I graduated from college in 2012 and never worked in an office full time once I started my career.

Motion graphics/animation

You know, I was on 93 south around 6, and I was pleasantly surprised by how zippy my journey was. No traffic. Braintree split? No traffic. I was shooketh. I smiled with glee as I sped towards my destination much faster than I was expecting.

huh.

mmmm. yes. same thing.

Being frustrated that the fences around the tracks keep getting stolen and its SUPER dangerous because its also adjacent to a park and an elementary school. Being peeved at T-station bag-checks cause I don't want people looking through my bag. Being aware when the T police show up at the park next to the track and train bridge by my house. Quietly going along with everything and just making comments about it here. TOTALLY the same thing as a complete dick.

Yeah. they have a job to do. They do things. I'm not shitting on them. Im commenting about them. Things they do outside of the normal train stuff.

I've seen them around when the fencing around the tracks gets stolen.

Considering how often the fences get stolen they suck at their job.

I've seen them set up and demand to do 'bag checks' of everyone entering a downtown station but lol, the stations are all to close, we all just walk to the next station. Fuck you not-cop.

Supposedly, SUPPOSEDLY, there's some funky agreements between the city and the T about some parks that align the tracks. The T has to maintain them or some shit, so the T-police have to show up when something happens at those parks. It's weird.

Also. Track bridges. Sigh. The road below the bridge is joint property, so if something happens below the bridge T police has to show up. A car hits the bridge? T-police. Homeless people under there? T-police. Paint dicks to try and get the sidewalk fixed cause the T, city and DCR won't take ownership? T-police.

I will say, I have booked an extra day on the back end (a Monday) because being packed up and out of a site by 11am is ROUGH. especially if you've been there for 2 weeks. Having the full Sunday to clear up and get out is ideal, and sometimes I'm willing to pay for the extra night for that. I do check out Sunday, so the site opens up if someone shows up wanting it for the nite. But I need more time than 11am.

The state uses reserve America, the federal camps site. A lot of the problems stem from the rules of reserve America.

They don't charge fees or penalties. It's the worst site ever. I wish the campgrounds stopped using them.

so, MA use to have 'camp hosts'. Someone would camp for free and in return they would be responsible for cleaning the nearby bathroom everyday. It means some bathrooms were cleaner than others, but it worked and someone camped for free.

During covid they stopped using hosts. Things went shitballs for 2 years. for one, available campsites got cut in half, and for two they hired outside cleaners to clean all the bathrooms.

Since then, while all the sites have opened back up, they havent gone back to using host campers. they are continuing to have cleaners clean the facilities.

As far as I'm aware the other states are still using host campers.

We partially pay for the state parks through our tax dollars. out of state residents do not.

Do you know how hard it is to get a site at the good state campgrounds? Oh my fucking god. It's a NIGHTMARE. We have to have 7 people on 7 computers trying exactly at 8 am 6 months before we want the site (when the campsite goes live), and MAYBE one of us will get a site before they all get sold out. Its insane.

AND THEN. AND THEN.

When we get there that summer half the sites are empty. People rent out for the week and only come for the weekends. Or they book it 6 months out but they want to keep it flexible so they later cancel when they make better plans or figure out what they're doing. Cause camping is still cheaper than everything else. In state or out of state. It makes booking and planning ahead for the summer SO STUPID for those of who know we want to be there.

I've been camping at Nickerson State Park in Brewster every single summer for 35 years now. Its gotten fucking INFURIATING to have to fight to book a site - compromise on a site we don't really want but we'll take what we can get - and then get there for 2 weeks and have no one around you. The ideal perfect site be completely empty but booked by someone who never showed up.

So yeah. Raise the price for out of state people if helps stop this bullshit from happening.

I did in reverse (lived in boston/ worked in the valley) for about 10 years. Its not bad. You just sort of do it. Its kind of relaxing. Pop on a podcast or an audiobook, good music, and just drive. It becomes very rote after a while. Traffic happens in the same spots at regular times you can predict - so if you time it right you can miss it.

The problem happens when you take the bus. Don't take the bus.

Honestly - doing Hanover to Boston during rush hour was worse than the boston/springfield drive. The problem with the hanover drive is its slow bumper to bumper traffic THE WHOLE WAY. It made me want to kill myself. And it took an hour+. With the springfield drive, once it opens up, you just fly. 80/90 bada bing badda boom.

I commuted back and forth, weekly, for about 10 years.

Some of us be nuts.

My job was in Hatfield, then amherst, then Springfield. I live in Boston. I HATE western MA. I could only stand being out there a few days a week.

So I'd be in the valley mon/tue maybe wed - then back in boston the rest of the time and work remotely.

Whats even more DUMB is the first few years I didnt have a drivers license. So I took the fucking peter pan bus back and forth from amherst every single week. For YEARS.

No regrets.

I have a 2018 mazda3, Dorchester/Popes Hill. No tickets, no at fault accidents, Geico. Full Coverage $500 deductable. $620/6 months.

"Be Civil & No trolling"

I don't know if my thick as fuck Boston accent can abide by this. The amount of 'Fuck You's", and "The Brockton Papa-Gino's" That just come out of my mouth on a daily basis is just obscene.

Im a fucking DORCHESTER TOWNIE. You can't expect me to not be an obscene troll. I look at your Western MA tag, and understand you might be a little confused by what that means, but it means insulting people is my love language. Saying 'John - go fuck yourself - you fucking tool'. is how we say 'I love you'. I can't help it.

I use 'fuckin' as a thought placeholder instead of 'umm' or 'like'. Thats how obscene I am.

international banking. They're parent company also owns banks around the world - so it makes doing banking at their sister banks a little easier when travelling. No international transaction fees when taking cash out at ATMs of sister bank atms abroad.

ive never had a problem with them and ive been with them for 15 years.

They closed the BoA on gallivan blvd, and now im like, god damn it - I don't want to drive to either fields corner or quincy.

ARGGGGG.

la paloma in quincy?

JP/Cambridge: Prius/Subaru

Allston/Dorchester/Roxbury: Toyota/Honda

Southie/Beacon Hill/Back Bay: Audi/BMW

Code switching, bitch. I do it.

In dorchester, hanging out with the bro's fuck yeah, that accent is STRONG.

At work people are SHOOKETH when I say I am a townie, and that my accent is only noticeable when i say 'drawer', 'north', and (apparently) 'room'.

Lol. That whole area of towns is boring and safe. The only crime that gets pinged is where shopping centers are and the thefts that happen there. The statistics of amount of people living in the smaller town vs the amount of things that happen at the bigger shopping centers can throw off the crime map.

We've been actively fighting FOR the T. We've had discussions with the city about it.

Currently it looks like we're caught in a catch-22 situation that's causing a downward spiral.

Something happened and the schedule changed, got cut back a little but. There was less ridership. Schedule got cut back more cause there was less ridership. Less people took the T cause the schedule changed. Schedule got cut back more cause less people took the T. Ad nauseum forever.

Some grad student at UMB who lived in the neighborhood did a whole study on it and submitted it to the T. The T came out and did interviews about the problem.

NOTHING CHANGED.

There's this hole around port norfolk/Pope's Hill in Dorchester.

It's like, a mile to north Quincy, a mile to Ashmont, a mile to Shawmut, a mile to fields corner. It's so stupid.

The 201/202 is a bus that loops from fields corner, one that loops going Adams St first, and one that loops going Neponset first, so they go in different directions. But the neponeset one stops at 6pm. And after that the Adams bus runs once an hour. And that's if the bus shows up in the first place, cause there's times on schedule the bus never shows.

The 210 is supposed to run from Quincy to fields corner. But it can turn around at any random Quincy station. Weekends it doesn't go to Quincy. And it stops running early.

These bus run so sporadically. They don't come often. Most people gave up and walk to a station, keep an eye out for a passing bus on the way, and a bus never shows.

While 'technically' a bus runs into the neighborhood, it feels like it's only a technicality at this point. They run the midday busses for the kids getting out of 3 elementary schools, and that's their concern.

I have been known to drive to north Quincy and park there so I can drive home - cause after 6pm fuck getting a bus home.

Do I want to walk a mile thru Dorchester after dark alone? Not particularly. Do I want to wait an hour for a bus? Not particularly.

If you'd like to open a store in quincy center, I'm just saying, the only art supply store on the south shore is michaels. It would be water in a desert.

Currently we either order online or drive to Cambridge. And do you know how people south of downtown are loath to go north of downtown?

Im on the corner of Popes Hill and Neponset. Right smack dab in the middle of the shit show.

Tenean is better than it had been, but its still got issues, and it could backslide so easily. And being right around the corner from the comfort, its an ideal place for people staying there to go to get away if they wanted to do something away from oversight. There or the path behind the murphy.

I live in the neighborhood. The T here sucks ass. Almost all of here have cars it sucks ass so bad. It's been an ongoing issue. We've been at war for years.

There's 3 schools. He forgot neighborhood charter school.

The it's not that there Are kids on the hill. It's the QUANTITY of kids on the hill every day. 3 schools worth. The traffic of dropping off and picking up 3 schools worth of kids. Walking home in a neighborhoods with 3 schools. Sharing the mbta bus stop with the school kids. It's a thought. It's a lot of kids and a large quantity of unknown people who don't interact with society normally.

There's some bridges over Morrissey blvd there. The walking bridge and the train Bridge, it's dark walking under the bridges, no light, and there's always been concern about how dangerous it is there. No one will take responsibility for the area under the train bridge. The DCR owns the road, but they say the MBTA own it. The MBTA says lol no. We've talked to the city, we've talked to the owners of the comfort/boston bowl. The sidewalk is a mess, it's dark, it's Dangerous to walk thru there. The mess that is Tenean, under the highway, the homeless that live up under there. That lobserts and mobsters trolley tour bus that drives straight by, stops at tenean, and talks about the murder beach. We are a cheerful bunch.

The walking overpass has issues. The stairs like to become unsafe. When it snows it turn to ice. We never know if it's going to be shoveled. Then people walk across Morrissey without walking down to the light, and THAT'S a death trap.

I legit just drive from one side of Morrissey to the other cause I can't be bothered to deal with it all. I drive to north Quincy station, park there, and take the T downtown cause the bus on Neponset is so bad. I drive to the Shaws at jfk cause the stop and shop on the hill is atrocious.

No. This is next to boston bowl. Doubletree was down by jfk.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Why would I waste money on something that's perfectly functional?

Sure the kitchen has 1980s faux wood wainscoting. And yeah the linoleum flooring is a little dated. But it works. It's fine. It's homey. Its mine.

Why does it matter anyways?

The house was built in 1850, I'm lucky the last time it was updated was the 70s/80s.