House of Seven Gables

In 3rd grade this year Hannah has to do three photo essay assignments on the state of Massachusetts. At three different intervals throughout the year she has to go to a place of historical significance in Massachusetts, take a picture of herself, and write a short paper on why it is significant, what activities you can do there, and what she learned. Her first one is due next week so we headed up to Salem today and visited the House of Seven Gables.

I know Salem is best known for the Salem Witch Trials but that seemed a little morbid for the kids so instead we visited the House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne's house, and some additional sites significant to the history of Nathaniel Bowditch. Hannah and I are reading the book Carry On, Mr. Bowditch together so that was really our reason for picking a visit to the House of Seven Gables (he has a loose tie to the house).

We all had a fantastic time. The weather was a bit chilly and incredibly windy but it was very sunny. We did a lot of walking and the kids enjoyed touring the House and going up the secret staircase behind the fireplace. The House of Seven Gables is definitely something I would recommend if you ever come to visit Massachusetts.

What the heck were they thinking?

Today is my "little sister's" 18th birthday. Shani and Kristen are the daughter of my very good friends Deb and Michael Walker. Deb was my high school yearbook advisor when we lived in Arkansas when I was in 10th grade.

We moved to Arkansas when I turned 15 and was entering the 10th grade. The first class that I went to was Yearbook which was taught by Mrs. Walker. Some of my closest friends that I made in high school were in that class or the class period immediately before it which was Newspaper. At the end of the year my friends Sheri and Andrea and I went over to Mrs. Walker's house to work on the end-of-year slideshow. Sheri and Andrea were the co-editors of the yearbook and Andrea and I were putting together the slideshow. That was the night I first met Shani and Kristen who would have been 2 and 1 years old, respectively, at the time.

Following my sophomore year of high school Deb and the girls moved to Massachusetts where her husband Michael had already moved for his job. In October of my junior year of high school Andrea, who was a senior, found a "buy one, get one free" airfare deal and we decided that we would fly up to Boston to visit Mrs. Walker. We called her and found out they'd be around that weekend and, with the permission of our parents, bought the tickets and flew up to Boston for a 4-day weekend.

Here's where it gets a little crazy. It seemed normal to me at the time but as a parent now I think my parents must have been smoking crack.

I was 16 years....barely! I was flying with a girl who was only a year older than me to visit a huge East Coast city that they had never been to and didn't know anything about much less anyone who lived there. And we were visiting a teacher that I'm thinking they had probably only met at Open House and her husband who they had never met. What the hell? I am so, so, so glad they allowed me to go on that trip because it was one of the best experiences of my life and a huge reason why I moved to Boston after college but seriously, what were they thinking?

I lost touch with Mrs. Walker not long after that but I remembered that the last time I had talked to her she told me they had moved out of their apartment in Marlborough and to a town that was equal distance between Boston's Logan Airport and Providence's T.F. Green Airport....a distinctly important thing since flying out of Logan back then meant dealing with the Big Dig and was to be avoided whenever possible. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the town.

When I was a senior in college I didn't know what I was going to do after graduation. My parents had moved to Milwaukee between my sophomore and junior years of college. My sisters lived in Seattle. At the time I had no desire to move to Minneapolis but Milwaukee wasn't really home and Seattle never really did it for me as a city. I decided I would move to Boston and give it a try for a few years.

So what did I do? I got on the Internet and looked up all the Michael and/or Deb Walkers to be found in Massachusetts, got out a map, and used pins to mark all the cities where they lived. I then found the one that was equal distance between Boston and Providence and called them up out of the blue. The conversation went something like this:

Deb: Hello.

Me: Hi. Is this Mrs. Walker?

Deb: Yes.

Me: Deborah Walker?

Deb: Yes.

Me: The Deborah Walker that taught at Jacksonville High School?

Deb: Yes. (At this point she was starting to draw out the "yes" and I could tell she was wondering who the crazy person was on the phone.)

Me: Hi! It's Diane Lentz.

Deb: Oh my...hi!!!! How are you doing?

And so it began. I flew out for Spring Break that year to look for a place to live and ended up moving into their basement for two months while waiting to move into a condo that I had found in the same town.

And that is how their daughters became my little sisters and they became my other parents and the reason I met Lincoln and got married and had Jake and Hannah.

But seriously, what the hell were my parents thinking?

Speaking of...

As stated earlier this morning, there are certain words out here in New England such as pocketbook and cellar that drive me nuts. Other words, like wicked, I have embraced whole-heartily.

Along similar lines, when my cousin Greg and his wife and friends were out here we went for lunch at 11:30 a.m. When he told the hostess we were there for dinner I think that really through her for a loop. She laughed and said "I think you're here a little early for dinner." Actually, as opposed to supper, we were there right on time.

This morning's conversation with Lincoln got me thinking about the different lingo that I've picked up (or been bugged by) throughout my life living in Iowa, Washington, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. Here are a few of my favorites and my biggest pet peeves.

Iowa/Minnesota: Supper and Pop. After 21 years away from Iowa I use these less and less but they still come up in conversation every now and then. The funniest story I have about this is when we took Lincoln's brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece back to Iowa with us for summer vacation a few years ago. When we got to my parents house in Wisconsin they offered them pop and cheese curds. Wha??? I think they were so stunned and confused by the word pop they didn't even hear the part about cheese curds at first.

Washington: Honestly, I can't think of a single thing that I picked up in Washington State other than soda (vs. pop).

Arkansas: Ahh....Arkansas. The land of y'all and fixin'. Y'all was an easy one to pick up but I swore I would never use fixin' until it just slipped out one day and then it was all over but the crying. I love that one. I don't use it as much as I used to but I still enjoy a good "I'm fixin' to go to the store. Do you need anything?" every now and then. One I never did like....and will never embrace....is the use of the word buggy for a shopping cart. A buggy should be something you push your baby in, not your groceries. The other one that made me laugh is coke as a word to cover all soda (Washington), pop (Midwest), or tonic (Massachusetts). As in, "I'd like a coke please." "What kind of kind of coke?" "A Sprite, thanks."

Massachusetts: As previously stated, pocketbook and cellar drive me nuts. So does bureau for a thing you put your clothes in (that's called a dresser in my opinion). I actually don't mind packie so much, it just doesn't come naturally to me. I have, however, fully embraced the word wicked. You can really use it in just about any situation. For example, "This post is wicked random, what the hell is she rambling about?"

Yes, these are the thoughts I have when stuck on my long commute. Similar to my "Ode to Massachusetts Weather" the other day. I really need to find a job closer to home.

Reason 978 why Iowa is way better than Massachusetts

In Iowa a pitcher a beer is $5 at Mabe's.

In Massachusetts:

It is time to move away from Massachusetts

Not only do they not sell beer and wine in the grocery stores but now they want to tax it! What is this world coming to? On top of everything else you also can't have alcohol shipped to you from out of state. I guess that's what I get for moving to a state founded by Puritans.