I seem to have shipped up to Boston

Here I am, back in Boston for the "holidays." I woke up early this morning to catch a MARC commuter train to Baltimore. And from Baltimore I was to drive up with Nakul. Well my karma from waking up on time did not translate into good train schedule luck. The 7:30 train was delayed indefinitely and the 8:30 was outright canceled. I managed to get on an Amtrak and get to Baltimore, which was magical in itself because I had not yet had any coffee. While on the train, I almost kicked the guy in front of me who was listening to a playlist from his phone without any earphones plugged in. In fairness, I probably would have equally vindictive thoughts even if I had coffee, but it made my attitude was quite pronounced this morning. Nakul and I ended up making great time from Baltimore (6 hours) while avoiding most traffic and bad weather.

Since I last updated I've done a whole lot of nothing. Unless you count being at the bar as something. Then I've done a lot of something. For some reason all of my classmates were quite anxious to go drinking after finishing finals. Well who was I to say no? The post-finals party was pretty epic. I will remember it for my relative sobriety compared to everyone else's complete lack of let's say self-control. The word for it is mess. Hilarious mess that I can laugh about even if no one else will remember. Some drunk 1L kept buying everyone drinks, me included. Another drunk 1L bought everyone shots. As I was leaving, my drunk friend tried to buy me a shot which I politely declined. The problem was that he didn't just buy one shot for me, nor two shorts for us to have together. Rather, he bought five shots because he seemed to think that was a rational choice at that point of the night. He spent the next ten minutes trying to pawn some off because it was almost 2 am and (surprise surprise) most people were in no shape for ripping whiskey shots.

4 am is not a good time of day to be awake for. Next time I think its a good idea to play beer dice after closing down a bar, I need to think again.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have not slept well in a good long while. Between regular sleeping issues, a month of finals studying where I have problems shutting down my brain, bar nights, and early mornings, it has been a long haul. I am looking forward to at least three good nights of sleep this vacation. That's my goal. And if my cats wake me up, I will give them the crappy cat food for the entire time I am here, so help me. (Good threat, right?) Three nights - think I can do it? I am honestly not sure if I can. It's a wonder they don't make game shows out of these situations.

Field Sobriety Testing

Someone, I think Ethan, made the astute comment that auto-tune music is going to sound ridiculous to people in a few years. I think it was specifically in reference to the song "Down" by some talentless guy featuring Lil' Wayne. I agree with Ethan, the songs that are popular now are going to be incredibly outdated and just don't have the staying power necessary to go down in history as "good music."

Last night while I was driving home I saw some of the most blatant displays of drunk driving ever. First there was a cab who could not stay in his own lane to save his life. I'm pretty sure he thought that the dotted white line was something to center your car on...and he was even failing at keeping it centered on that. Then there was an SUV which pulled up next to me as the guy in the passenger seat rolled down the window to yell at a pedestrian. At the next red light I was directly behind this SUV when the guy in the passenger seat opened the door and literally fell out of the car holding a McDonalds bag. He got to his feet and stumbled back into the car; then the light turned green and the car took off at about 60 mph, swerving around a bit. I caught up to it at the next red light, and again it took off at 60. Just to show the futility of speeding off, I wanted to catch it at the next one too, but unfortunately I had a turn to make. Unfortunately there wasn't a cop around either. That would have been some fun field sobriety testing.

Yesterday I took my friend Ryan to the airport at 2 in the afternoon. He had a flight at 4 going to California. Around 5 I get a call from him. "Hello?" "Hey man, what are you doing tonight?" "Ummm, well right now I'm about to eat dinner. Why?" I was pretty confused. Why was he asking me if I had plans for the night, or operating his cell phone at 30,000 feet en route to California? "Feel like picking me up at the airport?" Aha! He missed his flight due to...being at the wrong terminal, it turns out. Apparently they have two gates with the same number and, for whatever reason, he didn't realize that there was not a plane waiting to take him to California at that gate. So I picked him up and then took him back to the airport this afternoon for his replacement flight. Three trips to the airport in 24 hours? Score! It's because I love paying tolls.

Perhaps it is only my naivete, but I did not know that Rihanna sampled Michael Jackson in "Please Don't Stop the Music." I was previously unaware, and now feel a bit sheepish. But it's okay sharing it with you, blog, because you journal all my secret thoughts. Oh wait.

Dear Santa

Here it is: Christmas day. Despite having a chimney, I still received nothing from Santa. Why Santa? Oh, because I'm a heathen. I forgot. That's fine, you have little-to-nothing to do with Christianity anyways. We'll call it a draw. Christmas day basically means that I don't get presents, I don't have much to do, and I go out to dinner with my mom at a family friend's house. Eh, I'm fine with it. I'm more excited for tomorrow when everything that didn't get bought in the pre-Christmas present rush goes on sale. Yeah, tomorrow is my time to do gift shopping. There's no reason to abide by a strict December 25th deadline.

A couple of nights ago I went to see some comedy with Ron and Shaked. The highlight joke of the night was probably "Once I was the youngest baby in the world." And then later, "My son was the youngest baby in the world too. I think it runs in the family." That night was also absolutely freezing. Welcome back to Boston. I'm not complaining, I know it happens. But my feet were freezing the entire comedy show. It could have had something to do with the fact that we were in the attic of a Chinese food restaurant and it was about ten degrees outside. Yesterday was about 30; it was practically beach weather.

I think I need to buy long underwear or something. But the concept of it is so unappealing. Who wears it? I have no idea how prevalent it is. But I do have an idea that its weird, but warm. We may find ourselves at an impasse. Classic comfort vs. style problem.

I love driving, particularly after not having a car in DC. But I'm worried I've gone soft a little. Shaked commented to me that I've lost some edge to it. I'd like to blame it on me being tired (which I am and was), but I have a fear of losing my Bostonian driving abilities. It is something I pride myself on. I require that ability to sniff out weakness on the road, to exploit someone's momentary hesitation, to cut off a BMW because I know they are more afraid of damaging their car than I am of damaging mine. Man, I really want a car. Though preferably one that doesn't make crazy noises, take forever to heat up, and have no air conditioning this time, unlike my old car.

Dear Earth,
Can you please adjust your rotation so that the day includes daylight. If I could get to see more than 3 hours of natural light a day, that would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Sincerely,
My longitude and latitude