Imagination to Reality : Florida to Boston: Authentic

Tomorrow starts another week of work. I've officially made it two weeks! Working a normal job is exactly the type of "break" I've been craving. I get home in the evenings and have so much free time to do anything I want. I've done all kinds of things, and had to force myself to spend an evening in my apartment today to take it easy and prepare for the week.

Last weekend I went to New Hampshire with P.A. Trick and his friends. It was an extremely ugly day, all rainy and such. But we headed out to a beach in Mass first for some excellent Pizza and to hang out at a sweet arcade.

Then, we continued on to NH. I had some authentic New England Clam Chowder and Fish & Chips at a restaurant on the beach.

We also shot some laser guns at this crazy arcade/place where the lady had apparently worked there for over 20 years.

This week I finally made it to the Boston Hoop Meet up in the Boston Common! It was great. I went with Ashlee, who was a new hooper, and she had a blast. We're recruiting her roommate/best friend Jessica to come with us this week on Tuesday.

We then took the hoops and went looking for a bar downtown to get some dinner. Ashlee went to college with me, and coincidentally moved up to Boston the same week I did! She lives right down the street from me and we've been hanging out a lot. That night was also Game 6 of the NBA finals. People get really into it here.

I also began participating in their "Family" dinners. This week was a very informal pot luck that ended up being a cheese, crackers, and wine ordeal but will hopefully evolve into a more organized dinner gathering. I'm pretty excited about that.

I went to the Farmers Market in Haymarket again this weekend. I actually managed to bring my camera, but no picture can really display the madness that it is, so this picture will have to suffice.

Let me just paint a little picture of this week's farmers market experience. I got up on Saturday morning and made plans to meet Ashlee in Salem, MA that afternoon with Jessica to go exploring. Jessica invited me to go running with her and her roommate, and I obliged - rounding off with a 5 mile walk/jog around Brookline/Brighton. We then decided it might be faster to drive to Haymarket, since we were going to have to bring back our groceries, then get back on the T to get to North Station and jump on the Commuter Rail to get to Salem. Worst.Idea.Ever. First, we got really lost in the car and ended up in Cambridge before fighting 40 minutes of traffic to get to Haymarket. THEN, drove around downtown Boston looking for a meter spot. Let me tell you, EVERYONE in Boston was out enjoying the nice warm day - it took almost 4 hours to make a trip that would have lasted no more than an hour and a half by T. Never doing that again.

Then we FINALLY headed to Salem and visited some really awesome places. One was this amazing antique shop that had a sweet chest, the most old-school space heater ever, and pictures of people we didn't know. And of course, it's Salem - we had to visit some cheesy witchcraft stores too.

Appropriately, I found a crazy bookstore while in Salem too. This place was absolutely intimidating. I was afraid to breathe, for fear of sending the entire store into a domino-like tumble (probably taking down the whole building in its path)