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an april photo dump before april is over

in the girly world of working on projects, being depressed, and blogging, you often can only pick two of those - and my brain loves to work on projects and be depressed. it's been a busy april, but first a word from our sponsor: pumagreg.

photo of our black cat pumagreg laying on me and he's blocking the bottom third of my cute face with his cute face and toothy grin

pumagreg and i, along with many others in the region, survived an earthquake AND a solar eclipse within mere days of each other. i was getting my haircut during the earthquake, but i was at work for the eclipse. our office is on union square and there were hundreds of people outside staring at the sun in what can only be described as wonder and definitely not kinship in having had survived an extremely mild earthquake just days before.

photo of me looking up at the sun and i'm wearing eclipse shades over my regular shades

i was wearing a blazer the day of the eclipse because that morning i made a visit to a local high school to talk to them about my career. i don't know if the blazer worked at making me look professional to the teens, but it clearly convinced a stranger in union square to ask me "what IS that?" while pointing at a helicopter in the sky. "a helicopter" i said.

a few days later i went to boston to speak at a conference for community managers. recently glitch turned 7 and it felt like the right time to start talking about the things i've learned when it comes to leading a community for the over 7 years i've been doing it. i met a lot of great folks who work in community and developer marketing, and i got some great feedback and ideas for a future iteration of the talk which i'll make sure is available for everyone to watch.

photo of me on the floor in front of a large banner that says "community-led alliance, community-led summit" in a drab conference room but i'm posing all cute, hand under chin like i'm a sweet angel

i wouldn't recommend wearing a white t-shirt to give a talk and avoiding any food or drink beforehand to not get a stain on it because you'll just be hungry, fiending for caffeine, AND the clip-on mic will stain the shirt anyway. it's sitting in my bathroom until i get a tide to-go pen, so every morning of mine starts seeing it and grieving. honestly what the fuck was on that mic???

photo of the view of boston from my hotel near boston common on the 15th floor

the monday after my talk was the boston marathon so most of the people i encountered outside of the event were germans who had traveled into town to run, and my pal mike who used to work with me before i went to glitch. he and i went on a really cool art walk and, oh boy, does boston put on a spooky art walk. i don't think it was intentional even? like, this woman swinging in the air would have given me nightmares as a kid:

photo of between two buildings on boston common and there's a wire between the two and what looks like a woman on a swing a few stories up in the air but it's definitely not a real woman - but it looks like one!

i have A LOT to say about boston in general but i don't want to express negativity as my edible is hitting. i WILL say though that it's WILD that everything closes at like 9pm! and every hotel i ever stay at there is so unhinged - my room literally had a giant painting of paul revere holding a gun and staring down at my bed while i was eating my gluten-free hashimotos struggle meal from 7-eleven. it reminded me why i stopped traveling when i first got sick.

photo of a hotel desk and i've got pringles, seltzer, cheese sticks, hard boiled egges, pickles and fruit, all from 7-eleven

on the other hand, when i got out of penn station back in new york, the rangers game was getting out and so i was actually very close to turning back around and telling the conductor to bring me back to paul and my 7-eleven eggs. the conductor would have told me "i can't, you have a dentist appointment" and he (the conductor of my mind in which i am solely imprisoned) was right. here i am on monday morning, realizing i'm a lot grayer than my bathroom lighting lets off.

photo of me on the dentist chair with my bib and shades on and i got a bunch of thing attached to my teeth coming out - no blood though

as i'm typing this can hear my late grandma's voice saying "why would you post that" which is funny because she died just as "posting" became a thing so really i'm just projecting. sorry grandma, miss you, you would have absolutely hated "posting" and seeing how "logged on" i've been. also i'm making this the thumbnail.

do you like boston, the dentist, the rangers, cheese sticks or staring at the sun? sound off in the comments! jk this blog doesn't have comments 😈

xoxo jenn

this was published April 23, 2024 under living working community talks pumagreg andy boston