Tra-la-la

Another Sunday, another couple in the NYT

Yep, I know another couple in the NYT wedding section. To be fair, I only know one of the two (the groom). Wild stuff.

In more exciting news, I went to my first Red Sox game at Fenway yesterday. It was awesome. Of course I had seen the Sox before in Seattle, but people couldn't believe I had lived in Boston almost two years (yes, it's been that long, if you can believe it!!) and hadn't been inside Fenway. We played the other Sox and knocked the Sox off them. By the seventh inning stretch, it wasn't even a game anymore. I went with my salesperson from Banc of America and the seats were fantastic, right behind the home dugout and first base.

I've got the new Harry Potter book and it is all I can do to keep myself from just reading it and doing nothing else. I have a fair number of chores to get done, though, so I shouldn't let myself. I'd better hop to!

Ah, sweet, sweet wireless network

Month one into living in my new apartment and I finally got my wireless network up and running. The likelihood that I post in my blog HIGHly improves when I have easy, fuss-free access to Internet. Viva la blog!  Not that I have readers anymore after abusing them so, but maybe some of you will return.

Anyway, what's been going on with me? I had a housewarming yesterday and it was excellent. I'd say 20 people came. I thought I'd overdone it on the food, but there was none left. I also thought I might have underdone the alcohol and I have so much I could swim in it. Seriously, I have enough wine (thanks to the bottles folks contributed as well as my own overpurchase) and beer to last through fall.

People marveled at my view, which I admit is sweet, but I miss my old Seattle view. For those of you who didn't make it, here is a shot of the Charles and the Pru from my apartment windows (and my new iPhone!!)

A room with a view

I'm in my new place (boxes, boxes everywhere). I stll have my shoes, hanging clothes and some odds and ends at the old place, but for the most part I am moved. I don't think I recognized (in the fourteen seconds I took to look at this apartment because the former residents were home and I didn't want to bother them) that my apartment has a spectacular view. It rivals (but not quite) the view from my beloved house in Seattle. The apartment is 1/3 windows and faces south and west, getting a ton of light. I think living here will be very nice. Now, more unpacking!

packing and boxing

I won't bore you all with the blow-by-blow details of my packing. I'm pretty busy, though, doing really dull stuff. I am making some progress, but it will doubtless be a tiring week trying to box up my life again and schlep it three miles away.

Work won't slow down much this week, either. I will attend EBay Live, an Ebay conference at the Boston Convention Center this week. The stock market will go on about its merry way (stock market sucked much of last week, by the way).  I'm finding it less challenging at work to accept when my stocks go down. I merely hope it turns around a bit in the coming weeks.

So if I don't write, take heart. I'll be back. And even if I don't have my own internet connection in my new place for a bit, there is a wifi lounge in my new building. I'll be back soon.

Behavioral finance is so cool

I'd write more, but I am super tired after an intense day. More tomorrow!

Back to school: behavioral finance

Tomorrow and Wednesday I am headed to a seminar I am really excited about: behavioral finance. I do believe that in the long run, the market is efficient, that despite random undulations of a stock price day to day, in the longer term, every stock can be judged by its fundamentals and stocks will tend to revert to the mean.  That means, for those of you who don't really like to think about what you invest in, that if you buy a good company and hold it, you should eventually get rewarded for your patience. Of course, it's hard to understand what makes a good company, but that's a totally different topic too big for my blog.

Behavioral finance, however, assumes that bigger changes in stock prices are indications of the psychology of those who are investing. We all fall victim to being human. We make psychological mistakes or go with momentum. 'Tis natural. We also trick ourselves into believing something one way or another that clouds our judgment about how to invest.

The field of behavioral finance tries to explain why we do what we do, what tricks our minds play, and how to benefit from other people's foibles to get an edge on the market.

It's going to be fun.

What has happened to me?

What dreams may come

I have a very unfortunate habit of having vivid dreams when I am anxious about something. When I was in high school and I used to fall asleep doing my math homework, I used to dream that I had finished it, only to wake up to realize I had more to do.  I also dream a lot that I am cleaning my house, cleaning out my closet, etc., only to wake to find the work unfinished.

This is sick, but what's worse, this is so unfair.

When I dream I do something, the boredom of chores, the pain and suffering of all these tasks gets multiplied because in my waking life, I am still required to complete unfortunate things. It's no more fun to do these things in the real world than in my dreams.

It'd be nice if I had dreams of eating hot fudge sundaes or winning the lottery, but my neurons are far too practical and preoccupied. I'm headed to yoga to deal with some of my ridiculousness.

to a de-luxe apartment in the sky

The weekend is dedicated to cleaning out and packing up. My move is not for a few weekends, but there is a lot to do. My new place is an apartment in a large building (100 units +!), which is not something I ever thought I'd do before. It seems so industrial and soulless. But there is a 24-hour doorman, laundry in the unit, beautiful big windows and a view of the Charles River.  I'll have to worry less about my security, I'll have a parking space in a lot attached to the building and I will have a grocery store three blocks away.

No more raccoons, no more rats on a floor as high as mine, no more police chases through my back yard, and likely fewer trannie prostitutes working in the neighborhood.  Not that there is anything wrong with the things I've listed, but . . . well, I am ready for a change. Living in the center of the city has its charms. It also has its detractors. Now I am going to live amongst a zillion biotech labs and offices, spitting distance from MIT and not too far from Harvard Sq.

My commute to the office steps up from 3.5 blocks to 2.1 miles, but it's a lovely walk along the Charles or about 20 minutes using public transportation.

No new pair of shoes

I didn't win any money in Vegas, but I didn't lose much, and that's half the battle. The conference was great, filled with internet luminaries such as Meg Whitman and Barry Diller (who is really quite funny). I didn't have enough time to shop for a new pair of shoes, much less win the money to pay for them. It was meetings pretty much from 8am to 6pm, with a work dinner thrown in in the middle.

After my work trip, I went home to Denver for the weekend to visit my parents and see some friends.
My friend Rosie just had a baby and my friend Hilary is expecting one. It's babies everywhere I look. My friend Elisabeth is having a baby any minute now, my friends Robin and Megan both gave birth a few months ago, and my friend Laura is expecting in August. Maybe I need to look into getting a cat.

I saw a really sweet movie, _Waitress_, with my mom and stepdad while I was home. It wasn't until the credits rolled that I remembered the tragic fate of the director.  It's a good movie (particularly if you like chick flicks). I'd recommend it, but it's certainly one you can rent if it's not playing anywhere near you.

Vegas, baby, year two

I'm headed to Vegas for work tomorrow. If anyone recalls, last time I had to work in Vegas, I won $1000 between meetings. Here's hoping for the same stroke of luck!

Side question: how many of you out there actually recognize people in the NYT wedding pages? It's so weird. I've started reading those pages every Sunday and I know someone I'd say one out of three or four weeks. I am not a socialite. I am not east coast royalty.  I'm just a girl from Colorado. Last weekend, a good friend of mine from college was in there, a few weeks before, a girl I knew from high school. A week before that,  I saw one of my elementary school friends' little sisters. It's insane. I've become mildly obsessed.