It's 3:30 in the morning... do you know where your sleep is?

If you find mine, send it back to me.

I went to bed at like 10:30, and was slowly getting to sleep. But some weirdness outside woke me up and freaked me out, but I drank some milk and fell asleep sometime after midnight. Cool, not a horrible amount of sleep, though not great.

Just after 2 am I had to get up to pee (thanks, milk), and since then, I have been wide awake. Mostly because my stomach is crawling with nerves. Partly because every time I get sleepy, I start thinking about the randomest crap ever. I was even thinking about my old Advocate days! What the fuck?!

So I'm going to be absolutely exhausted tomorrow. Thank goodness it's not real class or anything, but then again I'm supposed to meet new people and be all friendly. Rar.

Also, it's hot in here.

Damn, I am so tired. But today was pretty good, if not really long. I met most of the other doctoral students in my crew, and some of the master's folks, and some peeps from other departments. I mostly hung out with my co-advisee for the afternoon, and she is very cool AND HAS A CAR, and lives near me. This is good.

Registration for classes was online, but vastly more crazy than I thought it would be, because there was a last minute change in the required courses, opening up two credits. This basically means I signed up for a class that is in the afternoon on the two days I didn't have an afternoon class, which sucks. And it's not something that interests me tons. So I may come up with an independent reading for two credits. I just need to figure out what.

I got up at 10 today, and I felt so sleepy! Tomorrow is going to suck getting up at 6! I have to go to bed really early tonight.

I've been on vacation for 4 weeks, so it feels a little weird to go back to a routine. I've imposed some amount of routine on myself, but mostly that consisted of making sure I showered and brushed my teeth in the morning, did something remotely productive during the day, ate dinner, watched the Olympics, brushed my teeth (and flossed!), washed my face, and then went to bed. Though I have been keeping on my chores schedule as well (went grocery shopping today!), which I hope I will keep up.

I should really hang stuff on my walls today. It's sort of the last thing I have not quite finished.

One thing leads to another. I went to hang a few things on the walls, starting by replacing a poster that was already in the front room with one of mine. This was good, because in pulling out the poster, I discovered two awesome posters that I must have totally forgotten about. One of them is perfect for the big space in the living room, and the other will go somewhere well. In the course of taking down the pre-existing poster, which was hung with duct tape of all things, I left some marks on the wall, and the new poster isn't big enough to cover them. So I went down to the basement to look for some paint. I know Bill just used white paint for the kitchen ceiling, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I found a big vat of white paint, and a big stick to stir it, but it really wasn't quite white enough. Still, it looked better than the duct tape residue and parts where the wall was damaged, so I used it. But then I thought that it would be just fine to repaint these white chairs Bill gave me. They looked really awful, so they just needd a full new coat of paint. So I painted those and they looked much better. Then I noticed a paint bucket that must have spilled over at some point when Bill was putting stuff away, and it was a lovely coral color... which is exactly the color I wanted to put instead of the sea foam green on the door details in the living room. So I painted that (four little squares on two doors, and the whole bathroom doorframe), and I like it tons better.

I left the big green rectangle on one wall, but I might do something with it later.

I didn't get far actually hanging up stuff because I had to flatten the big posters, and I need more poster tape.

In more Nerd Alert news, the highlight of my day was taking the shuttle to the Med campus and buying some of my class books, then coming home and reading some of the Epi. Wow, I'm a dork. I even found an inaccuracy that I will have to ask the prof about, since he wrote the book.

But the Olympics will be on soon, and I will be less of a dork.

So, I made it to Towson today! I actually got out of the house relatively quickly this morning, which was good since I set my alarm for 7:30 but didn't get up until 10. My attempts to make earlier my wake-up time so Monday doesn't suck are not working. Oh well.

Anyhoo, Towson was fun. It's a bustling commercial area, and there is a huge-ass mall. I bought a new dress, some underwear, lunch, a better phone than the cheapo one I got (though I found the tone/pulse switch, so I can actually check my voice mail, not that I get anything but telemarketers) which is wireless and has caller ID that doesn't require extra batteries. And a DVD player. Though this means I have to juggle plugs in that corner depending on what I'm using, since there aren't enough. The plugs are in stupid places in the living room.

It was easy to get there because the bus schedule was correct. Gettin back was more trouble, because the route was different than anticipated, and not all the signage is up-to-date. I waited at this one stop for a while before the driver of another bus told me that the stop was actually on this adjacent street, but I was pretty sure I missed that bus so I had to wait like an hour and a half for the next one, so I went to Trader Joe's. I still ended up sitting at the bus stop for like half an hour because I was tired of walking around with all my crap I bought, but there was this other lady there and we chattered for a while.

Bill is almost done with the kitchen, and then he's going on vacation, so I don't have to worry about home improvement projects for a while!

Today was great, but I hate Friday night watching TV all alone. :-(

Actually, that's the main thing that has sucked so far, is going around to places and thinking, that would be a great place to hang out with someone. Like there was this fondue place today that looked delicious, but it would be sort of sad to eat there alone. Fondue is for two or more.

Oh, I forgot to mention I talked to Jenn for like 2 hours last night. That was cool!

I feel bad complaining about my life too much, because let's face it, it rocks. But I'm feeling just lousy this evening. Why is it time to move hundreds of miles away when I finally have a social life that doesn't drive me crazy and an awesome boyfriend. Why does timing have to suck so much.

Beh.

At least Bill is done with the kitchen. I moved my cute little table in there, and I put it where it can serve as a counter, since it is counter height. Much more so than my actual counter! So, it's sort of in the middle of things, instead of totally out of the way where I could have put it, but it's much more useful where it is.

I shoudl get up early and go to the Farmers Market tomorrow, but I probably won't. I fucken hate getting up early.

Tuesday night I managed to get myself roused enough to clean the living room. I think part of that is that I can't seem to watch television anymore. I have to do something else at the same time. It could possibly just be the pacing of the Olympics, with all the commercials and contextual commentary I don't care about. Oh, and fuggin gymnastics exhibitions! I've already seen all that shit, why do I need more!

So then yesterday I got some work done for work... yeah, that job I no longer have. But I needed to call Jeff about whether the ACR would really notice or care that I'm accepting their offer to present my poster, but then I'm not going to register for the conference, because I'm not going (interferes with class too much, and it takes too damn long to get to San Antonio and back). And I also am on this paper and had not submitted any comments, but it doesn't look like the paper had made it to the next stage yet, so it didn't matter that I slacked on it so badly. But I got that done and fired it off.

Then I did three loads of laundry. Free laundry is great, and having it just be ten steps down is even better. I even got Bill to move his laundry! There's only one washer and dryer, of course, so it takes a little longer, but it's actually nicer because I'm not trying to lug two loads down at once.

After that I waited a really long time for my student mentor to show up, because she got stuck in massive traffic. But she's cool, and I got to meet some of the other folks too when we got to the club. They were telling me all about the brutal nature of the 8-week quarters. Turns out there are final exams for all the classes, they're just part of the last week of the class! So basically there's like two weeks at the beginning which are fairly pleasant, then preparing for midterms and taking them, recovery, and then preparing for finals and taking them. Then new classes right away! Well, I guess just between first and second term; winter and spring breaks divide the others. They said that everyone reaches a point sometime during the year when they seriously wonder why the hell they chose to do this. Fun. But, it all flies by so quickly! Then the qualifying exam is not really an exam, it's a paper. They give the topic at the beginning of the week, then you write write write, and it's open book, so the only thing you can really do to prepare is to organize your materials and maybe review a few things. But most people just go on vacation for the weeks and weeks between classes and the qual. Nuts! So I'll probably go to Commencement and maybe home. Unless I have a job or something.

Anyhoo, the club was pretty fun, and I learned extremely basic salsa, and a few guys danced with me during the post-class dancing and were very nice about my ineptness at salsa. I had fun, but it wasn't totally my thing. I'd rather go to a dive bar and drink and talk with people. But it's good to mix it up.

I was planning to go to Motor Vehicle today to get a license, but I don't have the required proofs of residence. You have to bring the postmarked envelope along with any bills you get, which is nuts. But I think I've only gotten on credit card statement, and I chucked the envelope. Oh well. That can wait, I'm not going to be driving anytime soon, and it's on the subway, which I can get to easily from school.

So maybe I'll go up to Towson and check that out. Maybe even hit the Tarzhay.

So, in my attempt to go to Towson, I learned something very important about the MTA buses: just because a bus has a certain number does not necessarily mean it goes to a certain location. I was basically too impatient to wait for a bus that actually went to Towson Center (though I discovered I could have got pretty close anyway), so I gave up after a while. Well, sort of. I went for a very long walk up N Charles St, thinking eventually the right bus would come along, but it didn't. Sad. But I got to see the very lovely neighborhoods of Guilford and Homewood. Perhaps tomorrow I will scrutinize the bus schedule more closely so I can get there. Unless I get useable mail, then I will go to the MVA instead.

Ow my head, it hurts! I'm also very hungry, but Bill is still doing crap in the kitchen. I will be so happy when he goes on vacation... he should be done with the kitchen tomorrow, and then he just has to do the front windows when he gets back. I was thinking maybe I should just get a pizza, but I went to Papa John's website to see what I might want, and I accidentally looked at the nutrition info, which made me too sad to order a pizza. Pizza is so bad for you. But so delicious. So I'm gonna make my own pizza with toast, pasta sauce, and cheese, and maybe some ham. That will be less bad. But still tasty.

Another freaky thing about MD... you can smoke in bars! Last night at the club, this girl lit up a cigarette, and I very nearly jumped on her until I realized that was totally legal of her. I very quickly got used to no smoking in bars in Boston.

Yesterday I rocked the house. First, trips to the dollar store and supermarket. Then I cleaned the kitchen and unloaded all my dishes, finally. Then I hung up my diploma and blanket rack. Made and ate dinner. Cleaned the bathroom while watching the Olympics. Oh, this was after Sunday night I put contact paper in the kitchen drawers. Woo!

I ended up staying up too late, though, and then I couldn't sleep trying to figure out how to make by big blank walls look less so in a non-dormitory way.

But this morning I awoke, and Diana came and we went to the Aquarium! It was loads of fun, and the dolphin show was truly great. After that, we went to ESPN Zone for lunch, which was delish since we were starving, and then we got a free $5 game card from coupons the Aquarium gave us. So we played this ridiculously vibratory motorcycles game, air hockey, and then I played this horse riding game that was fucking impossible and made my entire body sore. Fun. Then we went around all the harbor shops. By then it was damn near 4! So Di drove me home so she could get on the road before rush hour.

I love doing touristy stuff sometimes.

I haven't been terribly productive since then. I went to the liquor store and Rite Aid, but I've just been bumming around. I even ate leftovers for dinner. Tomorrow I have laundry and other crap to do, and then I'm going to hang out with my student mentor, a 2nd year in my program, and I'm going to tag along with her and some other students for salsa lessons at this club downtown. So I hope that's fun. I almost feel like I have a social life between today and tomorrow.

School starts so soon! I'm very psyched.

I did not get up at all early today, because I stayed up too late last night. But that's okay, it was because M called me, since I was clearly lonely given that I kept following up to my own hubba emails. Sad. I think I'm over the hump as far as the worst loneliness. I hope so. Next weekend will also be a bummer, but I'll have school to anticipate wildly. This weekend was just sorta bleh, even if I finally did get a lot done. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, not only because there was some guy talking outside (not that loudly, but he had a compelling rhythm to his voice), but because I was just thinking too much.

So I got up late this morning, but that was okay. I went over to the dollar store, but it was closed! Turns out much of Waverly is closed up on Sundays, presumably because the overwhelmingly African-American consumer population is at church. So I went over to Hampden, which is full of white people, therefore all the stores full of cute, but ultimately overpriced and useless artsy crap, were all open. I bought ice cream, Almond Joy flavored, which mean chocolate with coconut and almonds. Delish. Other than that, I was uninspired, and I was more inspired by figuring out how exactly to get there from my house.

Also I discovered that it takes roughly 10 minutes to get to the shuttle for school.

I got home and tackled the front entry. There are lots of little filthy corners of this apartment if you get down close. It looks just fine on the surface. But now the front entry and library are clean and pretty. I've made a list of chores that have to get done, and a four-week schedule to accomodate them. I'm actually trying to plow through them now at a faster pace before school starts, but I think once I'm in the groove, the schedule will allow me to keep the house clean without it building up so I never do it. And then I'll target next August for another really hard core clean of all the crevices.

In other news, the Facebook has spread to Hopkins, so when I get my new email address, I'm going to set up another profile, and then I can be friends with myself! In further unrelated news, I hate the Facebook. I wish I could more explicitly declare the ambiguity I feel in certain categories. Drop-down lists don't cut it.

Also, happy 21st to Jerry, who didn't yak in any cabs, as far as he's told me.

I'm cleaning out old notebooks. I have tons of partially-used notebooks, loose leaf paper, all that crap. I think the plan is to make a concerted effort to use up all this paper before buying any new notebooks. Of course, all I do when I go to any store is lust after new notebooks.

I'm finding things that seem like relics from another lifetime. The impulse I follow is to read them and then file them, but a small part of me wants to just throw them away. I have a whole folder of stuff like that. Sometimes I was like a person in the middle of a bad dream who could still reason the way out of it, but who couldn't control the course of events when it really came down to it. I'd write, this is what I need to do for this to end, these are the conditions I must set. But I know all too well that the next part of the story is how I failed.

But I'm so far away from that now, it seems so strangely impossible. I suppose it really is unlikely in the sense that the sort of person who puts you there is one in a million. I've also learned that being so well understood is overrated, if that understanding is just repeatedly used to damage you.

I remember that spring, out of a cold hibernation, protecting myself in solitude, I emerged into the brightest world I've ever known.

But I wonder if in that sweet bright world I let loose word of the darkness before. Sometimes, when you'd talk about that, I sensed you'd stop short of telling me all that I revealed... maybe you didn't want any of it confirmed. I would have it no other way, I would have no dark thoughts mar your loveliness.

Today is no different than any of the other days I've been here so far, but because I know it's Saturday, it feels more lonely. At least it's not so hot today, but I decided to do this stuff for work, so I'm in the house again. I shoulda done this yesterday when it was too hot to exist, but I didn't think of it until last night, and I was already watching the Olympics. If it's nice tomorrow, maybe I will go over to Hampden or take the bus to the MVA and get a driver's license and go to the mall. Or maybe the mall Tuesday. Monday I am going to the aquarium with Diana. It's supposed to be totally the best aquarium ever, and it'll be nice to see someone I know!

It totally bites that here I am with lots of free time, and I don't know anyone.

I think maybe middle of next week I'll go to some movies during the day. Esp if it's hot.

Also, I'm going to start getting up earlier, little by little. The Olympics have kept me up sort of late, but I've also been totally lazy about getting up. The only reason I got up today, at like 10, was that my lower intestine was flaming with the fury of hot salsa, and so I went to the can AND THAT DEFINITELY WOKE ME UP. Yowch.

Yesterday it was insanely sticky nast all day. Tonight it's almost cold in here! Unbeevable.

Quick update. I have internet! Moving went pretty well. Though it took me a longish time to get going Saturday... I didn't want to leave entirely. But, leave I had to, and the drive was long, but loading and unloading went really well, and unpacking and shopping has gone well. And I've been watching a lot of Olympics.

Me is zombie...

I'm pretty much packed, after scavenging another box. I should probably go find another one to be safe, but I think I'm okay. I hope. I can always rassle up another one Friday, if needed. I got to a point this evening where most of the stuff was packed, and I suddenly got this ache in my stomach that was a combination of stress and facing reality that I AM LEAVING. Denial was so much nicer. Even now I can still look around the room, and it doesn't seem that empty with all my crap piled in the alcove, and my rugs and furniture still in place, and the bed still made.

Friday, now that will be some fucked upness with the lack of stuff in here.

So I think I have the plan all worked out so that everything gets done before I leave. Tonight I went to the square. Jerry gave me a Johnny Cash box set! I saw some kids in the BR post-music sorting fun.

Okay, I'm going to get one more box. Also, I hope it doesn't rain on all that paper I put out for recycling.

Monday night I went over to M's, and we went grocery shopping, and he made Hamburger Helper, which was delish, and then we watched Starsky and Hutch, which was pretty funny. It was a nice chill evening after all that packing.

Then yesterday I didn't get up until noon, which meant that I didn't so much finish packing as I'd hoped to do. But I got a decent amount done, and then went over to Cherry for dinner. Jer made breakfast for dinners, complete with mimosas. :-)

After that I went down to Chuck's, cuz some kids were there early. The place was busy when I got there and proceeded to get wicked packed. I think all my peeps got in, but there were some seating issues for a while until some folks moved/left. Lots of the crew dedicated their songs to me, leading to me blushing a buttload. Mihalyfy sang "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys. Then Loren followed that up with "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston... it was hilariously squeaky and embarrassing. Then Courtney sang "You Sexy Thang" and danced seductively. Matty sang "You Got It" by Roy Orbison, which we'd been talking about earlier in the week because of the timpanis in the song. :-) And Clark sang "Working for the Weekend," for the rocking weekend I will be having. I sang "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. I tried to sing it way back when I first started going, but I could never get in with it. And it's a sort of goodbye song (like the music video, where her and this boy are at the bus station, and then he goes off on the bus... dang, haven't seen that vid in years), and it has this great mix of remorse yet a promise of persistent loyalty and presence even from a distance.

Today I got up at noon, having stayed over at Cherry and having weird dreams about the landlord fixing the doorknob. When I got up, Clark was still there, which was cool, cuz we'd talked about going to Darwin's for lunch after I mentioned I wanted to go there, since there were like a billion of the Darwin's crew there at karaoke. So we had lunch, and it was delish (I should eat the rest of that sandwich now that I think of it...), and we conversed about all that the next year will bring.

I haven't gotten tons of packing done today. But I vow to finish this shit tonight!

Or tomorrow morning. :-)

Ha, morning. I better do it tonight.

I decided that when I'm in B-more before school starts, I'm going to try to get up in the morning and go to bed at night, so I'll be on schedule. Esp since orientation start at like 7:30 for the 1st two days. Evil. After that it looks like I'll have 8:30 epi on MWF. Suck. But that's only for 8 weeks.

Usually going home Sunday leaves me feeling slightly down. Tonight I'm downright melancholy.

When I logged on just now I got a fortune that said, "Happiness is having a scratch for every itch." That sewed together my thoughts on the way home, how in the past year, everything finally came together and I finally felt all the little holes in my life had been filled. Now I gotta go and make a bunch of holes again.

Erg, feel yucky. My stomach wants some real food, but I don't really have any. Maybe I should just go to the grocery store already. Since I'm not packing yet. I was awoken around 9 by my bladder and by my room being a billion degrees, but since then I've perused my course schedule for the first term (too many annoying days of one class early and one late in the afternoon), updated my bank accounts in Quicken, and put together bills for my roommates so I'll have money. I will be rockin' the dinero when all that comes in. It's good to have a cushion starting out here.

Packing is super fun.

Actually, I made lots of progress today. Packed all my dishes and almost all the closet. I may have to track down a couple more boxes, though. We'll see. I have so much scrappy shit left.

As I figured, not much in the way of talking needed to happen, since we were already on the same page. But leaving is ever so hard.

M was moral support and garbage boy while I sorted through old files to see what to toss. Which turned out to be quite a bit so far, and I still have a bunch left to go through. It's good to get rid of all that paper, though, because I'm sure to accumulate a lot more of it as I go. I got bored of packing, so we went to Cherry and watched Star Trek until the kids came back and we all went over to the Cube for beer pong. For the last time, for me, as the Cube will soon be no more. Lots of changes around here. I drank a lot of Rumple and was entirely ridiculous all night, from what I recall.

Today was the summer band concert at the Hatch Shell, which was fun and sunny. I took photos. Afterwards we hit the Kong (delicious Gao, how I will miss you), and now we'll probably head up to Cherry for some Six Feet Under.

Three and half days of solid packing to do... I think I'll be done well before then, if all goes well.

One week from now, I'll have all my stuff in my new apartment in Baltimore, the truck will be returned, and I'll probably just be vegging with Dad and Am. This is unfathomable to me.

Hooray for Airtran cost-effectively shipping my sister to Baltimore. :-)

Band barbecue was good times last night. Not good times was leaving my keys at Cherry St when I was headed home just now to pack. But I retrieved them, and I got the trip plans settled, and now M is coming over to entertain me whilst I pack. Woo!

I should clarify for those not following closely at home that I have a truck, it just has two seats, and we have three people going from Boston to Bmore. Le crap. I think someone may have to fly down.

I packed a shitload of stuff today (er, Thursday). I took down the big metal shelves in my little alcove (giving myself a nasty pinch on the arm in the process... it's quite a welt), so I piled all the packed crap in there, and it looks kinda impressive. Of course, there's still lots to pack, but I still have a whole week until Daddy and Am get here.

Went to the office barbecue, which was pretty fun. The boys were there, and I don't think M was too terrified by all my coworkers. :-) Though there was a scary guy who lived across the street who was perched in his window making sure no one parked in his parking space. He would just yell at people, so I guess Holly went to give him hell since he almost blocked her in last week, and then some other neighbors got into it with him for some other beef they had. Kinda funny. The goodbyes were not too sappy or lengthy, which was very good.

There were some people I kind of expected to see there that didn't show, which is sad, but, eh, I found that work was kind of distant from my mind a week out. On the other hand, Nancy T showed up, which was cool cuz she never comes to anything!

I should sleep so I can get some more packing done before I go over to help M with the band BBQ. We got a lot of stuff leftover from Holly's, but there is still so much left to procure.

Well great, now I'm screwed. I love how the guy at U-Haul answered the phone with something about always having the right equipment, but they don't have a single truck available in Cambridge until the end of the month.

It's so damn hot. I'm sitting in my room melting. It better cool off later so I can pack!

How about an update? So, Tuesday night, there was Shay's, which Mihalyfy had suggested, but then he bailed on us because his roommate had passes to the DNC. I guess I can't blame him for going, esp since he got to see Barack Obama's amazing speech and Teresa H-K, who he loves tons. We headed to karaoke and got stuck at the bar, since we were rather late-ish. I actually got to sit the whole time, so I guess that was fine. I sang "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane, and it was super fun, though there are no breaks in that song, so I thought my head would pop. Grace Slick was a crazy woman. Danny and I had a weird discussion about porn as the night wore on, and then we all went to Noir to try and find celebrities. Without success. I arrived home rather late.

So, my last day at work I had a pounding headache. I had lunch with the crew, and then Jeff shared with me a bit of behind-the-scenes context of my 2 years with the MAC. The afternoon I spent gathering all my crap together and being in total denial. I'm terrible at leaving... I could have left pretty early, but I lollygagged about instead. Thank goodness we're having a barbecue this week, so I could put off goodbyes.

I went to bed wicked early so that I could arise early on Thursday for celebrity hunting! We went to Henrietta's Table for breakfast, me, Loren, and Mihalyfy, and it was delicious. But no celebs. No Clintons or anything! Afterwards we headed to the Copley area. We'd heard the New Mexico delegation was at the Sheraton Back Bay, so we headed that way, with me hoping to catch Bill Richardson. He did not emerge, but who should get out of a van right behind us as we loitered on the sidewalk? Jerry Springer! David had to close the van door they emerged from, as they did not, and the driver wanted to leave.

We felt that made the day worthwhile right there, but once we had a taste, we had to have more. We wandered up and down Newbury and Boylston streets, had coffee at the Copley Starbucks and lunch with Danny at Uno's, to no avail. Finally, we decided it was time to head towards Faneuil Hall. Walking by the Four Seasons, we saw no one emerge or enter, but as we walked away I peered intently into the windows of the hotel restaurant only to be greeted by a distinctive silvery mane. Al Sharpton! I shrieked like a total freak and people eating lunch inside stared at me. It ruled.

David met the Bulgarian ambassador to the US by talking to this woman who was speaking Bulgarian, which he does not speak but can recognize. Only David, man. He was really psyched about this.

I was really psyched about the New Mexico van we ran into. We went inside, and the I told the folks inside I was from Albuquerque, and the guy gave me a jar of Gardunos salsa! Kick ass!

We had some dinner at the Bell In Hand, and the bartender told us that it had been the worst week she'd seen as far as business. Basically, everyone who worked in Boston who could left town, and the delegates could not compensate, and they also had lots of private parties anyway. So business sucked.

We got to the Fleet and wandered around outside. They were basically letting people go wherever they wanted outside the gates, so all the talk of protester cages and stuff was sort of bunk. No one seemed to care where anyone hung out. The protestors were all sort of lame and looked largely like the sort of folks that give protestors a bad image. There were polite folks giving out Planned Parenthood and NARAL stickers, but that just attracted nutjobs with giant posters of dismembered fetuses and crap like that. There was one of just part of a head that was like the size of me. Yuck. Aborted fetuses are just *not that large*. Anyhoo, there were also the usual anarchists, LaRouche fans, and other types of supporters I don't really want to mention because I don't want to get into it with this journal's audience about why I think those people are nuts. Anyhoo, more left than dems, mostly, since Republicans are generally too dull to protest.

There was one guy that kept going around with random and funny signs. He wrote up ones about cell phone etiquette in the library. He even walked around for a while with a blank piece of cardboard. The best one was a dual sign, part one of which said, "Monkeys are cute, but they throw crap," and part two which said, "Kittens are cuddly." Fake protestors rule.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was out in full force, and I thought he was filming for Conan, but a few articles lead me to believe it's actually for a movie starring him. I was in the background of several shots. I'll watch Conan tonight and see, but usually they mention Triumph in the commercials if he'll be on. We'll see, I may be in a movie instead!

We were headed out after a drought of celebrities, but we discovered that we'd just gone too far in and all the VIPs were getting off further out. So we camped out there and saw Madeline Albright, Steven Colbert (I'm certain, though my Daily Show deprived collegues could not help confirm), Barack Obama (!!!), Robert Reich, Lisa Ling (formerly of The View, though I had no idea who she was), and Tom Foley. It was cool. The fire marshal closed the gates once the Fleet was too full, so people who snagged passes from exiting delegates couldn't even use them!

It was a crazy great day. I hung out at Cherry after hoping to see me on Conan before realizing the filming would be too late for that night's ep and that it was a repeat anyway. Poop.

Friday I didn't do tons until I went to meet M to head to dinner with his family. We went to Legal at the Pru, and it was fun and good. M's sis came back to Cherry with us, and we all chilled there and watched TV.

Saturday I bummed around the house and then went to the Hatch Shell to catch Dispatch's last concert. I saw them at the Middle East years ago, and they were cool, so I thought it'd be a chill time. The place was a mob scene! When I got on the T, I heard these guys talking about how a friend had called one of them around noon to say he should get down there because it was packed. For a 5 pm concert! Everyone under age 25 was there, and most of them were drunk. And I'll be honest, most of my peers are stone stupid, so there were a lot of stupid drunk people around. The bridge from the T over Storrow was shaking with the number of people on it. It was crazy.

I found the kids, even though my cell phone was dying. I ended up surviving about 30 minutes of the actual concert before the heat, pot smoke, and thirst starting getting to me. My head starting throbbing, so I booked it. I grabbed some water and thought about returning, but I didn't love the show so much that I felt like fighting the crowds any more, so I went to the Pru and got some food. Then I went to the BR and took a nap. Jenn arrived soon after, so we carted some crap to my house, picked up my boy, and then went to Summer St to chill. We watched School of Rock, which I hadn't seen yet. It was fun.

Sunday I went to York Beach with Jenn and folks. It looked grey when I got up, so I didn't put on my swim suit and sunscreen, but when we got there, it was okay, so I changed and lathered up. But then it did rain on us, but only long enough to clear the beach, then it was decent again. Still a bit chilly for my taste, but fun. I went way out into the waves and figured out how to jump in them so they proelled me forward like I was flying. It ruled. I should have had someone sunscreen my back, because I tried doing it myself, and it was clearly inadequate, so I am a bit burned. And my lips were blue for a while from being in the water! I am so fragile.

We went to a fantastic ice cream shop, then off to an outlet store so Jenn could get a new swimsuit since the onces she owns are all a bit too big and fall off sometimes. Then, after an incident with police watching a rotary (catching dozens of confused folks who clearly couldn't figure out which lane was which to get onto the rotary, and yet claiming the signage was fine), we hit one of New Hampshire's fine liquor stores. Rumply goodness for cheap.

Back at Summer, we got pizza and watched Remember the Titans, which was cool.

Today Jenn and I went to see Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, which was fun, and then we had some coffee and tea at Someday Cafe in Davis. She headed home afterwards, and now I'm here.

On other news, gah I have so much crap! And it's ten days until Am and Daddy get here! I hate packing! And this week is no shortage of busy. Beh.

Damn, August already? I really haven't updated since Monday? Sheeit.

Well, it's gonna have to go a week until real update, but let's see, karaoke, hungover last day, sleep all night, celebrity hunting, dinner with M's fam, Dispatch and too much sun, chilling with Jenn and kids and watching School of Rock, York Beach, more chilling, and now, sleep. More details tomorrow.