as march afternoons in ohio go, it was a stunning friday afternoon. three-thirty sounded like as good a time as any to skip out on work... and so began my vacation.

after some last-minute errands and packing, i arrived at tiffany's. we packed up and headed north for the first leg of our trip. four hours later, we were greeted on arrival by tiff's sister, brother-in-law, and one very hyper pug. after a bit of visiting, we slept off the long day. rested, fed, showered, and packed up again, tiff and i were off to boston via a slight detour to niagara falls. for the record: holding the phone out to thousands of gallons of water crashing hundreds of feet towards the earth, only sounds like white noise to anyone on the other end of the line. also for the record: you don't seem to need a passport or birth certificate to cross the border at niagara; so just skip the american side photo opportunities and US$10 parking, and head on over to a more expansive view and cheaper parking. and bring a raincoat.

[addendum: it turns out that i am happier with the photos from the american side than i am with the canadian side. there is more depth and less wet mistiness (these photos could have been taken pretty much anywhere, no?). HOWEVER, the actual view, in person, is still more impressive from ontario. this is all just fyi... because i'm sure you all care.]

we made our way back to i-90 and continued eastward, slowly leaving the flatlands and entering more scenic territory. it is somewhere in this stretch -- possibly around schenectady[!] -- that i rediscovered the fun of the "slurpy sloth" voice. if you've seen the movie ice age, you should know what i'm talking about. if you haven't, then what the heck? go rent it, eh? nearing 10pm, we arrive, finally, in boston. after following a series of "slight rights" and "slight lefts" in which street names reinvent themselves for no particular reason [note to rachel: think murfreesboro], we find our friend's apartment building and snag "close" parking [note to locals: if i parked at mcdonald's, this would approximate "close" parking to my apartment]. the three of us cart our things up to naomi's GIGANTIC apartment, visit for a bit, and then crash out in our respective rooms.

sunday morning naomi introduces us to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway -- otherwise known simply as, "the T". we take the orange line to our stop and quickly discover that boston is most certainly a walking city. [not to worry, we are reminded of this daily throughout our week.] after church we connect with rachel [yay!], and it's off to a local pub, where rachel's friend theis meets us as well. i conspicuously request a burger and fries among the sea of breakfast orders, and during the course of conversation it is pointed out that i am the catalyst/connection for most of the relationships at the table. this is surprising to me; not only because i didn't realize it before, but because i don't usually find myself in such a position. also of note: naomi's meal comes with a mysterious british pudding, which looks thoroughly disgusting.

en route to the st. patrick's day parade in south boston [how apropos], we stop at a shoe store, where tiff forsakes her lovely but unsuitable boots and buys a pair of kickass, bright orange athletic shoes... oh, yeah. as we near the parade route, we are accosted by every shade of green, on every kind of fabric, accessory, or toy you might ever imagine. the party atmosphere in southie is fun and relaxed. and involves lots of open containers. we settle in for the miscellany of bands, politicians, military and veteran regiments, along with some other more surprising groups, including but not limited to: a women's tackle football team, a guinness bus, someone in a cock-eyed chicken costume, buddy blood-drop, and a certain festive truck with more than one unhappy child in tow. all in all, a very festive and charming welcome to this city.

after a bit of misdirection, the five of us find the T and rest our weary feet. cameras are pulled and picture taking abounds, and i am taken by the juxtaposition of familiarity and anonymity on this particular subway journey.

...

until i get both some sleep and my pictures back, i'm at a loss for the rest the evening's events. i'm only on sunday?! this might be a longer documentation than i thought.

also, if you were a party to any of these recollections and i missed something, please feel free to add details...

i think there are [and will continue to be, from the looks of things] many unhappy searchers out there, disappointed to find out that "real sex" and "spring break 2005" were not directly related on this website.


someday i hope to do a little bloggity blog on last week's travels...

that would be the miles racked up on my car, to boston and back and all points inbetween.

all in all, an amazingly event-filled yet largely unstructured trip that shall be remembered for years to come. i'm sure glad we went.

time to unpack.

okay, yeah, so i'm not involved in school in any way. but "march vacation 2005" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

tomorrow afternoon begins the long-awaited journey to boston with some very good friends. updateageness will be scarce between the visiting and the exploring and the eating and the sleeping.

have a lovely, lovely week, faithful readers.

caught your attention, eh?

i enjoyed her previous book, girl meets god, in which she recounted her journey from orthodox judaism to christianity. i expect much of the same sharp writing in this presumably frank book [of which there are supposedly nine left at overstock at the time of this entry]. should be an interesting read.

why are we as believers so afraid to talk openly about sex [myself included here]? i DARE you to comment about sex, and/or the lack of dialogue about it in christian circles, on my blog.

*gasp*

decided to rent this tonight. while the movie itself could bring up hours of discussion [or perhaps, twenty-eight days, six hours, forty-two minutes, and twelve seconds worth]: i will not be doing this.

instead, i sit here and reflect that even beyond the bizarreness of the main feature, there is the bizarreness of thirty-plus minutes of footage documenting the movie's rabid fans. that's right, almost forty minutes of my life that i will never get back [barring any time travelling, of course], spent mostly cringing at people hailing this movie as the hugest life-changing event of their existence. yeesh.

the most painful portion was the fifteen minute "documentary" submission by the self-proclaimed "#1 donnie darko fan". that's right, folks, this man filmed himself essentially stalking the cast and crew of the movie, from hollywood to san diego and God knows how many other places that didn't get captured on film, showing just what a stalker fan he is, to win a contest that would land said film onto the dvd release of donnie darko. in my heart of hearts i am hoping that it was done in complete mockery of sci-fi cult fans [in which case, the documentary is hilarious]; however, i'm fairly certain that it was done in complete seriousness [in which case, i fear a world in which people like this really exist].

oh, and the movie was pretty neat i guess.

i'm in a weird mood right now.

i have plenty to do but no motivation for it. i sit amidst an ever-expanding pile of crap surrounding my desk, i have yet-to-be-ironed clothing all over my apartment, i can hear the last load of laundry in the dryer. books to read, cd's to listen to, dvd's to watch.

and all i want to do is sleep.

have you ever felt like you want everything to stay exactly the same, but at the same time wish things were completely different? great apartment, secure job, dependable car, stable finances, close friends. inconsiderate neighbors, annoying work environment, car and student loans, friends far far away.

once in awhile the last one gets me. i try not to think about it; otherwise i go crazy. i guess that's where most of my weirdness is coming from today. it's hard when your closest friend isn't available by domestic minutes, or a road trip, or a flight under $600, for two years. and occasionally that hits me hard.

today would be one of those days.


addendum: not ONE HOUR after i posted this, GUESS WHO CALLS? [note: she does not read my blog, as far as i can tell.] she relayed that she received my package of all-american peanut butter and chocolate chunks on friday JUST as she and her housemate's supply was running out: apparently, a dire situation. as is so often the case, we end up emailing, or sending packages, or calling each other, precisely when it is needed most. truly, the telepathy would be frightening if it wasn't so genuinely amazing.

thank you, God: i don't deserve this sort of attention.

i was going to title this entry "stolen", but community seems more apropos. the following is a comment i posted on a friend's blog. i've been thinking about the topic all day, and i think the comment can stand alone, so i decided to repost it here with minimal modification.


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friendship. i really like friendship. my family doesn't really connect well, emotionally; and so the deepest love i know this side of heaven is that of friends. i really can't express how much i value a true, solid friendship.

i've never been a person interested in getting to know a whole lot of people in any given place. 'if you can't go deep, why bother?' is sort of my attitude. other people have other outlooks, and that is totally cool. but for me, given a small handful -- heck, maybe even only one, or two -- deep, life-giving friendships in any given place, and you will find one content mdog. people that are willing to encourage me and walk with me and call me out when necessary and love me when i don't deserve it... this is where healing is found.

this [small college town] is a bad town to be in, in terms of the likelihood of people leaving my life. i remember saying at one point, "i'm not going to get to know anyone else, because they're just going to leave, anyway!" i said this jokingly, but i mean, seriously: doesn't it feel rational some days? i admit i sometimes decide to not get close to someone because i know they're only here for a defined period of time. i'm still not sure if that's a sign of cowardice, or self-preservation.

i've felt my fair share of abandonment. the end of 2003 and much of 2004 was not what i would call the best time of my life. much of my support system had either moved away or were otherwise unavailable to me. at some point i started getting connected with others again; but i had to make efforts, many of which took me out of my comfort zones. i'm an introvert through and through... but even introverts need community and connection. i know relationships aren't going to be handed to me on a silver platter: after any initial easy connections, they take a certain amount of maintenance and thought to stay healthy. sometimes i feel left out of things. i think we all do. and then sometimes you have to take charge of your life and find or create situations where you can be open and available to people. and it's not always easy. but it's usually good.


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any thoughts on the subject of friendship? unleash.