From 7/9

This update comes to you from 36000 feet above some unknown mid-western state. After finishing my girly chick flick (courtesy of redbox-best invention ever), I think I still have about 2 hours to kill on this flight. I’m pretty sure it’s the longest flight I’ve taken, it’s about 5.5 hours long, DC to San Diego.

My life has been absolute craziness, and I still couldn’t be happier. Let’s talk about life-

Two weekends ago I managed to snag an invitation to a fellow hooper’s going away party. Apparently she was a pretty incredible person judging by her farewell, everyone spoke about how amazing, influential, and supportive she was. I was kind of bummed I didn’t get to know her. It was at the most amazing loft apartment I’ve ever seen – I’m not sure I could have dreamed one better. The people were amazing too! There were people of all ages and people so incredibly different from one another. In the big open space as we walked in, there was body painting going on. We were openly welcomed and soon became engaged in conversation about all kinds of things throughout the night. There were multiple performances, including hoopers, a guitar player covering 80s-90s hip hop and r&b songs (including Waterfalls by TLC and the Gangsta’s Paradise), a communal drum circle, a blind desert tasting, singers, and more. After all the indoor performances (with Sangria and all kinds of snacks), we all congregated outdoors for a huge Burn. Now, people who aren’t familiar with the term really get confused by this, especially my new friend Jessica! She was convinced it was some satanic ritual thing, and really sketchy, but it’s not!! There were all kinds of fire performances including double fire hoops (and single), poi (two short chains with balls of fire on the ends), single poi (probably not the right term, but it’s a fireball on a really long chain), and staffs (long sticks with fire at both ends). There were incredibly talented people, it was an awesome experience. There was also a woman who couldn’t have been under 60 who fire hooped! What I really loved about this experience is the acceptance, openness, and generosity of everyone there. Everyone was welcome to be there, be themselves, and have the comfort of knowing they’re not being judged. It was an absolutely inspiring group of people who I can’t wait to hang out more with.

I also got to see Siversun Pickups play that weekend! I ended up going by myself, and was planning on using an old House of Blues gift card to pay for my ticket. Unfortunately, they don’t take gift cards for ticket purchases at HOB in Boston, so I was on my own to pay for a ticket. They were $35 + a bajillion dollars in fees online, so I decided to wing it, which ended up being a great idea cause I got a ticket for $25. It was crazy hot and I had some wardrobe malfunctions, but it all worked out and I got to see Matt & Kim (band), Gogoll Bordello, and SSPU! The balloons were thrown into the crowd by Matt & Kim and were released on cue!

Last weekend, I woke up super early on Saturday to head to South Station and catch a bus to NYC. I made the mistake of staying up entirely too late the night before, but it all worked out well. I got to South Station to catch an 8:30 bus that had leather seats, power outlets, and free wifi. Talk about luxury travel! My ticket was only $20, it was about a 3.5 bus ride (most of which I slept through) and it dropped me off right in the city. After that, Ken picked me up and we enjoyed delicious Pink Berry (amazing frozen yogurt with fresh fruit) and some other ethnic favorites of his in Chinatown. Then, it was a 2 hour car ride to Atlantic City! I had never been, and couldn’t bring myself to gamble away more than $5 at the penny slots, but our room was gorgeous and we visited the boardwalk and ate some amazing food.

After driving back to Jersey (and getting DELICIOUS NJ bagels), we did some minimal shopping before heading to stake out our spot on the Hudson for fireworks. With Coke and Sailor Jerry, as well as grapes and a blanket, we took a train (to avoid the crazy traffic) to some city I can’t remember the name of and sat to wait. There was a caterer selling sausage and peppers, which was a huge plus, and we enjoyed the NYC skyline at sunset. When the fireworks finally started, it was a 26 minute show from SIX barges. That’s right, SIX. And, Ken planned it perfectly enough that we were right in the middle of all six, such a totally cool experience.

Here is a video of the fireworks: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=409289815809&ref=mf

This week began my official roommate interview process. I posted an ad on craigslist and got some promising responses. The weirdest by far was a guy who read my ad and responded enthusiastically about how he thought we would be perfect roommates, because we had things in common, including being a FL native, and being musicians. After discussing his enthusiasm with a fellow Stetson alum, she asked his name and when I told it to her she said “….Wait, what? He went to Stetson!” While he didn’t graduate from Stetson, he definitely attended before moving up and transferring to Berklee. I met with him most recently and he seems like the best roommate option by far. It’s somewhat weird though when meeting with people, asking the “are you meeting other people?” question – it feels like I’m dating!

This weekend is an impromtu trip to California to attend Ken’s cousin’s wedding in San Diego. More pictures and updates will come later. I have way more adventures in store for the month, including a trip to Martha’s Vineyard for sailboat races, a visit from GRACE!, and a trip to Vermont!

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)

And here are some other pictures from Salem that I'll leave you with, including the place we ate dinner.

Will update again soon!

Real life is starting

Today was my first day of official, grown-up work! Emotions are all mixed about it, and it was a crazy busy day - but it's definitely the start of a new adventure that I can't wait to see where it takes me.

I was a regular public-transportation commuter this morning, and I think it's going to take a little adjusting to. My flats, as previously mentioned, are blister makers. So I decided that it would be worthless to wear flats and change into heals at the office. And I really wasn't okay with wearing a pencil shirt with Asic tennis shoes to commute in. But at the T stop when a really nicely dressed girl in a dress was wearing tennis shoes - and then other people with unmatching footwear was on the train with me - I realized it wasn't a big deal and tomorrow am wearing my flip flops for my .5 mile walk from the T stop to my job.

Here is a new interesting thing about living in Boston that is different than Florida: People are both desensitized to outlandish clothing and totally confident in themselves. Tonight, I took a long 3.5 mile walk this afternoon because I wanted to do enjoy the great weather. I walked down to the aforementioned reservoir and circled around. There were so many people out running, both down the sidewalk and around the lake - it was inspiring. All these people are so into enjoying the outdoors. And at that, they don't even care what they look like! There were definitely the strangest people outside exercising and it was so cool that everyone was out there doing it for themselves. I feel like in Florida people are staring and judging you as you work out, and not so much here. I don't feel like people are judging me and all that jazz. Pretty awesome.

Also, I'm way more confident to wear any kind of clothing I feel like because there is always someone more radical that I am. I visited this really sweet vintage shop called Lola's on Saturday with my roommate. I got an awesome necklace, and they had the coolest earrings and original clothing. And you can wear all that on the street and no one looks twice at you. I feel like in Florida if you wore leggings if you weren't going out, you'd get some sort of sideways glance because it wasn't so commonplace. Clothing and attire in general is so different here.

So now onto the more exciting stuff, on Saturday I went to a really awesome event called FIGMENT. Here is a little snapshot from the website that explains it:

FIGMENT is a forum for the creation and display of participatory and interactive art by emerging artists across disciplines. FIGMENT began in July 2007 as a free, one-day participatory arts event on Governors Island in New York Harbor with over 2,600 participants. Since then, FIGMENT has grown significantly each year—in number of projects, duration, participants, volunteers, fundraising capability, exhibitions, locations, overall level of commitment and participation, and public support.

It was really incredible - and I only caught the tail end of it! I have since been friended on Facebook by the New Allston School of Art, and Curatorial Director of FIGMENT and hope to be able to be apart of events in the future. I think it would be an incredible way to meet new people who share a passion for visual/aural art and might be into some of my crazy visions for an art collective.

Saturday I also went to the craziest Farmers Market. I took the train all the way to Haymarket and found the busiest and cheapest selection of fresh produce ever. I didn't remember to bring my camera, however I did snap a picture of all the food I brought home for $11

As I went for my walk tonight, it started to rain slightly. But when I got down to the reservoir, this was my view around the lake:

Here is another view around the other side of the reservoir:

And people at the park:

The low is 60 degrees tonight, I'm hanging out in a hoodie and sweatpants with my windows open. I'm really exhausted though and I have to get up early for day 2 of work. Tomorrow, I'm wearing comfortable shoes for my commute no matter how silly I look in my pencil skirt!

Exploration

For the past 2 days I've been exploring! First thing's first, I promised a picture of these strange fire alarms. The first is the one outside my apartment, and the other is just another random one I found while searching for a farmers market (which ended up not even happening that day).

These past 2 days I've selected a running path that I feel is much more ambitious than I'm qualified for. But nonetheless, I'm tackling it head on. The route takes me down Beacon Street (the main road in my area) to an area called Cleveland Circle. At the end is this gorgeous reservoir called the Chestnut Hill reservoir. It's no longer a regular water source for residents, but was used recently when Boston's waterline broke and they were under a boil water warning. (Apparently that's a big deal here? I remember that happening somewhat often in the keys. Maybe we're just faulty.) The path around the reservoir (which is code for big body of water, for those like me who would have been just as happy calling it a "lake") is 1.56 miles. The weather has been gorgeous, and running in the middle of the day doesn't leave me sweating as it would if I were still in Florida. With that said, running here is VERY different than Florida. The hills are KILLER! All in all, my route is 3.5ish miles long - including warm up and cool down. At Cleveland Circle there is also a really sweet park. Picture below! (Picture of reservoir coming soon - I had to get home before it started storming).

Today's adventure took me down into the more historic part of the city. My objective was to explore used bookstores and find some new shoes. What I thought to be an appropriate pair of comfortable flats have turned into blister-making machines. Although I explored MANY stores today (and found plenty of shoes I loved but didn't need), I returned home shoeless. But I also returned home with 5 new books! (I know, I'm a little addicted)

This is a picture of the Boston Common. I think it's kind of like the "Central Park" of Boston. It's expansive and beautiful (and perfectly manicured!). It's also set up right against the Boston skyline, which is hinted at in one of the pictures)

I checked out a couple used bookstores today, but this one was by far my favorite (it's where I got 4 of my 5 books). It's so cool, it's got an outside sale section in this weird gap between buildings, surrounded by these huge sky-scraper like buildings. I'm pretty sure this is going to be my favorite new place:

If you know me well at all, you know I have an affinity for old graveyards - I can never pass them up. Today was no different, and turned out to be the oldest I've ever visited by FAR. The oldest grave dated back to the late 1600s, and included the tomb of Paul Revere. Now, I know anyone who graduated high school is familiar with that name ("it sounds familiar........") but like me, probably have no idea who it is. Well, thank you wikipedia, he was a guy who warned people of a british invasion (No, not the Beatles pop music invasion) in the 1700s. Yep, here are some pictures:

So this has been more of a scrapbook, touristy blog entry, but I was really excited to do all of this - the old buildings, the history, the metropolis - it's what I love about this place.

I grabbed a newspaper and sought out all the really exciting things I want to attend this week. They include a farmers market (which really WILL be occurring this time), 2 arts festivals (one with hoopers!), a free 3-day music festival, public hoop-jams, and more! Pictures and details will follow. But for now, here are a couple additional trademarks of my experience here:

My T Stop (subway turned street-car at this point)

A really neat theatre up the street from my apartment

Random picture of the T tracks

And a random picture while searching for the not-in-season farmers market

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this place?!?