Everyone Loves a Boston Girl

Today:

-I was informed that our water would be shut off for a majority of the day. No biggie, I was planning on being out of my apartment for the entire day anyway. So I made sure to get in the shower 1/2 an hour before the water was going to be shut off. I was “planning accordingly” like the flyer stuck on our door told us to do. The water was shut off less than 5 minutes after I got into the shower. 25 minutes ahead of time. With my hair fully lathered with shampoo. Oh yes, that was a fun way to start the day.

-I saw two adults on the T reading The Giver. At the same time, sitting across from each other. But they weren’t together and got on the T at different stops. Did I miss something about The Giver becoming the book to read? I read the book in 7th grade and remember it being quite good, but thought it was strange to see two adults reading it at the same time across from each other on the T.

-Class was cut short when we convinced my teacher to let us continue our discussions at the bar while watching the Sox game. It worked out well. Except I destroyed my “I’ve been at Emerson for 2.5 years and haven’t once been to the Tam” thing I had going. Umm can’t say I feel I’ve been missing out on much by avoiding the Tam. I’d even go so far as to say the Beacon Hill Pub is about 5 steps above it. That’s bad, my friends. I especially didn’t like that you have to ask the bartender to let you into the bathroom. I washed my hands several times when I got home (yay, water being turned back on!). By the way, if tonight is any indication of how the World Series is going to be, then helll yeah, bring it on. The Sox rocked it.

-A classmate told me about these 2 websites that are probably going to destroy my life. So now I’m telling you about them in hopes that you will join me in some self-destruction. These sites are seriously amazing, ane will most likely prove to eat up a lot of my time. The first is called We Feel Fine and it’s basically a system that searches blogs looking for the phrase “I feel” or “I am feeling.” It records the whole sentence and stores it in a database. You can go on the site and spend pretty much all day looking at what people are feeling (sad, happy, excited, etc.). It organizes them in lots of cool ways, like by age, city, etc. So, you can see what people are feeling in Boston today. Or Baghdad. It also tells you the happiest cities, saddest cities, and so on. It’s hard to explain but go check it out. If you can stand to lose a few days of your life. And who can’t really.

A few of my fave feelings today:

I feel loved and wanted, maybe I will stay around.

I just feel so extremely grateful to be living in this world.

I do like Kevin Millar a ton no matter how I feel about his weird wannabe act he’s got going on right now.

The other site, called Lovelines is equally as cool and basically goes through people’s blogs looking for sentences that start with “I love,” “I hate,” and anything in between ( I like, I want, I don’t like). It’s a simple as that but it’s sooo addicting. Kind of like Postsecret, but better because it’s taking these sentences totally away from their context. You can also click on the sentences and go to the person’s blog, which is also bad for me because I have enough blogs to read as it is. It’s fun to read one, think it means something, and then read the person’s blog to realize they were talking about something totally different. The only thing I don’t like is that Lovelines takes out the punctuation.

Some of my faves from Lovelines:

I love these people, and I love how we’re all in the same boat– in or just out of college or university, completely floundering at life at the moment, and just keen on getting to payday, any payday, just as long as there is a payday. – from Toronto, Canada

I love pretty shoes, but don’t get a chance to wear them as often as I’d like.

i love this feeling, where your heart feels so full and all you want to do is sing and dance – 20 year old girl in Bogota Colombia

I love, to get intimate with peoples minds, learn their true self, their hopes and fears. – 19 year old girl in Gainsville FL

I love the man, but seriously, wtf?

I hate that he won’t say anything when I’m standing there crying my heart out. – 24 year old in MA

I hate this, I don’t want to have a baby at 18 – 18 year old female

I hate my face – from a man

Both of these sites were created by Jonathan Harria and Sep Kamvar, so you can thank them for making you wonder where your entire day went. Not me. I will not be held responsible.

Why was I not aware that Ryan Adams had a new CD coming out today? I was seriously just thinking about him and how much I’ve grown to love Easy Tiger when I saw his name under “new releases” at the iTunes store. Huh?! Granted it’s only a 7-song album, I obviously got it and it’s amazing. It’s called Follow the Lights and is with the Cardinals, with whom he makes some of my favorite music. He’s allegedly coming out with a box-set later this year too; which means soon since it’s almost November. That man makes music like nobody’s business.

This makes an otherwise annoying day completely fabulous. It doesn’t really take much to make me happy, does it? Lately I’ve found that the smallest things make me down to the bone, incredibly happy. That kind of happy that makes you cry. The most innocent song. The simplest quote. A night out with my friends. A meal I cooked myself. A card from my mom, which not only held a beautiful Hallmark message but in which she also wrote “You are the gift of a lifetime.” My life in general.

I’m really busy with school and freelance work right now, but it’s a happy, I love my life type of busy. For class, I’m writing Boston magazine style articles, which at first annoyed me because it’s an editing class and I signed up to edit, not write. But now I’m realizing how much I love this stuff and that I em equally happy writing and editing, totally depending on my mood. Sometimes I can’t believe that I am able to make a career out of the things that I would be doing even if I was paid nothing. A “real” job would be nice (as opposed to my work at home freelancing), but I’m not settling until I find something I absolutely love. I made myself that promise when I left my last job, and I’m sticking to it.

Sorry I’m sickingly happy lately. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But I kinda hope it lasts.

“To tell the truth, it’s hard enough without a lover who you only want to hide your darkness from, so you don’t let them down.” Ryan Adams

Yesterday I went to the South End. I am a completely pathetic Bostonian due to the fact that I have never been to the South End before, ever. HORRIBLE, I know. I’ve lived in Boston for over 2 years now, and grew up just 20 minutes outside of the city. And it was only a few months ago that I actually figured out that the South End is not the same as South Boston or Southie. Seriously though, could they make this any more confusing? The South End and Southie are 100% nothing alike, at all. And now it is oficially my new goal in life to move to the South End. When I told my mom my new life goal she said, “Great! You might wanna get a job. Or two for that matter!” Point taken. Oh but I will be moving here, I assure you.

Chelsee and I went to the South End because we wanted to check out the Open Market at SoWa. It wasn’t quite as cool as we thought it was going to be (probably because it’s late October), but we still managed to make some purchases and have a good time. I love stuff like this and can’t wait for the holiday market. It was a beautiful day so we walked around for a long time and marveled at our surroundings. We went to Francesca’s for lunch and got sandwiches and ate on a bench while people watching. We really did not feel like we were in Boston though we were sooo close to everything. The streets in the South End are SO flat (unlike anywhere in Boston) and the sidewalks are wide. There was actual diversity! And the people just seemed lovely. And the buildings are beautiful. Shops are fun. And good restaurants are everywhere. Can you tell I’m obsessed? Also, there are not a billion college students everywhere. I love Brookline and Coolidge Corner to death but when it comes time for a change, I’ve found my new home. Now I just need to find some money.

Yesterday was just one of those days that makes me re-discover my love for Boston all over again (I can’t forget that the Sox also won last night). I’m the type of person who is constantly defending the city as much as possible and I generally refuse to speak ill of it, but sometimes some of the people here discourage me and I wonder what it would be like to be somewhere else. So days like yesterday make me happy and help me realize how much I really want to be here and that even if I get sick of my current situation, there are so many more opportunities for me. As small a city as Boston is, I clearly have a lot to learn. And I love that.

I just wanted to take the time to say YAYYYY RED SOX!!!!!!

Soo crazy that we are going back to the World Series and didn’t even have to wait 86 years. The Sox’s comeback was amazing (as usual) and there’s seriously nothing better than seeing them so completely ecstatic after the game. Unless it’s seeing Papelbon’s little Irish jig. Because I could never get tired of seeing that.

I’ve got a busy week this week. But it’s such a good feeling knowing that tomorrow’s going to be a beautiful day and all of Boston is going to be in a great mood. Wish I didn’t have class on Wednesday night, but I’m looking forward to another exciting and action-filled series. Sox are gonna beat the Rox!

In an effort to begin our “try something new every week,” we went to Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge last night. I’ve never been to a jazz club before and I have to say, while it wasn’t quite my crowd of people, it was a lot of fun. I’m not crazy into jazz so I was pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed the music. Legit could not sit still in my seat. There wasn’t a dance floor but some people got up and danced anyway. I wanted to, but didn’t due to the fact that the people dancing were a bit odd, or were pro dancers and would have made me look like a fool.

Anyway, my roommate’s sister is looking to have her wedding reception at Ryles so we went with her to check it out and enjoy a low-key Friday night. I think this place would be a lot of fun if we got a big group of friends to go to. Or it would be a super cute place to have a date. Maybe not a first date though as it can get pretty loud. But it seriously made me want to listen to more jazz. I think a lot of people have the misconception that jazz is slow, boring, Sunday morning type music. I figured out this wasn’t true after seeing Dave Brubeck in Chautauqua a while back, who was amazing. But I still never really think about listening to it often. I love that everyone in the band seemed to be having so much fun. The saxophone player was amazing. And every song with lyrics was about drinking/getting drunk. Gotta love it.

Game six tonight…let’s hope Schilling can pull it off! I have a lot of homework this weekend; tons of writing and editing, but luckily it’s all stuff I enjoy and am obsessed with doing. And I’m obviously squeezing in some quality Sox time. I’m in the middle of reading a million books right now but I just got Eat, Pray, Love and I can’t wait to start it.