A blast from the past

Tonight I have no photo to go along with the day, but it was a fun day. 3 summers ago I moved to Boston and the first friends I really had were from the first company I worked for. Today was a mini reunion of sorts. Maybe a little awkward seeing the gal who unexpectedly "let me go" but I have kept in touch with 2 of the guys I worked with. One, the only other single person in the office (who if I didn't date mattress boy, I think I would have had a chance with) who has since moved to NYC and I don't keep all that in touch with. And two, the guy who treated me like a younger sister, always looking out for me. It was this guy's post wedding BBQ I went to in Quincy, MA. It is bit of a hike to get to where him and his wife live, but it was totally worth it! I was instantly introduced to the one single guy at the company (boy, I've been down that road before!). He was cute. I had a lot of 1:1 time with him, but learned he was married (and now divorced), has 3 kids and is 36...1 of the kids is 18! Damn it! So my old coworker's wife who I get along with quite well is Russian and so, we had quite a lot of vodka tonight...the one shot I have no problem doing. It was nice catching up with the some of the guys I used to work with and meeting some of the guys that have sense took over the positions my old coworkers used to hold. I was reminded that I need to be less trusting (my past has proved that I trust way too easily, way too fast). I always drink way too much when I am in the company of the IT consulting boys (the first time I ever [and ONLY time] I called in sick b/c of a hangover which happened b/c I had been out drinking with these boys the night before); I'm so glad I have tomorrow to recover before showing up for work b/c it's almost 3am and the room is spinning [way too much Vodka tonight]. I just felt so happy and at home hanging out with J & E tonight. These were the people who knew me when I first moved here and are the only people who truly know me. I may not have exchanged numbers with the cute single guy with 3 kids, but then again, as E told me... I need to say no and not let people in so easily, so I took her advice and just enjoyed myself. Of course, in a few hours I may be cursing b/c of the headache and other signs of having way too much fun, but it was totally worth it. I haven't had this much fun hanging out with people in such a long time!

What a day!

SMOKE! Taken from the kitchen window at work, tree obstructed view

Oh what a day. I wasn't feel well, but still made it to the gyms today. I figured my body was reacting to my 5 grande sized Starbucks coffee drinks that I had consumed in less than 24 hours. Might have to rethink the free refills during my Sunday afternoons reading time at my local Starbucks store! I was getting ready to leave for work when I looked out to see if it was raining. The weather guy last night said we wouldn't see rain until 10pm, so I didn't bring my umbrella. It was raining though. I then saw what I thought was fog, but nope! It was smoke. And where there's smoke...there's fire! (Believe me, I've seen way too many Southern California wild fires to know that!). My view was obstructed by a tree, but there was definitely a car fire of some sort. It happened around 4:30pm and it took firetrucks about 15 minutes to respond. You heard pops that sounded like gunshots or booms (much like when Camp Pendleton practices in O'side). Every now and then you could see flames. It didn't take long for the crew to put it out. Our communications person at work called our office to tell us about the bus that exploded. No, there was no bomb...it was an engine fire [and that's engine with an "e" not an "i" :) ]. No idea what caused one of our Longwood Medical Area (LMA) shuttle buses to catch fire, but fortunately it happened at the pick up spot for the Longwood to Harvard University route BEFORE it was fully loaded (that route is always jammed packed with people). Of course, I couldn't help think I'm shit out of luck if there was a bomb on my bus, I'd never make it out in time. What a scary world we live in!
LMA Engine Fire after crews put the fire out

Then I'm reading my email and a guy from a dating website (which I can't stand and thought I'd try again, but so far... nope). It just said "hi, I'm Micheal". So I check out his profile. Not only is it long, but he goes on about not wanting this type of girl (and goes into detail) or this kind of girl (and goes into detail). A short paragraph on the kind of person he does want. THEN I see a line which reads "I am pro white, truthful, and brave". At that point, I'm like, um...NO. I should totally write that he wouldn't approve of my ghetto, thug lovin' hiphop music or the fact that I had a Latin Lover. I'm sure he probably has a swastika tattooed somewhere on his WASP body! It gets better [being sacrastic here of course]. Under "first things people usually notice about me", he writes: "0% Italian 50% Irish 100% Pure"! I'm like "YOU'RE SUCH AN EFFING MORON". BUT wait... under "Six things I could never live without" he writes 2 things: "Western (white) Civilization and all that goes with it." NOW, I'm about to go MADEA on his ass! People like this piss me off!

So I get home. I have workers working on my spare bedroom to fix the walls and I get home and see this! OMG, YOU'VE GOT TO BE EFFING KIDDING ME! That is so gross! Not only did they NOT flush the damn toilet (or put the seat down), but they used THIS bathroom that I had left all my stuff on the counter when I left for work (makeup, electric toothbrush, hair and face stuff, etc) and closed the door (to deter them from going into it) AND I left the bathroom right next to the room they were working on open and with nothing on the counter. They didn't even use that one!! Seriously people?! I kind of want to pee in both toilets before I leave for work tomorrow and NOT flush! So now, I'm bleaching the counter tops and will wait until tomorrow to mop all the floors. I swear, if you have a penis, I'm totally hating on you today (ok, exception being my cute Zumba Russian boy).

Anooshavoor

Waking up to a thunderstorm is one of the best things to wake up to on a Saturday morning. I was surprised that it was raining and cool and definitely took advantage of it. I started the morning off opening all the windows and heading down to the local Creperie & Starbucks, something that is becoming a Saturday morning ritual. I ate out on the patio which was so nice (and much cooler than inside the apartment). It started warming up as I cleaned out my spare bedroom, finally taking down the Christmas lights that were hanging around the room, removing the birthday decorations...the room looks pretty sad right now with nothing but a futon in it. I headed out to do my monthly Costco trip and even managed to make it to the gym. As I was doing chest presses, staring up at the ceiling, I had a flash back to working out in Oceanside at 24 Hour Fitness, and even further back to Fitness Now where the gym rat was born thanks to the cute boys that worked there and getting to know everyone on the staff... I used to hang out with the staff outside of the gym. It was weird having this flashback and after thinking about it, I know why. This gym down the street is MY gym. This reminds me of home. I feel happy working out here and am looking forward to the doors that may open by being a frequent gym go-er. An hour and a half later I exited the gym all sweaty as I was hit by a wall of hot air as I waited for the T. I was so busy being productive today that I lost all track of time. I fixed myself some carrot juice, at a small container of leftover pasta salad and decided to make some Anooshavoor- a turkish dish. Of course, starting this dish at 7:45pm was not the best idea. [I was getting a headache during the processes and fixed myself a burrito- I didn't eat much today and couldn't wait until this dish was finished]. It's a long process making this porridge dish. Similar to making risotto, you add liquid in increments, unlike risotto, it takes 2 hours versus 1. Pearl barley and some water, simmer, stirring every 10 minutes for the first hour, adding more water if necessary. At the beginning of the second hour, I added apple juice (no cardamom pods this time around b/c I don't have any) and stirred every 10 minutes, adding more apple juice at the 20 and 40 minute mark. 2 hours later, at 9:45, I have a hot, yummy porridge with sliced up dried Turkish apricots and honey. I guess this is going to be my dessert.

102° with Friends with Benefits

So today was freakin' hot! Yes, you are reading that correctly... 102° at 7:17pm and that's not taking humidity into effect. I was out of the office by 3pm, around the time the temp broke into the triple digits. So I headed back into the city for some shopping at VS (I used like 5 gift cards) and then went and say Friends With Benefits. I am quite impressed with Justin's acting skills. He had improved so much! I really liked this movie and I even saw some single guys in the packed theater, so both sexes would enjoy this one I think. Of course, RomComs are not the best type of movies for a single gal in a city with no close friends to watch on a Friday evening b/c one leaves feeling sad and somewhat depressed that even a bag full of new VS items can't fix. The movie took place in LA and NYC and all the SoCal shots made me miss home, especially on a day like today. Oh, what I would give to be sitting on the cliffs in La Jolla watching the sunset tonight! Sigh. So this leaves the question, is there such a thing as being able to be friends and have benefits? Is it too hard for guys and girls to carry on as FWB without one or the other or both developing feelings? I guess it depends on how good (or bad it is), but I'm not really a fan b/c essentially it takes you out of the running for potential romances b/c you're body kind of puts out this aura that says unavailable.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and am calling it a night...yes, I'm fully aware that I'm saying this before 9pm, on a Friday.

Games with Boys

"Squint"
Today was day one of our two-day heat wave. Heat index of 105°, I think we reached 99° if you don't factor in the humidity. I was really prepared for the worst (I really think the weather people mess with people b/c they do that in the winter too, saying it's going to be bad and it's really not as bad as they say it will be). I mean, it was hot. But I was preparing myself for the type of weather the south experiences in the summer, we were not has hot and muggy as the south. I even took my Thursday spin class at 1 this afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter, so we will see.

Now, b/c of the heat and the fact that I don't have AC (I mean I do have a window unit in my bedroom) I had to change it up for my monthly Game Night. Instead of hosting it at my apartment like I always do, I changed the venue to Cornwall's (an English pub). They have a ton of board games, AC and food & drinks. So it worked out quite nicely. No one was a regular game night player and I was lucky enough to play with 3 guys, 2 of whom I have never met before (1 of them participated in their first Sandbox meetup event coming tonight!). We started with Scattergories where it didn't take long for me to prove that I can't spell. The letter was "s", the question was "insect" and I wrote sentipeed (I was corrected of course that it begins with a "c" centipede (which btw my phone's spell check does not have in it's dictionary!). I also combined "engine w/ ignition" for car part with "e" and wrote egnition switch. [Yes people, this is why I NEVER play word games and why Scrabble never makes it on the table during Game Nights!]

One of the guys brought a game I'd never heard of and it was quite fun. It's called Squint. Apparently, if you squint, you have a better chance of winning. It's similar to Guesstures except instead of acting the words out, you have to use the small tiles with shapes on them to form a picture of the word. It was quite fun! Then we played another game from the game shelf called Bubble Talk. This was fun and much like Apples to Apples. We had the waitress play with us, since it was down to 3 of us. You have a picture (many of them with animals or kids in them) and everyone has 7 cards with sayings on them. We have to pick the one that would be the funniest caption for the picture. Since there were 3 of us, we had the waitress pick the answer, so it was neutral. Of course, the boys totally beat me and the waitress felt horrible b/c I so clearly lost.

Bugs

I'm so sick of these little flies. I think they are fruit flies and I can't get rid of them. I don't have a trash can in my apartment, I take trash out whenever I need to (I recycle most things) and all the fruit I have, I keep in my fridge. I don't have any plants in my house. I read that they are attracted to wine, and they will die by drowning. Sure enough, I poured some wine I didn't like into a glass and kept it by my back door. I'm still catching tons of them and I don't have any more wine open and really don't want to waste a bottle just to catch these stupid flies. I ended up having to dump the wine b/c it started to go bad.

What if Cee-Lo was a Smurf?

After Netflix announcing they are raising their prices, I am even more happy with the ways I watch movies and TV shows. Most of the time I watch the latest movies for free thanks to my monthly Redbox freebie and catch up with TV series and older movies for free from the Boston Public Library. So, when I was talking to my friend who was watching The Smurfs on TV, I’m like “why don’t I rent The Smurfs TV series from the library?” So I did. I picked up Season One, Volume One today. Now, I remember watching The Smurfs on TV while I was a kid. What kid in the 80s doesn’t? But I don’t remember the details, like where they came from. As an adult and over drinks at one of my get-togethers The Smurfs came up and we were talking about where they came from and what they are called in France and Germany. So, I was curious to see how entertaining it would be to watch The Smurfs as an adult. I was disappointed that the case was missing disc one, which was the disc I was hoping to clear up my questions surrounding the creation of the Smurfs and Smurfette. So, after a couple glasses of margaritas, I sat and watched disc two. I’m really glad I did, because I honestly don’t know what made me sit and watch an entire episode of The Smurfs as a kid. Maybe it was because they were cute and I wanted to live in a mushroom.

While I wasn’t laughing at the smurfisodes like I do with episodes of The Family Guy, it didn’t take me long to pick up something hilarious….the use of “smurf”. Smurf is much like F*!%. It is used as an adjective, noun, verb [and probably any of the other grammatical words that I never understood while in school adverbs, etc.]. Anyway, the point is, I was so entertained with how many ways the “smurf” word was used!! And so, when I was taking my shower, my mind wandered and I thought…what if Cee-Lo was a Smurf? And this is what I came up with…

Smurf You! (ok, not the entire song)

I see you smurfin ‘round town

with the Smurfette I love and I’m like,
Smurf you.

Ooo Ooo

I guess the smurf in my pocket

wasn’t enough I’m like

smurf you!

and smurf her too!

I said if I was richer, I’d still be with ya
Ha, now ain’t that some smurf? (ain’t that some smurf)?

I picture the smurf who falls in love with you.

(Oh smurf she’s a smurf digger)

well

(just so you know smurf. Oh, you better watch your smurf!)

Ooooooh

I had myself in giggles (probably from the margaritas, but probably not since I hardly used that much tequila). I think I’m going to start using “smurf “ in my everyday jargon like WTF will now be “What the Smurf!?”! Oh Smurfelstics! will now take the place of “oh shoot!”. “I need some peace and quiet” will now be “I need some smurf and quiet”. I effin’ love it will now read “I smurfin’ love it”.

Anyway, I don’t know why I liked The Smurfs as a kid, and I don’t think I’d be able to watch another disc anytime soon. I was quite bored and ready to fall asleep. I did play a game while watching it, for each smurf I was making them be people I know IRL (in real life).