We survived Newark. We spent today wandering in New York doing tourist things. I'm updating from Tasty Cafe on W 71st, with their free wifi. Full update late-- I'm typing this on my iPod. We're planning on staying with friends in CT tonight, so full report and pictures sometime tomorrow night.

Jessica, I'm sorry we weren't able to catch up this time. Hopefully next trip!

Our trip to Tanglewood was a huge waste of money. Everything we planned went by the wayside and, with one exception, we definitely could have just stayed home.

The ride to there was terrible. It took us 4.5 hours to get out to Pittsfield, where we stayed. We got a little lost finding our hotel, but it wasn't too bad. We were about 20 minutes outside of Tanglewood. Literally, everything else was booked up and even our hotel, a Travelodge, was expensive. Anyhow, the hotel manager was a friendly, but crazy Serb who asked if we were part of the wedding. What wedding? Turns out the rest of the hotel was full of wedding guests. Ok, great.

We had dinner at the IHOP cum thai restaurant and the food was pretty rough. I like salt and I couldn't even eat half of my pad thai. It was that too salty. It also was too late to send it back and get something else, so we packed it up and headed back to our room. Steven discovered our heat lamp wasn't working, so he got the Crazy Serb to come and fix it. It was unfixable, but the guy worked very hard trying. We left around half past 7 for the concert and proceeded to get lost because Pittsfield has no roadsigns. On our way there, I noticed a sign for Herman Melville's house and squee'd at Steven. He said we could go, but with the kind of reticence reserved for moments like eating bugs or starving.

We parked in Upper Northwest Bumfuck and had to walk what I think was seriously a mile to the venue. It was full of people. We barely got a seat right on the trail. There were no mosquitoes, which was really nice. That's where the niceness ended, though. I shall preface this by saying the music was amazing, but they only played two short sets and one encore. Last year, there were three. People started leaving in the middle of Yo-Yo Ma's performance and continued all through the Star Wars set. They played ET as the encore. Steven Spielberg was somewhere in the audience and I bet he was disgusted. I sure was. Some jackass was standing up, watching the concert with opera glasses and blocking everyone's view. Steven told him to sit down, so we got to see some of the screen.

I went to use the bathroom during Across the Stars. Because I am lucky, there was a pervert standing in front of the bathroom. He passed up the four, older women who went in and asked me to help him find his wife, who was in there. I told him, in german, I didn't speak english. Better still, when I went into the bathroom, no one was there except the aforementioned women. I waited for a bit and then snuck out the back door. The police where finally getting ready to move him when I was almost back at our seats. Great.

It took us more time to leave than we spent watching the concert. We also discovered that there is nothing around to eat in Pittsfield after 11pm. Even the many Dunkins are closed. We raided Cumby's before heading back to our hotel and finally, around 12:30, had a real meal. We watched Clerks before going to sleep in the not altogether uncomfortable bed.

We got up around 10 to check out. The Crazy Serb was still there and informed me that he hadn't gotten any sleep and was going to quit his job. Steven offered to buy him a cup of coffee, but he declined. We then went in hunt of breakfast. One place was a dive, the second place had a plague of fruit flies, and we finally ended up at Friendly's who gruesomely undercooked my bacon and had eggs that made me cry. We then made our way to Herman Melville's home.

This was the best part of our trip. The tour was very cool, we got to see where Moby Dick was written, I bought a mug, and then peed in his barn. I've been kind of excited about that all day. I peed in Herman Melville's barn! That's revenge for having to read Bartleby the Scrivner in high school. All kidding aside, it was the nest part of the trip.

We headed home after that, I slept in the car, and we went to the grocery store. I'm damn tired and I have to work tomorrow. I need like two more days of week-end.

Yay! I am officially off of work for a week! Now I'll have time to catch up on all the things I've been putting off... like sleeping.

I am so bored. I'm tired of sitting on my rear on the couch and doing nothing. My head's going to explode out of boredom.

We're going to have an insane snow storm tomorrow night. Am I a total moron for almost wanting to stay home, curl up with Steven, and watch it snow like mad? Of course, I'm sure it'll snow in Vermont. Actually, I'm all packed and ready to go, for once. How amazing is that?

I'm going to take random quizzes.

( More Quizzes )

Today concluded my first week of work at Barnes & Noble. I have two thoughts to this: 1) I am going to be all sort of buff working at this place. I sweated from 9am on today because I was hauling tons and tons of books. This would be unremarkable, except for the fact that I. Don't. Sweat.. Ever. I get edæma and hives and turn really, really pink. I was actually damp when we left at 3. 2) No one knows what they're doing with the shipment, at all.

We've been getting about two to three truckloads a day of books, gifts, and whatnot. I was put in one of the biggest sections in the store with one other person, who was on nights the rest of the week. I'm day only, for now. Duh. Better yet, it's reference, which means they're all super heavy. All the boxes way between 50 and 75 pounds. I can't lift anything over 20, maybe 30 if you push it. So, yesterday, I begged off on the section. I pulled a bunch of muscles in my back lifting. Now, I float between two sections. Yay!

It's not a bad thing, actually, because I got a whole section to myself. That meant I could keep everything in alphabetical order, rather than have three other people dropping shit off and screwing up my order like one of the other people did when I was working on mystery. My Current Affairs section is one of the best looking in the store. Makes me happy!

I'm off tomorrow, which means I can get all the shit that I haven't done all week done then.

More work Monday, schoolness Tuesday, may also work  a little, and I'm working Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday afternoon, we're leaving for Vermont for the week-end. Yay! Bravely on into September.

I love having a camera. I'm trying to get motivated to pack for Vermont. Here, in photos, is what I should be doing:

a) doing dishes

b) folding and putting away laundry

c) packing for VT

I am doing none of the above. I am trying to relax because I drank to much last night:

My star glass with margarita remenants

I am also stressing because I hate traveling. I want to go to Vermont, I really do, I just hate the packing up and going part. I love it when I'm there, but I hate having to get ready. I always have. Plus, because I was way too drunk last night, I forgot to set my alarm clock and overslept. Thank god for cancelled classes and professors who email, because I was feeling like shit for screwing things up.

We were going to eat lunch here, but I cannot do cooking with all those dishes today. Plus, I really want thai food. I've wanted it since Monday, but they're not open Mondays.

Bleh. My bank account is all sorts of fucked up. I need to deposit money into it today. Bah. I am not having a great morning.

I'm going to try and fold laundry, especially since Steven did it yesterday, I should fold it.

I finally was able to download the Swans cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart. Jarboe has such a gorgeous, rich alto. I actually like this version better than I like Joy Division's. Hers just has such a personal, intimate tone, rather than the almost mechcanical one Joy Division does.

I need to get a CD rack so I can find my Jarboe CDs and the organise the rest of them. I've actually got to get my act together on that. I don't have too many more excuses now that I have a job and can conceivably afford a CD rack.

My tummy hurts. Chorizo does not ever sit well with me, even though I do like jambalaya. I'm hoping the immodium I needed to take will kick in soon.

I'm actually wicked sleepy, but I have to much I need to do. I need to write out a packing list for next week-end, as well as get an idea of how much I'll need. I wanted to print a couple more pictures for my gramma, since I'm going to see her tomorrow. I need to get my return stuff together for tomorrow so I can exchange jeans and return shoes.

And I'm working Tuesday. Hooray!

I need to sleep.

Back from Vermont... That was a long trip. Brendan is, as usual, perfect. He's gotten so much smilier since I saw him a month ago. He's much bigger, now, too. I was overly tired, though, and just not in a very people oriented mood. We came back today, around 5ish, I had a nap, and then we went to Steve's parents for reason unknown.. Maybe to hook up the pumps? I'm so tired...

I am driving Matt to Natick tomorrow for work and then I am working in the evening. Joy. I have a doctor's appointment Wednesday for my foot. I wish I could remember what time.

I am 56% gay.. I am open-minded between the sheets and just as balanced when out on the streets.

I am going to sleep.

So, I just finished reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to, when I first started. The characters were really well-written. I really found myself disliking Naoko. She struck me as very, very selfish. I really felt like she was using Toru and just stringing him along and toying with him. I completely loved Midori. The ending kind of bothered me, though. It seemed too abrupt. I would have liked to know a little more what happened.

I've left this purposefully vague so as not spoil this book for anyone who hasn't read it. If you have read it, please email me and we'll talk about it.

I'm wicked tired. This was definitely one of the shittier Spring Breaks I've had. All I did was work and convalese. Next week-end, I'm going to Vermont (which reminds me- my father called to tell me that either my friend's house or her grandparents' house burned down last night... I should find out which.) I also need to get in touch with my new place of employment and find out exactly when they want me to start. Unless something changes, I am completely done with Country Marketplace on the 15th. God, I can't believe it's almost April- only six more weeks of classes.