Scary Stuff

So far the fall here in Boston has been amazing. Lately, especially, the weather has been absolutely beautiful with sunny skies and temperatures reaching up into the 80s! I do realize this won't last much longer but we are certainly taking advantage while we can.

As I mentioned in the last post, Jesse and I participated in the Midwest Student Association's Cornhole Classic Tournament http://media.www.harbus.org/media/storage/paper343/news/2007/10/09/Features/Are-You.Ready.For.Some.Cornhole-3013144.shtml. last Friday the 12th. We did really well, of course, it helped that we won 2 rounds because the other teams didn't show up but we made it to the final 8 out of 64 teams and we defeated last year's champions! The weather that day wasn't so great, it was cold and very wet and windy which made the game a lot harder. The bags were full of water and mud so they were really heavy and just nasty. Jesse and I are pretty convinced that we could have won if it hadn't been for the inclement weather...and we needed to hurry up and finish playing so we could get ready for Priscilla Ball.

So, Priscilla Ball was totally ridiculous! The pictures pretty much tell the whole story. I believe there were something like 900 tickets and the event sold out within about an hour. Each of the 9 sections had a different theme, if I can remember, there were french maids, hooters girls, angels and demons, cheerleaders and ballers, animals and trainers, school girls, Greek goddesses, beauty queens and maybe male fantasy....anyway, you get the idea. There were section pre-parties all over campus and they had school buses that shuttled us all over to the "ball" that was held at some out of the way warehouse type place. Apparently, the event has never been held in the same place more than once because it always gets out of hand and they aren't allowed back. It was a blast, some of the guys really got into character and released their inner diva. Everyone danced and drank too much and there was a drag show with real life queens! It was definitely an experience I will never forget....well most of it anyway. I was also really surprised at what a pretty girl Jesse made!

Jesse's awesome shoes

Real Drag Queens

Ghetto Fabulous Diva

Jesse and Amy

The girl's gone wild

Natalie, Kelly and Me

John Helping Jesse with his bra

Yikes!

Ryan and Natalie

Birgitta and Me

Jesse, Allen, Ryan and Ajay

Chad and Lauren

The whole gang

Natalie, Lauren and Me

Kelly and John

Me and Jesse

For the most part, the rest of the weekend was spent lazing around (me and Casey) and studying (Jesse) but we made it over to Uno in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon to have some buffalo wings and watch the Vikings beat the Bears! All in all it was a great weekend.

Last week and this past weekend Jesse was even busier than usual with school. In addition to working on his cases he went to see several different speakers during the afternoons, attended 2 career team meetings, put in several hours updating his resume, met with his career coach, attended a career visioning workshop, studied for his midterms and went to a midterm review session. So, though it may seem he is just up here having a grand ole time, I assure you he is very hard at work. I just like to tell you all about the fun stuff.

This past Saturday he spent the whole day meeting with his career team which is a group of 5 students and 2 instructors. The point is to work together to help everyone figure out exactly what kind of job would best suit each person. I was a little skeptical at first, but Jesse really thought it to be time well spent. He was surprised at how accurate the team was at accessing his strengths and interests and felt that he gained a lot of useful information about what direction he should go with his career.

Meanwhile, Casey and were off to the races at the Head of the Charles Regatta. Each fall, rowers and spectators from around the world gather in Cambridge and Boston, for the two day regatta. It was first held in 1965 and each year the event attracts some 7,000 rowers and crowds in excess of 300,000 who turn out to cheer them on. Of course, this was right up Casey's alley. He had a fabulous time watching the "big boats" and running around in the warm sunshine. My friend Birgitta took some fantastic pictures : http://share.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b3542abe255c&sid=9BauG7Vo2Z1w

Saturday night Jesse and I celebrated out 3rd wedding anniversary. Despite being swamped with school stuff my sweet husband took me out for a fabulously romantic night on the town. We started out at Ginza Sushi in Chinatown where we had the most delicious sashimi and sushi, and of course a bottle of sake. After dinner we strolled around Chinatown for a bit and then caught a cab back to Cambridge where we had dessert and a bottle of champagne at Finale....superb! It was the perfect anniversary date, I felt like royalty!

Sunday, Jesse was back to the grind with schoolwork and Casey and I headed back over to meet friends at the regatta. This time he spent over an hour throwing rocks into the river, which as many of you know, is his very favorite thing. We had a great time watching the races, hanging out with our friends, listening to the bands, throwing rocks, blowing bubbles and eating a bunch of junk. I can't wait for next year! That night were invited to have dessert with Jesse's friend Joel from his section and his wife Kristy at their apartment right near ours. Our friends Luke and Abby were also there and on the menu was homemade blackberry cobbler that Joel made! It was phenomenal, and I have to say it just might rival my grandmothers (sorry, grandma). I was very impressed, I mean Jesse makes good chili and all, but homemade cobbler? Wow!

So, midterms are this week and Jesse has to submit his resume for "the book" which is made of all the students' resumes and is sold to about 500 different corporations for recruitment purposes...no pressure, right? So, he'll be glad when this week is over. There is a Crimson Kids Halloween party on Saturday so they'll be some good pictures for the next post from that and we may try to go to a party that night (I really want to wear my Amy Winehouse costume) but other than that we plan on taking it easy. I'm sure Jesse will need to decompress on the couch with a few Buds!

Thanks for checking in on us, we love you and miss you all!

Nicole

Grandma and Grandpa come to town

I know I said that I was going to be posting more often and here it's been three weeks already! I don't have much of an excuse since I haven't been quite so busy lately but I was having some technical difficulties with my camera and I was pretty sick all of last week.

Anyway, right after my last post a bunch of the girlfriends got together over at Lauren's house for a kind of spur of the moment fiesta. We had fajitas and margaritas and just a nice laid back Sunday evening in while the guys finished up their studying.

The following Tuesday Casey went to his first day of the co op preschool. He was very excited about getting to go to school and couldn't have been more proud of his brand new Nemo backpack on wheels. I stayed for about the first 15 minutes and he was having a great time. When I got ready to leave he didn't care at all. He gave me a hug and a kiss and a "Bye, see ya, Mommy!" When I picked him up at the end of the 2 hours he had paint all over his shirt and the teacher of the day gave him glowing report. She said he really led the charge during cleaning up time and made sure everything got put back in it's proper place. Unfortunately, by Thursday's class several of the other parents decided that they would not be able to participate in the co op after all and our class was down to only four so we decided to disband. I tried to get him into the older class which is 2-3 year olds but they were full. I was so sad because not only did Casey love it the 2 days he went but on the days I wasn't teaching I'd have 2 free hours to get things done. Luckily, we also started out Kindermusik class that same week which meets every Tuesday. We've only been to 2 classes and he doesn't really love it yet but hopefully he will eventually.

That same week is when Peggy and Greg came to visit which was so much fun for all of us. Casey was thrilled to see his Gamma and Bapa! They arrived on Thursday evening and stayed at the Doubletree right down the road from us. We ordered take out from a Thai restaurant and spent the evening at our apartment hanging out and catching up...of course, Peggy and I had to watch the season premiere of Gray's Anatomy! On Friday we went to breakfast in Cambridge and spent some time in the afternoon wandering around over there. For dinner we went to a restaurant called East Coast Grill and Barbecue and it was fabulous! The oysters were some of the best Jesse and I have ever had and everything else was so unique and full of flavor. Casey's favorite was the cornbread but he stuffed himself with a little off of everyone's plates.

Saturday morning we went on a whale watch trip sponsored by the Partner's Club. Several of our friends went as well because the trip was considered a "must do" by all of the second years. Everyone said how much fun it was so we were really excited. I thought it would be a great opportunity for Jesse's parents to get to know our friends and their families during the 3+ hours we would spend out on the boat. Casey was especially excited to go out on the "big boat". He even practiced wearing his life jacket for a while on Friday and then put in on again around 7am on Saturday. Well, it was just plain awful. It started out well enough, there were a few clouds in the sky but for the most part it was sunny and fairly warm with a little wind. Everyone was anticipating a beautiful, relaxing day of cruising around in the ocean and seeing some whales. However, as soon as we got out of the harbor the wind picked up and the boat began rocking up and down severely. It only took about 20 minutes for people to start getting sick and pretty soon at least 90% of the passengers were throwing up and this lasted the entire trip until we started back.The inside of the boat was like a war zone! Every one of our friends vomited...but, for some reason not one of the Brettingens got sick. Pretty amazing right? The whales were really amazing, we saw at least 5 but not many people really cared. So that day will forever live on in my memory as "Puke Watch 2007". I will not tell anyone next year that they should go. At least Casey had a good time until he finally passed out in Peggy's lap.

We were all really worn out after the whole fiasco so we stayed in again and had Mexican food from Picante II in Cambridge. By Sunday Greg had developed a horrible cold that he'd probably picked up from Casey and none of us were feeling terribly motivated to get out and do a whole lot. We hung around the apartment for most of the day and took the T down to Quincy Market late in the afternoon. We had dinner at Durgin Park in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Apparently the restaurant has been around since the Revolution and I swear the majority of the patrons have, too. We sat at one of many long communal picnic tables covered in red and white checked oil cloth in creaky, old, completely uncomfortable ladder back chairs and dined on food that was so-so at best. I had the lobster and before it came out the waitress actually draped me in a giant bib that matched the tablecloth! It was an interesting experience but I'm pretty sure we won't be going back anytime soon. Casey did enjoy all of the attention he got from the old ladies.

Peggy and Greg left early on Monday morning and we were really sad to see them go. We had such a wonderful time with them and Casey especially loved seeing his Gama and Bapa. He's been asking for them almost every day since they left. Fortunately, they will be coming back along with Joel for Thanksgiving and Casey's birthday.

Not a whole lot has been going on (for me anyway) since their visit but Jesse has been extremely busy with school for the past 2 weeks. He has been working hard on a group project in addition to his normal case load which has been keeping him away from home a bit more and up late at night. They finished the project this week and did pretty well. Hopefully things will quiet down a little for a while.

That's about it for this post but stay tuned.... This afternoon Jesse and I are playing in the Midwestern Club's Cornhole Classic Tournament and fully plan on winning. Then, tonight we are going to the Priscilla Ball which is a yearly event put on by the New Zealand Club where all the men dress as women and the women dress a little risque...and everyone drinks a lot and makes fools of themselves. It should be a riot! I promise some hilarious pictures for the next post.

Thanks for checking in on us. We love you all!

Nicole