Blog status

Never got any comments about my blog over my two week hiatus.  I think this means I'll retire the blog for a while.I still have my goals and aspirations for the quarter (survive) but i guess i don't need to talk about it if no one is out there demanding content. I had thought the blog would be good to stay connected with people but i guess it's awkward for people to talk back to a blog.makes sense i suppose. O well.unless i have other inspiration I'll pick up the blog again for next summer.i

Well, i'm leaving boston this morning.  i'll give you a proper update when i'm in california, sitting on the shore of beautiful lake tahoe.

*EDIT*
summer in review
this summer, i wanted to accomplish the following things
(in order of importance)
A) get over my sorrow of leaving college.  friends are great and they'll be great when i see them next, but i needed boston people.  make friends and have fun with them in and around boston
B) have the city experiance i've always wanted to have, even if i'm not in NYC.  take the subway places, go on adventures, swim in the atlantic, do some shit
c) get up to a semiproficient or perhaps moderately functional level at meeting and flirting and persuing girls.  get comfortable getting numbers, asking them on dates, making advances, and if the stars alligned, have a one night stand.  just cause i never believed i had the capacity to do it.
d) develop skills and find out if small company work is what i want to do.  do a project big enough to feel like i contributed.  get paid enough to buy a nice camera by the end of the summer. then go take some amazing boston photos and really get into photography as a hobby
e) make friends with the ex girl, as a sign of being fully moved on
f) don't die in the big city

lets see where i ended up

F was a resounding success, though there were a couple nights it couldve gone either way
E was a failure, but thats okay, i can at least recognize that deep feelings take a while to pass.  still would like them to pass faster, but i can realize whats going on.  this one will come
D was pretty good.  of all the ways the internship could have gone, i am extremely happy about it.  i got some good small lessons out of it, but primarily it reaffirmed that i want to start a company that changes the world for some group of people.  money will come i'm not worried, but working for a company that was developing a medical device that could save peoples lives as opposed to help them grow a virtual cow and buy a virtual plow to clean its virtual crap - i don't want anything to do with that.  even if it does supposedly maybe make them a tiny bit happier.  the job helped me realize what sorts of things i have left to learn from school and how critical going back is, even if i really don't want to.  oh, i spent way way too much money over the course of the summer to buy the camera.  but it was worth it.  i don't have photos, but i wouldn't have had the memories of which to capture
i'm going to skip C for a second
B was another complete and total success.  i rode the bus to virtually everywhere.  by the end of the summer i had actually stopped using my car for everything.  i bussed for groceries, to the dance place, to kickball, everything.  i love boston for having cambridge and then having boston.  downtown boston, while not even 1/2 manhattan, gave me the dense area of a big city, even if in a tiny tiny part.  cambridge gave me the middlesize city where there are sections of just 2 story houses that you can take a breather at while walking around the bustle.  i know manhattan well enough to know its gogogo and you have to adjust to it.  i would love to live there someday, but i think boston was a good stepping stone to that.  there were peripheral parks that i came upon and squares for sitting around in (boston is the city of squares i like say, because everything revolves around a square).
A  friends.  ha.  no one will replace the kevens and peri's of my life.  but the jun and the doctor now have special spots too.  just to name a few.  i was the baby of the group, and got called on it many times, but found that these 10 or 15 new buddies were fun and exciting and their age meant nothing.  now, did it mean caitlyn never felt threatened by me?  yes, but in truth most girls realize i'm a friendzone master and feel unthreatened just the same.  my friends this summer were 25-31 for the most part.  and the only time i ever thought about that fact was when they made fun of ME for being young.  these were just my buddies.  and boy did we have some crazy times.  they helped me get over the dispare of not having my closest 20 friends within a 10 minute walk in any direction.  they could be a 20 minute commute and it worked out just fine, so long as everyone is willing to meet up.  i think only 1 or 2 times ALL FUCKING SUMMER did i say, no, i'm too tired to go out for a drink.  compare that to my senior year self, and you wouldn't believe it was darren.  i truly was a boisterous young fellow.  not many people know where that blog title came from.  its because (a loosely remembered story that i'm sure keven will correct me on) when sarah begley wanted me to go to the bar on a thursday night i said i didn't want to go.  she called me boring and old and i replied that i was a boisterous young fellow.
i was being silly but i did try in the end of the year to start doing more events instead of going to bed.  well, when you're desperate for friends and social interaction, theres a fire lit under your butt.  or my butt.  it really worked.  i was a completely different person this summer from ever before.  i spent money without worrying about if i should be saving for something better.  i just said, fun now is the way to go.  i made the friends and i tried to learn game.
C  all summer i've been trying to walk a fine line about telling you about my escapades.  it wouldn't be right to tell you about a hook up in detail, so i haven't.  it also is something that i started this blog to force myself to do more of (put myself out there in terms of girls).  i'm an amazingly outgoing person, too much in many situations this summer.  james didn't believe me (until he witnessed) when i said i was bad with girls because of how i was willing to do such out there things.  and he's right, i should be better.  but i'm not.  and i wanted to work on that this summer.  so i wrote about it in the blog to kind of let it be known that i had a goal set and so i couldn't hide from it.  this process was slower than all the others.  there was the marine biologist masters student that seemed to really like me and was really pretty and continued dancing with me even when she had the opportunity to escape.  if that happened this past saturday, i would 100% have gotten her number, and 80% likely would have asked her out.  back then, i made up an excuse and i ran away.  gradually i got better at it until i could get numbers without freezing up.  then i realized i was actually supposed to CALL the girl.  dumbass.  so then i started going on dates.  some of these i told you about, others i didn't.  but the whole time, keeping you in the loop was a way to force me to be more bold.  by the end of the summer, i had a crazy ass date with a girl.  that post was about a week ago. i have many different feelings about that post now.  while its true i should take away things like, try your best to give clear signals, i think some of the things she asked of me weren't fair.  i had deep feelings for my ex and it worked in part because i was fully upfront and was myself with her and (i hope) she was ok and in fact liked me for that.  i'm fine putting on nice clothing and doing a little dance to woo the girl if thats the game i have to play, but i should be allowed to be me.  theres a great "this american life" about the numbers of love, and how statistically, there are like 10s or even 100s of people in the world that you would be compattible enough to be in love with.  its not exactly great for the princess bride 'true lub' idea but it fits a little better with this engineer's brain.  anyways, i should be able to be me for the most part and still be appreciated.  so, i didn't need the girl from last week.  i was trying to force the dating with the girl cause i was trying to learn dating again.  she seemed a fit, but really wasn't good for me, so i shouldve left it alone.  another goood lesson.  but i majorly digress.  what was i talking about?  O, that i've come a long way with girls.  ya.  i have.  fuck.  i'm definitely not an author.
the last note to make is that i realized i was correct in realizing i'm not capable of a one nighter.  it would take a certain drunk and she would have to fling herself at me into a cab.  i might also have to hit my head getting into that cab.  like i said, the stars need to align.  but i can't do it.  at least not yet.

in the next days i'm going to decide if i'll continue the blog going forward at dartmouth. its not going to be as exciting (i imagine) because i'll be working my ass off.  but i have to think about it.  let me know what you think.

thanks for listening guys
love, darren

Okay, maybe i'm not fully to blame for that one.

i went dancing last night, not really expecting this girl to want to go.  i also realized i was putting in a lot of effort for some pretty ridiculous stakes.  i leave boston monday.  theres no future with this girl.  i only mildly like her, mostly i was hoping to get better at the dating thing.  but it was just too much effort.  when she asked if i was going, i said yes and she was welcome to join my kickball friends and i, trying to hint that i wasn't interested in a date.  she never got back to me.  then she showed up.  i was in the advanced class (fucking amazing.  i'm literally hooked on this dance.  i'll summarize in a minute).  she spent the evening with the kickballers mostly.  then she came downstairs.  i was more than happy to dance with her but wasn't focused on her by any means.  i was still getting mixed signals from her, but at this point i didn't care.  when we were leaving, i invited to drinks with us and she declined.  i was kinda like, 'ok, i'll see ya then'.  and then i left.  it was weird.

okay, heres what i know how to do in west coast swing
left side pass, under arm turn, sugar push, right sugar push, sugar tuck, reverse sugar tuck, left side tuck turn, closed tuck, left outside turn, right outside turn, left wrap, right wrap, basket whip (and with turn exit), whip, one hand whip, whip with inside turn exit, whip with outside turn exit, continuous whip, swap hand whip, reverse whip, cow whip, promenade whip, right dip, she goes he goes, shoulder wrap, bow
and then maybe 5 or 8 more that i have no idea the name of
also, i've gotten to the place where i can make them up on the fly and they end up working maybe 70% of the time.
its just insane how much fun i have with this dance.  of all the reasons i don't want to move from boston and go back to dartmouth, not having west coast swing is maybe number 3 on the list (behind getting paid, my kickball friends).  number 4 on the list is i'm going to have my ass handed to me.

tonight is my last night with kickballers.  we have the end of the season party and thats the last time i'll prolly see some of them.  they keep asking me to go visit them, but i kinda have a line of people i want to visit and the nyc crew is at the top.  we'll see though.  i'm sure i won't have time for really anyone.
i'm going to talk to girls tonight.  get numbers, even though it will mean nothing.  its good practice.
i'll update you later

o man have a i got a darren story for you.  its a little more detailed than you're used to, but its so darren that i have to share it.  also, the quotes are not literal, but as best as i could recall

so i went on a 4th or 5th date with a girl last night.  but i have to set up the story a bit better.  i met this girl at a dance club maybe a month or so ago.  she was the maid of honor it turned out at the bacholette party that was going on at the Kong.  we were dancing and i realized she was a good swing dancer, so i got her number and invited her to go west coast swing dancing with me.  so i took her on that tuesday.  in parrallel, i had been trying to get my kickball friends to go dancing.  4 of them showed up the same day.  i was ecstatic.  we all had a great time and i walked her home after my friend katie drove us to the T and made another date and it was great.

zoom forward.  i had been texting this girl about dancing and dinner when i eventually get a text that says something of the effect of "just so you know, we're not doing any messing around tonight".  now, this freaks me out.  all spooked.  we had done some making out at the end of the last date and i had done the best i could to read the signs.  when it seemed like she said she wanted to leave it at that and i didn't go further. but from this text, i started to wonder if i did something inappropriate

we go on the date, i'm spooked but ready to figure it out.  i am having a great time and learned an amazing drink from the bartender (green monster [not the one with monster energy drink]: malibu, vanilla vodka, midori.  amazingly delicious)  anyways, the date is going well, except this other girl is talking to me a lot.  i don't know how to get rid of her.  i'm not going to say get lost, cause i'm too nice. The following happens over the course of a dance and then standing and talking during a second song.  maybe 7 or 8 minutes.  [even i know this is not what i should be doing on a date, but like i said, i'm too polite to say go away]

in an effort to make it clear i'm trying to leave, i tell him i'm moving to california.  

she starts asking why.  i panic cause i'm not actually moving to california.  so i say "to go back for a masters degree in engineering".  (which is what i've been telling people to avoid having to explain what the hell my dual degree thing is).  

random girl:     "where in california"

darren:   (fuck, now i have to tell her a school)  "UCSD"

girl:   "o cool, what kind of engineering"

darren:   "mechanical"

girl:   "o what type"

darren:   (shit, now i have to pick a masters concentration. pick something she prolly won't know anything about so we can move on) "nanotechnology"

girl:   "o awesome, they do that at my company"

darren:   (FUCK.  how do i get rid of her.  also, why didn't i meet you 4 weeks ago?) "o, tell me about where you work"

girl:   "Lincoln Labs"

(FUCK.  THATS TOTALLY A PLACE I WOULD LOVE A CONNECTION TO GET A JOB AT IN THE FUTURE.  AND NOW I"VE SET UP A SERIES OF ALMOST TRUTHS.  FUCK)

also, i want her to be gone.  so i let her tell me about her work.  of course its fucking awesome and i would love to work at this company, then i could live in boston and get paid well and be near my NYC friends and get to have my east coast time.  so i'm torn between saying get lost and developing enough of a relation to be able to ask for an introduction when i apply to this company in a year.  its not that hard a decision.  1 more week with date-girl, or a connection to lincoln labs.  i stay talking to this woman.  

this is a great time to ask for a business card, and get out of there.  i do.  but then she asks if i'm going dancing on thursday.  i am, (and i maybe should have done this earlier but then i wouldn't have gotten a contact to LL, i say) "i have to get back to my date."

she says great, then i'll see you thursday  (at this point, this is great.  i won't have a date, i can sit her down and explain in my haste to get back to my date i made up some lies and she'll be upset but then we'll hopefully laugh about it and i'll have a connection to lincoln labs. )

i immediately go back to date girl and i'm really upfront with the her and say that.  "look, this other girl just gave me her number and i didn't know how to get rid of her. i'm sorry about that"
later, when we're walking to the bus stop she says, 'you should take that girl out', i just about stop in my tracks.  okay, now i'm all fucking confused.  she didn't make a deal about it earlier, i thought the night was going well.  i've danced with her maybe 30 or 40% of the songs.  been flirty.  i was planning on giving her a goodnight kiss and then a 'well i wish i was staying in the area so we could see this through'.  but now i wasn't sure if i was even on track for a kiss.  was i even on a date with her?  what's going on?

i say, "no, i'm out with you right now"
her:  "is this a date?"
okay, hold up, what the hell?
me:   "ok hold on.  lets clear this up.  this is our like, fourth date"
her:  "well, not really.  i never really got the sense you were interested.  the first time we went dancing didn't count cause you invited the other people.  then you didn't pay for my dinner the second time."
me:   "ya, but when you showed up to dancing with your friend i was trying to make clear i wanted to see you.  and i'm not even counting that time.  and then how about when we went out with your friends and then i drove you home and then we were making out. that had to have been a date."
her:   "ya, that one was, but every other time i've hung out with you i get mixed signals.  first you're into me.  which was great.  then you show up with friends. and go dancing with other girls.  and we got a ride home from your friend katie instead of leaving on our own.  you never made any moves until that wednesday.  you didn't wait for me to go inside when you drove me home.  you didn't remember things i had said to you. frankly you were showing me you just wanted to be friends who go dancing.  which sucked cause i was really into you from the start.  Except that wednesday.  and then that went way to fast" (what!?  i've been training all summer at flirting and have been instructed to ABC - always be closing, which is something i have a terrible time doing because i don't work that fast because it makes me uncomfortable.  furthermore, WHAT too fast, uh oh what did i do?)

at this point i start to explain how i'm not very perceptive and tact isn't my strong suit.  and how i have a crappy memory.  and i'm a really caring person, i apologize if i did something inappropriate on the wednesday.  i was dating in the only way i knew how, by being my dense, tactless, self.   i had thought what i was doing was giving the signs.

suddenly she says, "here, like this.  i know you're interested in me, you have to show me."  she caresses my head.  "more contact means interest"
"but i don't want to just start touching you"
"you'll know if she doesn't want it"

<this post is turning into a novel, i'm sorry, i'll start summarizing>


we spend the next 15 minutes with her trying to critique my dating skills.  do this, not that.  you can't say this, etc.  i skip getting on my bus.  the whole thing was fairly uncomfortable, but i stayed because it was so surreal, like we were in a play and broke the fourth wall and filled the audience in on the story.

when her bus was coming, i get up to give her a hug.  even the densest of dense can tell i have sky rocketed into the friend zone.  i'm the master of friend zone. i had invited her on monday to go dancing again on thursday, but she declined.  so as we left I said, "well, i don't know when next i'll see you. but i've had fun with you and i learned that i suck at this.  i wish i had more time to see things out with you"
 she immediately did the i'm interested caress that she just taught me and said  "well, i'll see you thursday right".
"um, ya, i'm going dancing if you want to join"
"then see you there"
 then i let her walk onto the bus and i watch it leave

this morning i wondered if i should have tried to kiss her.  i'm all mixed up about where we stand.  but really, it doesn't matter, what matters is the following

whereas before i've thought girls are too complicated, and stupid, now i realize, no, I'M the stupid one.  if i am too tactless to keven, too dense to understand stephanie, peri has all but copyrighted the "oh darren (shaking head)" phrase ->  it must be me.  i can think of a million times E and i miscommunicated and i'm now sure it was my fault.  thats why i instituted the 'if ever you need something, you have to be 100% frank with darren, or you might as well expect him to do it wrong' policy.  i'm an amazingly nice person, but i'm not tactful and i'm extremely clueless.  but now i have two huge datapoints on that.  last night, and when E told me she wished during our relationship i had been more affectionate in the following sense.  'i wish when we were out, people knew i was your girlfriend and not just a friend'.  that nearly broke my heart.  just crushed me.  but, i don't need to get into that right now.  what happened last night was virtually the same thing.  pay attention to me to indicate its a date
lesson learned, i have to get better at directed affection and not this messy darren affection.


holy crap that was a long post.  i thought it was too juicy to gloss over.  but i'm a little nervous putting it online.  whatever, you guys are my friends.

i just had a great and desperately needed softball/drinking day.  i was super depressed from being sick and missing all the fun things i was going to be doing last week.  and so i really needed that.  we went to kellen's house in connecticut and played softball in his backyard and did the drinking debauchery thats always fun.  i learned that at a campout, either have a fuck buddy, or have your own tent.  cause no matter how you plan where you're going to sleep, you're cockblocking somebody.  i made 3 different sleeping nests only to have to move to allow some couple to have some 'lone time.  at one point i just said no.  IM SLEEPING HERE. YOU MOVE.  but it all worked out (ish).  i got like 4 hours or so of sleep like thing.

and now, i'm back home, packing up all my things.  i hate doing this.  i do it so often its a process.  first i take down my posters.  then i fill my book boxes.  then i load up the big boxes.  then i fold all my clothes.  it just sucks.
but the worst part is, i'm moving away from all my new best friends.  i was extremely sad to leave vassar.  extreme depressed.  but then i made a group of wonderful freinds.  i have 5 bros (something dank haus was but not quite like this.  i've always wanted to be a bro).  i have my group of girls (who by obligation think i'm the nicest young boy - that is, my friendzone crew).  and i have a great feel for boston and where to go and what to do.  O and i have my work buddies.  who are awesome.  getting paid is sweet.  and when i get paid appropriately, i'm going to be (effectively) loaded.  cause i spend tons of money on alcohol already and i can more or less support the drinking on my measely current salery.  i just imagine what i could do with a proper engineer salary.

i find myself doing the reflecting thing a lot.  i mean thats what you do when you pick up and move your life.  i've been thinking mostly about if i played my summer right.  most of my goals were met.  i don't really wanna get into it, but i think i made the right decisions.  cause what i wanted - to live in a big city and have a crazy fun time - is what i got.  i just don't want to let it go.

and even though its scary to say, i didn't need my vassar people to make it happen.  i miss them.  all the freaking time. but thats what will make seeing them so special, is the being away.  it'll make going to nyc so much extra special.

(don't cry)

no update recently cause i've been dying.  well, sick.
i bailed on operation kill kenny (for his birthday), i canceled a date.  I didn't go to dancing.  and i skipped getting shitty with my buddies.  its amazing how depressing being sick is.  you sit at home and do nothing.  nothing at all.  you think about the things you could be doing.  and you don't do them.  plus doesn't help when your roommate has a super hot girlfriend over for 'sleepovers' every night of the week.
whatever.  i'm going to softball today.  its happening.  it is.  no stopping it.  (unless i'm too sick)

Miniunions
Nick and Keven came to visit this weekend.  I haven't seen keven since moving out, so it was great to see him.  nick had been over recently but was his typical vibrant self so it was fun.
friday night we went with the broseffs (kickball guys are very into bromance.  its somewhat a satirical and somewhat genuine bro love)  to a hot pot place and got real real drunk on sake bombs.  from there we rolled on over to the kong, and instantly took over karaoke.  i've since been told i went up to a group of girls and invited them to come with, but accidentally frightened them.  they apparently didn't hear me and then i went and to invite them and got too close (and in hindsight wonder why i wasn't slapped).  anyways, at the kong i switched to waters and nick kept on to scorpion bowls.  some of the kickball girls showed up and i sang them a song (fuck her gently).  martha told me on sunday she was incredibly embarrassed... for me.   but i'm sure i had a great old time.  in fact i remember thinking i was clever (not because of the song content, but because i found a song that i knew all the words to.  crazy, i know).  when we went to go get keven, we were real drunk.  we got back to my house and he had a drink or two but mostly we were set to retire.
saturday we went on the harpoon brewery tour.  this was another excelent and nearly free drinking event.  we tasted most all of the beers harpoon makes and decided which ones we like (PUMPKIN!).  afterwards, we walked along the greenway - the parks the snake around the downtown area.  we went up to north end to get gelato and then headed home to make pina coladas.  we went for indian for dinner, met up with julia and stuffed ourselves.  this was unfortunate because it severely hurt our drinking desire.  we trudged around harvard square a number of times but didn't do much heavy drinking.
sunday we went to the kickball barbecue and then keven took off.  nick got to play some kickball when various teams forfeited.  my team lost in the second round.  whatever.  i always was in the semicompetitive awkward place with kickball, so its good i just was done.  we had to wait until all the games were done, and we were getting desperately sober.
we went to the bar and took care of that.  and, after nick left, i walked back to the bar and (i claim credit for) broke up a fight.  one guy made a really inappropriate comment about another guy (who is an ex marine and would have beat him up badly).  i happened to be kinda right there.  and i just made friends with the namecaller's friend and more or less was apologizing for everyone saying bad stuff to him when it was his friend was the one who was to blame.  he talked his friend out the door, then came back in for some reason (there was suddenly tons of testosterone and stupidity in the room.  i felt it too, but since everyone around me was easily 4" or more taller and broader, i wasn't going to be doing anything stupid).  he and i talked for a bit while he kinda calmed down and then i sorta convinced him to leave.  [in reality, i'm sure i'm misremembering my importance, but i certainly was peacemaking and also standing inbetween these angry giants]  mostly i consider myself a hero.
i had tried to spend as little money as possible (i'm tired of constantly being worried about making bill payments.  i had hoped to SAVE my money from this summer.  but its impossible to go out and not spend at least 20 or 30 bucks.  money just flows out of my pocket.  its really quite ridiculous.

on the book for this week.  another date.  operation "kill kenny" - for his birthday.  another advanced dancing class.  my last free weekend night in boston (TEARS).  and kellen's softball game and shenanigans

the end is fast approaching.
i really don't want to go back to school.  life is so much fun with all my new bostonian amigos. this isn't going to be my sappy summary post, not QUITE yet.  but i'm starting to feel it.

no, power onward!
Keven and nick are coming for the weekend (i know, a ton of visitors).  i'm really excited to have dnk in boston.  tomorrow we're going on the harpoon brewery tour and then who knows afterwards.  then in the night i'm going to try and meet with tyler for drinks.  ty is the one i stayed with for the first week before i had a place to stay.  then sunday is our last kickball game.  playoffs and then drinking like theres no monday.  i mean slip-sloppy.
if this weekend doesn't kill me, then i did it wrong.

Its been a little while since i posted.
work is still like pulling teeth.  my distributors are dumber than piles of crap.
saturday i met up with james and a friend from home and we did north end (finally) and then got ice cream.  we met with matt and kylie and went to dinner then out to a bar.  I was flirting pretty heavy with the waitress, and she was giving it back.  i asked for her favorite drink, and she reccommended two good ones.  i wrote "you have good taste" then left my name and number.  i thought that was pretty slick.  but alas, she never called.  james and amanda and i headed to logan's frat.  he lives in MIT Tao Epsilon Phi.  there house was the coolest frat i've ever been in.  amazing real estate, huge and awesome rooms, all kinds of awesome engineering geekyness (this was not your frat boy type frat, though those do exist at MIT.  this was a geek's frat.  but no negative judgement from me, i thought it was sweet).
sunday i was actually excited for the drinking.  i got up and went to keggs and eggs and got good and derunk.  played kickball drunk, went to courtside and then in typical darren fashion decided it was time to leave and peaced.
monday i took it easy (i'm finding this to be real important for not dying, taking nights off - or rather, i take mondays off and pretty much that's it).
Tuesday i took a bunch of kickball girls to swing dancing.  i realized half the girls in the class were there as a result of me.  i should get a discount or something.  not only that, they raised the price of the lessons.  kinda lame.  whatever.  i'm absolutely a west coast swing junkie now.  this is kinda bad.

i am no living with two people.  one guy came by to check out the place on monday night.  he's 30 and an odd dude.  the other guy showed up last night and said, "who are you."  I said, "i live here, who are you".  but he's cool.  hes a mechanical engineer at tufts and was working as a marketing intern with a san Francisco.  he made a rap video for the company.  interesting use of engineering talent.  but he's cool.
we'll see how i adapt to living with people.

this was a shitty work week but another pretty fun play week.  tuesday i convinced a bunch of my kickball buddies to go swing dancing with me.  they had fun and say they will come back next tuesday.  wednesday we went out for margaritas for somebody's birthday.  that was an interesting trip.  i fell asleep on the subway.  which was kinda bad.  but i'm alive.  then thursday i had a just crap work day and was needing a pick me up.  fortunately STEPH was visiting.  we went out and i took her swing dancing and we had a great time.  that helped  a lot.  then yesterday the company went on a team building kayak trip.  matt and i dressed as pirates, had a flag for our canoe and we brought some nips.  we also dunked the vp.  to be fair he was trying to take me down and matt was just protecting me.  but we got some greif from the company for the act.  i'm not too worried about my job though :).
last night we went to a drive in theatre where we saw dark night rises and then saw ted.  we brought booze and had a great time.  batman was awesome again.
we'll see what i end up doing today.

Another excellent weekend here in boston.

friday i mostly just stayed in and got 11 hours of sleep.  then saturday, i went to brighton to meet at fort kickass - one of the other team's house.  from there we drove down to plymouth (of the one with the rock).  we were going to cabbyshack- a place with famous clam chowdah.  we get there, and when we're waiting for our table, i did a typical darren stupid.  i'm just finishing my first "good guy" (lemonade, sweet tea vodka, iced tea) and i want to order something else.  so we're standing around a bunch of people eating at their tables and i start reading a menu.  i'm reading it for a good minute or two, when all of a sudden, i get the feeling i'm doing something wrong.  Of course i noticed that there was a couple at this table, but i didn't think about the fact that if i'm staring intently at the menu, i'm effectively staring intently at them.  the man catches my eye and says, "just take it".  right at that moment, a waitress comes over, obviously having seen me staring at this couple (seemingly) and she hands me a menu.  i go beet red while all my friends scold me for being so rude.  typical darren being 1 step off of appropriate, without malintent.  anyways, when we do sit and eat, it takes about an hour for everyone to get their order in.  insane.  but we were tossing back 'good guys', so it was fine.  the clam chowdah was infinitely filling and i was stuffed like a pig.  when the meal was over, the bill was over $500 for the 13 of us.  not cheap.  but it was great.  then we went to a crazy awesome cupcake place.  we walked to the beach - which was totally devoid of sand and then eventually headed back to boston.  we went directly to 'the kong'.  our second favorite karoake spot is hong kong in down town boston.  we were there just before 1.  5 hours at the kong.  i sang songs, danced with girls, got really trashed and lucked into a ride home from a sober person.  i am now at the point where getting numbers isn't an impossible task, its a realistic saturday night goal.  now i have to start calling these numbers - something I only recently realized was part of the process.  i had been getting the #s and being so content that i never called anyone.  stupid darren.
sunday, i woke up in the developing hangover state.  i knew i had a great day of fun drinking ahead of me, and i was dreading it.  gotta go though.  you're only yahtzee once.  so, i went to kegs and eggs, circumvented my hangover with beer, and was off and running.  kickball was fun, got on base 2 of 2 times.  we lost, but whatever.  next week is the last week of the season, which is sad.  but its been great fun.  and i'm sad i won't get to do it in the fall with my buddies.
on the menu for this week:  steph is coming to boston, and i'm excited to see her.  and i'm going to take a couple nights of this week off, to recharge my jets.  i may call the girl from saturday night to go dancing with me though.  haven't decided.

Well, life is awesome.

Monday my buddy eric came into the city and we had fantastic burgers and then went to JP Licks, a great ice cream place.  it was fun catching up with him and planning out how bad school is going to romp our asses next year.  well, that part wasn't fun.  but it was good to see him.

then tuesday.  o man tuesday.  i got a text at 5.30 that said "go to central, we're going to the pond".  i thought for about a minute and said ok.  so i book it out of work a little early and make it to central where i'm picked up by 3 of my close kickball friends.  we were going to walden pond (you know the one from the thorou poem (spelling doesn't count) )  anyways, so we drive around boston taking random turns whenever the traffic gets bad (which it was everywhere as it was rush hour).  also, the driver do0esn't know where she is.  so all the 3 have smart phones and are trying to gps and its just hilarious to watch.  eventually we get out of the city, are about 5 minutes from the pond when our other friend calls and said she can't find the entrance.  at this point, we learn there are 2 walden ponds.  we went to the wrong one.  so we set course for the new pond and head out there.  we get there at 7.45, park closes at 8.  we park illegally, run down to the waterfront.  everyone else got the invite on facebook, but i don't have a phone to check it during work, so i didn't have time to go get a bathing suit.  so after a moment of thinking, i strip to boxers in the public beach area and hop in.  boxers and swimsuit have different properties, one of which is their ability to stay on.... so i made some adjustments and was good to go.  we swim for maybe 6 minutes and then run back to the car.  its here where someone pulls out a bag of malibu.  of course we down it.  and then we take off for margaritas.  its maybe 8.15 and i'm feeling it.  we moon our other group of friends on the highway (cause "it [was] time for the moon to come out") and go for drinks.  drinks / dinner was awesome and hilarious.  so much fun.  it was a crazy spontaneous adventure that was legen-------dary.

Wednesday was an even more epic adventure.  nolan gave me 4 tickets to the red sox game.  but, there was thunder/lightning predicted.  by about 4.30, it was raining so hard i was afraid (as a californian, what you guys have over here is something other than rain, its more violent in nature).  everyone says theres no way theres a game happening.  but i say, well, if its canceled, we'll just go to a bar.  we walk to the T in light rain and low spirits - the radar map made boston look bright red all over.  on the t we keep checking the fenway weather twitter feed (first time i've ever really checked twitter.  turns out its really boring.  all the same comments replay until a new one comes out.  but its like watching a tree grow.).  game is still on.  so we change to the green line and see TONs of sox fans, so at this point i'm sure the game is on.  a guy tells us we should go to a bar until the game actually starts, cause there is no reentry.  this is a great idea, so we stop for a couple drinks.  we pick up excellent sausages on the way in (if you don't know, i'm a sausage addict [damn the en tendres])  we get to our seats and they're as good a bleacher seat as you're going to find.  somebody brought shamwow's to dry their seats and they lend it to us.  very clutch.  so we start watching the game.  at this point i learn A) James doesn't really know the rules to baseball B) matt didn't know the white sox were a team and C) kylie only likes baseball a little bit.   hahaha.  o well, i appreciated that we were at FENWAY.  i've now been to the following stadiums: candlestick (giants), Pacbell (new giants), new yankee stadium, the angels stadium, oakland collesium, wrigley, camden yard (orioles), ballpark at arlington (rangers), and now fenway.  a nice little list.  But going to classic parks is just special.  anyways, we were having a great time, i snuck in a matthew vassar flask (SO worth the $10) and we were getting pretty tipsy.  kylie asks me how my dating life is going (she and matt are the ones who housed me and were my first boston friends, so we go way (2 months) back).  so i start talking about not being good at talking to girls and james and matt are laughing at me.  only now do i realize i was spilling guts in straight up public, where everyone heard - i did win the "i can talk louder than you" award back in middle school.  [and i could and still can btw].  anyways, a couple of innings later, people are trying to get the wave going in our section.  i'm not really interested, since between the drinking and the gut spilling, i feel like i'm missing the game.  (this goes to nolan's point about how baseball really only has one thing going for it.  its such a slow pace its perfect for socializing and watching the game only secondarily)  so i'm watching, not waving.  all of a sudden, some girl comes down and talks to the four of us and says "my friends up there are trying to start the wave.  it would be really awesome if you'd help out"  and then after we kinda go *aha, ya, sure* head nod, she adds, "oh and one of you said having a wingman wasn't the problem, you were the problem.  i think you just need to be more confident".   I go beet red, matt and james are holding in laughter and i can't remember what kylie said, but it was something in agreement.  the girl just walks away at this point.  finally coming to understand how public my discussions had become, the guys behind me say, "you should have gotten her number!"   Oh how obvious!  so, in the blink of an eye, i'm up, i walk up the section to where the 3 or 4 girls are sitting and i say, "if i'm being confident, the first thing i should do is get your number."  i go to pull out my phone and she pulls out a pen even faster, and old school rights her number on my hand.  I say, can i have your name and then she writes that.  stunned, i say cool, and start to walk away.  after two steps, i realize and turn around, stick out my hand and say, "nice to meet you jasmine, i'm darren".  i walk back down to our seats, report my success and we all have a laugh.  i wait an inning and text her about the wave, and then we send a couple of slightly flirtatious texts.  the game ends (the sox destroyed them.  the game was awesome by the way, but of course all you guys wanna hear about is the story i'm telling).  I figure i'll never see her again, so i say something like, "hey it was nice meeting u.  maybe i'll see you at another sox game in the future"  i figure thats the end.  but she sends, "i'm in boston two more weeks".   one of those intentionally vague, not closing the door, but not leaving it open, type comments.  i don't reply.  james has recommended i give it a day or two before doing anything.  Regardless, i consider it a rousing success.  i got an opening to talk to a girl, i didn't chicken out and i got a number.

this was a crazy crazy weekend.  nick came down for the weekend pretty much right when dan left.  didn't plan it, but it was great.  he was going to wing for me all weekend.  i ended up winging for him because, we'll i'm no good at closing.  i've learned i'm awesome at talking to girls, i'm a pretty fun person, at least a little funny and enjoyable enough for 10 minutes or 1 hour or whatever of talking.  i've learned how and am now sorta able to ask for numbers.  but i realize two new things.  first, i have maybe 5 numbers.  but i don't know what to do with them.  i could invite them out to do stuff, but i haven't yet and don't know about it.  i've also learned (and i knew) i can't ABC.  always be closing.  just like i can't creepily grind on a stranger, i don't know how to suggest to go back to my place.  i should be able to, but thats just a crazy thing.  anyways, i feel like i make this rant 100 times over.
nick and i went to a bbq before going to karaoking friday night.  saturday we went to bars near fenway and i learned i missed out on a beer marathon.  we went hard, but my voice is dead from the singing, so the girls weren't really feeling it.  i sound like a grouch.  last night, nick was going to be wingmaning, but i wing'ed for him, like i said.  he ended up staying talking with this girl forever.  got her number and she seemed to dig him a lot.
sunday, today, we went to keggs and eggs and it was awesome.  we played and then went to the bar and had fun.  i have a great time here in boston, but its hard to get used to the new shape of life, the fast pace of weekend and the drull of weekdays.  i find myself missing college more than usual.  hmm.

Week update on its way

I met up with nolan's friend who got me (effectively) an offer for an iRobot internship and talked to her about my job, my social life in the city, my future, her future.  she's a kickass woman in engineering, a kickass engineer, and a kickass person in general.  I really like her.  she gave me advice about all of the things career related and it was insightful.  she's going to upenn for advanced haptic research for a masters degree, but is delaying that for a year because her part of iRobot is going through development of manufacturing in china and thats an amazing thing to have experiance in and she wants to stick around to learn it.  it was a great talk.  (sorry for the engineering digression, i know i've said i'll keep this just to social issues, but i thought this was a worth while item)

tuesday, went dancing, had great fun like always.  i'm really getting way way better.  i'm at the point where if i know the song, i can pretty much throw in a particular move to match the music.  my move set isn't tremendous, but i can also make up moves with about 40% success rate which i consider admirable.  i can't get enough of it either, i'm going to have to find a place to do this at dartmouth.  AND the international competition for the month of august is in boston and its not too expensive to go.  i really wanna go but it would mean i wouldn't go home.  and i kinda want to go home to see my mom and my grandparents.  dilemnas

wednesday dan came to visit from NYC (he's doing a world tour sort of trip).  we went to pickup kickball and had a good time and then of course went to courtside.  get this, at courtside i ran into julia and anabeth from the barefoot monkeys (at vassar).  they both i guess live in boston area and met up and wanted to go to a pub in the area and through some crazy series of events they ended up at our shitty ass dive bar.  i'm surprised they sat at the bar.  its prettttttty funky looking.  but anyways, i walked in and did what amounted to a triple take before i decided thats julia.  i'm trying to get them to come to kickball sunday, or join kickball in the fall.  but, i'm not going to try that hard.  i like them, but if they're not into it, i won't force it.

yesterday i took off the afternoon to hang with daniel and we went to the historical instrument museum at harvard.  it was awesome.  they have instruments from back in the 1500s all the way into the 1990s.  it was really cool.  then we went to the MIT museum.  that was fantastic.  it had an entire robotics wing.  i'm pretty sure i want to do robotics as my first job out of school - you know before i start companies of my own (that came off douchy, sorry).  but anyways it was cool.  then there was a scientific photography exhibit that was amazing.  if you think about when you did physics in college or high school or even middle school, i can guarantee you one of the images or copycats came from this exhibit.  it was stunning work.  and i'm not always into artwork, but this stuff.  
in the night we went to the best bbq in cambridge/somerville:  redbones.  i took him to underbones, the bar/dining room underneath redbones and its wonderfully decorated in stylized tribal artwork.  great food of course too.

1 more bit of engineering news.  yesterday the company did a demo for the client and afterwards i had two people come to me and ask when my project would be done and how important it is (now that the client mentioned wanting data from the system i'm building.)  but this is the first time anyone has shown interest.  i've placed orders for all the hardware and it should be machined and shipped here in two weeks.  i have at that point i guess 3 or 4 weeks (depending on if/when i go home) before i leave, so there is a tiny window of opportunity to fix any screw ups i've undoubtedly made.  i'm getting nervous.  but i'll take photos and such for myself (and thusly you) when it comes together.

Talk to you later :)

~ p.s. if you're reading this, i'd love to hear if you'd like me to talk about certain things more or less, or just that you exist.  its kind of eery writing a letter to the internet.  i imagine there's someone listening, but i really don't know.

Good and bad news.
Good news is i had a fun weekend.  james and I explored saturday, i finally got a hair cut and then went out saturday night, talked to some girls and felt more comfortable doing that.  i got quite drunk and had a merry old time.
The bad news is that I was quite hungover yesterday and so i watched sports and such virtually all day long.  i don't like when i do that, cause I have only so many days here left.  so, I'm not going to let that happen again.
I meet with emily tonight for beer and then dan comes for a day or two, hoping to take him to the harvard historical scientific instrument museum.  depending on when he arrives, we can go to kickball on wednesday as well.

i went out with packy and we were going to meet at a bar but i couldn't get in.  three picture id's and the guy still didn't believe i was darren reis.  i showed him a credit card and he was like, 'you can fake those'.  really, i'm going to fake an entire wallet worth of cards to get into your piece of shit bar?  really?  so we went somewhere else.

we drank and hopped a couple of bars before making our way to a mega bar.  it had maybe three bars and two dancefloors.  it was huge.  so eventually i got us to the dance floor and threw down my moves.    this wasn't my night though.  i was 0 for 5 asking girls to dance.  but i almost hit my mark of 6, and i still had fun.  i just have to remember i'm awesome and its their loss if they don't dance with me.  but i'm noticeably getting better.  so thats good.  

going out with james this afternoon and who knows where we're going.  i still need to go north end, but  whereever we end up will be fun.  then tonight is the mid season party.

sometimes you get to have fun during the week.

so, tuesday i went dancing, like i've been doing for a month or so.  I had a great time, stayed all the way until closing time.  but then i lost my phone.  I wasn't too worried because wednesday was 4th of july.  So wednesday i got up and went and looked and found it.  that was a relief.  you feel naked without a phone these days.

I got invited to go to a lake house in NH for fourth of july.  i was so so excited to have been invited and it by no means disapointed.  we drove up there, stopped at NH liquor store and bought a bunch of really cheap alcohol (compared to MA) and then made our way to the "lake".  now i need to mention, i'm certainly spoiled because i think of a lake as Lake Tahoe - 18 by 12 miles.  this was not that.  it was big enough for a little island thing in the middle with a tree with a rope swing, but it was maybe a mile accross by 500 yards wide.  but it was still a water body.  and that was all we needed.  our host was an italian mom and man did she take care of us.  we had fresh fruit, yummy shrimp, sangria, and all sorts of munchies.  then we went out on their new boat for spin around the lake.  i went swimming and got to go on the swing.  we came back to the house for lunch/ dinner and she made avocado cheeseburgers.  then we got out some floating rafts and just lay out on the water in the sun.  it was fantastic.  i just let the current take me whereever for maybe an hour or two. in that time our host made chocolate chip cookies and she came out and served beer and fresh cookies.  unbelievable service.  when it started getting dark, we came inside and prepared to go out and launch fireworks - its legal in the state of 'live free or die'.  (my opinion is that saying should be ammended to 'live free and die' because of all the crazy stuff they do in NH, but whatever).  we watched and the house to our left, in front, and to our right (all across the lake because this house sits on a peninsula awesomely) all set off fireworks.  to top that, mother nature was joining the game.  a huge thunder/lightning storm was approaching behind the house.  the sky turned dark grey and there was colors in front, and streaks of white in back.  it was amaing.  scary, and amazing.  when it started to rain, it came down in sheets.  it just suddenly dumped.  we ran inside and it was one of those northeast 'i'm somewhat frightened by the rain' type rains.  when it cleared in about 10 minutes, we waited to be sure, and then we set off our own fireworks.  that was real fun as well.  but then it was time to head home and go to work the next day.  but man was this a great time.


yesterday was day 1 of boston dance challenge.  people come from all over the world to this west coast swing event to compete and have a good time.  i can't go for the whole thing, but i went last night.  and boy were there some dancers.  i'm noticably improving both in my dancing ability and dancing confidence.  i was able to time my moves to the music a couple of times last night - which is my favorite part of west coast swing (wcs) because the woman can do some sassy moves to match an accent in the music if she hears it.  wcs allows for that independence just enough to be awesome, but not so much that it takes away from the partner aspect.
i also reaffirmed i'm a mom killer.  the mom's all love dancing with me cause i'm so obviously enjoying myself and being playful.  but that's okay, i have fun with them too.  i'm relaxed around women not my age enough to be myself.  now if only a pretty girl didn't disrupt that.  stupid girls.  :)
I hope to go out on the town tonight and ask 6 girls to dance and get 1 number.  thats the goal.
tomorrow i want to explore the last major area of boston that i haven't explored yet, the north end, the amazing italian area.
talk to you later (whoever you are and if you even exist)

*update*  going into the heart of boston to meet up with packy and go out tonight.  don't really want to.  i want to just sit and watch a movie.  but i'm going.  starting with a drink so that i won't stay on my butt

i had a great time dancing last night, for the first time staying until the event closed.  then i lost my phone.  but then i found it.  now i'm going to NH with some kickballers to chill on a boat and a lake and watch some fireworks.  i'm excited to do some basking as keven would say.

i am a ridiculous person.  lets just start with that.

my parents visited this weekend, so following my crazy golf road trip, i spent all day saturday with them.  we walked around harvard sqaure and harvard.  we went to their natural history museum, which was actually really cool.  they have an exhibit on glass blown flowers.  it was so spectacular i keep forgetting that the items in the display cases were made of glass - i just thought they were flower specimen.  so that was good.  then we went to lunch followed by going to cirque de soleil Totem.  as always, CDS was phenomenal.  i would love to be the technical engineer for their stagework because it is always so incredible.  after that we got lobster rolls because we were right at the harbor.  they were quite yummy.

then yesterday was kickball color wars.  i went all out, as you knew i would.  but it was the first time i did something ridiculous in a public place.  generally i'll wear crazy costumes in a party or secluded setting.  this is the first time since, well, since high school that i walked in public like this.  and when i first walked outside and felt the breeze... i got nervous.  i looked like this

so uh, ya.  you can understand.  i walked to the subway and realized i had to just smile right back at people or else i'd be taken as crazy - well, actually crazy instead of just silly crazy.  so i smiled kind of a "ya, pretty crazy right" sort of smile.  then i got on the T.  i hadn't tried sitting down up to this point, and so that was tough.  you can tell these were some short shorts.  (i like this photo because martha and i got asked if we shopped at the same spot for our shorts)  anyways, a number of people asked to take photos of me on the T.  one guy even asked to take a photo with me.  I have that one on my camera and i'll upload it sometime.  

anyways, when i got to the brunch (keggs and eggs was canceled), i was the only one to have dressed up.  THAT WAS AWKWARD.  i ordered a very alcoholic drink and took a seat.  later when i walked to the bar, i got cat called for the first time in my life.  not sure if they knew i was a boy.  on a similar note, i once wondered to myself, "what would i have to do to prove to people i am a straight man under all of this nonsense?"  that question went unanswered.  so, i got to the bar and met up with my team.  THANKFULLY, my team went pretty hard as well.  this is us at the end of the day.  you can't even really see me

theres a guy who bought a purple suit, and a bunch of people in purple skirt/wigs.  anyways, they went big.  so that was good.  but before we all got to the bar, we had to play our rivals (friendly rivals of course) at kickball.  and for that........ my parents attended.  now, i'll preface this with my parents know i'm cooky.  they know i got it from my brother.  and they've seen me do crazy things before.  but not in a long long time.  so everyone was excited to see their reaction.  and i was excited to see as well.  i'll also say, i had told my mom i wouldn't love them anymore if they didn't show up to the field in purple.  its color wars, you have to be in purple if you're supporting the team.  so they did come in purple.  I'm trying to find a picture of it, but can't quite yet.  

we ended up losing the game, but we won color wars by a mile.  not even close.  hardly any other team dressed up.  and evidently i'm the front runner in the all star balloting for the following categories:  most spirited (duh), rookie of the year, karaoke king, and karaoke queen.  i'm not sure who thinks i karaoke well, cause they're wrong, but ya, it is what it is.  

on a last note, the team has taken it upon itself to wingman for me with that girl from a couple weeks ago.  i'm hesitant, but we'll see what happens.

crazy things happen in boston

well, this boisterous young fellow almost saw two 3 am's back to back.  that was the craziest fucking road trip of my life.  i'll blog later.  sleep now


update now.

okay, so i went to this charity golf tournement.  we left at 4 am friday morning.  took 6 hours to get to the town, about an hour or two northwest of poughkeepsie.  played golf for 5 hours.  it was a scramble, meaning each person took a shot and the best ball was the one we played.  it made golf amazingly fun.  except for i lost maybe 10 balls to water, brush, forest, and such.  our team, made up of 3 maybe golfers and someone who never played before.  we were 5 over.  but i did quiet well for myself.  i parred 18 all on my own.  plus i got 2 green in regulations.  which was awesome.

on the way back, we rode with an ex nfl player.  the car was the most beat up thing ever.  the fumes were killing us the whole way home.  plus the guy was  telling the stories about his life and it was kind of scary.  he beat up a cop once and thought nothing of it.

the only other item of note really is the fact that driving home, i watched two cops drag racing down my street at about 2 in the am.

color day tomorrow.  hope to get some photos of this one for you.

i'm going back and forth on discussing my girl adventures.  what is a blog if not for my thoughts.  so i'm going to walk the line again.
i realized i'm not accustomed to be forced to initiate things (duh) and it will just take time and prodding. tonight at dancing i didn't let myself take more than 1 song off in a row.  i asked a bajillion girls to dance.  if my club excuse is that i only like to partner dance, i certainly can't use any sort of excuse why not to ask a girl to partner dance.  so that was good for me.  so on the same point, i think i need to dance with 5 or maybe 10 girls this saturday night.  that will be a good start toward being comfortable asking girls to dance.  there is no friday night clubbing because i'm going to a charity golf tournament.  its for a charity close to the heart of the company and we have a foursome from work going.  rumors have it theres a number of super d-list celebs going, so i'll have to keep you updated.

many many things to update.
so saturday exploring with james, we walked all over boston, to the sea, and all over the back bay.  but i think i talked about that.
saturday night michelle from dartmouth showed up and we went to skyzone.  the place is full to a T of trampolines.  we did backflips, frontflips (michelle learned how!) and played basketabll and dodgeball.  for $15 and 2 hours of fun, theres no better sober saturday night activity in all of boston, maybe the world.
Sunday morning we got up, went and got some bagels/donuts and went to keggs and eggs IV.  michelle was taken right in and we had a great time drinking and not really eating since most everyone else brought booze - which is fine for the most part.  michelle was taking it easy, but i was enjoying my mamosas.  we got to the field and michelle had been recruited to play for red team because they never have enough players.  not only that, the red team got its first win!  michelle did well too, i heard from an inside source.  my team took our first loss, but i had a run and a ribbi.
then we went to the bar and michelle got to play in the real games.  i sang a little eagle eye cherry solo and she got the jist of things.  eventually she was ready and we sang Barbie Girl duet.  all good fun.  as she had to be back for work monday, we left pretty early.  no big deal, we had a good time.

yesterday JANET and i met up for dinner!  she went to ellen's grad party i guess and was in boston.  I said i had to see her, and made it happen!  we met up and i threw her a curveball and said, instead of going right to dinner, lets go to this great costume store.  so i took her to the garmet district - 'its a store, not a district'.  next week is colors week, for fourth of july, and so i got an entire purple outfit.  and these pants may be the tightest i ever worn.  how come everytime time i go buy costumes I end up with tight pants?  anyways, my costume is ridiculous and wonderful.  I also realized, my mom is visiting for sunday, and i am planning to do a duet with her at courtside (the bar) but i'll be in these ridiculous pants.  oh boy.
then, after getting the costume, we went to dinner.  and we hit the jackpot.  we found this irish pub that served Innis and Gunn, and was super duper delicious.  it was well worth the walking.  i had an excelent chicken pasta thing, and janet had avocado crabcake pasta.

life is pretty good.  you just have to get through the workday to get to the the funday

i went dancing again on thursday.  it was fun, but there were more guys than girls by a bunch.  then yesterday we had a beer afternoon at work, which was good cause i wasn't feeling work so much.  then we went to redbones, a really good barbeque place.  it was good.  then today i'm about to go exploring with james.  i'll tell you about it when i get back

james and i walked a huge chunk of boston.  they have this thing called the freedom trail, its a big walking tour of boston.  we jumped on that for a while.  went to the harbor, touched the atlantic ocean. then we walked back all the to the boston common.  we then went and found the bench from goodwill hunting.  we took some photos, then went and had bolocos for lunch.  that stands for boston local company.  they have it at dartmouth too.  so that was fun.  then we went to a bar and had a beer and watched some euro 2012.  finially we headed home

tonight we're going to skyzone, the amazing trampoline filled building.  michelle is coming down from new hampshire to join us and then go play kickball tomorrow.  should be fun.

today was an awesome day.  first of all, i found out i have a reader.  someone cares :P  no but its good to hear i'm not just talking to the world.  although really i'm just talking cause i feel like if my friends blogge about what they were doing, i would want to read it.  so i blog how i would want them too.

but onto the interesting stuff.  i actually enjoyed work all day today.  i realized yesterday if i'm giong to accomplish my project before i have to go to dartmouth, i need to order parts right away.  and that means the guy i'm doing the project for needs to stop giving me half-thought out instructions and fully fledge out the project.  anyways.  i ordered $1800 of parts today and hope to order just under $3k tomorrow.  then i'll spend the next couple days doing mechanical engineering stuff (which is good, I'm a mechE hired as an EE and don't really know what i'm doing, so whenever i get to do something i know how to do, i'm happy).  In th afternoon I started programming the system and that was enjoyable too.  I even worked an extra hour today, cause i was enjoying it and getting paid along the way.  pretty good right?

then i came home and made some leftovers before going to west coast swing.  that was fun to do the lesson.  its all stuff i've done before, but not in a long time, so i need touch up.  after the lessons there was free dancing.  even though i would like there to be tons of cute young girls, its just way more fun dancing with middle to later aged woman.  I'm more relaxed, they're totally unthreatened.  we laugh and have fun.  i danced with prolly 8 or more of them and each of them was awesome.
I may also go back on thursday.  they have thursday lessons which are mostly the same stuff but maybe a little different moves.  we'll see if i go to that.

but i have to tell you what happened during the free dancing tonight.  it was great fun and such, then they paused the music and someone got on a mic and said "we have a birthday"  it was some woman's birthday and they put on a sweet song and the dancefloor cleared, with only her and a man in the middle.  they danced and then he spun her out and she was taken by another man who danced with her for a bit.  i noticed there was a big line.  everyone who wanted to got to have a small period of center stage dancing with the birthday girl.  it was totally amazing.  they played two songs there were so many people who wanted dances.  men, woman, everyone dance wither her.  it was awesome.  clearly it was only for people who had been going to this thing a long time, since she was kick-ass and they all were too.  but it would be fun to be at that level some day.

until next time

I realized the last couple post topics has been about darren overcoming girl fears.  riveting as that is, the only two places that topic can go are things that I don't need to post about.  So this is my last post on the topic (until I undoubtably forget that resolution and bring up the matter again).

Yesterday was really fun.  Sundays always are now.  It started by going to a brunch where pink and purple teams met up for food and drinks.  never gone out for pre-noon drinking before.  that was cool.

then we went to the fields and i played two games.  one of the teams is way under staffed, so some people were lent out to this team.  between that game and my team game, i had 4 hits!  it was awesome.    my team got a tie and the other team i played with lost a heartbreaker.

then the real games started.  the karoake competition was pretty fun.  I'll hopefully get some photos of my outfit.  I thought i did pretty well.  i certainly had fun.  i sang and mostly danced michael jackson's thriller.  there should be video somewhere as well.  some of the other good performances were beastie boys sabotage, queen bohemian rhapsody, and grease summer nights.  i didn't win, but i got plenty of complements on my costume - a sign perhaps.

after the competition there was regular karaoke and drinking.  my day goal was to get a number.  but even before I could ask the girl (who i had been crushing on last week), another girl told me she spoke with this particular girl and heard she thought i was cute.  a good sign.  during my song, another boy sat next to this girl and just wouldn't leave.  i enlisted a teammate to run distraction for me.  then it was just me and this girl.  time to jump in.  getting the number was surprisingly easy.  its not that big a deal, we're already friends, so it was just a friend thing.  but with the new cute datapoint, i had a greater goal.  i wanted a date.  so, i chickened out a couple times, then just went for it.  and she said no.  not ready for a relation right now blah blah.  but you know what.  it wasn't that bad.  we kept talking for a little while and she sent me a nice text later that night.
 
but thats really a great thing.  i asked a girl out and she said no and i'm alive.  not crushed, not hurt, just fine.  so i'm actually content with things.  

Maybe I can do this thing

I've come a long way in the last three days.  I went out on thursday and got the perfect during-week buzz.  I went out on friday and I asked a girl to dance and got shut down.  and last night, i took a couple more steps.

it was jame's 21st birthday, so we went out for dinner and drinking.  dinner was good, and it was late enough that there was a bachelorette party going on in the area.  we had a group of maybe late 20s early 30s come up to us with a list of things they had to do and take photos of.  the first was to take a photo with a "jay".  james is close enough.  done deal.  the next was to get a piggy back ride from someone.  matt is a big dude, taken care of.  I said, why don't you just show us the list and we'll do as many as we can.  the next one on the list was a body shot.  ...  it was my turn to do something for them, so i said i'd do it.  i went and bought a tequila shot and did a body shot off lisa.  matt got a photo.  there is proof.  they thanked us and took off.  we were still giggling.

next we walked around for an hour or something while i was being too picky about where to go.  covers suck.  stupid bars.  anyways, when i realized i was the one keeping us from going somewhere, i said fuck it we're going here.  we bought drinks.  danced a while.  james and matt are both in relations, so they were scouting for me.  (that was weird, they would point to a pretty girl and give me the "hey" eyes).  I asked to dance and got turned down, but immediately was asked to dance by another girl (per james' doing).  then we bought another drink and i went and asked another girl to dance.  she was skeptical but i must have been convincing or something.  so i taught her to swing dance.  that alerted her to my not being a creepy dude.  (which i'm not by the way).  we got to talking and talked and danced for maybe 6 or 7 songs.  she's 24 and doing a masters in marine biology.  sarah.  very pretty.  so we were dancing and matt had to go to catch a train back home.  james mentioned wanting to leave.  and i knew what they were doing (leaving me alone with her) but i freaked out and said something and ran away with james.   i didn't even get her number.  stupid darren.
BUT!  that was some huge steps for me.

And theres still one day of weekend left.  friday's goal was to talk to a girl.  saturday's goal was to dance with a girl (it was supposed to be grind with a girl, cause that's the scariest of all, even more than asking for a number.  i can't just come into your space and touch you.  that's just crazy talk).  sunday's goal is to get a number.  I'm coming home today with a girl's number.  that's going to happen.

big boisterous plans!

went out last night to a super awesome area.  its near quincy market.  it was really lively and awesome. i talked to a girl and she gave me the immediate cold shoulder.  but its a start.  also i relearned that there is a perfect drunk level for me, where i'll talk to anyone no problem.  i need to get to that level THEN find a girl to talk to.  in such a state of mind, i found out that my new friend james doesn't by default have game because he's from canada.  good to know

also, the reason for this post.  i'm going to stop being a scaredy cat and just go out into the world.  its happening.  here i go.

man, life picks up sometimes.
i went to the most awesome amzing costume/random clothing store ever.  two floors of endless crazy clothing.  i went in, thinking I would pick the craziest thing in the store and that would be my costume. but there really was no greatest or silliest - they all were silly.  i ended up getting something that was pretty good.  you'll have to wait and see for yourself.
then i got home and immediately went back out to a bar.  sam grant was in the city and we met at the bleacher bar.  the place was inside the green monster.  it was really cool.
then today we played basketball and a tried to take a charge by ex-NFLer.  wasn't called.  but it was physical.  we were playing football with a basketball on a court.
tonight we're going out somewhere near northeastern.

tomorrow, who knows

swing dancing is awesome.  i'm so happy right now.  i just love dancing.  its great.

i went to the west coast swing dance lesson and there were more girls than boys (which is not always the case, but is good).  There were young people too.  boys and girls!  it was a great mix of aged people.  and the teacher of the class had so much spunk it was wonderful.  she was as big a dork as me, talking about silly off topic things and having a fun sense of humor.  she even guessed that i was an engineer.  then said, half of everyone in boston is an engineer.  I said, balogne, take a poll.  considerably less than half of the people in the room were engineers and we had a laugh.

after the class, there was free dancing.  this was the best part.  i danced and a lot of the moves i learned at dartmouth came back to me.  it was great.  also, watching the amazing dancers dance was just crazy. the women spin so fast and dance so sexily.  i wanna be that good that i can ask a random woman to dance and she will be able to add such sassy pizzaz.

if i can have as much fun during weeknights as i did tonight, then this work thing will be alright.  :_)

Last night, i mustered up energy and went to target to finally buy house items.  I got stuff that every house needs - cups, a decent pot, dish and hand towels, that sort of stuff.  I also got bed sheets.  they were expensive.  but MAN are they soft and comfortable.  that was the best investment I've made in a long time.  so good.

tonight i'm going swing dancing, to meet people and to ... go swing dancing.  i'm pretty excited.  In all likelihood its a bunch of grandma's (it always is with these things) but maybe there will be some cute girls.  or at the very least some young people.  i'm still in the friend gathering stage, so i'm not looking for dates, but that is in the grand scheme summer plan, so it couldn't hurt.

also, I'm signed up to do this song for the karaoke contest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSQOeQakExU.  I don't think i'll win because there's 2 very capable singers/performers - you know the charismatic, fun to watch on stage, adam fierman types.  BUT, my costume should be the best.  More details to come on this front

The good news is, I'm not hung over this morning.  The bad news is, I didn't get ridiculously drunk in order to be hung over.  But.  That was intentional.

So yesterday started at 10 with me walking half an hour to pick someone up, and then we walked another 45 minutes to the party.  we got to Kegs and Eggs and it was going to be between Kickapotamus (Pink Team) and Kicktease (Purple Team - mine).  But, there were two Pinkies and 7 purples there.  So pretty much we had a team party at the Pink guy's house.  We ate food and drank drinks and it was good.  but it was hot.

Then we walked over to the field and played kickball.  our team is not so good, but we won by way of forfeit.  Then, when we played a scrimmage, we lost.  but we're 2-0 baby!

Then the real fun started when we got to the bar.  Of course this time i DID NOT buy rounds of jeggerbombs, someone else did.  drank a ton, sang some karaoke, and generraly was silly.  my dance moves go over well.  However, I seem to have inheritted the baby role.  One of the girls yesterday said she just wanted to adopt a little brother and teach me about boston.  how cute i was and all.  lame!  (though i'm pretty cute).  Thats okay though, there's 8 teams and I'm meeting people and if I'm the youngest whatever.

I was informed that there was an after party last week that everyone went to, not me because I was too drunk and was walking home by then.  This week they made sure I went.  it was really cool too.  I made friends with a guy named kellen (who is awesome).  he introduced me to hillbilly horseshoes.  it was pretty cool.

Then, i made my way home.  Now for another week of the boring stuff until I can get back to fun!

Oh, and Saturday night, the celtics lost.  But I had a great time at the bar.  Some of the kickballers met up at a sports bar and we sat and drank and watched (but then didnt watch at certain key times).  It was cool.  Not exactly a bar though, it was really kind of a restaurant.

So, the party last night here was fine.  Interesting friends.  But it made me feel old and made me miss my college and my friends.  so that so stupid.  also i ate ratatoulli.  looked nothing like from the pixar film.  it was alright.

today i went to a sports bar to watch germany portugal and again no one would talk to me.  but tonight.  TONIGHT!  i'm going to a bar with some of the kickballers and watching the celtics game.  should be pretty awesome.  i'm really excited.

this is a talk kevin, the vp of research and development gave at google.  its a pretty cool summary of the company and the technology.  also, kevin is awesome.  i eat lunch with him most days.

http://www.wesolveforx./#t=s&n=5fde3a97 com


also, I got invited to a breakfast pregame on sunday.  that should be cool.  drink, play kickball, drink and karaoke, then sober up so i'm not hungover for monday.

I made tangible contributions to the company today.  Not to say they need me as opposed to a semi cognizant monkey, but still it happened.

On the boisterosity meter, we (me included somehow) are hosting a friday party.  Its a potluck food/drink party.  I don't know anyone, but deniz does, and he says it'll be awesome.  so, thats gonna happen.


% non boisterous talk %
Its also weird,  I go through periods where I am suddenly incredibly lonely without my vassar people. Like, peri hasn't walked into my house in for fucking ever.  thats a problem.  also, i have 2 numbers of people that I could call and hang out with.  and 1 of them I've kind of leaned on for more than I should so i need to give him a break.  but then, I think about how I get to reinvent myself again.  with no network, theres no image of darren.  I'm not the tactless number cruncher yet.  and thats exciting.
Facebook is actually the go between of those worlds.  its really easy to go onto facebook and stay "connected" with my college friends, just like i did for a while with my high school friends.  but that facebooking actually inhibits me from going and making every imaginable effort to meet and make new friends.  not literally, for the most part I'm not sitting on facebook instead of going out adventuring.  But more mentally.  I wonder what my people are doing and it makes me miss them and it may make me more skeptical or pessimistic about making new friends.

its oddly turning me off to facebook.  but obviously I can't get rid of it or lose the connection to them.

Oh man.
Adults get drunk too.  Thats a good thing.

On sunday I went to kickball.  I met 10 or 15 young adults in the area and we played.  It is a surprisingly quick game.  Afterwards, we went to a karaoke bar.  Thats where the fun really started.  so we sat down and started drinking.  It was fun for a while, then somebody suggested jeggerbombs.  My rookie mistake was to be drawn in to help carry them.  we ordered 12.  and I paid for 5 of them.  pretty damn expensive.
Anyways, I haven't any idea how many drinks i had.  we sang songs, did dances.  I got maybe 15 people's numbers, some even that live near me.  Caitlyn said she would invite me to a party they were going to this friday.  Also, age came up in discussion just once - this was something I was a little worried about.  I didn't want to be a baby in the group.  But it was pretty inconsequential.
Anyways, I was too drunk to figure out bussing back to my house.  So I walked home for like an hour.  Its a miracle I made it back.  I kept texting friends and at one point I thought back to the "echo echo co co" story of freshman year.  How this really was the same thing, but in the real world.  If I took 1 wrong turn I'd end up in a ditch.
Anyways, I got home, fell on my bed and woke up this morning hung over as fuck.  Somehow, some crazy way, I got my shit together and went to work and functioned somewhat and no one noticed.
But I can't wait to go do it all over again, but maybe with less drinking.

*UPDATE*  Thats a lie, no less drinking, just more water afterwards

1.75 for wash and 1.75 for dryers?  only in quarters?  ba-phooey!

So, I decided to make this blog about my new life.  I graduated from Vassar College, so I have those, you know, writin' skillz.  Or something.  So I should be able to do this right?  Well, I don't know who will be reading and what those people want to hear, so I'll just summarize the past two weeks and then I'll be more up to date.

Well, I started off my new adulthood with a drive to Boston and no where to live.  I stayed on a couch and went to work with my entire life in my car.  I worked and people would ask where I was living and I'd point at the parking lot, there.  Well, last sunday I moved into a place.  This place is full of crazy Tufts college students who smoke a bunch of pot and don't live, well, clean.  I cleaned the kitchen spotless on monday cause I knew I was going to be unhappy living in filth, and then I went into Boston on the T.  I got totally lost in china town.  Eventually I stopped and had a beer and then went home.

The next week of work was lame.  sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours is aweful.  Don't graduate.  Seriously, slouching off is way easier in college.  Getting home at 6 exhausted isn't fun.  But it's getting better little by little.

Today, Saturday, I did nothing at all.  I had planned to go to the aquarium and explore more.  But it poured rain today and I got scared.  I don't want to go out in the ick if I'm not going to meet people.  So I sat on my ass and watched TV literally all day long.  Its the most ridiculous slobbery ever.  However, tomorrow is my big day!  I'm playing kickball and drinking with many many new friends!  The waka kickball league was made for young people to make friends.  LIKE ME!  So that will be good.

Check back for more boisterosity!