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.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, July 13, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, July 9, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
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.
Friday, July 6, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)