Wisdom teeth...not so wise after all

What would you know; just about a week after arriving in Boston I start feeling this searing pain in my upper jaw towards the back of my mouth. I had seen a dentist about a year ago and she recommended I get my wisdom teeth out sooner rather than later. Of course my natural reaction was to choose later. Much later. Grrrr...

It was even better because this occurred right in the middle of me looking for a job. Yeah, that's exactly what I need; showing up to interviews with my cheeks puffed up like I'm storing up nuts for the winter.

After realizing that the pain was not something I wanted to live with for much longer, I gave into the idea of doing the surgery. During the consultation with the oral surgeon, he explained to me that there was a slight chance of my mouth being numb after the surgery, and that this could last for a day, a week, a month...or be permanent.

Hmmm, that sounds awesome.
















On the left, that's me not being able to move the left side of my mouth. On the right, I'm vigorously icing my cheeks to prevent them from puffing out and resembling those of a chipmunk.


Don't let my expression fool you. I'm in extreme pain. My mouth is just paralyzed so you can't tell.

Needless to say after the weekend was over I ended up going on several job interviews and I guess my ice packs did the trick: no chipmunk cheeks! Win was really sad because she was hoping to have hilarious pictures of me. Boy did I prove her wrong. Booyah!

Lobstahs and Lighthouses

While the lobster served at the Fanueil Hall food court is probably quite delicious, we decided to have the real deal...and of course everyone knows the best lobster - excuse me; lobstah - is in Maine.


We've come to Portland, the largest city in Maine (population 65,000). Pretty much exactly as we imagined it. Now time to look for lunch.


I knew I would have to work for my lunch, but I never figured it would try to take a bite out of me! I'll exact my revenge by devouring its claws first.
















Win did not feel the bib was necessary. I disagree. It's time to get down to business.
















I wonder if lobsters realize how delicious they are.


Next we went to go visit a famous Maine lighthouse.





















EPIC!

Ryan and Win about town!

After spending the day signing our lease, moving in, and unpacking all of our stuff, it's now time to see some sights and search for some of that chowdah! It's just a quick hop on the T and we're on our way downtown.


Nothing really convinces people that you're a tourist more than taking a picture of yourselves riding the subway. A new pinnacle of lameness!

Getting around downtown Boston is tricky at best. The roads don't go straight and neither do the drivers. Luckily we had a handy dandy tourist map to lead the way.


This is Quincy Market. Imagine Pike Place Market in Seattle, but indoors...and different.


At last - chowda! It truly was delicious.

















Win tackles a bread bowl as big as her head. I'm trying to blend in with the Ivy League crowd, but I don't think that's working out so well. Maybe I need a tennis racket in my hand...


This is the only food court I've seen where you can get a whole lobster. I think we might save that for our next adventure.

Well after that mammoth bread bowl we've decided to head back to our new place.

Stay tuned for more.

We have arrived!

After 5 grueling days on the road, we have finally arrived in Malden, just five miles north of downtown Boston.

















Adding the last state to our list, lucky number 13. Hmmm....

Well, finding an apartment is actually a tad bit easier than in Seattle because they have rental agents here, and the good ones don't charge you money; they make money through the apartment management company.

We saw three apartments the day after getting into Boston, and it was between a two bedroom, two bath 1100 square foot apartment about 2 miles from the "T" (subway line), or a 750 square foot one bedroom one bath about 2 steps from the T.

After some hemming and hawing, we decided to go with the latter. Not only are we super close to the T for easy access to downtown (about a 15 minute train ride), but we're a five minute walk away from the mosque, the grocery store, the bank, etc. Pretty dang convenient. We do pay more than Seattle for about half as much space (ouch!), but it's worth it. With Win being gone half of the time, it's not so bad. Besides, less crap to clutter up the apartment with (see the first blog entry with said crap).
















The kitchen: the most important part of the apartment. Not as big as our last place, but it still works. I'm worried though because all the appliances are new, which means I will get them dirty, which means Win will get mad at me.
















Our living room on the left, and our bedroom on the right. Now that I'm looking at these pictures, this place does not seem that big at all, but I'll post some after pictures later with all of our furniture and you'll see it's actually quite spacious. Indeed, sometimes I get lost in the apartment.

OK, not really.

Well that concludes our arrival. Now we just have to get acquainted with Boston and catch up on 400 years of history.

Road Trip! Our Journey Across America

Prologue

Well, before we chronicle our journey across this great nation, let's start from the beginning.

It's no small feat packing and cleaning a two bedroom apartment in the span of a week by yourself (actually less than that if you factor in how much I procrastinated). With Win gone in California for the week, things were going to get worse before they got better. This is our apartment a few days before we moved:

This is what I call "consolidation." Of course, keep in mind that I have everything under control at this point.

The floor begins to peak through. More or less this is what Win came home to when she got back the day two days before we left on our trip. She obviously did not believe that I had everything under control.

At last! Cleanliness! Our work is done, and no sooner than 15 minutes before our landlord showed up to check us out of the apartment.

Now picture all of that stuff crammed in the back of a Subaru Outback (OK, with the help of a car top carrier that Mom bartered for a hundred pounds of weights at a garage sale):



It...must...fit!



Now that it's all in, I don't think it's coming back out.



Alas, we must leave our apartment. It's been a good six months, but we sure are sad we have to leave.

As if packing a 2 bedroom apartment into our car and getting on our hands and knees to clean the apartment weren't enough, we also took some time to see some friends before leaving:



After this, it's off to my cousin's wedding to dance dance dance the night away. What a crazy last day it's been in Seattle, but I suppose we would have it no other way.

Tomorrow, the journey begins. Stay tuned...

Day 1 - Seattle to Bozeman

Well, this is it. Today we leave Seattle, our home of many years, to journey across uncharted territory and vast wilderness. Who knows what's out there. We begin with seeing my parents off at the hotel where my cousin Leah's wedding took place the night before:


In order to prevent our handy car-top carrier from flying off and bursting into a million pieces on the road, we secure it with some rope.
















And away we go! We would like to introduce our travel companion for the trip, George the monkey:


Now it's off to the beginning of I-90 to see Win's parents and start our journey eastward.
















The picture on the left is courtesy of my freakishly long arms. On the right, Win's dad is in a state of utter disbelief that we're moving to Boston.

Well, now it's really time to hit the road. If we want to make it to Bozeman by tonight, we better get going.


This is mile 0, the beginning of I-90.




This is crazy! We're going by the exit to Sunbanks and we're not turning off. This is truly out of character.

Stopping in Moses Lake to get a window marker so our car will definitely stand out from everyone else. That way, people can honk at us and tell us how much they hate the Red Sox or whatever.


And introducing wife #2: WifeBot AKA our GPS navigation system. Although I would say she's not always right like she thinks she is.


We made it to Idaho. Only 2700 more miles to go!


George is enjoying the open road. I'm sure he wishes he could drive though. Maybe later.


Montana has decided to greet us with excitement; a fire broke out earlier on the side of the highway.


Well, we made it to Bozeman. This picture was actually taken when we woke up in the morning, but I'm just going to pretend we took it when we arrived at the hotel.


Day 2 - Bozeman to Rapid City

We decided to take a bit of a detour and go through Yellowstone National Park.


George and Win have bonded quite well on this trip. Not that I'm jealous or anything, I'm just saying...


Quite epic so far.


It's not too often you see this.

















Win was too afraid to roll down the window.


George is just chillin' out, waiting for Old Faithful.


Thar she blows!


Win attempts to give me some water like I'm a baby or something.


This kind of reminds of me of the Big Thunder Mountain ride at Disneyland.


That's interesting...three roads in one. How efficient!


OK, now I'm just confused.


Out of all the possible names you could call the gas station...seriously, "Loaf 'n Jug"?


We're almost out of the Old West.


We've now entered South Dakota, on the infamous "Blood Highway". OK, they don't actually call it that and I don't think it's infamous, but it just sounded good.


We're so tired that we're letting George drive. So nice to be able to relax and not have to worry about concentrating on endless miles of highway.


Well, we've finally made it to our destination. Just a few miles from Mt. Rushmore!


There it is. I think they probably look better during the day. Oh well.

Next stop, Wisconsin! I'm not sure why I put an exclamation point there; I mean really, it's just Wisconsin.


Day 3 - Rapid City to Madison


Well, on our third leg of the journey we venture into the heartland of the midwest. Although I will say that after the Badlands in South Dakota, there really isn't much to see until we get to our final destination.

We awoke early Tuesday morning and began our drive east, continuing on I-90. The Badlands hadn't been part of our original stop, but they looked so cool that we just had to stop.


We weren't sure if we were going to make it out of there, but we were certainly going to try.
















Definitely looks like some kind of alien landscape.

Look at the smile on that face; George is having a good time. Wait a minute, he's always smiling...something does not feel right.

Well, after a little sightseeing, it's time to get back on the road so we can make it to our next stop. We're trying to get to Chicago, but I don't know if we'll make it in time.


Driving through Minnesota the land becomes a little more green.


We managed to get through South Dakota, Minnesota and into Wisconsin rather uneventfully. There was a sweet thunderstorm going on in Wisconsin that I thought might turn into a tornado, but alas it was just another storm.

It was getting late and we decided to not drive to Chicago.

By nightfall we found a motel with the help of WifeBot.

Day 4 - Madison to Buffalo


Apparently they don't believe in whole numbers.

Passing through Chicago was the highlight of Day 4, even though we really didn't get to see much of the city.


Chicago was officially the start of the I-90 toll, which really got on my nerves. From there on out, every state charged us to drive through. We attempted to find a halal restaurant in Chicago, but WifeBot kept taking us in circles, so we gave up and kept going.

Win really wanted some Long John Silvers, and according to WifeBot there was one about 20 miles from Chicago. Of course, after pulling off the exit we realized we were in Gary, Indiana and this was a place we definitely did not want to be. Had we stayed there much longer we probably would have gotten our car stolen as we were driving.

We promptly got back on the freeway and found another Long John Silvers a few miles down the road in a much less shady area.

A few hours later while driving through Ohio, we were promptly greeted with the flashing lights of a cop car. Dang...a speeding ticket. I thought we would make it through unscathed, but I guess we weren't so fortunate. The rest of the drive proceeded to get more interesting as apparently I-90 isn't so straightforward going through Cleavland. We stayed on the same freeway the whole time, and by the time we reached the end of Ohio we were about 90 miles from I-90; not something I would have expected.

So I pulled out the old road atlas and we proceeded to get back on course. The day was about to get stranger, however.

Once we arrived in a small town outside Buffalo, we stopped at a restaurant to get some dinner. As we passed by the freeway off-ramp, a small pickup truck was speeding down the ramp and pulled up right behind us. The truck followed us all the way towards the motel, and even when I took a wrong turn into the motel parking lot (thinking it was the right turn), he followed me in there. Once I realized we were not in the right spot I turned around and went into the next driveway; and of course he followed me all the way.

At this point I was a little weirded out, but what was really strange was that when I went into the office to check in, the guy also came into the office and asked me if we had gotten a speeding ticket in Ohio. He then asked the receptionist if he could use their phone to call someone, and then after that he left without checking into the hotel.

Now, maybe it's just me, but that seems a little strange to have followed someone for 200 miles. Perhaps it was a coincidence. Either way, it was definitely unnerving, and I spent most of the night wondering if this guy had any plans to rob us, or do something to our car. Either way, it was a kind of creepy end to a most interesting day.

Day 5 - Buffalo to Boston

Waking up the next morning, we realized we were still alive and that nothing had happened to our car. Whatever the deal was with that guy last night was over and I stopped worrying about it. Although I was still amazed at how something as strange as that could happen.

Upstate New York was pretty much like anything else we've seen along the way. Because of the toll booths, they have these "convinience stations" where you can pull off to get gas or to use the restroom or even get lunch. Basically they do this because you avoid getting off the freeway and then getting back on; all the while having to deal with tolls and the traffic jams they cause. And of course, it's even better because you don't have to choose which gas station you want to use, or where to eat, or what to buy; they make it simple by just having one of everything!


As we approached Massachusetts we were pleasantly greeted with rain. Actually the terrain and weather was not much different from when we left Seattle. Hmmm....


At last - Taxachusetts!


Apparently Illinois is not the only state that does not believe in whole numbers.



Well, this is the end of I-90. I can't believe we made it all this way.


As we made our way towards Malden, which is north of the city, we passed through the I-93 tunnel, otherwise known as the "Big Dig". Apparently it hasn't done much for traffic and they can't seem to justify the $14 billion price tag and 15 year production schedule. Oh well.

Well that's it folks. Our journey across the country is over, although our new adventure in Boston is just beginning. Stay tuned as we chronicle our first few days in the city and go apartment hunting.