boston

The end of last week was a mix of last-minute trips to Home Depot for our volunteer day supplies, serving meals and meeting new MSW interns, and getting ready for Boston. I'm amazed by how much the Home Depot managers know about absolutely everything in their stores- they work long, long hours but they love what they do and it's always inspiring to watch people who love what they do, no matter what it is.

Friday night was our Side-by-Side fundraiser in Boston for the JVC New England communities. Our Hartford community, Boston's community, and Portland's all went (and three housemates from Bridgeport came yesterday) and we spent the weekend in Boston's beautiful house ("the Taj") in Jamaica Plains. The fundraiser was so much fun because we all dressed up, ate the fancy hors d'oeuvres, and mingled with all of the guests. A lot of them were FJVs who now live around Boston- one approached me after we all introduced ourselves in the front of the room and said that she's a Fordham graduate and a FJV from Hartford- and she lived in the bedroom I have now. It's nice to see how many FJVs, even decades after their volunteer years, are doing work very similar to or inspired by their service year. Father James Martin was the speaker- he is so funny and charismatic and I'm looking forward to reading "My Life with the Saints" at some point.

Saturday we walked the Freedom Trail, ate lunch at Quincy Market, and climbed the tower at Bunker Hill. It was so so nice to spend time with all of the New England JVs- they are all so wonderful and it's so fun to hear about the different communities and work experiences and cities. It was sad to say goodbye but we have our first retreat in only two weeks. I've been to Boston in the past but this time I really fell in love with it- I wish I could somehow go to graduate school in three different cities at once! I'll figure it out.