. September 24th, 2010 Picture.

September 24th was a Friday night, and Ratty and I decided to do a little something different.  Since it was the 25th anniversary of 'The Breakfast Club', the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline was offering a midnight showing.  Ratty and I thought it would be fun to go out to dinner before hand, at a new restaurant The Regale Beagle, and then go see the movie.  It sounded like a pretty low key night, aside from starting a movie at midnight, but I was still excited about it.


Since the movie would be starting pretty late, or really early, depending on how you look at it, we made plans to grab a drink beforehand.  That 'one drink' quickly turned into an invitation to a PR office grand opening cocktail party, where we bumped into some of our friends.  For real, this is what my life is like.  Ratty gets invited to all these fun parties, and suddenly our causal plans are diverted to something swanky.  The party was at the PR company's brand new digs smack in the middle of Harvard Square, so it took little to convince me to go.  It was a pretty fun party, with custom cocktails (I did not try the apple cider martini, I just couldn't get behind it), and lots of passed apps.  One of my sorority sisters, whom I met through the Alumnae Chapter, owns a photobooth company with her husband and they were working the event.  We got to eat, drink and chat all night, which is pretty much the best thing ever.  Once the party started to wind down, Ratty and I headed out to Brookline to go to dinner and see 'The Breakfast Club'.  I am not joking when I say that I am tired just reading this.  


Dinner was fantastic, but it was getting late and we couldn't fully enjoy it because we had to rush to get to the movie.  Ratty and I definitely want to get back to The Regale Beagle, on an night where that is our only plan, so we can really enjoy this new place.  


There weren't a ton of people at the movie, not surprising, but it was really cool to see 'The Breakfast Club' on the big screen.  I've seen it probably a hundred times, although my favoritest brat pack movie is hands down 'Sixteen Candles', swoon Jake Ryan with your sweater vest and your little red sports car, swoon.  Old Navy has a new vintage t-shirt line and there is one with Jake Ryan's face on it, I am so tempted to buy it, but like, where could I possibly wear that?

Anyway, as you can tell from the picture, Ratty and I are looking R-O-U-G-H.  I know for a fact that I fell asleep for 5 minutes during the movie, I missed the part where Molly Ringwald puts her lipstick on sans hands.  When I woke up after 'resting my eyes' I looked over Ratty and he too was out cold.  A few minutes later he woke up and pretended as if nothing happened.  It was still fun and I slept VERY soundly that night!

17. Donate Blood (again) and Not Pass Out.

BCBS had a blood drive on December 3^rd and I wavered about participating.  I’ve only given blood once in my entire life, in college, when I was 19 and weighted 120 pounds soaking wet.  Remember those days? Sigh.  Anyway, that one time I was able to give blood, I had to be carried back to my dorm room.  I remember it was around Halloween because my roommate and I were planning on going to Halloween party and I had to bail because I couldn’t get out of bed.  It really did me in. 

I had tried to donate a few other times, besides that one, but had been turned away each time because of my anemia. They test a small sample of blood before starting anything, and it needs to rank 12.5 or higher. 

With all these factors, you can see why I might be hesitant to donate blood again, especially at work.  The last thing I’d want is to pass out and be found under my desk, or be so sick I’d need to go home.  An email went around from one of the other admins on my floor, asking for people to sign up because participation up until that point had been low.  It also shared the fact that we’d earn a ½ day off AND we’d get a free small Yankee Candle.  SIGN.ME.UP.

I plugged myself on the calendar for 10:15, smack in between 2 meetings, and mentally prepared.  I stocked up on fluids that morning, and even brought a B Monster smoothie to work, to replenish vitamins.  Some may say I overreacted, while I like to think of it as being proactive.  I brought my camera down to the room to document my blood donating as much as I could without being creepy.  I signed in, and waited a few minutes until it was my time to go to the screening room.  They asked me a bunch of questions, took my vitals, tested my iron, 12.9 thank you very much!  Once I was cleared as healthy enough to donate, I was brought to a table where I was prepped.  The whole process took about 10 minutes, I was actually a little faster than everyone else donating, because my blood is perfect and awesome.  I waited until all the nurses were paying attention to other people, and I snapped a few semi-creepy pictures of me donating.

{I passed!}

{Photographic evidence that I went through with it!}

{I took this myself, imagine if I asked someone else?  THAT would have been creepy.}

{All done!}

{My post donation snack.}

Once I was all done, I grabbed some pretzels and a grape juice and sat for a few minutes until I was given the okay to leave.  I grabbed another grape juice for the road and went back to my cube.  I have to say, that while I didn’t pass out, or require carrying of any sort, it DEFINITELY knocked me down.  All day I was exhausted and dizzy, unable to focus. Even when I left work, I still wasn’t feeling 100%.  I had plans to go to Ratty’s apartment that night to hang out, and I barely made it from my car to his front door without laying in the middle of the street from pure exhaustion.  I obviously underestimated how awful I felt, because I thought I could make it to his apartment while carrying a duffle bag full of clothes, a computer and snacks.  I had to stop 3 times between my car and his door to catch my breath.  By the time I made it in his doorway I literally collapsed on the stairs, panting, absolutely sure I was going to either pass out or throw up, or both.  I left my bags in the lobby, texting Ratty to let him know to carry them up, and made the treacherous climb up 5 flights of stairs to his apartment.  I rested on the 3rd floor landing.  By the time I got to his door my heart was being out of my chest and my arms and legs were shaking.  I guess they really DO mean ‘no heavy lifting’ and ‘no strenuous activity’ on their paperwork.  For good reason.

I have to say, that although I thought I was dying, it did feel good to donate blood.  I am B negative, which is a relatively rare type, we can only give and receive from the same blood type, so supplies are limited.  I should definitely donate more often, but perhaps on a weekend, where I have nothing to do, and I don’t have to go back to work right after.

{Here is my wondering reward for donating.  It takes so little for me to be impressed.}

87. Visit 3 Farmers Markets.

While on Nantucket in July, Ratty and I were strolling down Easy Street, no for real it's called Easy Street, when we stumbled upon the Nantucket Farmers Market.  I was pretty excited to meander through the stands and carts and hopefully support some local businesses.

{As you can see, this is one of the photos that was recovered from the erased memory card.  It is slightly funky, with that grey strip on the right, but the rest of the picture is perfectly intact.}

Ratty and I walked through the Market, stopping to look at homemade jewelry, produce stands and other Nantucket wares, but couldn't really buy anything.  I wanted to buy some amazing potted plants from a local farm, but it wasn't completely rational since I was on Nantucket for 3 more days and I had lots of traveling to get home.  Carrying a plant on the ferry didn't seem like the greatest idea, since I'd also be lugging my bags with me.  When we stopped at the Sustainable Nantucket stand and chatted with one of the girls standing at the table, Ratty decided to buy one of their reuseable totes for his mom.  Supporting Nantucket AND buying a gift, totally perfect!

Next time we go to Nantucket, Ratty and I are thinking of renting a little studio apartment, so that we would have some amenities that are lacking at typical B&B's.  Things can get pretty expensive when you're buying every single meal out, it can really add up.  Every time we go to Nantucket, we end up wishing we had more time there, ideally a week or forever, but what is more realistic?  I'd love to rent a place with a little kitchenette so we could eat breakfast or make a sandwich, saving ourselves a few bucks that we could put towards another night on the island or a nice dinner out - as if we don't do enough of that already.  If we do end up doing that, I will definitely go to this farmers market again, and actually buy some things to make dinner.  Hm, I don't know if I can wait until next summer, I'd like to leave tomorrow, please!

62. September 23rd, 2010 Picture.

So, Ratty gave me these really beautiful stargazer lilies (my favorite), because [drum roll] I GOT A NEW JOB!  Check number 37 off the list!  FINALLY!  My last job was a complete nightmare.  I honestly have no idea how the place functions or stays in business, and worst of all, I had a contracted vendor gunning for my job, and since we owed that vendor almost 1 million dollars, they have the leverage with the Board of Trustees to take over my department.  While nothing was certain, I could not get a straight answer from anyone, and thought at any moment someone would have shown up in my office with a security officer and someone to change the locks.  For real.  Working in that type of situation, especially when I was generating a huge amount of money for the floundering institution was frustrating to say the least.  BUT I’M FREE!

I had been going through the interview process with Blue Cross Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts for about 2 months, and was finally extended a job offer towards the end of September.  My friend Kerry had actually been in this exact position before me, but was leaving to finish graduate school.  She had put out a message on Facebook, asking if anyone was looking for a job, and I jumped at the chance.  I sent her my resume and she brought it into her bosses the next day.  I had an appointment a few days later for a phone interview, and spoke with one of the Directors of the department, Joan, for about 15 minutes.  I thought I did pretty well, and she even commented on how honest one of my answers was.  She asked what I saw myself doing in 5 years and I told her straight out I had no idea.  I said that I am 27, currently going through what some would call a quarter life crisis, and am not really sure what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I said that in 5 years I hope to work at a place that I love, where I don’t dread going to work every morning. It was the truth – and she really liked it!  The following week I got an email from Kerry, letting me know that they wanted to bring me in for an interview.  It was a few weeks away, so I got to prepping.  I bought a new dress and new shoes, and picked Kerry’s brain about her job.  I’d been interviewing for what seemed like forever, so I was pretty comfortable with all of the typical interview questions.  For my first interview, I met with Joan and a consultant Kevin for an hour, then with Kerry for a half hour.  They told me a lot about the company plus their department, and I realized that I really really wanted the job. 

Basically I’d be the department coordinator for the Business Consulting Group, which means I’d be providing administrative support to a department of about 14 people.  BCBS has an internal consulting group, that provides strategic development and facilitating to departments that request restructuring or process flow help.  I would be scheduling and planning all the meetings for the consultants, as well as planning logistics for off site meetings and additional administrative work.  Sounded right up my alley.  I would still get to plan events (in a MUCH less stressful way), but my job would be 8:30am-4:30pm, with rare exceptions.  I wanted the job.  Bad.

After my first interview, I got a call from BCBS and they wanted me to come in for a second round interview, this time meeting with more consultants, the Executive Director and HR.  This was an intense day.  I first met with the other director, Janice, then 4 consultants, where they played a ‘game’ with me, where they asked hypothetical questions and I had to come up with solutions.  It wasn’t rocket science, but something about being on point like that would put anyone on edge.  After meeting with the consultants, I met with Tom, the Executive Director and was then brought down for a 1 hour interview with HR.  I left the building completely exhausted and thought that if didn’t get this job I was giving up, because I could not even imagine putting on a suit ever, ever again.  For the next 4 weeks, I waited.  HR told me that it was going to be a few weeks, they were dealing with some internal changes, and if I didn’t hear from them in 2 weeks to give them a call.  Those 2 weeks went by painfully slow, and when I called on the exact day I was told to, I was once again asked to wait a few more weeks.  Kerry was trying to figure out exactly what was going on, because she told me that I was the top choice, but HR was dragging their feet.  Finally, a full month after my second interview, over two months after I gave Kerry my resume, I was offered the job.  The offered me more money than I was expecting and I was beside myself.  Giving my boss notice was maybe on of the best days of my life, although he was very sad to see me go.  He told me that I was a great employee and they were so lucky to have had me for so long.  Hi, if you had said that once to me when I actually worked there, I might not have been trying to claw my way out!  Okay, who am I kidding, I wanted out, no matter what way you looked at it.

SO!  Long story short.  I have a new job!  Department Coordinator for the Business Consulting Group at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.  Yay!

62. September 22nd, 2010 Picture

I came home on September 22nd, carrying two arm fulls of things, who knows what they were, maybe cloths, dry cleaning, bags, whatever, the arms were full.  I walked up the stairs to my bedroom and threw myself into the door to open it.  Didn’t move.  I tried to turn the knob, but the door wouldn’t budge.  I huffed, I’m sure, hi it’s me, and put all my things on the steps and attempted to open the door again.  The knob didn’t turn and the door sure as hell didn’t open.  Le sigh.  I was locked out.

Now, being locked out may not be that big of a deal most of the time.  Get a spare key from your neighbor, call your roommate, ring the doorbell, etc.  But for me, with my bedroom door locked, it was a travesty.  You see, my bedroom door only locks from inside my room, with a simple little thingy that you turn (I sound SO handy).  I have no key, no way to unlock the door, and my bedroom is on the second floor, so climbing through a window was not an option. 

I quickly pulled out a credit card, and attempted to unlock the door that way, mainly because my brother Eddie can do this and he makes it look so easy.  I got nervous, realizing I was putting something very valuable in the doorframe and decided I should use a card I couldn’t care less about, my work ID.  My reasoning for this was a) I can always get a new one, for free and b) I was over my job.  I ran the card down the side of the door, turning the knob at the same time, hoping to jog it loose, but it didn’t work.  I grabbed a bobby pin and put in through the hole in the door knob, again hoping to hit some internal latch that would magically open the door, but nope.  I yelled up to my roommate Char, asking if this had ever happened to her.  She came down and immediately started laughing, great moral support.  She attempted the card and bobby pin tricks a few more times, while I ran to the basement to look for something that would help.  Not totally sure what I was looking for, but should a hammer or saw be required, I wasn’t above using it.  I had visions or me buying a new door at home depot, or having to pay for the entire frame to be replaced.  I thought about taking the hinges off, but upon further inspection, realized the hinges were on the inside.  Why was it SO hard for me to break into my own bedroom?!  On the other hand, I was really impressed with how sturdy my door was, and it made me feel safer to be in my locked bedroom should a serial killer show up.  Even when I’m NOT thinking about ‘Criminal Minds’ I still totally am.

I grabbed a screw driver and decided that the next best option would be to remove the doorknob and then put it back on once I was in my room.  I started to take it apart, but it was resisting a little bit.  I had all the screws out, but the doorknob wouldn’t budge.  I started turning the knob and hip checking it at the same time, I guess hoping that one way or another, the door would open.  With one great blow of centrifugal force, ie throwing my entire body into the door, it opened!  I didn’t break the door, or the frame, but the knob was shattered into about 5,000 little pieces.  For real:

I am not sure if the knob was broken before, perhaps that is why none of my awesome lock picking skills were for not, but regardless, I was in my room.  The only issue now was that the door couldn’t close on its own and there is a giant hole where my doorknob once was.  Looks like I need to pay a little visit to Home Depot!

Public Service Announcement

Lucky me, I received my first spam comment on my blog.  I knew this Jason kid wasn't legit.  I recently made my blog searchable on Google, so I assume that is how a spammer came across it.  Because of this, I am adding a captcha to my comments section.  This means, that in order for your comment to be posted, you will need to type in the random selection of numbers and letters, making sure they match the image provided.  This is to verify that you are, in fact, human.  Most spamming is done by computers, which automatically generate the unwanted messages.  By asking a commenter to complete a captcha, Blogspot.com can identify who is real and who isn't.


Sorry for making the commenting section more complicated, but I want to make sure that my readers are safe and aren't bombarded with unwanted links and posts.  Thanks for understanding and let me know if you need any help navigating this slightly new process!

62. September 21st, 2010 Picture.

Monday night I headed to Bridgewater to help out my sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, with a rush event.  I am the Education Advisor for the chapter, so I like to go back and help out whenever I can.  They had requested that a few advisors attend each night of recruitment, so I signed up to help out with Gamma Phi Beta land.  I took this photo of our current President wearing our new rush t-shirts.  I want one!

It was different to be back on campus.  I’ve gone back lots of times for different meetings, but this event was in a brand new dorm, so it was interesting to see how much things had changed since I graduated.  I wandered around, looking for the room, for a good 15 minutes, asking random students where to go.  They must have thought I was crazy.  The sisters couldn’t believe that the building didn’t exist when I was there, which prompted them to ask me how old I was.  That part was awesome.

I really wish that I could go back to college sometimes.  I had the best 4 years there, and made the most out of everything.  I made amazing friendships there had created some wonderful memories.  Some may say that they didn’t know how good they had it then, but I knew exactly how good I had it.  I loved every minute of my college experience and wouldn’t change a single thing about it.  I love Bridgewater, I miss it, but I love going back.  I obviously cannot say goodbye to Gamma Phi, and I won't.  It is a great organization and I signed up for a lifetime membership.  I plan on sticking around.

62. September 20th, 2010 Picture.

Sunday afternoon, Ratty and I decided that we should go see The Town.  It had come out that Friday, and honestly I couldn’t believe Ratty had waited all weekend to see it.  We bought tickets online for a later afternoon show, and headed into town a little early to grab a spot and stop at CVS to stock up on snacks.  Ratty had been raving about Pretzel M&M’s which sounded like they were right up my alley, a mix of salty and sweet, so I obviously needed to try them.  I think at one point prior to this, Ratty told me that he had bought me a bag, but then decided he needed to eat them instead. How thoughtful.  Since it was September 20th and all, you can TOTALLY see why all the aisles were filled with Halloween candy, so it made finding the Pretzel M&Ms that much harder.  Ratty and I walked up and down every.single.aisle looking for them.  We went to every register, looking to see if they had them in front, to no avail.  They’re pretty new, so I just chalked it up to the novelty of it all, saying that they probably couldn’t keep the shelves stocked fast enough.  I wandered away from Ratty in search of replacement candy, when I here him yell.  I turn the corner and see him holding 3 bags of Pretzel M&Ms, SCORE!  We grabbed one more, to make it fair, 2 bags each, and headed out to the movies.

I was pretty excited to see The Town, since it was directed by a fellow Cantabridgian Ben Affleck and was filmed in Charlestown and other areas in Boston.  The major shoot out at the end of the movie took place at Fenway Park, while many scenes were filmed in the North End and Southie.  I love watching actors try and speak with a Boston accent, and really appreciate it when they do it well (re: Jeremy Renner).  One of the major bank robbery scenes was filmed at the laundry mat on Ratty’s street in the North End, and a few nights my parking had to be re-routed due to street closures. For weeks this laundry mat had a sign outside saying it was the First National Bank of Boston, and it was comical to watch tourists try and go in looking for an ATM.  Up until a few months ago, it still had the FDIC sticker on the door. At one point, the production crew filmed a scene overnight on Ratty’s street, so letters were left on doorsteps letting residents know that bright lights would be shining in the windows all night.  I love watching movies and being able to think, Oh I’ve been there!  I’ve seen that!  That’s my street!  Now that Boston is becoming a little hub for movie production it’s becoming more and more frequent.

The movie was really great, well told and extremely suspenseful.  I had to shut my eyes a couple of times and ask Ratty to tell me when it was over.  You can tell that they really put a lot of thought into making sure that the movie was as genuine as possible.  Sure, someone watching the movie in Florida might not know that when you get to the end ofSalem Street in the North End, you can’t take a right because it’s a one way, but those little details are not lost on us Bostonians.  There were just 2 small details that were incorrect, and I assume it was to add to the suspense of the film.  I used to work at Fenway Park, back in high school and college, so I am very familiar with the areas inside the park. When Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner walked out of the money room, they walked down the main ramp by home plate and came out in the Pavillion, which is in the bleachers.  This is obviously not possible. Those two areas aren’t even remotely near eachother.  I assume they did this because the Pavillion is a bustle of activity, so making sure there were lots of employees and people walking by just added to the nerve-wracking tension.  Secondly, you can tell the area of Fenway where the shootout took place, was a set.  Where they park the ambulance is actually in that very spot, but it looks completely different.  You can tell that they didn’t want to shoot up the inside of Fenway, which I can totally understand, so they must have opted to re-create the hallway someplace else.

Anyway, the movie was really good, and I found myself rooting for the bank robbers to get away with it.  I asked Ratty at one point if he was rooting for them to get away too, and he just looked at me and was like, ‘No’.  Whatever, I was.  I am curious to see if The Town gets nominated for any awards.  I think that Jeremy Renner should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor because he really knocked it out of the park.  Apparently, to learn the accent, he went to dive bars all across the city.  He would strike up a conversation with a  townie, listen to how he spoke, then would pick up and go to another bar.  He’d start another conversation at the new bar, pretending to be from Boston and attempting the accent he had just heard at the previous bar.  Pretty cool.  I wish I bumped into him at a dive bar!