Shuttle. Train. Bus. Ferry.

So, I started work on July 30 and haven't had much time to post. Between work and commuting I have had very little free time during the week; I can't even stay up late and watch the Olympics :(. The first month is completely filled with training so most of my days are spent listening to lectures, but there have been a few days that I felt were really educational. Today was great because instead of going to the office we went to a Halfway home in the Bronx and spent the day working with the kids that lived there. I had a little girl named Ciane, who was originially paired with another guy but she refused to talk and was extremely shy so I let him take my teenage boy that seemed upset that he was put with a girl. Ciane ended up talking her head off by the end of the day and we had a lot of fun together. The past couple of weekends we've had Matt's friends from high school come and visit and then last week Jay and Nina came up. Although I love having guests, this weekend is our first free weekend since we moved in and I could use the rest. I'll try to keep the blog updated as much as possible, but until I get into a routine I am just too sleepy when I get home to log on and post.

Tours from a homeless guy are highly recommended

This past weekend my dad's girlfriend, Debbie, wanted to do something special for my dad's birthday. Since she just had surgery and I still haven't started working, we had plenty of time to plan a nice trip weekend trip to Philadelphia. Matt, Dad, Debbie, Christie, Wade and I all left early Saturday morning, checked into our hotel and then visited the historic district in Philadelphia. We saw the famous bell with a crack in it, Independence Park, Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin's old house and lots of other things. For lunch we had the only lunch acceptable in Philadelphia, Philly cheesesteaks. For dinner I found a really fun restaurant called the Melting Point, a fondue place where you cook your own dinner. Matt was a little concerned because he doesn't ever cook, but he seemed to do okay. I loved it! After dinner we walked a couple blocks over to Helium comedy club to see Aires Spears. He was actually pretty funny, haven't laughed that much in a while.


On day 2, Matt and I woke up a lot earlier than everyone else and decided to take a walk around the city. We didn't really know where to go, so we headed towards a tall clock tower with a statue of Paul Revere on the top. On the way there we ran into a relatively clean, nice homeless man who struck up a conversation with us. When we asked him a little about our surroundings, he began to give us a tour of city hall. He also showed us where the Masonic Temple was, where part of National Treasure was filmed and the steps that Rocky raced up. That was the best tour I had all weekend. We headed back to the hotel and gave the rest of our group the tour we got from the homeless guy. We headed home right after lunch, which made Matt very happy because on Friday afternoon our new tv was delivered and Matt didn't get a chance to play with it yet.

The new apartment

Matt and I are finally settled into our new apartment. It took a week or so of trips to Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens N' Things, Target and furniture stores in order to make our apartment home. I would write more, but Matt's blog is pretty detailed so you can read his Apartmentlog posts at www.loopforever.com.


The one thing I love about Stamford is that we can walk everywhere. There are numerous restaurants within a mile of our apartment, Target is 3 blocks away, the mall is across the street, we have 3 movie theaters and a huge public library right around the corner. The library is great because I have almost nothing to do during the day so I have resorted to reading. I just finished Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes and it was amazing.

In case you were wondering where I've been

After graduation, I went to Connecticut for a week to visit with family. The highlight of my visit was a family graduation party that turned into a massive food fight. My aunts decided to pour water on my grampy while he was sleeping. Grampy then retaliated with some water balloons that I lovingly made for him. More water was thrown, but somehow it got a little out of hand and my uncle Mark was covered in cake and my cousin Wade wore a combination of iced tea and coke.

After a week or so in Connecticut, I was getting a little bored so I took a ride up to New Hampshire to visit Tina for a while. We went to see "What Happens in Vegas", which was a really good movie, but definitely a chick flick. The highlight of this visit was hiking to the top of Mount Monadnock. Our friend Dan Shea went hiking there earlier in the week and since it was close we decided that we wanted to tackle the mountain too. We didn't know that the hiking we would be doing didn't involve following a well beaten path, but mostly consisting of rock climbing. The picture above shows just how rocky the climb was. However, it was a great work out and the view from the top was amazing. I spent a few more days in New Hampshire attending barbecues and parties and we had a good time.

Leaving New Hampshire wasn't fun because I had to travel all the way to New Jersey to my Dad's to pack for the new apartment. I drove through New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey all in the same day. Matt and I move into the new apartment in exactly a week, so I'm getting very excited and I have a lot of packing to do, so that should keep me busy. This weekend Dad and Debbie want to go to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, go to the zoo and eat cheese steaks. Those all sound like fun and Philadelphia is only about an hour and a half away.

I can now wear a tassle on the left

Matt and I had an alternative Senior Week. Neither of us really drink so we didn't want to pay outrageous prices to events that we probably wouldn't enjoy. I spent a couple days with the girls visiting Vanderbilt Park taking lots and lots of pictures. We also packed into the bed of Tina's truck and went to the drive-in. It was freezing outside, but we took every blanket we could find in the house in order to stay warm.

Matt, Jay, Nina and I took an afternoon and went to New York City. There we went to the Museum of Natural History, which is always fun, but we only had a couple of hours and there is just way to much history to view in such a short time. We then went to Jekyll and Hyde for dinner. It was entertaining, but the food was overpriced and wasn't very tasty or satisfying. It was still a nice trip though, next time we'll have to be a little more prepared. The next night was senior formal and Matt and I didn't want to pay $70 per person for sub-par food and an open bar that we wouldn't take advantage of, so we decided to go to Beekman Arms with Jay and Nina. The food there was amazing, everyone else ordered the steak and I had duck with a balsamic fig sauce. All in all, I think we made a good decision.

Saturday was my college graduation. It was raining all day Friday and the forecast for Saturday had a few people worried, but the skies opened up and the sun came out just for us. It was a nice ceremony, but entirely too long to hold my attention. The only thing that got me through the hour and a half of name calling was a discussion with some Math professors about Battlestar Galactica. After the ceremony, my family and Matt's family met at Amici's for dinner and presents. Our families seemed to get along very well and I'm glad that they finally had a chance to meet. Yesterday, my memere said "Matt's mom is so beautiful and nice. I wish I had a chance to talk to her a little more." It was so cute. So now I have 21 days away from Matt until we move into our new apartment on June 10th. Luckily I have family parties, packing and a trip to NH to visit Tina to look forward to.

Doctor Who's new companion and why I don't like her

Matt and I started attended Sci-fi night again. We took a break from our usual Tuesday routine because we just weren't that interested in Babylon 5. The new season of Doctor Who started last month and last week, we finally sat down and watch a couple of episodes. Doctor Who is usually one of my favorite shows, but so far I've been a little disappointed and that mostly has to do with the new companion. I didn't Doctor Who's first companion Rose, she was entertaining and the only thing that really annoyed me about her was that her eyebrows were black and her hair was blonde, but that's something I can get over. Martha was a great companion and I wish she didn't have to go. Now the show has gone a new direction and decided to have an agitating old lady as companion. Catherine Tate looks old enough to be David Tennant's mother and that just takes away from the fun of wondering whether or not Doctor Who will fall in love with his companion this year. Take a look at the pictures above and you'll see what I mean.

Update: I have now warmed up to Donna was the new companion, and was pleasantly surprised when Martha joined the show for a couple of episodes.

It's almost over....

I haven't posted in a while so here is a brief update on what has been happening in the life of Brooke Lowell. Gaming for Hope went really well this year. In the past the club has raised $1,400 consistently, however this year we raised $2,282 for Child's Play Charity. On an unrelated note, I am allergic to the changing of the seasons and spent most of last weekend sneezing uncontrollably. This was very unfortunate because Matt and I took a trip to New Jersey this weekend for Denny's 4th birthday party and it's hard to enjoy a barbecue when you can't breathe. My dad recently got a Golden Retriever puppy, Holly, and Matt and I finally got to play with it. Matt would love to get a puppy when we move, but we'll never be home and it costs $500 deposit and $50/month for a puppy in the apartment. My ideal puppy would look like the one below. We both really love Great Danes and so we should probably wait until we have the time and space for a dog.


This week is my last week of classes forever, next week is my final week of finals and then I have to endure a week of drunken housemates and then graduation!! I will miss my friends at Marist, but I am looking forward to my new apartment and my new job.