Meet Lawrence

Lawrence: My hair is so oily! It's like my scalp produces oil or something.

Me: (Turning to him with the are-you-serious-look) It does. (Proceeds to laugh hysterically.)

Meet my "future MIT PhD in Computational and Systems Biology "boyfriend. During this oily hair conversation we had the other night, he argued that only girls were privy to the fact that the scalp produces oil since girls have enough hair to be able to notice. Again, this is after he notices how oily his own hair is. He keeps me on my toes. :)

Happy Birthday, Lawrence!

Yesterday was Lawrence's 23rd Birthday. I threw him a surprise dinner at Redbones in Davis Square, Somerville. The picture just about sums up the night. :) Thanks to everyone who came out and made it a special night!

Rain Rain Won't Go Away

It's been raining in Boston and New England for basically the last two weeks with the exception of a sunny weekend on May 5 and 6. I haven't been able to ride my bike properly (yes yes, laugh for those who don't respect Caliente, my purple, 30 year old Schwinn road bike), play tennis, or even throw a frisbee around. It's been miserable and will continue to be for a forecasted fortnight! I am beginning to understand why people in Alaska are much more likely to become depressed during the months where they see little to no sunlight.

Still, I don't have it nearly as bad as those in Massachusetts and New Hampshire suburbs north of Boston. Yesterday over 10 inches of rain fell in Lynn, Massachusetts. I think only 6 inches or so fell in the metro Boston area. Had this been a snowstorm, such a downpour would have constituted 10 feet of snow, assuming one inch of rain translates into one foot of snow. Rivers are overflowing and basements are completely flooded. National states of emergency have been declared in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and a county of Maine. This rain will continue, on and off, for another two weeks.

Hopefully, none of the flooding will hit Cambridge. Expect me to blog often as long as the rain continues this way. I'll have nothing better to do. :)

In the Midst of Maine - Part Deux

So about Portland. Lawrence and I ended up seeing little to none of it. We fell asleep early (i.e. 7PM) on Monday after seeing the sunrise at 5AM. Then on Tuesday, it was raining. We ended up going to the NCURA dinner where we had an all-you-can-eat lobster dinner and each got 2 free drinks. We hung out with probably the only other 3 people at the conference in their 20s. It was a great time; we definitely made our own fun that night. I'm going to highlight a few of the bright moments of the night.

1) I had 4 Long Island Iced Teas and a cranberry vodka. 2 of the Long Islands were free. The other two were at half price since I bartered some lobster from the buffet with the bartender.

2) Lawrence had 4 lobsters and can't remember how many drinks he had.

3) Lawrence and I smuggled some lobsters and strawberry shortcake out as we were leaving the dinner after already being told that those lobsters "are not for you". I discretely sneaked out the food under my jacket as I stumbled over chairs.

4) Lawrence punted strawberry shortcake across a parking lot unknowingly.

5) One of the guys we hung out with is a firefighter in Harlem and grew up on Staten Island! He and I just kept saying "Staaaaten Islaaaand" and followed it up with high fives the whole time.

6) Lawrence and I don't remember much of the bar we went to after the dinner.

7) We walked back to the hotel, 2 avenues away from the bar, with lobsters in hand and in the pouring rain. We were dressed in business casual clothing and thought we had to look sober as we were walking on the street and through the hotel lobby. Obviously, no one cared, but we tried really really hard to look sober.

Good times. :) On Wednesday, we were pretty hung over. We couldn't be bothered to drive down the picturesque coast of Maine on the way back to Boston. We're lucky we even checked out of the hotel on time and made it back to Boston unscathed. Next time we go to Portland, Lawrence and I actually want to see the town, not just the bars. We didn't get to play tennis, ride the extensive bike paths around Portland, or try any of the great restaurants. Still, nothing beats a drunken night on the town. It was definitely a perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

In the Midst of Maine

Maine is a beautiful state. The forests, the coastline, the quaint towns, the super nice people and L.L. Bean :) have made my mini-vacation, which I am in the midst of, just splendid.

This trip started on a whim idea to come up early to Maine. I had to attend an NCURA conference in Portland, Maine on behalf of my firm from Monday-Wednesday. (I'm actually at the conference, typing this up instead of attending a conference session, but whatever. :) I'm representing the firm, which is a "gold sponsor" at the conference; I basically hand out marketing materials hoping someone will engage us in some business. Someone tried to pick me up at the last conference I attended for the firm, so we'll see how this one turns out. ) Lawrence and I were hoping to go on a cycling/camping trip this weekend, so we just decided to come up early and explore Maine a bit.

We decided to go to Freeport, home of the L.L. Bean retail store that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! The store's door doesn't even have locks- out of control. Freeport had the cheapest camping we could find around Portland. We arrived Saturday evening with just enough daylight to set up our tent. We went into town and stopped at the massive L.L. Bean store, where they had all the tote bags and backpacks you could ever want, and they could all be monogrammed in 5 minutes. We then went to the supermarket to buy some food supplies, i.e. smores supplies, and headed back to our campsite.
True to form, Lawrence and I decided to cook dinner with light only from our Discovery Channel lantern and flashlights, all of which had dying batteries as their only juice. (We like to make things more challenging than they have to be- like our entire roadtrip around France. See Lawrence's blog for more information.) We made tacos. The beef took an hour to cook since it was so windy and the flame couldn't quite heat the pan properly, and it only takes 15 minutes usually. We could barely keep a campfire going, and the Hershey's chocolate bar we bought was too thick to be melted by a hot marshmallow, but we had a great time. :) I've never seen the moonlight actually light up the area; living in crowded, urban areas, I live by the lights on the street, not the moon, at night. The stars were so plentiful in the sky. The air was fresh. It was a welcome change from crowded Boston.

The next day, we went on a lovely bike trip from Freeport to Brunswick, home of Bowdoin College, for over 20 miles round trip. We stopped by Wolfe's Neck State Park where we saw a beautiful coastline with oddly shaped rocks as terrain and an ospry breeding ground. We passed by several farms and quaint Maine houses, and just about everyone we passed on the way to Brunswick stopped to say hello. We made it to Brunswick where we walked around the town and at a restaurant called Somethings Fishy, a hole in the wall seafood joint whose food just hit the spot after a 10 mile bike ride over rolling hills. We went to the local flea market and antiques store before heading back to Freeport. We took a different route back, which had some really tough hills. I only had to walk my bike up three of them, and for those three, I made it most of the way up on my bike. When we got back to Freeport, Lawrence and I discovered that my misaligned brakes had been on the whole time! I didn't notice because the roads of Maine are not well maintained, so I thought the resistance was normal. I was incredulous that I climbed so many hills with my brakes on and didn't feel so bad about walking up those three hills!

We switched campsites and set up our tent along the shore. By then it was dark, and we had learned our lesson the other night about cooking in the dark, so we went to a random Thai restaurant in the area, which was surprisingly good. Stuffed, we headed back to the campsite where we of course had another fire and made more smores. It was sooo cool to camp by the water. We camped on the shores of a bay that lead into the Atlantic. The next morning, we decided to wake up to see the sunrise, which was an early 5:23AM. Lawrence made yet another campfire, and we watched the sunrise over the tree-lined horizon of the shores of the bay. It was beautiful. We decided to keep the fire going until about 9:00AM. We then sat on the beach, which was a good 20 feet lower than the campsite, and skipped stones across the water. It was idyllic.

We then drove to Portland, Maine, where we are now. Portland is quaint and funky and so unprententious. We've already had some delicious sushi and met some interesting people. We have another couple days here and are excited to explore the town. Apparently tennis and cycling are a big deal here and the seafood restaurants are authentic, so we're already psyched.

23 and No Longer Counting

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate my birthday last weekend! Between bar hopping in the pouring rain and painting pottery late at night, I had such a great time. :) Lawrence and I have been inspired to move back to New York ASAP. :)

Although I had a great time, birthdays don't matter as much to me as they used to. As a child, I was always so excited to tack on another year to my name; it was purely a sign of status. In high school, every birthday marked another year closer to getting my driver's license. In college, birthdays were the countdown to the day I could legally buy alcohol without having to worry about being turned away or bother my 21 year old friends for a liquor trip. Now that I've turned 23, what do I have to look forward to- renting a car? Not so monumental.

Now, there aren't really any life events that are standard for everyone at the same time; it's not like you turn 25 and automatically get married. Once out of college (and arguably out of high school), every one goes their own way in life. Getting married, having children, going to some sort of graduate school, and working are just some of the things that vary for everyone. There's really nothing that binds people of the same age once standard schooling is over.

As a child, I wanted to zip through the years and get older. For most of high school, I couldn't wait to get to college. For most of college, I couldn't wait to graduate. (My senior years of both, of course, are the exception. You never want something to end while it's actually ending.) There was always something to look forward to. For me, I think it was always about the independence. Turning 17, I was able to drive on my own and get around without grubbing a ride or taking the bus. Being 18 marked the first time I lived on my own at college. At 21, I could buy my own drinks at my convenience. Now, I forget that I'm 23- partly out of denial and partly because I'm about as independent as I can get. There is no longer any particular age that marks any sort of significant event left for me, except maybe retirement at 65, but that's too far away for me to even comprehend.

If anything, now I just want to slow my life down and enjoy every minute. Perhaps that's what birthdays are all about now for me, a yearly reminder to live my life to the fullest. Tonight, for example, Lawrence and I are both swamped with work and errands, but we're still going to an Aqualung concert, whose music we love. He's playing at a small theatre 10 minutes from our house, and we're not sure when we'd get to see him next. It was appropriate that my birthday is what inspired Lawrence and me to move home to New York as soon as we can. We know that we'll eventually settle in NY, but we'd be sad if the few years we were actually away from NY were the best ones we could have spent there- just living it up with friends before settling down with real responsibilities.

Although birthdays no longer serve as a milestone for other significant events, I do feel that being in my 20s puts me in my prime. I have barely started my life after all. :) I've just been in the workforce one year, and who knows what will come my way next. Plus, my birthdays are still fun and full of alcohol. :) Yup, I'm riding this wave for as long as I can.