Speaking of being online, some lame (and non-lame) movies that I want to see:
Alice in Wonderland
Brothers
Clash of the Titans
Everybody's Fine
Knight and Day
Iron Man 2
The Last Song
New York, I Love You
Oceans
Red Cliff
Remember Me
Repo Men
Valentine's Day
4:55 p.m. // this is my reality \\
Oh and yes, pr.net is up and running again after being hacked by Russian phishers. I know, how does this even happen to us?
10:26 p.m. // this is my reality \\
Not that I don't appreciate how much Edward is in this book, but I was really looking for some meaningless smut. And really, even without all the sex filler, the actual plot to the book was woefully underdeveloped. The one thing that kept me interested in the book was the interaction between Anita and Edward, and Hamilton kept ruining it with Anita's internal monologue of how she couldn't sleep with Edward because he was like her brother. Sigh.
7:43 p.m. // this is my reality \\
Friday was full of good things and good people. Michelle and I met Derek for lunch at the Eaton Centre, and of course, I wanted to pop into Aerie and ended up making them wait a good 15 minutes for me while I tried on items, and didn't end up buying them because I wanted more time to browse and we had to eat. Derek treated us to Richtree and I had rosti for the first time - starchy yet delicious!
Of course, given my aborted shopping trip, after work before meeting Danny I had to go back - and did end up buying the shorts and top I wanted, plus a cute little nightie... which I may just wear as a dress. Hopefully the dark colour will mitigate the shearness? And then I couldn't leave without popping by Dynamite, where I ended up buying cute work shorts, a shirt that I'm still undecided about, and a long necklace, the type which I have been looking for, at a decent price, forever! Retail sales will be the death of me - but I justified it to myself because of my recent promotion/pay raise :)
Left the mall to meet Danny (probably to the benefit of my credit card), and we wandered around Dundas Square and then to Ryerson campus a bit, checking out the Luminato ball / J.J. Abrams' plot device before sitting down in the shade of a campus building and chatting. The weather was ever so lovely outside, and we decided to go to Mercatto for dinner, which had the added benefit of me being able to see Danny's work building (or at least the building it's attached to - it is quite pretty).
Dinner was most excellent - the Mercatto on College is much more spacious than the one on Bay, more whites and pastels, less dark wood. We shared a delicious antipasto selection of roasted beats (surprisingly sweet), pickled mushrooms, prosciutto, coppa (cured pork shoulder, very tasty), and two cheeses (a soft mozzarella and a hard ewe's milk cheese). Then a pasta for each of us - linguine with fresh clams and white wine for me, a delicious pappardelle (these facinating wide, flat noodles) with wild mushrooms; and the absolute best part of the meal, their in house tiramisu, which was absolutely fantastic. We both decided we had been eating substandard tiramisu all our lives, if this was what good tiramisu tastes like.
Of course, the entirety of dinner consisted of an incredibly wide and entertaining range of conversation, including a discussion of whether or not the cookware I use on the stove can be called a wok, or rather it is a plain pan as Danny insisted. Our server was rather entertained by how vehemently I was trying to argue my point.
Dinner ran late enough that we didn't want to rush for the 9:00 showing of Up, so we got tickets for 10:00 instead, and wandered the Eaton Centre for a bit - Dundas Square was packed with people watching the (last?) Luminator presentations, but on the plus side, they were giving out samples of Hershey's milk chocolate - mmm.
The movie itself was rather adorable and sweet (though its adorableness had nothing on the Pixar short prior the the movie - now that was filled with an inordinate amount of cuteness). We saw it in 3D, but I guess I was anticipating something more like the 3D rides at Wonderland, where they really project things right out of the screen; Up 3D just had an interesting additional depth - now that I've seen a 3D movie, I think I would be content seeing all the other 3D movies coming out just in regular definition.
It was just before 12 by the time we got out of the theatre, and Danny walked me to my office so I could pick up my stuff, and then to Union. On the way, rather unexpectedly, I ran into both James and Jeff, the latter of whom was taking the Go bus home too, and generously offered me a ride home - what luck :)
A lovely evening in Toronto all in all, though I wish my internal clock would have allowed me to sleep past 9:00. The rest of the weekend is shaping up to be quite excellent as well.
9:15 a.m. // this is my reality \\
The movie itself was pretty entertaining - there was some rather fun unintentionally funny bits. I cracked up every time they noted that Logan's location was the "Canadian Rockies", and of course, the entire theatre enjoyed his "I'm Canadian" comment. When the scene about the adamantium bullets happened, there were several groans from the theatre, and Danny and I laughed quite a bit at that scene too.
The thing I love about the recent Marvel movies are the glimpses into the rest of the universe - things like Gambit's character, and a young, mobile Xavier. There are two separate extra scenes, one right after the end of the movie, and one after the credits. We stayed for both of course, though we didn't actually know if there would be an extra scene. I read somewhere that there were alternate endings available, depending on the theatre, and I wonder if they meant the extra scenes - I'll have to look it up online.
After the movie, we spent some time in Indigo, looking at books and comics and just talking. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant just before Bloor, off Yonge, that specialised in okonomiyaki, which I've never had before. It's an interesting pancake type-dish, with cabbage in the batter, and choices of meat to add. They top it with a ketchup and (as we looked up afterward) Worcestershire sauce, which gives it an excellent barbeque-y flavour. Our only complaint was that the pancakes were rather small for a dinner meal.
We went back to Danny's afterward, and I saw his new Toronto home for the next four months. We lay around on his mattress on the floor (the prior tenants had taken the bed frame) and talked about many random things. That's my favourite part of spending time with Danny - we never run out of things to talk about. He's always got an educated opinion on everything, and it's just fun. So I count today as an excellent day.
10:00 p.m. // this is my reality \\
We took the subway to Science Park station and walked to the Museum of Science, while the brisk Boston wind made itself known to my under-dressed self. It took us a while to decide what kind of tickets we wanted to get, and I asked how long we thought we were staying - Jocelyn responded that she had spent three hours here last time and only saw two exhibits, but I thought she was exaggerating, since the map of the place didn't look that big. We decided on a main ticket and tickets to an Imax show, and went in.
The Museum was much larger than I expected - we went to the Mathematica exhibit first, with a bunch of geeky math displays, including one demonstrating probability and normal distribution that I particularly liked. They also had some awesome bubble frames that made very neat geometric planes. We went to a whole lot of different exhibits, including a bunch of interactive ones - I was especially amused by one game that had squirt bottles with scent pellets inside, that asked you to guess what smell was contained. For some reason, the Museum had a surprising number of displays with scents.
We watched an Imax show: Seven Greatest Places - my favourite was Madagascar, with the adorable ring-tailed lemurs. There were also beautiful waterfalls and charming baby elephants. After the show, we asked for a map and directions from the information desk, luckily finding out that the Cambridgeside Gallaria and the Cheesecake Factory were only an "eight minute walk" away. Before we went to eat, Jocelyn requested we go see the Frogs exhibit, which was actually quite amazing. They had live frogs in displays all over, and they were all so exotic and fascinating to look at. My favourite were the brightly coloured ones, and they frog that looked like it had that weird headdress from the new Star Wars trilogy. We had a blast looking for all the frogs in the display - which was harder than you might think, since some are quite well camouflaged, and the others just hide.
We finally went to lunch at 11:30, so we could be back for the Live! animal show at 1:00. Instead of people standing at the gate to stamp our hands, they had awesome automatic machines, and Jocelyn and I amused ourselves by getting multiple stamps before we exited. Outside was unfortunately still as cold as in the morning, and I shivered all the way to the mall, despising the wind. It really was just a quick walk down the street and across a bridge to get to the mall, and we were at the Cheesecake Factory before we knew it. The restaurant was extremely big - larger than the one at Prudential, per Jocelyn. Despite the size of the place, we were seated at a tiny two person table beside a family with two loud children. Nevertheless, they gave us our menus and Jocelyn and I spent an inordinate amount of time pouring over the vast food choices available.
The whole reason behind my wanting to go to the Cheesecake Factory was because Penny from The Big Bang Theory works at a Cheesecake Factory. Jocelyn was similarly enamored with the tv show connection, and chose to order a burger, because that's what Sheldon always orders. There were several burger choices, and she ended up going with one called, aptly, "Tons of Fun". I went for a California Cheesesteak sandwich, and we decided we'd order the cheesecake after we ate.
When the food came, it became quite clear that the "Tons of Fun" burger is not what Sheldon orders - the burger was absolutely massive, and I had quite a laugh over Jocelyn trying to figure out how to eat it. Her first bite only managed to eat away a tiny portion of the bottom half of the burger. Of course, my meal was pretty large too - but it was rather more manageable than hers. I took several pictures of her struggling with her burger.
When we finally finished, we were extremely full, but still insisted on having cheesecake, since we were at the Cheesecake Factory. We got up and went to the cake counter to drool over all the different cakes. I was severely tempted by the Kahlua cheesecake, but it was extremely chocolate looking. We decided on the "Snickers Chunks and Cheesecake" instead, which, luckily, had an original cheesecake center, with a delicious chocolate biscuit crumb base and chunks of the chocolate bar on top. We managed to finish the cake, though Jocelyn certainly did not pull her weight!
Half way into the meal we had decided there was no way we were catching the 1:00 Live! animal show, and so shifted our timeline to try to catch the 3:00 instead, which we were in good time for, having left the restaurant at around 2:30. We went back to the Museum and looked at some other exhibits, including one on the human body, where we spent a hilarious couple of minutes trying to put back together a model torso whose organs kept falling out. We also got to try a pulse oximeter, which I'd had used on me before, when I had my allergic reaction - thanks to the explanatory booklet, I finally found out how the thing worked.
We lingered a little too long at the exhibit, and had to dash to get to the Live! presentation, but we got there as they were setting up and plopped ourselves on the carpet on the floor right in front of the stage. I had been hoping they had brought the meerkat from the basement exhibit/display up, but unfortunately, it wasn't one of the animals in the presentation. Instead, the presentation was about camouflage, and we got to see a snake, a twig insect, and an adorable fuzzy owl. Jocelyn also had the pleasure of a human baby sitting beside her, that apparently grabbed her shoe before the baby's mom pulled him back.
After the show, we went to see the exhibits we had previously missed, though the ones left were mostly older, and so not as nifty. Of particular note though, was the section about medicine (or something like that?), where we watched a real video of a hip replacement surgery, and where there was an interactive display about breast examinations. Yes. They had four fabric covered boobs, and the goal of the activity was to perform breast examinations on them, looking for potential cancerous lumps. Jocelyn and I had a field day.
We also caught a show on lightning and electricity, where there were many loud noises, Van de Graaff generators and Tesla machines, and a demonstrator putting himself in a metal cage to demonstrate why you're safe in car during a lightning storm. It was pretty awesome. We wandered around some more, and finally felt like we had finished checking out all the exhibits available, and were getting ready to leave, when an announcement came on the PA system telling us the Museum was closing - it was 5:00, and we had spent pretty much the whole day there. We're big geeks.
We left the Museum of Science and wandered across the bridge again, into Cambridge, where we proceeded to try to find a T stop. Mostly I shivered and followed Jocelyn - we walked for a while, not really sure where we were, until we hit a major street and turned down it, eventually getting to a T stop. We took the subway to Harvard Square, our next destination. Jocelyn had called Ann to meet us in Cambridge, since she knows the area better, but she ended up taking a nap, so we decided to set out on our own, with interesting consequences.
It being a Sunday, and Easter Sunday at that, not a lot of storefronts were actually open in Harvard Square. We went to the Harvard Coop for a while, checking out books and Harvard paraphernalia. Then we decided to enter the campus proper (and what I found out later was called Harvard Yard). It was still dastardly cold, especially in the shade of all the pretty Harvard buildings. Jocelyn tried to find an open building, but all the doors were looked. We ended up in front of a memorial library, and a young woman offered to take our picture, to which we readily agreed, and then exchanged the favour. Jocelyn then struck up conversation, finding out the girl was going to be coming to Harvard for a semester rotation - Jocelyn then proceeded to lie to her and tell her we were exchange students coming to Harvard next semester as well! We moved on before she could ask any questions we didn't know how to answer, but I was amused with the exchange.
We continued to walk deeper into campus, away from Harvard Square and the T stops - this becomes important later. Having left Harvard Yard, we started walking on real roads, with pretty campus buildings alongside, all of them locked. We walked by one particular building that at first looked like a church, but, upon reading the sign, we found out was a presentation hall. This building, there were people going into. We followed, but then realised that the people were providing tickets or something - there was someone in the doorway. So we turned about and kept walking down another hallway, finding a door that someone had come out of. Jocelyn immediately opened the door and made to go in, but then closed it right away again when she saw people about to come out. We burst out another door to the outside, laughing our asses off at Jocelyn's awkward attempt to get inside, and people on the sidewalk probably thought we were crazy. We continued alongside the building until we got to the far side, where there was a bit of a patio, and - lo and behold, another door. So in we went through this one, and it was into an emptier corridor - we walked down until we made it to this computer terminal, where we looked up and found out that the current performance was some sort of Asian American dance performance. Clearly we decided we could fit in, and continued moving, but when we got closer to where more people were, it was quite obvious that we did not fit in, and had to exit again.
Having gotten as much out of that building as we could, we continued walking, just making inane comments as we went. At one point we started talking in terrible British accents, and Jocelyn started pretending to know the people the buildings were named after. Though there started being less and less people on the sidewalks, I'm sure the people we walked by thought we were crazy. Speaking of there being less people, we had absolutely no idea where we were - we just kept walking through Harvard, passing random buildings, til at some point we realised that we had left Harvard altogether, and, according to a sign, were now on the campus of Leslie University.
We had no idea where to go now, and turning back just didn't seem to be any fun, so we kept going, and soon hit a map of Leslie campus. We recognised the road we were on, but couldn't get our other bearings - there was an arrow pointing back to Harvard Square, but we didn't know if we should keep walking, or turn around. Fortunately, ahead of us slightly was a sign for Parking Lot C! And thus we were able to orient ourselves on the map, and make our way to a street that we could take towards Harvard Square. As we went, there were more maps - we decided we liked Leslis campus for this reason alone.
We made our way to Mass Ave on Cambridge-side, and the Leslie map had said that the street would take us back to Harvard Square, so we followed it dutifully, until we hit a fork in the road. At this point, we were a little confused, and I was worried we had turned the wrong way after all. We crossed the road to a sort of park, where they had historical maps of Cambridge displayed. Jocelyn and I spent some time looking at these maps, trying to figure out where we were - except that again, we had no good landmarks to orient ourselves, and I couldn't figure out if we were walking toward or away from Harvard Square. There was a bus stop right by these maps, and Jocelyn finally suggested we just take a bus back to a T stop, but I was sort of enjoying our being semi-lost. Despite wandering around and not knowing where we were at all, it was hilarious times, and I liked just hanging around with Jocelyn. So I said, let's just keep walking, and we moved past the bus stop and kept going on Mass Ave.
Of course, about a minute later, we had come back to Harvard Square, and found ourselves a T stop. All that time we had stared at those historical maps, and our destination was just down the street out of our sight. We were rather amused by our strange luck. We weren't sure where we wanted to go from there, but Jocelyn had mentioned a chocolate store her and her brother had been to once, so I convinced her to look for it, and also maybe for a place to eat dinner. Jocelyn eventually remembered where the chocolate store was, and I realised we had already walked by it once. After all that, though, I said I didn't want hot chocolate before dinner, and that I sort of wanted clam chowder, being in Boston/New England and all.
At first we decided to get back on the T and go back to Quincy Market - it was either that or the Union Oyster House by North End, and that seemed a little far for me. Too bad the subway, for the first time since I was there, was having some sort of delay. So we decided maybe we'd find someplace to eat in Harvard Square after all (thank goodness for that 7-day pass) - unfortunately, despite our looking, and Jocelyn calling Ann to ask, we couldn't find any place that looked like it served clam chowder. So back into the T station we went, and luckily, the train came in just a minute or so - it looked like the first train too, since 20 minutes ago when we were down there and they announced the problem.
When we got to Quincy, it looked like everything was closed, and we were a little worried. We tried to go to the Cheers bar first, but there was almost nobody there, and the food menu was severely lacking. So instead we went to McCormick & Schmick's, which at first glance had looked closed, but luckily was actually open. Good thing too, because it was 8:00, getting quite cold, and it really would've been annoying to try going somewhere else for my damn clam chowder.
We ended up ordering mussels, soup, and a lobster roll, all to share. Jocelyn thought that a lobster roll was like a crab cake with lobster instead - but it was actually just a strange lobster meat and lettuce sandwich in a bread roll. Not what we expected, but still tasty. That night, on the T toward Quincy, and all during dinner, we talked about a bunch of stuff - our prior school experiences, friends and relationships - it was just good conversation. I think of all our days, Sunday was my favourite.
We finished dinner and decided not to go back to Harvard Square for hot chocolate, instead taking one final subway ride home, whereupon we hung out with Ann for a bit, I packed up my suitcase, and we finally got ready to sleep, setting an alarm for (ugh) 3:45 in the morning.
It sucked getting up that early, moreso than the Friday morning, because at least I had the adrenaline of the trip to keep me going. It was far too early for anything to be open, so Jocelyn convinced me to eat a cannoli for breakfast instead - and I discovered that I don't mind ricotta cheese, and that chocolate chips make lots of things delicious. Though it was still disgustingly early to be eating that much sugar.
We took a taxi to the airport at 4:30, and arrived in about 15 minutes, realising that really, we didn't have to get up quite so early for my 7:00 flight - there weren't a lot of people going through security, and my gate was really close. So we hung out for a little bit in the airport before I finally bid Jocelyn adieu and passed through to the airport.
I really was there quite early, and so I pulled out my Jim Butcher novel and read. And read, and read. I finally got up to ask when we would be boarding, because I wanted to go to the washroom - when I showed the attendant my boarding pass, I found it was only temporary, and for some reason, my seat selection hadn't been kept, so they gave me a random new boarding pass. This made me slightly unhappy, as it meant I didn't get my single seat on the plane, but it wasn't worth arguing over.
I waited a little longer, and then all of a sudden there was an announcement telling us due to maintenance, our plane was delayed and we had to change gates. So a whole bunch of men (and a couple women) in business suits (because those are really the only people taking such god-awfully early flights - people going to business meetings) and everybody else trudged to the other gate and sat back down.
I pulled back out my book and kept reading, as they announced that the plane would be further delayed and we would board at 8:10 - I'd been reading long enough I actually finished the novel. Good thing I brought two, I thought to myself, pulling out the other one. I spared a moment to read the back, and realised, crap - I had brought the second novel of a series, instead of the first. I promptly felt like an idiot, and texted Jocelyn so. Since I had nothing else to entertain myself with, Jocelyn and I texted back and forth while I waited to board - I really want to see my cell phone bill for this month; between the calls I took and made, and the text messages I sent and received, I probably racked up a whole bunch of roaming charges.
We did get to board the plane before 8:10, and although I was seated on the two-seater side of the plane, at least I still got to sit by the window. This time around, I slept (albeit fitfully) for the duration of the short flight, and before I knew it, I was back in Toronto, going through customs (with absolutely nothing to declare; I didn't buy a single thing in Boston - all I did was eat) and meeting my Dad at the gate.
All in all, it was an excellent trip - it was so nice to hang out with Jocelyn for the couple of days, given that I haven't spent a lot of time with her since we were in high school. It was also pretty cool, it being my first trip all by myself. Now that I'm back, I can't wait to go somewhere again - if the drive to California weren't so long, I would consider a road trip to Stanford while she was there over the summer.
7:25 p.m. // this is my reality \\
So after picking up a 7-day T pass, we went to Quincy Market, which is a touristy market with food halls and store fronts along two cobblestone streets. It's a pretty place, but I'd been there before last time I was in Boston, and rain doesn't exactly make one enthusiastic about outdoor shopping. We walked through the food halls, but didn't get anything, having just eating. Nothing particularly caught my eye in the stores either, and my sneakers kept slipping over the wet, uneven cobblestones, so we decided to move on.
We had planned to go eat dinner in the North End, which is Boston's little Italy, but it was still far too early, so I suggested catching a movie. Jocelyn said she knew of a theatre that had couches, or some sort, and we got on the T to try to find this place. Unfortunately, Jocelyn had only a vague idea of where it was, and Ann, whom we called for directions, wasn't sure either. We ended up walking up and down the same street three times, walking past the Lowes Theatre trying to find this place, only to realise when we finally stumbled upon it that it was only showing Indigo Girls. We turned back, feet soaking, and went to Lowes, where we promptly got tickets to Fast and Furious.
An excellent movie all round, it had lots of explosions, fast car chases and extremely attractive characters. I took my shoes and socks off, lifted up the arm rest (which is the best thing about AMC/Lowes theatres) and made random commentary throughout the movie.
When the movie finished (and what an excellent ending it was), I wanted to movie-hop, because the theatre was huge, but there were theatre staff just as we were coming out of the washroom, and I was too chicken-shit to attempt it after all. Which is a shame, because in retrospect, we could've caught I Love You, Man, showing in a half an hour. Next time.
From the theatre, we went on to the North End, and wandered around in the rain for about an hour trying to decide on a restaurant, looking at menus from the windows. All of saw of North End was the italian restaurants, side by side - I haven't a clue whether there's more to that part of the city. We looked for Giacomo’s, which I had read good things about in a review on Boston, but, true to the internet reviews, there were people lined out the door, even in the rain, and we were just not that hard core. We ended up picking a restaurant called Al Dante, where the doorman convinced us to come in and try.
The restaurant was a little hole in the wall, narrow and long. We ate bread dipped in olive oil and ordered the most delicious appetizer to share: Grand Marnier shrimp, jumbo shimp covered in egg batter and cooked in an orange liquer glaze. The sauce was so delicious, we finished a basket of bread lapping it up. And by we, I mostly mean me. For entrees, Jocelyn ordered lobster ravioli, and I, a seafood risotto (I do love me some risotto). The plates were huge, and I definitely didn't finish my risotto, but it was all very delicious.
When we left the restaurant, it had fortunately stopped raining, though it was still quite cold - Boston is much more windy than Toronto, and I wasn't really dressed for it. We walked to Mike's Pastry, which Jocelyn insisted is nationally known. There was quite a crowd inside, about five people deep all behind the counters, so I couldn't see what was being offered. There were no prices and no menus, people just asked for pastries and paid whatever the staff responded with - I guess it is pretty well known. I had a hard time deciding what to order, what with not being able to see anything. We ended up with three chocolate chip cannoli and tiramisu, the latter for me, since I am normally not a fan of ricotta cheese. We took them to go, since we were too full, and headed back to Myles.
I was finally able to change out of my wet socks and jeans, and collapsed on Jocelyn's bed in sweats again. Ann came by and we watched random youtube videos for a while, and I was exposed to far too many Old Greg references, and we eventually got to sleep at a little after 12, since we were planning on getting up early to go to the Museum of Science on Sunday.
I think I probably woke up some time in the early morning again, but didn't actually wake Jocelyn up until 7:00, whereupon I told her we'd sleep for another half hour, but I actually let her sleep in til about 8:00 before I got up to shower and wash my hair. While waiting for her to finish, I looked up restaurants around the Museum and found out there was a Cheesecake Factory! I had seen the one in Prudential on Friday, and we had said we would go, so it was wonderfully convenient that there was one in the Cambridgeside Galleria by the Museum.
Since it was early enough that the dining hall wasn't open yet, we went to a Bruegger's by her dorm and got ourselves bagels to go, so we could get to the Museum earlier. I wore flip flops, because there was some tear in my sneakers that was rubbing against my foot rather uncomfortably, but this meant that my poor feet were kind of cold in the windy Boston air.
7:33 p.m. // this is my reality \\
My trip to Boston was the first ever trip I've taken all by my self, and I was rather a bit nervous, being the paranoid control freak I am. The flight was scheduled for 6:45, and they say you should arrive two hours before international flights, but my dad planned on leaving the house at 4:30 to get to the airport at 5:15. I had planned to get up at 3:30, but of course, woke up at 2:15 instead, couldn't get back to sleep, and so read in bed.
My crazy allergies decided that Friday was a good morning to flare up, and so hives started breaking out on my left arm, making me panic about the fact that I only had three Benadryl pills left and looking up the closest 24 hour Shoppers Drug Mart. Of course, my being an idiot, when I saw that there was one on 9th Ave., I immediately assumed it was in the new plaza and directed my parents there, only to find out there was no SDM, and so we had to go to Hwy 7 instead. At this point I was already freaking out about getting to the airport in time; to add to my paranoia, we couldn't find the entrance to the Tim Hortons drive through, and the lone girl working there was a bit slow. All in all, I was a ball of nerves in the back seat, eating my everything bagel toasted with light butter and hoping they wouldn't reject me at the gates.
Of course, I got to the airport at a decent time, got checked in, was too frantic to properly say goodbye to my parents, and got through security and immigration in about 15 minutes, leaving myself with plenty of time to kill at the gate. I started in on my book (Storm Front by Jim Butcher) until about 6:30, when they boarded the plane. The jet was tiny, small enough that there was not jet bridge, and we walked down onto the tarmac and back up a little roll-away set of stairs. I heard the staff at the gate saying our flight only had 28 people, which was pretty awesome. The plane was set up with rows of three: one seat, aisle, two seats. I was in a single seat on the left, and entirely amused with the experience. I'll admit, to my slight chagrin, the flight was quite smooth - I was hoping for a little turbulence, as some sort of proof that I was on a tiny-ass plane flying above the clouds. But I did get my complementary Coke (as energetic as I was, I could use the caffeine and sugar boost) and a couple chapters further in my book before we landed at Boston Logan International.
There were not very many people at all at the airport, and I stood outside with about half a dozen others, waiting for Jocelyn to come get me. I noticed while I was outside that for some reason, the airport smelled like fertilizer. This was very strange. I think I grew acclimatized to it though, waiting for Jocelyn to arrive. It was actually quite anti-climatic, as I was getting bored and had opened up my book, only to have Jocelyn appear out of nowhere, right beside my suitcase, minutes into it. I think maybe I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings.
We took the Silver line bus to connecting subway lines, and switched a couple times to get to Jocelyn's stop (Kenmore station) and went straight back to her dorm, Myles Hall, to drop off my stuff and go eat a second breakfast at her dining hall. Her dining hall is sort of all you can eat style, and we went to order hot food off the grill, where the guy in front of us was trying to explain to the cook what Mickey Mouse pancakes were. He finally got frustrated and went behind the grill himself, ladling out dollops of pancake batter to make ears - it was all highly amusing. Myself, I got an omelette and chocolate chip pancakes, and rather enjoyed them both. Jocelyn's roommate Ann joined us for breakfast, and afterward we went with her to drop off her laptop to the computer services on campus, allowing me my first view of the Boston University buildings, which are far, far nicer than Waterloo ones.
Jocelyn and I proceeded to walk along Charles river to Massachusetts Avenue (or as she and apparently everyone else calls it, Mass Ave), where we walked into this adorable bakery called Sweet, which sold the most lovely cupcakes. We were too full from breakfast to get any, but I wish we did, because we said we'd come back but never did.
We met up with Ann again, and walked along Newberry Street, where there are lots of mid to high end stores and also small quaint shops and restaurants. We walked along the streets, spending some time at Borders, where Jocelyn made fun of me for getting confused and thinking that the Seattle's Best Coffee store in Borders was a Starbucks. Newberry was also where Joce and I ate lunch, at a restaurant called Sonsie, which opened straight out onto the street. It was quite a pretty restaurant - too bad the service was awful. We didn't sit down to eat til about 1:30, and Jocelyn had a lab to get back to for 3:00, but our mussels appetizer didn't arrive til about 2:00, and there was no way our sandwiches would arrive before 2:30, so we asked to have them packed up, and to get the bill, but the waitress whom we spoke to apparently didn't inform anybody else. The table beside us sat down before us, ate, and finished before we ever got our sandwiches and bills, at which time I passed Joce a sandwich, took the rest for myself and sent her off. I walked to the park at the end of Newberry to sit on a bench to eat, and found out I had apparently taken Jocelyn's sandwich, because this was certainly not my Cubano with pork. It was filled with arugula and egg and extremely oily, making a mess all over my hands. When I talked to Jocelyn afterward, she told me she thought they'd messed up my order, because the sandwich she ate didn't sound like the one I ordered. Really, I was not impressed by this restaurant.
I finally finished eating and started shopping, but I'd been walking so much already that day I didn't actually feel up for it. Jocelyn had mentioned that the Boston Public Library was on Boylston, the street above Newberry, so I wandered that way, find Prudential, a high-end shopping mall, where I mostly went to use their washroom and wash my hands, because the fountains at the park didn't work. I turned the wrong way on Boylston and ended up at Berklee College of Music, instead of finding the library, and by the time I saw a map showing me this, I was too tired to turn around, so I walked back down Mass Ave and onto Beacon, back towards Boston U campus. By this time, it was probably around 4:30, I'd been walking since about 10:00, and Jocelyn's lab was a four hour one, so I plopped myself down in a Barnes & Nobles by Myles Hall and read for about an hour. I tried to find one of the books that I was already in the middle of (I had left Storm Front in Jocelyn's room, and The Name of the Wind had been too big to bring to Boston), but couldn't find them, so I picked up Laurell K. Hamilton's first published novel, bought some iced tea at Starbucks and sat, eating my plantain chips from lunch.
I had finished my tea and was feeling like I'd overstayed my welcome by about 6:00, so I left and started walking around Boston campus myself, until Jocelyn called that she was almost done her lab. I met her back at Myles and promptly collapsed on her bed, my feet and hips aching. We were both too full to really contemplate dinner, so we sat around in her room instead. I convinced her to watch the first episode of Merlin, and then we watched Dollhouse, and then soon after I was tucked in her bed and she was on an extra mattress on the floor. We talked for a while - or rather, she talked while my responses became less and less articulate, until I fell asleep.
Unfortunately for Jocelyn, I am a light sleeper, and she has a godawful loud radiator that clangs at night. At around 5 on Saturday, I woke up, feeling extremely dehydrated (I blame it on the side of chips from Jocelyn's sandwich, which were extremely salty) and wanting some water. I got up, and rather impressively went to the washroom without waking Jocelyn, despite the squeaky door and loud pipes, but when I went to try to poor myself some water from the heater (which was placed rather inopportunely by Jocelyn's head), I knocked over her Brita filter, and Jocelyn work up to me looming over her head. It was quite entertaining.
I did go back to sleep, and let Jocelyn sleep too, for about two more hours, before I woke up at 7:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. We lazed around in her room, Jocelyn not particularly inclined to get up, until about 9:00, whereupon her dining hall opened and we went down for breakfast. The original plan had been to have dim sum with Ann and Jocelyn's other friend Brian, but Ann changed her mind and Brian was still on the fence, and since dim sum's no fun with only two people, we figured we'd just eat at Myles instead. I was already done my omelette and getting ready when Brian texted Jocelyn at 9:30 saying that he wasn't a flake and wanted to do dim sum after all. I was only slightly put out that I had stuffed myself with breakfast, only to be going to dim sum at 11:30.
So we headed out at 10, and Jocelyn took me to the Boston Public Library, which is quite beautiful. We also tried to visit what is apparently the EY location in Boston, but there were no signs and there was a security guard right inside the doors, so I couldn't find out any more. We took the subway to Chinatown and walked around a bit before going to the dim sum restaurant, where we met Brian, and proceeded to eat not very much at all. I don't think Brian was impressed.
When we left the restaurant, it was starting to rain, so we walked to the nearest T stop, where Brian enlightened us to the economic benefits of getting a 7-day T pass. It was really quite a good idea, as we found out later on Saturday.
8:11 p.m. // this is my reality \\
4:45 p.m. // this is my reality \\
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumping
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse lunar
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset both
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day
10:43 p.m. // this is my reality \\
01. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
02. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
03. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it makes you look.
04. Title this post what the answer to your last question is.
05. Good luck and have fun!
IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Spin (Lifehouse)
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Close (Westlife)
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Life is Like a Boat (Rie Fu)
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
If It's Loving That You Want (Rhianna)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Pieces of Me (Ashlee Simpson)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
He Said She Said (Ashley Tisdale)
WHAT DO YOU OFTEN THINK ABOUT?
Don't Cha (The Pussycat Dolls)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Turn Around (Collective Soul)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Knocking on Heaven's Door (Avril Lavigne)
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
One Two Step (Ciara)
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
That's When I'll Stop Loving You (N*Sync)
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Real Thing (Gwen Stefani)
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Promiscuous (Nelly Furtado)
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Miss You (Dream)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Sexy Ladies/Let Me Talk To You (Justin Timberlake)
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO NAME THIS POST?
Backdoor Lover (Du Jour)
These didn't work out as entertainingly as I'd hoped.
The "Be Pete Wentz" Poetry Meme
01. Put your music player on shuffle
02. The first lines of twenty songs = a poem; the first line of the twenty-first song is the title
If only I had truthfully seen
I broke into your house last night;
You know, I don't know what it is -
You may tire of me;
The way you do.
Been a while;
Everybody's got something they had to leave behind.
I didn't know what I would find,
The time I would spend;
Hello -
There's no combination of words;
Here we are, so what you gonna do?
It's true, you sold your guitar?
I don't fancy you too much;
You have her pictures,
I looked away, then I looked back at you;
Crazy ridiculous.
Loneliness is always looking for a friend;
Hello sunshine,
One more kiss could be the best thing -
Wish I had concentrated, they said love was complicated;
Feeling all sorts of lonely; I'd give anything to be done exams, home, and surrounded by friends right now, instead of stuck here.
10:30 p.m. // this is my reality \\
An' then the time we woke up to find that summer'd gone
.. tim mcgraw . taylor swift
it seems to me, this thing is breaking down
We almost never speak
I don't feel welcome anymore
Baby what happened, please tell me
Cause one second it was perfect, now you're halfway out the door
.. forever & always . taylor swift
12:26 p.m. // this is my reality \\
12:14 p.m. // this is my reality \\
11:33 p.m. // this is my reality \\
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC on Proposition 8, passed in California to de-recognise same-sex marriages.
3:27 p.m. // this is my reality \\
