Comin' Home Baby

Sorry about the lack of substantial updates--holidays are, as I'm sure all of you know, quite nuts. I was in Cincinnati from the 23rd to the 30th and it was marvelous. I will always have a soft spot for the Queen City. Spent lots of time with my family, hob-knobbed with the Fridman's (our neighbors), saw many movies, and journeyed to Cleveland to spend some time with Kari (Nate was not able to be there, and my thoughts go out to you, Nate). While I was with Kari, my family went to the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame where my mom spent most of her time in The Beatles section, everyone got to see Madonna's booby cones from her "Like A Virgin" tour, and my mom bought both Help and Hard Day's Night. She assures me neither are good movies, per se, but they're about The Beatles so who cares? I said that's how I feel about the Spice Girls and Spice World. She made a face at that.

My journey home on Sunday turned into an epic race against time. My flight from Columbus to Portsmouth was delayed over an hour, I missed the 10pm bus back to Boston because I had to wait for my checked bag, and the 11pm bus didn't pull into South Station until around 12:15am. I started panicking during the flight because I thought I absolutely had to be back in Boston before midnight so I wouldn't miss the last trains (which stop running around 12:15am). In a very sweet move, Yuval offered to come pick me up at South Station and drive me home but I told him it would be far too late at night for anyone to think of driving around Boston doing such a thing (especially since he lives up by Porter Square, which means he couldn't be further away from my apartment). Thankfully my parents told me they'd pay for me to take a taxi home from South Station, so by the end I was just tired instead of tired + stressed. Whew.

New Year's Eve day was spent sleeping, mostly, and bumming around the apartment. I bought some things at CVS. Nightfall saw me heading to Boston Common to meet up with Yuval so we could wander around First Night, look at the ice sculptures, eat fried dough, and watch the fireworks (which were set off perilously close the ground, I thought). We then walked a long way in an effort to find a restaurant and just ended up taking the train to Porter Square and eating at Uno Pizzaria. He offered to drive me to my first party of the night, so we walked to his house (which I got a tour of), scraped the ice off the car, and between the two of us and a map we found the way to Margaret's un-friend's party in East Cambridge. I met up with said lady as well as Adrienne and Sophie, had a (requested) weak screwdriver, ate some brownie, and then realized I had to dash after 45 minutes if I was going to make it to my second party by midnight. After wandering around lost on the MIT campus for 15 minutes, I finally found my way to the subway and took the train to Davis Square. I arrived at 11:45, just in time to grab both a glass of white zinfandel and a glass of Barefoot Bubbly and toast the new year whilst watching the robot I'm convinced has replaced Dick Clark. It was a small get together (six of us at the peak), but it was a fun party nonetheless. After leaving Times Square behind we watched two episodes of MythBusters and one episode of Weapons Master because we're all dorks like that. I ended up spending the night on Kat and Garrett's comfy couch as I missed the last train home (a fact my contacts/eyes were not happy about). But we grabbed breakfast at an old-fashioned diner called The Rosebud in Davis Square--where we were served by the sweetest old waitress of all time--so all was good in the end.

Last night my sister arrived for her first ever visit to Boston. In order to prepare for her coming I scrubbed the apartment end to end with all manner of Swiffer products, a broom, Clorox wipes, Windex, and bathroom cleaner. The place has never looked shinier! I picked her up from the airport at 7:20, guided her through the epic T journey home, helped her settle in a bit, and then took for a walk around Coolidge Corner. We ate at Mr. Sushi, which, despite its name, is actually a rather classy establishment with yummy cuisine. Came home, watched some Scrubs (Season Six), and collapsed into my bed around 11:30. What a couple of days!

Continuing Adrienne's wonderful idea...

New Year's Resolutions
1) Read at least one book for pleasure a month (essentially keep up what I've been doing).
2) Write something/anything new at least once a month.
3) Apply to (and complete) BU's graduate certificate program in Fundraising Management.
4) Keep auditioning.

Short but manageable, I think. Actually the one that's going to be the most difficult is the second one. I constantly have new ideas for stories, characters, and novels, but the moment I sit down and face that blank page my fingers freeze and none of the words/sentences I think of seem right. Perhaps I should read Bird By Bird again to get something to fight the fear with?

Read
The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin*
Across The Wall by Garth Nix
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson
Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Seen
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Charlie Wilson's War
I Am Legend
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0 (mostly)
Meet The Robinsons
Peter Pan [Disney]

p.s. I got a new phone and phone plan over the holiday! Still the same number, but now I can receive AND respond to texts. So now there's yet another way to communicate with me, if you're keeping track...

*If anyone else had read this, will you please e-mail me? I completely don't understand what happened in the end and a lot of it was way too philosophical for me to understand. I'd like to discuss. Also, if you haven't read any of the books in Canongate's "Myth" series, you totally should. Especially if you like classical mythology (Jeffrey, I'm looking at you). Basically, they got writers such as Margaret Atwood, Victor Pelevin, Jeanette Winterson, and a host of other internationally known folks to pick a Greek myth and rewrite it somehow. Very interesting and well worth the time.