gba recap

wow. my blog has really consisted of cop-out posts lately. not unlike this blog, this blog, or this blog (which has been so badly neglected that it can hardly be called a blog at this point), i might add. sorry to call ya'll out. no, no i'm not.

this weekend was pretty good. it was all started off with a beautiful night swim in walden pond, one of my most favorite summer activities. it was perfect, except to some people who thought it was too cold. but, thanks to the overexertion of having to swim much further than i anticipated, i slept well friday night, and awoke super duper early to prepare for the great boston adventure. a day to play the ultimate boston tourist. brian, mike, annie, tim, natalie, clayton, and i (without cyrus) headed downtown in the wee hours of the morning (ok, it was 8:30- but on a saturday morning in back bay, that may as well be 4 am) and over to the museum of science to catch an infamous duck tour. we missed our first opportunity, which left a few minutes to mill around the museum- long enough to see some chicks hatching from eggs (one of which was getting trampled on by the other satanic birds in the pen- i nearly cried) and to take a moment to stop and smell the…wildlife.

the duck tour-ed us around the great city of boston, past many national and local historic landmarks. turns out boston is the city of a lot of firsts for this country; first hotel, first subway system (no, the correct answer is not new york-try me), first place to see a fist fight at the symphony...some people didn’t like our tour guide, but i thought he gave plenty of useless trivia, which is the only thing my brain retains anyway. did you know that if you made a sidewalk out of all the concrete used in the big dig project, it would stretch from here to san francisco and back 3 times? 3 times people!

post duck tour, we ate lunch at fanueil hall. despite the 99 degree 80% humidity sweltering heat, most of us got clam chowder in a bread bowl, which was not smart, but delicious and very touristy. then we headed to the aquarium to view the fishies and the penguins, and the seals who couldn’t be coaxed to put anything but their noses out of the water. not that i blame them, did i mention it was 99 degrees?

when we’d had enough of the aquarium we boarded a yacht, or maybe just a boat, and set sail to sea to see whales. and see whales we did! i believe the grand total came to 9 or 10 whales spotted. the "marine biologist" claimed she could tell the difference between the whales, and even made up names for them, but i think some just swam under the boat and came up on the other side- a trick they’ve probably worked out to boost the numbers to ensure customer satisfaction. in fact, i'm not totally convinced those were real whales. whatev, it was pretty awesome. them’r big fish.

the weekend concluded much as it began. not as much with a swim in walden pond, but with a three and a half hour post-church nap, dinner at this person’s house, and a long restful nights sleep. ahhhhh.

well, the end. this weekend= the great connecticut adventure. i hope there will be penguins.

minivans are the new porsch 911

see minivan

see minivans licence plate cover

am i missing something here?

i'd like to thank the academy

i'd just like to mark this momentous occasion...

i have made it to this person's list of current obsessions!

tears. lots of tears.

a survey. please respond

let's say you have a friend.

and let's say that said friend is on a slippery slope to self destruction, a path that is marked with subtle pitfalls- many that are hard to decipher unless you yourself have actually been on a similar road, or at least seen that road taken by too many others...

but let's also say that you're no longer close enough to said friend to be comfortable in voicing your concern to them directly. however, you know said friend has other friends who might be more influential, and you could probably say something to said other friends. what do you do?

no really, i want to know.

who needs wordsworth?

three of my favorite quotes from last weekend. explanations given to the best of my ability

"you're a pimp dude, have some cabbage"

-this was tim referring to his methodology or criteria for tipping

"that's a cell phone?"

-the first thing out of rachel's mouth when she saw tim's old phone.

but really, people have home phones smaller than that.

"it's the emoticons with noses that make me want to rip my arm off and beat myself with it."

-natalie. enough said.

is this work?

so...catching a red sox game in the middle of the day, compliments of your place of employment, isn't anything to complain about.

so i won't.

and you will be my muse

dear mr. bellamy,

hi. remember me? section 113, row L, seat 19. green jacket. i was the only person at your saturday night concert above the age of 17- save the senior citizen two rows behind me whose rear never left the seat- rock on, grandma. i just wanted to thank you for putting on perhaps the most amazing concert i've ever seen in my entire life. i must admit that i was skeptical of the venue at first. though i can appreciate and celebrate your rising success and popularity, i am one who has always preferred a smaller music scene to an arena, and a part of me will miss the days where $5 (or sometimes just a smile and a wink-depending on who was working the door) could get me into your show at that rat hole someone passed off as a night club. however, from the moment you opened with "take a bow" all my pretense flew out the window and i couldn't sit still until after your second encore, "knights of cydonia" (a perfect closing number, in my opinion). thank you, also, for going old school a bit and incorporating a number of pieces from showbiz and origin of symmetry, which no doubt meant more to granny and me than could have to the rest of the toddlers in attendance. a thoughtful shout out to your groupies. still, hearing "starlight" live nearly brought tears to my eyes and in that moment i felt akin to brace-face sophomore on the front row who's mascara stained cheeks shone in the light of the well placed pyrotechnics. that song will be played at my wedding.

there were so many other amazing moments, the least of which included the piano light parade during "sunburn", the extended guitar solo in "hysteria", and singing along with the crowd to "time is running out", three of my most favorite songs ever, and you literally brought down the house with "supermassive black hole". well, maybe not the whole house, but at least that one girl that i saw fall off her chair. you brought her down. kudos.

anyway, i may not be able to claim the position of number one fan, but i probably fall in your top thousands. what i'm saying is i really like you guys and i'd appreciate your re-appearance in boston as soon as possible. give my love to chris and dominic, and maybe i'll catch up with y'all in bucharest in october.

yours truly,

fan #4,723 (or something like that)

i'll go it alone

today i purchased 1 ticket to Muse. 1.

...

only a concert of this rocking magnitude could make me forget that i'm going there alone.