My "vacation" begins...

After taking my last exam (in Spanish) on Monday May 9, I did what I did last year, which was spending a few days in Boston to enjoy myself. Except this time, I didn't exactly have time to enjoy myself because I was too busy picking up shifts at Catering to make some money to get me through to my first paycheck from the Sheraton, which will probably come in mid-June (HELLO run-on sentence!). That, and saying goodbyes to my housemates, packing up my belongings, selling my textbooks, putting away recycling, applying for a housing extention (which was actually for my stuff, not for me) and doing a few final workouts before Lazy-ass Scott takes over basically made the week more routine and cumbersome than playful.

One thing about this week that did resemble last year was a freindly visit from a home fry. Last year it was Andrew, and, along with Tina, we made an entire day of it, which turned out to be one of the best days of 2004. This year it was Naomi, who finished her semester at NYU and was up in Boston to see a Sox game with her brother, who goes to Northeastern. After the game I met up with her and we got Coldstone, however since the managers were not sure about the kosher-ness of the ice cream (and Naomi, being an orthodox Jew, needs it to be 100% certain kosher in order to go in her mouth), Naomi turned it down and instead bought some for Tina. After our little ice cream adventure, obviously, we headed to Tina's apartment to give her a much-need study break from organic chemistry. We ate our tasty scoops of heaven while chatting away about our semesters, but then Naomi and I had to leave Tina to her studies, so we left. Soon enough, Isaac picked us up in a blue Jaguar that belonged to his friend and drove us back to my place, where we were for about 10 minutes (the house was being too social), then went over to Isaac's place in South to chill out and talk for two hours. It was nice talking with Isaac, as we haven't actally sat down and chatted in over a year. After the death of one of his close cousins last summer and the overwhelming stress of studying pre-med, he took a year off from BU. He stayed in Longmeadow in the fall with his family, then got an off-campus apartment located in an on-campus part of Boston (if that doesn't make any sense to you cow-country schools, remember that BU is urban, which means that our buildings are mixed in with various businesses and residences that have nothing to do with the university) and got a job at a valet company, which makes him good money. He'll be returning in the Fall, but for now he's enjoying himself as a non-student. Isaac drove Naomi home, so when I left I said goodbye to both of them.

On Friday May 13 I boarded a bus back to Western Mass. and thus officially ended my semester and began my summer "vacation." I say "vacation" because the only thing I get a break from is my studies. I still have to work so I can finance the Fabulous Life, because if you haven't picked up on it already I'll fill you in- my lifestyle is far from cheap. Even in these 3-weeks of not studying or working, I still have things to do. I have a very classic view of just what constitues a vacation; for me, if I'm not Super Tourist or Beach Bitch, then I'm not on vacation. But it is a defniate stress relief.

After arriving in Western Mass., Mom greeted me at the bus station, and since we were both hungry, we went straight to dinner at an Indian place near her home called The Garden Restaurant. Since I've taken quite a fancy to Indian food this past year, I heavily enjoyed our meal. I in no way intend to be critical, but it seems that no matter what I order (and I order something different every time I'm at an Indian place), it's basically chunks of meat in this thick sauce with a heaping pile of rice on the side. But I love it every time, so I all I have to decide is chicken or lamb.  On that night, I opted for lamb while my mom did chicken. Following dinner, we started The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but I we were both too tired for a movie, so my mom went to bed and I went to Longmeadow to see my Carly, Lisa, and Maxine. We met at Maxine's in her backyard, since Maxine wanted to get out of the house. She expressed a desire to do more exciting and spontaneous things with are small amount of time together. I understood what she meant- living in Western Mass, we are very limited with our nighttime options. It's basically movies, a restaurant, bowling, or hanging out at someone's house, and it was always planned. We needed to embrace our more spontaneous sides, or our "inner P" as I called it (after the Meyers Briggs personality tests, where P were spontaneous, go-with-the-flow people). So I decided to get everyone in a game of Whore, which is just like Horse except with different letters. The best part is when everyone makes the basket, you hold hands in a circle and dance around the basketball. We did that once. It was really stupid. And then we realized it was cold outside, so we went to Carly's and played Mah-Jongg. I didn't win any of the hands, but I came awfully close twice.

On Saturday, I was about to go for a run when I realized I (accidently) forgot to pack my running shoes. "Oh well, I guess you're not exercising this week," said Lazy-ass Scott. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me. How could I forget my sneakers?" said Active Scott. "Honey, you didn't forget. I made  you forget," replied Lazy-ass Scott. "Oh, god damn you! Damn you to hell!" cursed Active Scott. "HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Lazy-ass Scott let out his infamous evil laugh. "Fine, you win this round, but as soon as I get to New Hampshire, you're going to pay for this." Looks like Active Scott will get the last laugh on this one.

Later that day, mom and I went to see "Crash", which is about the racism that exists in Los Angeles today. I found it to be very honest, no Hollywood bullshit, which is what I liked about it. It portrayed the ugliness of human behavior, which is what it promised and delievered.

That night I joined Carly, Lisa, Maxine, and Mike for a show at Pearl Street in Northampton. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were playing, which according to my friends were really good. However, I must say I got more amusement out of their opening band, Apollo Sunshine, who's lead singer, during one song, played his keyboard with his forehead. While it was nothing masterful, the dragging of his head up and down the piano was a sight to see. Following that song, he took a ukalele, or however it's spelled (it's a really small guitar) and played that while singing. Bravo! Before leaving the stage, the band was nice enough to invite everyone in the audience to their house in Leverett for an afterparty. Leverett? Where the fuck it that? It didn't matter, if it's Western Mass. and not near Springfield, it's got to be in the middle of nowehere. SO... we went to Herell's to get ice cream. I indluged and got a sundae with mudpie ice cream and extra hot fudge (since Herell's hot fudge is SO FUCKING GOOD). And while eating the ice cream, we decided to embrace our inner P, and go to the party in Leverett. And off we were, at night, going to a place we've never heard of, armed with directions scribbled on a piece of paper. To no one's suprise, within 10 minutes we were driving through fields and forrests with literally no sight of civilization, not even a streetlamp. But we somehow managed not to get lost, and while going down a dirt road we spotted a random house with christmas lights, and sure enough, it was the party. We knew no one there, but we still managed to strike up conversations with drunk people and a couple freightened New Hampshire high school students. They had a keg, which did not entice me, so I made my way to to fridge, and to my pleasant surprise, I found a few dozen jello shots. Joy! After consuming 3- 2 cherry and 1 watermelon and all strong -I was feeling pretty good, but we were ready to go and see Andrew, who had flown in from GW earlier that day and was too tired to go to a concert. Lisa, our DD, took us back to civilization, then to the Meadow. Just like during Spring Break, we went down to Andrew's basement, placed ourselves on this couch and adjacent chairs, and talked until we felt ready to go home.

On Sunday, while enjoying a kick-ass pancake breakfast, mom and I saw an ad for a blowout sale at JC Penny, and since I needed to beef up my business wardrobe for my internship at the Sheraton, we decided to go. Thank goodness we did- dress shirts priced at 35 went for 13, ties priced at 25 went for 6.75, and- best of all -I found a suit priced at 375 that rang up as 101! Yay for blowout sales: you turned what could have been a volcanic eruption of cash from my wallet into a little belch, like what Mt. St. Helens did back in October. 

That night, I joined up with my friends, once again. After watching Family Guy, we decided to embrace our inner P again and go driving- but without a destination. Mike came up with brilliant idea of when we get to an intersection, someone yells out a direction and we take it. Soon enough we were in Hampden, but not before stopping at Dunkin Donuts in East Longmeadow (mmm... french vanilla iced coffee and boston creme donut). After finding ourselves, once again, in the middle of nowhere, we somehow managed to get ourselves back to civilization, in the form of Sumner Ave in Springfield. It was about this time when Maxine decided we go see the Plantation Owner statue at the entrance/exit to the Mass Pike (the man who greets me when I come home and wishes me farewell when I return to Boston). We arrived, we trespassed, we took pictures, we left... only to do the same thing at the Death Star, aka, the Basketball Hall of Fame. Andrew decided to kick it up a notch and peed on a show-car just outside the building. And to finish our tour of illegal spontaneous Sunday night adventures, we went to the Quadrange, where the Dr. Seuss statues are, and were going to trespass, but they locked up the gates, so we had to retreat back to Carly's.

On Monday we met up again for brunch, Sex and the City style, except not in New York, not with all female sexaholics, and 7 of us (me, carly, mike, tina, lisa, andrew, maxine) instead of 4. But still- it was Coughlin's, the place to do brunch. And, lucky for us, they had enough open tables to accomodate us right away. So while chowing down on our eggs, pancakes, sausages, and toast, we savored our last moments with Andrew, as he was leaving later that day for his summer plans in Washington DC. Following brunch, I returned home to help do some house cleaning with my mom, until I passed out from all the brunch food. Later that night, Mom and I settled down to watch The Shawshank Redepmtion, one of my favorite movies that I haven't seen in probably 6 or 7 years. But watching it again made me remember why it's one of my favorites.

On Tuesday, being that it was lovely outside, mom and I decided to go for a walk along the bike path in Amherst. It was a nice, peaceful, relaxing time, perhaps the most vacation-esque of my time off. We then went for lunch at a Moroccan place in Northampton, where I saw a flyer for a free screening of Tying the Knot, a documentary on the fight for same-sex marriage rights (conveniently on the 1-year anniversary of same-sex marriages becoming legal in Massachusetts). I've had a strong desire to see this film, not so much for myself, but I think it would be a great addition to the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival I'm planning in October. So I gathered Lisa, Carly, Maxine, and Mike and brought them up with me that evening to see it, then, of course, went to Herell's for ice cream after, but not before I got some quesidillas at Cha Cha Cha. To finish off the night, we watched another one of my favorite films, Anchorman, which Maxine owned, fortunately.

On Wednesday, I ran a few errands, which included getting another suit, then went with mom to visit Julia in her new house in Westfield. While the dinner mom cooked- lasagna, garlic bread, salad -was delicious, Julia and JR were horrible hosts; they arranged for their security system guy to be there at the exact same time we were, as in they didn't bother to reschedule so we could have a family dinner, and they basically spent the entire time talking with him instead of having dinner with us. Then, JR left for band practice. He literally did not even sit down to enjoy the meal that my mom spent the afternoon preparing for him. We finished off with a tour of the house, which is cute but they clearly haven't settled in yet- boxes everywhere, all rooms are a mess, and they're redoing the floors. Anyway, I got back just in time to see Vonzell go from American Idol. Though I expected it, it still hurt a little to see my favorite leave the competition. What I liked most about her was that she got better through the competition. In the beginning I wasn't impressed, but after "I Have Nothing" I started to notice her, and week after week she just kept outdoing herself. That, to me, is star quality, whether you win something like Idol or not.

On Thursday I spent the day doing various errands, then watched the season finale of The OC with who else... Maxine, my companion on the trip to the set of the show. After seeing the set in person, the show has some sort of heightened significance to me. It's not just a television show, it's now part of something I experienced this past year. Being flown out to LA and seeing everything that we saw, best of all the set and meeting Peter Gallagher (Sandy Cohen) and Alan Dale (Caleb Nichol, who's now dead), was really something I'll remember for a long time. And Maxine was there with me experiencing it all too. So it was only appropriate that we shared the season finale. Needless to say, the season finale was incredible. The funeral scene was emotional enough, but what really hit home was when Kristen went to the alcohol rehab center. That was perhaps one of the only moments on the show that was real for me, because I could actually relate to it. I didn't write this in my journal then, but during the winter break it became evident to me and my family that my mom had developed an addiction to perscription drugs, namely ambien (sleep) and adivan (anti-anxiety). She went through a 3-month bottle in less than 1 week. She had had a history with them, but it was never as bad as it was when I was home during the winter break. We had to face the painful decision to put her in a rehab facility. Julia and I had to convince her she needed help, and after my mom gave in, we brought her to a place in Brattleboro, Vermont where she spent about 10 days detoxing and getting rid of her addiction. So when I saw the Cohens doing the same for Kirsten, it reminded me of how hard it is for a family to go through such a situation. Then it went back to being ridculously fake but entertaining drama, when the show ended with Marissa shooting Trey through the chest. LOVE THAT SHOW! After The OC was done, we invited Carly and Lisa over to hang out, and we played a fierce game of hearts. I came in second.

On Friday, my mom dragged me to Star Wars. Thanks to Hayden Christenson, I didn't need a lot of dragging, though. I'm not a big fan of the Star Wars franchise, and this movie didn't change my mind. But I must say, I loved the shirtless scene. We then cooked our last dinner together-a fantastic salmon dish with cajun spices-before I went out for the night. Emma had finally arrived, so of course my friends and I had to get together for that. What was supposed to be a big shindig turned out to be a lot like the night before, this time with Emma and Tina. We played Pit, finally, and then more hearts. I came in second again. And then we wrapped the night up with rummy. And, once again, I came in second. But it didn't matter what we did to me, we were with Emma, and that's all that counts.

On Saturday, my last real day in Western Mass until god-knows-when, I spent the day running around the house doing laundry and packing up the relatively few belongings I took home while doing some final errands around town. We then all met up for one last hurrah before I left. This time it was the traditional four- Carly, Lisa, Maxine, and myself, -but also with Julia and Emma for dinner at DeNardo's pizza place. Immediately following, we did galactic bowling at Shaker Bowl, which Tina, Naomi, and Jesse joined us for. While I won a couple rounds, I didn't break 100 once! Since galactic bowling is unlimited, by our fifth round we were just like "fuck it" and did whatever the hell we wanted.

So on Sunday morning, mom and I shared breakfast before packing up the Pathfinder and heading out to Worcester, where we met my dad. After transferring my belongings and saying by to mom, dad and I headed for Boston. Since it was commencement at BU and just about every other school around, and a red sox game in the afternoon, we picked the wrong time to be in the city. It was a total zoo, and absolutely no parking. So we double-parked outside my brownstone and quickly brought all my stuff out to the car. Andrew left several of his things because he was probably too lazy to ship, pack, or store them. So I put them away in my old closet to keep the room looking clean, and it was in good shape when I left it. Then we drove up to New Hampshire, where I am now.

So that marks the beginning of my "vacation." We'll see how it goes from here...

With love,

On-"vacation" Bitch