I have a lot of things going on, yet at the same time, my life is pretty quiet.

Last Monday was the Boston Marathon, and we cheered on my friend Jamie. I’m so proud of him .

We’re in the middle of a project at work that’s keeping me pretty busy. I’ve put in a lot of hours the past week.

I’m still absolutely loving my new camera. I’ve taken almost 2200 pictures with it so far. This one may be my favorite so far.

I went to see my neurologist last week, and I’m not very happy with the meds I’m on right now because of the side effects. We’re going to start the paperwork to get me on Tysabri. It’s the once-monthly IV infusion, opposed to the thrice-weekly injection I have now. I’m happy to be losing the side effects. We have to do a bunch of tests to make sure it’s safe for me to take Tysabri. There have been some deaths related to the medication in the past, but I don’t appear to have any of the counter-indications.

I’m off to NYC next weekend. It’s my friend Jay’s birthday, and we’re celebrating. On top of that, I’m getting a tattoo (on my back) covered. We also have awesome seats to see Avenue Q. I’ve not seen it before, so I’m pretty excited. Reggie will be staying with my friend Ulli and her Yorkie, Mr. Duke. I know he’ll be in good hands.

Reggie and I have had a house guest for the past few days. My friend Chris left his Cocker Spaniel, Oliver, with us. He was such a loving boy. He and Reggie had some dominance issues, but nothing I couldn’t clean up. I didn’t like that rug, anyway.

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Originally uploaded by mikehillwig

Every once in the while, the MBTA will get things right. More often than not, they get things wrong. This time, it’s not just wrong, it’s very wrong.

In an effort to satisfy some problem or another, the MBTA is “piloting” a new boarding method on the Newburyport/Rockport commuter rail line during off-peak hours. Most commuters deal with peak travel times. I have the misfortune of being one of the people who frequently ride during off-peak times.

The idea here is that during off-peak inbound trips, passengers will be herded into one or two cars instead of keeping several cars open. In theory, this is a great idea, and it’s nothing new. They’ve been doing this on outbound trains for years. In theory, conductors will have fewer cars to walk through and will be able to collect all of the tickets in a timely manner. There will also be fewer cars to manage, meaning fewer doors to open and close. Again, this all sounds great in theory.

If the conductors collected tickets at the door before passengers even sat down, this would work brilliantly. Instead, conductors still have to walk through the train to collect tickets. Here is where it fails: No conductor walked through my car, meaning I got yet another free ride on the commuter rail. I’m happy to pay for my trip, provided the conductors actually collect tickets.

The worst part of this whole thing is that these are pretty small signs, and there is only one of them at Salem Station. It’s halfway down the platform. So as the train pulled into the station, all of the people scattered along the platform looking for an open door for boarding had to run to the high-level platform in order to board the train. By the time we got to North Station, my train was running about ten minutes late because every station stop took longer.

When you live in the metro Boston area, you do end up loving to hate the MBTA.

I haven’t been writing on my blog lately. The reason falls somewhere between being incredibly busy at work and just being lazy when I get home. I do post a photo and paragraph every day on my Flickr 365 photo set.

In two weeks, I’m heading to NYC with my friends Andy and Jay. It’s Jay’s 30th birthday, and we’re going to celebrate it in the Big Apple. On top of that, I’m finally getting a tattoo covered after about six years of saying that I’m going to do it.

Jay and Andy came to my house last night to watch Heroes. Normally, I make the trek down to Andy’s because it’s easier for me to get into the city than it is for them to make it to the suburbs. It was nice to have people visit, and do our weekly routine at my house. Jay and Reggie hit it off instantly.

I’ve been saying for the past year that Reggie and I have fantastic neighbors. Well, that’s about to change. My two fantastic upstairs neighbors, along with their fantastic dogs, will be moving out the end of this month. This makes me really sad because we’ve all become spoiled by having someone to take care of each other’s dog when the need arises.  And we just got Reggie and Wyle playing nice. I’m REALLY going to miss having the ferocious German Shepherd living upstairs and having the whole neighborhood know that the house is protected.

And if you can’t tell, I’m loving the new camera.