bonnarooooooo 

arrrr matey.....

i thought that i was born to live in the water....but today i was proven WRONG.

a swimmer at the age of 6 months? check. a participant in swim races? check. constant earaches from swimming as a kid? check. river guide? check. water skiier? check. hut tub lover? double check. ohhh...but cruise ship captain? not so much....

well, i wasn't actually the captain of the cruise ship, but honestly i should have been! it never occurred to me that i would be getting sick on the "booze cruise" from sea sickness. too much to drink, sure, but not sea sickness! and while i never got physically sick, i did feel like puking the whole time i was on the boat.

let me back up here....my friends and i signed up to go on this grad school "booze cruise". something that i would never sign up for alone, but they wanted to go and i said, hey, why not? the company of my friends was great, but the rest of the 650+ stupid BC grad students was unpleasant to say the least. that's not fair, some of them were cool. then again i didn't even start talking to them, as i passed by conversations that included "well, when I went to harvard"...and "no way, he was eating her out!" yuck. not my kind of people. but people watching was in full effect, and the cheesy-ass d.j. kept the bad songs rolling so i could get the full view of bump-age and grind-age on the dance floor. now THAT was worth the $25!

and while i looked forward to the post party downtown, i decided to catch the last train home. a party pooper, i know, but this poor girl's stomach is seriously hurting. it's in the genes, i know since my dad always gets seasick. i could've saved myself the $25 with a little more thought...but then i wouldn't have gotten to see everything i saw!

"until the city and the country ain't divided....until then"

last night i went to my first live music show since i've been back in beantown. i've been craving live music, (since i got so much of it this summer), and i'm taking advantage of the fact that there are so many great bands and artists coming through boston. the guy's name is citizen cope, and he's fuckin' amazing. i can't even describe his music, but he's just great. check him out! the place was packed and there weren't too many anooying BC/BU students there. actually, it was a chill crowd which was nice. although i do have to admit that i *may* have had too much to drink, and towards the end of the night, i was chatting at a very high volume (hey, the music stopped and i didn't adjust my voice level!) whatever...it was a great night. makes me wish that i had a musical gift of some sort. well, i've always got my rythym, that's for sure!

tomorrow night i've signed myself up for a BC grad school booze cruise...what have i gotten myself into? yeah, trying to mingle with law and MBA students? that's gonna be great. i can't wait. no really, i can't (damn, sarcasm is hard to portray in blogs!) anyway, i know that my friends and i will be the plastered ones in the corner, making fun of the aforementioned students. heaven help me if i ever become one of them! (no offense to anyone out there fitting that description....it's just not me). but hey, i'm a team player, and my friends really wanted to network (aka get some law school ass) so i'm supporting their decision and going. plus, i have to show off my fulton fashionista self (as jenneth cole calls it). an occasion to get dressed up and drink is one i'm always down for.

this song has no title...just words and a tune

i don't really know how to feel about today....

i was talking with my mom on my way to target. she shocked me with the news that a student from my old high school (a 16 yr old guy who was there when i was doing my americorps service) had committed suicide. obviously, the news took me by surprise. but not until after talking with my good friend (the principal at the high school) did i realize just how hard it would hit me. i mean, 16 years old and feeling like that is the only way out? uhhhh, it just makes my heart hurt....for him, for his family....for the other students...for the small town to lose a youth....

i guess the "silver" lining in this story (which is played out among small communties across this nation) is the way tragedies bond people. boundaries and personal barriers that once stood on the way are broken down with support - whether it's a phone call, or a hot meal.....it made me think of the hurricane, and how we are bombarded with images from katrina...and how through the devastation there is also a silver lining (a national one, at that).

the social worker in me tells me to always look for the silver lining, no matter how small it may seem. i can only hope that the students, the family, the community, can look for the lining as well.....

a night of random adventures

so things got a little bit crazy last night.....

my friend megan called me in the afternoon to let me know that our friend had VIP tickets to the free Cake show downtown. never one to pass up a free show, i decided to head down there and see what it was all about. we all met up amidst the chaos of screaming 13-17 year olds and couldn't find the way into the VIP section. we gave up, yes, but we were now on another mission: to drink as much as possible that evening. it doesn't sound healthy, i know, but we were all "celebrating" the survival of the first week of school. and you know me, never one to pass up on drinking beers with good folks!

after we had 2 drinks at this shee shee place downtown, we headed up to beacon hill to get some pizza and beer. the random plan of the moment had turned into feeding ourselves, and drinking. so we got some pizza, some beer, and headed over to the boston common (the park) to eat and drink said pizza and beer. only we didn't drink the beer....we shotgunned them under a big dark willow tree with little mallard ducks everywhere trying to eat our pizza. it was quite hilarious, considering 2 of the girls had difficulty shotgunning the beers and it spilled all over them. imagine us 4 girls, emerging from under the willow tree, with beer all over our shirts, pizza in our hands, and ducks at our feet. it was CLASSIC.

onward now to clery's, some pub in the south end that i had heard a lot about. i immediately felt out of place because i wasn't showing enough cleavage (guess i didn't get the memo....) oh well, we danced until 1 then headed down to southie for one more beer. like i really needed it.

those familiar with the movie "good will hunting" know that southie is where the characters come from. and since i've moved to boston, i've been wanting to go to the L street tavern, which was in the movie. since i was crashing at megan's place (she lives in southie), we decided to have just one more at the tavern. now i have to admit, that part of the night was a little blurry, but it didn't look too much like it did in the movie. i mean, the outside looks the same, but not the inside. oh well, it was worth it.....

a night of random adventures....always a good time!

new friends...

you know what one of the coolest things in the world is?? meeting new friends. yeah, and though i don't like to admit it, i am judgemental. for example, if i see a girl wearing pearl earrings, a ralph lauren polo shirt with the collar popped, 7 jeans, carrying a louis vuitton purse, OF COURSE i'm going to make fun of her. and probably not want to talk to her other than ask where the closest H&M is. i'm sorry, it's a character flaw in me, but at least i admit it! so anyway, in a town that's full of the aforementioned population of females, it's SO great to meet others like me. and that's like finding a needle in a haystack, considering my hippy/socialist self.

this has all become apparent to me after drinking beers with a friend tonight. see, she had met 2 really cool girls on her recent social work trip to africa, and was like "i can't believe you guys don't know shannon....you would totally get along!" i had my doubts, i have to admit, and was pretty much betting on them being the coach purse carrying type. but to my surprise, they were COOL. and that's awesome, considering the fact that i haven't found too many cool people in boston. i mean, it's a great town and all, but it's too consumed with pretentious bullshit. and come on, that's just not me!

so anyway we all spent the evening envisioning a perfect world (as all social workers do)....questioning the powers that be and vowing to motivate our fellow BC students to end their complacency to the "man". it's a large feat, i know, but i'm optomistic.....

isn't it great to find needles in the haystack???

it's a bad thing that my new apartment has a tv....

i've been watching the coverage of hurricane katrina, for what seems like hours. and getting frustrated....very frustrated! if this would have happened in manhattan, would the reaction be the same? Or some shee shee east coast city? or even somewhere on the west coast? i can't help but think that relief would have come faster. our response to feed/clothe/shelter victims in foreign countries is faster than this. and we're the richest, most "powerful" (i.e. greedy) nation in the world. what the fuck???

....and i digress.....

jenny went with me yesterday to harvard square to get my latest tattoo. and i LOVE it. i sat there for an hour and a half getting inked, and jenny watched (actually, cringed) the entire time. i told her that her stay in boston wouldn't be complete without me getting the tattoo i've been talking about all year long. closure....that's what i like to think of it as!

finishing off this chapter in my life here in boston is getting off to a great start. it's hard to believe that i moved here a year ago. all of the new students are walking around aimlessly....while i stare at them, smile, and think "i was pretty much lost like them around this time last year". red sox games to watch, new bars to find, adventures to be had....