first fourteen days // boston, mass.

Whoa, hello, welcome! It’s been two full weeks since we drove 14 hours and dropped off myself and a UHaul worth of belongings to this charming little house in Roxbury.

For those who don’t know, I moved to Boston and good ‘ole Massachusetts a week before my job started. I wanted to get myself familiar with my surroundings, the city, my commute and all of the other things that go into the everyday workings of life as we know it.

This will be a breakdown of some of the highlights and happenings as the past two weeks have unfolded — chronologically of course. 🙂

Prior to leaving home:

Right before we left home, I enlisted the assistance of my dear friend Haley to change my hair up a little bit. She did her magic as usual and I became a brunette!

I then said my final farewells to the little red car that has been my main mode of transportation for the past 6 years or so. I had no idea that I would have so much sentimental attachment to a car, but that car represented freedom, music, summer, trial and error, and so many other learning opportunities. Saying goodbye signified the start of public transportation.

Wow wow wow! Here we are, Massachusetts. Thanks for the warm welcome. 🙂

This is my new home — stoop chilling in my new neighborhood. I have a BEAUTIFUL home. I’m obsessed with the new countertops, hardwood floors and abundance of natural light, but the front of the house is so cute!!

This was my view for most of the first week. The houses across the street were getting painted and it was fun to have the windows open, hear the reggae boppin’, and meet some of the people who are making the neighborhood look so purty.

Today, I got to see my new office from the other side of the water. We went to a really lovely park on the water, the sun was shining, and the breeze was blowing.

This is Luka! I met Luka for the first time this day and it just so happened to be his 25th birthday. I got connected with Luka through a mutual friend from Eastern and we managed to navigate the T and do a photoshoot near the water for his birthday post on the ‘gram. Never have I ever laughed as hard about someone else being so extremely picky about their photos. This was take 56 / 118 or something crazy like that. We went to the Barking Crab afterwards and enjoyed a nice platter of calamari while the sun was still shining.

Our next stop for Mr. Sweet Tooth, was Mike’s Pastry, for some famous cannolis. This was an Oreo cannoli that tasted realllll good, but was much too sugary for me. Luka on the other hand, made quick work of his birthday desserts. 🙂 Happy happy birthday, Luka! Thanks for taking me around the town, showing me a bunch of good food, and welcoming me to the city.

The next day, I took a day to promote some ‘me’ time and went for a run, and made a lovely smoothie while I read and slept in the sun. I love days like that.

This day, I was off to Seaport! I needed to practice my commute and I ended up walking to the nearest T stop, which is 35 minutes away. I’m finding that the best way to start figuring things out, is to walk and walk and walk. It lets me stumble upon a lot of cool things.

If you walk out the front door of my office and cross the street, you can start heading down to the water. I took a walk along the harbor and just tried to picture myself making this little area my new work space. I was smitten.

To reward myself from all of the walking, I decided to go to Chloe, which is an all vegan restaurant in my building — I had a guacamole burger that was absolutely delectable.

One of the other things on my list this week was to experiment with a couple of new recipes! Pictured, you’ll see buffalo cauliflower and some beet hummus! Yum Yum ma dudes!!!

This is just an aesthetically pleasing photo of all of the foods — I can’t get enough of this counter too.

Every morning, I had been going on a run and eating lots of vegetables, and I was loving the smoothies. This one made me smile the largest though — look at those colors. **HEART EYE EMOJI**

I got to balance my time out and about with a good amount of the World Cup! Being able to watch some of these games, shouting at my tv all by myself, made me miss the sport that had filled so much of my time and had so many friends. I can’t wait to look into finding leagues or even just going to see a few MLS games to keep this alive.

I had been sitting on the back porch to read and lay in the sun, but today, I managed to sit on the front porch to do so. In doing so, I had the opportunity to meet some of the painters that had been waving everytime that I got home.

You know that I’ve been working out, but I’m allllll about multi-tasking.

Today, I went to a farmer’s market! It was a cute little market outside of Sam Adam’s brewery in Jamaica Plain. I got some produce, picked up some fresh hummus, and walked the 40 minutes back home. I got to see lots of awesome things while on my walk home. The area is so diverse!

I loved the murals on my walk back. 🙂

MMMMMM, this hummus is BOMB. I reached out to their Instagram, made a fast friend, and have had the opportunity to be of some manual labor assistance and photo assistance to help out and hang out. Thanks for the sweet smiles, fab samples, and welcoming spirit, (both Colin and Nick). Y’all are making some pretty darn good hummus and I’ve been having a blast with you both.

I loveeeee how much everything matches! Talk about getting golden in superstar style, am I right?

We did a roommate brunch at Gigi’s fave spot — milkweed did NOT disappoint and we walked the 2 miles back home on a lovely day. Not sure that we will ever walk back again, as it felt much longer than 2 miles, but we made it. 🙂

Today was finally my FIRST DAY!!! I got my super official badge, had my IT training, a lovely lunch, and got introduced to SO many people…so many. It was a wonderful and exhausting day, but you better believe that I was excited for Tuesday!

Today I went to the gym before work, kicked some butt there, and showered before heading upstairs. I had breakfast in my new fave working spot — Brody for the win — and got to work on the loads of training videos that need to be accomplished. Sprinkle in some meetings, watching a little World Cup on the big screen during lunch, and chalk it up to another good day.

The rest of my week consisted of early morning workouts, long days full of learning and training, eating lots of good snacks, and appreciating my beautiful office. Seriously, this place is incredible.

The weekend consisted of traveling up the coast to Maine to see my friend, Erin!!!! Maine was absolutely beautiful and it was such a special treat to visit and experience her favorite vacation spot. You’re a gem, E. I love you so much and have missed you dearly!!

All in all, New England is stealing my heart. SOOOO much happy here. 

xo, jo