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October 15, 2000
Long happy weekend
I'm fighting sleepiness of here. I think it's a losing battle -- it's a result of a good weekend though, so it's okay. Joanne and Louise visited from Nova Scotia, and we had a sort of mini-JournalCon II. I met them in Kendall Square Friday night (approaching the bench they were sitting on warily, thinking "Is that them? It looks like they're waiting... but they're looking at me funny... maybe it's not them, and they think I'm some weirdo coming to accost them...") until Joanne stood up and smiled and there were introductions all around. I liked both of them very much, instantly -- I had expected I would, but I'm generally not good at meeting people. I get all shy and awkward -- not so with them, since they're both so friendly and personable it's impossible to feel ill at ease. We dropped off their bags, and headed off to find the costume shop near Chinatown where my Halloween costume was waiting to be picked up. (I hate Halloween. Have I mentioned that? I loathe dressing up. But I promised to go to a costume party. Feh.)
I managed to get us onto the wrong train heading home -- I live here, and still get turned around on the subway. Hello, I am a dimwit. But we'd been talking away -- about eye injuries, I think -- and I led us down the wrong stairway. Easily fixed. Once home, we talked more until we were fainting from hunger, so we headed out to order a huge amount of Chinese takeout. Stayed up too late talking -- about all sorts of things, hopping from subject to subject, until my throat was getting sore. They're both way too much fun to talk to, I'm telling you.
Saturday morning (late, as I slept later than anyone else) we headed into Boston to hit the observatory in the Hancock Tower and then to meet Caiomhe and Columbine in Goverment Center. Columbine brought his fiance, and Caiohme brought friends (whose names I'm not sure of, because I am terrible at remembering things like that), so our little group swelled to eight. I had gotten cheap passes to the Aquarium from work, so we went and cooed over the little blue penguins (I was plotting to sneak one home -- it would have fit nicely in my bag, and could have lived in my bathtub!) and looked at all the fish, and saw the sea lion show and the otters and seals. I like the Aquarium a lot, and it's always fun to go with people who haven't seen it before. They're always adding to it, so I never get tired of going.
Once we had seen all the fishies, we went looking for food, and ended up in The Black Rose, an Irish pub (which was filled with people wearing name tags and cheering a lot -- from the air of desperate flirtation, I'd say it was a singles group, eek!) It was nice getting a chance to talk to Caiohme and Columbine, since I hadn't had much time to at JournalCon. Caiohme and I kept slipping off to the bar to smoke and chat -- she's as cute as a button, and I'm very sad that she lives so far away.
Columbine and Debbie had to leave for a birthday party, so the rets of us said goodbye and went off in search of an open music store. We ended up on Newbury Street at Tower Records, where I caved in and bought the new Radiohead CD. I was trying to hold out for Christmas, but I kept hearing such good things about it that I just couldn't wait. Caiohme's friends didn't find what they wanted, though, so it wasn't a totally successful trip. Got some coffee across the street, and then it was time for Caiohme and hers to head off for the bus station. Joanne and Louise and I went home, where my roommate was having a small dinner party -- she's been apple-picking earlier, and had had some friends over to bake apple pies. One of the friends -- I didn't actually meet any of them -- had a terribly precocious and adorable three-year-old boy, who greeted us each at the door with "Who are you?" He immediately decided that we were his new best friends (though Louise was most certainly his favorite) and began an elaborate game of make-believe, with us as the central characters. We were apparently all on a spaceship, flying around and meeting "nice monsters." (There were red ones, and blue ones, and purple ones with antlers! And he was a giant pickle, Joanne was an alien robot in the shape of a triangle, and Louise and I were just your average green aliens.) He was very entertaining to listen to -- not only was he keeping his storylines straight (good thing he could, because I was lost), but he was just really sharp verbally. At one point, he sneezed, and said very earnestly "I have a terrible cold." (Hee! Cute!) Later, when his mother was trying to get him into the kitchen to eat, he told us very seriously "I'll be back shortly. Keep the ship going." When Beth passed through the living room on her way to the bathroom, he told her "I'm playing with these girls. Could you please go away?" My eyes were watering from trying not to laugh at that point -- he was so sharp, he would have noticed I was giggling at him. As cute as he was, I bet he's a handful at home -- though he's going to be brilliant when he grows up.
The three of us stayed up too late talking again (about silly porno movies and telemarketing, among other things) and finally staggered off to bed at around 2 a.m. By the time I woke up and got my lazy self into the shower this morning, there was only time to hit the McDonald's down the street from my house for lunch, and then they had to head for the airport. Beth very nicely offered to drive us there, so we stopped off at her boyfriend's mother's house briefly (there are many kids, and cats, and bunnies, and birds of all sorts there. We took pictures of them all for some reason.) Now I'm wishing Nova Scotia was closer to Boston, because I'd love to spend more time with them both.
I spent the evening in the laundromat, listening to Kid A on my Diskman. It's a fantastic album, though a bit depressing. I tried to read while listening, but just couldn't -- the music kept making me close my eyes, lean back, and just let it absorb me. I hardly even registered the rather ugly fight going on between the woman who runs the laundromat and a very obnoxious man, until the police showed up to escort him out. (Apparently, he'd started taking someone's clothes out of a washing machine that was still running, even though there were lots of other washers available. She asked him to stop, and he called her rude names, so she told him to leave. He refused, she took his bag of laundry and put it outside, and the fight was on -- just shouting on his part, and a lot of obscenities, but he was very large, and was making threats, so it was a bit unsettling. The woman who works there is older, but she doesn't put up with crap like that, and held her own. When the police came, I offered to give a statement about the threats he'd been making, but they said it wasn't necessary.) Now I'm home, feeling very tired, but happy, and wishing the weekend wasn't over. (And no, I haven't heard back from Eric yet. Damn, but I wish I could get that letter back...)
Posted by Mary Ellen at October 15, 2000 05:03 PM