Boston Bloggahs Happy Hour...Finally!

The Chicago bloggers have done many and always have a blast. Boston seemed to be lacking in bloggers for a while, but as time goes by it looks like there are more and more of us. So Julie Q from The JQ Lounge and I have put together a little get-together for all of us. Yay!

It's taking place on June 14th in Downtown Boston and we promise it will be a good time. If you're interested in coming, and if you're in Boston, you should be, e-mail me (Anderson.SusanM@gmail.com) with your blog URL and I will send you the evite with all the details. Even if you're not an active commenter and think we have no idea who you are, now is a fabulous time to get to know everyone.

And as Julie said, if you're looking to do some traveling, Boston is beautiful this time of year so why not plan a little trip to Boston for June 14th?!

Can't wait to meet everyone!

escape to the cape.

Why have the last couple of days been fabulous? Mainly because I hung out with TKTC and her awesome family on the Cape. Here's the brief synopsis of my Sun-Mon:

• Took the bus from Boston to the Cape. A good experience, except for the fact that the bus driver decided not to stop at the bus stops. When I questioned where the Eastham bus stop was, he said it was wherever I wanted it to be. I told him someone was picking me up at the actual bus stop and he said there was no actual bus stop and dropped me off on the side of the road. Luckily J knew where the Ben and Jerry's was and came to rescue me.


• J and I seriously indulged in clam rolls and onion rings from Arnold's. Amazing. I love beach food and don't eat it too often because it makes it so much more special when you only get it in placed like the Cape, Gloucester, and Ogunquit.


• J's Cape house is absolutely beautiful and her family delightful. They were so so nice to have me for the night and they actually reminded me a lot of my family. From everything to the way the aunts and uncles interact, the cute kids running around, the wine drinking, board game playing, and simply sitting around never running out of stuff to talk about, I could definitely relate. And it made me a bit more excited for my own family reunion vaca. in Chautauqua.


• We went to the beach thinking it was going to be pretty chilly and almost didn't even bother wearing bathing suits. It was the most beautiful day and we ended up laying in the sun in bathing suits for a couple hours. I got lots of sun; a nice way to begin the summer. Me, J, and her cousin went on a nice beach walk and saw a ridiculous amount of horseshoe crabs mating.


• We ate A LOT. And yes, the vanilla rhubarb cake was just plain addicting. I'm pretty sure J got the recipe and it will be coming soon.


• We made a valiant attempt at going out by going to the Beachcomber after dinner and waiting until the bar opened. Then we realized everyone in line had tickets. We found out that Cracker was performing at the bar. We debated paying the $15 to get in but ultimately decided to go home and drink wine. So we did.


• J and I were asked a million questions about blogging, etc. and I'm pretty sure all of her family members will be starting blogs asap.


• We left fairly early today to beat the traffic. Instead of taking the bus back and being dropped on the side of the road, J's fabulous brother drove us back to the city. He and their cousin just happen to live in Boston; more reasons for J to eventually move here. J and I walked from my apartment to Newbury St. stopping for crepes and iced coffee along the way. We met Sas on Newbury St. where we shopped around a bit and sat and chatted with our iced tea. I'm glad the two of them finally got to meet! And then J was off to the airport and back to Chicago.

And now, between all the sun and all the sugar, I'm ready for a really good night's sleep. Tomorrow it's back to the routine, including an extra long gym sesh. And some serious detoxing because the amount of sugar I consumed this weekend is probably illegal in some states. But it was all oh so good and worth it. If any of you are in town, I highly recommend finagling an invite to her Cape house. Unfortunately, I promised her parents I wouldn't advertise their address on my blog. Sorry :)

The lone pic taken on our way out the door this morning.

answers.

Posting has not turned into just a weekly thing, I swear. I know I say it all the time but ahh I've been so busy! And lots of stuff has been going on. Fun stuff, but also stuff that's disheartening even to an eternally cheerful optimist like me.

I think I'm becoming more and more cynical about things like relationships and I'm not really liking that. I used to be all whoo hoo love! But recently I just haven't been into the whole dating deal and find that I'd so much rather hang out with myself or my friends than be in any type of relationship. Clearly I'm not dating the right people to be so incredibly unenthusiastic about the whole thing, but what can you do? And when you see sadness all around you, it makes it difficult to stay positive about the whole thing.

This is totally the season for breakups and it's extremely hard to see horrible stuff happening to everyone all around you, especially people you love. And as much as I've tried to give advice and come up with answers, I've realized that I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know what it's supposed to be like. I don't know what's normal and what's not. I don't know how many chances you give someone. And I don't know when you're supposed to call it quits. I don't have a clue. I know what I've done with my experiences. But I have no idea if I did the right thing or not. I personally think it's a hell of a lot easier to be broken up with than it is to break up with someone. But maybe that's just the horrible indecisiveness in me talking.

You can go through all kind of experiences, but you'll still never have the answers. I don't like not having answers. When people come to me for help or advice, I like knowing exactly what to say. I want to make things better. But I think it's OK not to have the answers all the time. What fun would life be with them? It wouldn't be much fun, but it also wouldn't be so horribly painful. I know everything will work out; it's just a tough road getting there.

updates on life.

Updates for everyone (or just anyone who cares):

Sas has a fun new blog you should check out. It's called ComfortSource and is "Your Guide to Life's Comforts." I'm loving it so far (especially since she already put up pics of my puppy cousins, the ultimate in comfort!).

Thank you all for your fabulous music recommendations! You all had great ideas that are making the gym so much better. I've decided I need a way to listen to my iPod, watch and listen to TV, read, and people watch (my gym is in a busy area with nice big windows!) all at the same time. The more distractions I have, the better. I think I'm basically the only person who belongs to my gym (well, maybe there are 10 of us, but I'm the only one there at 9:30 a.m.), which is lovely because I can basically do whatever I want. And it's all brand new and pretty. I just hope it doesn't shut down due to lack of business.

My sleep schedule is getting better. I'm so proud of myself! I go to bed "early" (OK, anytime before 2:30 a.m. is early for me) and I get up "early" (again, anytime before 8:30 a.m. is early for me). And it works because even if I want to stay up later, I can't because I'm so tired from getting up early. Of course, tonight might get all screwed up since it was free iced coffee day at Dunkin' Donuts and I may have taken a little too much advantage of it. Just a bit wired right now.

Updates especially for my lovely Bostonians:

If you like wine (and who doesn't?) and you're in the Boston area, you should make sure to grab your ticket to come see Gary Vaynerchuk at BU on June 19. Tickets are free and there are only 37 of them left, so you might want to hurry. Gary is awesome. You may know him from his website Wine Library TV, where he talks about wine in a fun, easy to understand way. He also makes other videos on his website and talks about things like the fact that he gets between 500-1,000 e-mails a day and answers all of them! Um yeah, I get between 30-40 e-mails a day and answer like 5 of them. He was on Conan O'Brien and Donny Deutsch within the past few days. He also just came out with a book, 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. I just bought it and am loving it so far!

Obviously, he's no 2guysuncorked, but he's still pretty fabulous and an awesome public speaker. So get your ticket! I'll be there with a couple friends.

Also, I said it at We are not Martha, but I'm saying it again here. Go to BerryLine in Harvard Square. It is seriously the most amazing thing ever. And I will be there lots this summer. It's about 7 miles there and back from my apartment and I walked it all last week. Would do it again and again for this stuff. Of course, I could also take public transportation, but I love walking, especially if I have good company.

I've been working hard on writing Boston guides over at GuideSpot. If you want some cool Boston info. like where to find the best martinis or where the best concert venues are, check out my guides. Even if you're not from Boston, GuideSpot probably has guides for your city too! It's a lovely place to write for.

Oh and also, Bryan Adams is going to be on Regis and Kelly tomorrow morn. Nottt like I'm overly excited about it or anything!!

hangin' tough in my visor.

I'm still slightly confused by the fact that the New Kids on the Block are reuniting and going on tour. I'm back and forth on whether I want to try to get tickets. But I'm leaning towards no, because why would I really want to see them except for nostalgia sake? And even if I tried to get tickets when they go on sale, I'd probably have no luck because I'm sure Ticketmaster doesn't really have any tickets and the scalpers all already have them and will sell them at outrageous prices. However, I'm sure it would be ridiculously fun to see them again. Yes, again. I attended their first tour and it was obviously a huge blast. Then again, I was only 8 year old.

Umm yeah. I unfortunately didn't have any NKOTB gear at the time but I was sure to wear my rainbow Denver visor and my Tweety Bird sunglasses. Also note that the 4 of us had no less then 3 pairs of Fisher Price binoculars between us. So glad to see my sister looking beautiful in white (she's also wearing a Swatch watch). My friend and her brother? I don't really keep in touch with her, but she'd probably kill me for posting this picture online. Her glasses are like whoa. And the girl next to me, her jeans are pretty classic. Then again, everyone in this picture is.

Kinda makes me want to go back an experience it again...this time sans Tweety Bird. Maybe.

treadmills bore me.

I need some help. See, I don't really mind working out. I don't mind the getting out of breath part. Or the being in pain part. Or the feeling like I'm dying part. My problem is that I get horribly bored. While I'm at the gym, I'm constantly thinking about how much time I have left and I just think "Ugh, that's sooo long. Kill me now." Sometimes I try to convince myself I really need to stop because I'm just sooo tired. But I know I really can keep going. I'm just bored.

It's fabulous that all the machines at the gym have televisions. But one can only watch so much Keeping up with the Kardashians and Millionaire Matchmaker before one has seen all the episodes.

The New Yorker is a little too intense for me to fully concentrate on while I'm working out (plus, there are too many words) and US Weekly is too much of a page-turner, which I can't handle when I'm on a machine.

I know. I have issues. But please help me. I need suggestions from you guys for music I should be listening to make me feel a little more motivated at the gym. I have almost 5,000 songs on my iPod, but I get bored easily. I constantly need new stuff to get me excited.

Since I get bored easily, all that typical workout music, I'm probably already bored by. A good beat is not enough. I have to be entertained on all different levels. Lyrics that get me thinking. Something that makes me want to dance. Just not anything I've heard a million times already.

What's keeping me entertained at the gym right now:

• Lots of Snow Patrol. I'm totally down with Snow Patrol because they have the best of everything. An amazingly fantastic sound and lyrics that make me listen closely and think about. And I'm not just talking "Chasing Cars" Snow Patrol. I'm talking, let's go way back and listen to all of their amazingness. Because it's all really, really good stuff. And it makes me NOT bored.
• Bryan Adams because duh, then I can picture him in my head and how adorable he is and that keeps me entertained for a while.
• Stuff that makes me feel like I'm in middle school like Cute is What We Aim For and Boys Like Girls (the lead singer did go to my high school), The Academy Is, etc. because it's fun.
• Lots of Jay-Z because it's perfect.
• Rascal Flatts because they always make me happy.
• Flight of the Conchords because it's funny.
• Seal, Enrique, Camera Obscura, Cooper, Modest Mouse, Minus the Bear, Young Love, The Ruse, and lots more.

What else would you suggest for me to put on my gym playlist?? I have pretty much the biggest range in musical interest ever. I enjoy tons of different kinds so suggest anything and I'll check it out. Bonus points to you if you list artists/songs I can get off emusic.com.

Disclaimer: I'm being somewhat facetious. I really don't have that much of a problem working out. But seriously? It's so much more enjoyable when I'm listening to good music. So please, please, help me.

one night love affair.

Pretty much the best show ever. ever. ever. Bryan Adams is SO incredibly adorable and amazing. In. Love.

Besides Bryan, the best part of the evening was the 38-year-old couple from Chicago who decided to befriend me and Sara. Sara and I had a pitcher of sangria before the show, so when we got there we were taking it easy (especially after the rough Sat. night). So when they asked us if they could buy us drinks, we said no thanks. "Well...if you were going to have a shot, what kind would it be?" Uhhh. Five minutes later, the woman is back with shots. I don't think these people stopped talking to us the entire night. They were crazy insane and kept telling us how they had been drinking since 2 p.m. and handing us more drinks. Everyone around us was like wtf? Sara and I were pretty amused though, so we just went with it. They LOVED us. And they were sure to give us their phone number and e-mail and are insisting we go visit in Chicago. Well, what do you know...looks like all the cool people are in Chicago :)

Definitely the most interesting crowd at a concert ever. Lots of older people, but still some young. The Chicago couple started the convo with us by saying, "you're not really Bryan Adams fans are you?" Ummm, yes! "Name one song he sings!" So we named a whole bunch and they were impressed. I don't care how old you are; you should know Bryan Adams.

The Paradise is an amazing place to see a show because it's soo tiny and intimate. It was freaking hot in the place though. Bryan commented on it and right away, they turned on the AC. But then it blew all his music down, so they had to turn it off. We had to wonder why Bryan was reading music? Had he not memorized his songs yet? The show was acoustic and was just Bryan, sitting on the stage all alone. Beautiful.

I am in Bryan heaven right now. Legit. Add him to the list of older men I would, um yeah, fall in love with.

I uploaded a few videos, but you'll have to excuse the fact that I was apparently trying to out-sing Bryan. I should have shut up, but the place was like one huge singalong. You don't think anyone's listening to you until you play back your audio. I'm not even going to post "Heaven," because I pretty much butchered it with my singing. Eh. Also, I hope I don't put you into epileptic shock with my horrible video taking skills.



"When You Love Someone"



"Summer of 69"

A little gross and hot, but happy beyond belief.

Swoon.

everything i do....

Tomorrow night I'm going to see Bryan Adams. Can we talk about how excited I am? You can joke and laugh all you want, but the man is a legend and it's going to be SO amazing to see him. I'm sure I will be crying with happiness (me and Sas seeing a loved musician together is probably not a good thing!) We're celebrating our Seis de Mayo at Zocalo, which is a Mexican restaurant I've been wanting to try forever. Also, they have 11 different kinds of sangria. Yesss, just a minor detail. Then we're getting to the Paradise ridiculously early so we can try to get up front and center. It's a super small and intimate venue and Sas and I are determined to get our pictures with Bryan. Ohh, it will happen!

It was a fabulous weekend involving the birthdays of some of my fave people. Saturday night turned into a bit of a mess and ended with me losing my keys and having no way to get into my apt, Nina being dead to the world and not hearing me call her 18 times in a row, Sas's boyfriend leaving the bar without us, and Sas and I being left by everyone having no clue what was going on. Unable to get a cab in the lovely city of Boston and it pouring rain outside and freaking cold, we made the trek to her apartment, took a short break for pizza, and passed out at her place. My keys have yet to be found. Which annoys me beyond belief because I know I had them when I left my apartment and I know I did not take them out of my purse for anything. Anyway, I made copies of Nina's keys today, and tomorrow I'll go get a new gym card and hope they don't try to charge me. Besides all of that, the night was quite fun.

Work is crazy as usual. Or crazier than usual I should say. But it's a new goal of mine to stay on top of my Google Reader and not let it get out of control anymore (600 new posts? Not cool). So, I should be back in action right away!

you should do it too.

Stacey tagged me in a meme and since I saw it as I was about to get into bed (I swear I'm at least making an effort to have a somewhat normal bedtime) and figured I'd do it before finishing up my work for the evening. Not a whole lot of work got done today since I spent 9.5 hours at my sister's sitting on her couch looking at wedding websites, magazines, etc. It was worth it though. Anywayyy.

1. The rules of the game get posted on the beginning.
2. Each player answers the rules about him or herself.
3. At the end of the post, the player tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read his [or her] blog.

What I was doing ten years ago:
Um, I was 15, so probably being a ridiculous teenager. Which for me meant talking about boys non-stop, buying lipgloss, playing field hockey, and just being a general gossip. I dated my first "boyfriend," if you could call him that. I was a freshman and he was a junior, which was SO cool (last I heard he was a used car salesman and got fat hmmm.) I mostly just talked to him on IM and on the phone while I was rollerblading in my driveway. Wow.

Five things on my To-Do list today:
I'm doing tomorrow, since it's late now. 1) Get up early and go to the gym, 2) Take long overdue books back to the library, 3) Get lots of friends birthday presents, 4) Work for many, many hours on my work and projects, 5) Catch up on my scary-looking Google Reader

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Pay my grad school loans, buy a nice house (or 2), give lots of money to my parents, treat my sister to her entire wedding, give a couple million to the MSPCA and other animal rescue leagues, and buy a new wardrobe. Like Stacey, I also wouldn't quit my job because I love what I do too much.

Three of my bad habits:
1) Stacey's right. My #1 bad habit is staying up WAY too late and getting not enough sleep at all, ever, 2) Procrastinating on things and then freaking out at the last minute. Though I think I must secretly like this, because if I didn't, why would I do it all the time?, 3) Oh and I work too much. Like way too much. And I put my work before a lot of other things. Bad habit? I don't know. But it's what is important to me right now and I'm pretty sure I won't regret it. I don't ever want a job that is "just a job." I want my job to be part of my life; something I love so much that it can permeate every area of my life and not feel like work. I think that's what life is all about and too many people separate their "job" from the rest of their "life." I totally understand why but I never want to have to do that.

Five places I’ve lived:
1) Andover with the fam, 2) Durham, NH, for college, 2) Brookline, MA, where I've lived for three years now. And um, that's all? I really don't think I've lived anywhere else. Hmmm.

Five jobs I’ve had:
1) Babysitter (I know, who hasn't? But I don't think I've had 5 actual "real" jobs 2) Sales clerk/cashier at American Eagle, 3) Buyer at Hayden Sports, UNH apparel, 4) Intern but really, the only person who did any work at a certain MA government agency, 5) Freelance writer/editor

Five books I’ve recently read:
1) The Other Boleyn Girl, 2) Beginner's Greek, 3) A Thousand Splendid Suns, 4) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, 5) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Five people or communities I’m going to tag: Nobody! But I think you should all do it if you haven't and want to :)