July 29, 2006 - 8:41 AM

Top 10 Best and Worst

It's been almost three weeks since I last posted, I know. And a week since I got back from my trip. But here you go, finally, the long awaited return entry.

TOP 10 BEST AND WORST THINGS ABOUT MY TRIP!

10 (best): Hanging out in Harvard Square, eating reallly good vegetarian pizza at Club Passim and sanity-saving ice cream from Herrell's with my old friend Tashasquasha. Catching up is so much better in person than over email.
10 (worst): The commuter rail train ride from Framingham into Boston earlier that day. It was delayed by a half hour, and when we got on, we learned the reason for the holdup- no electricity and no air conditioning for the passenger cars. Ass monkeys.

9 (best): Finally getting to Camden Yards again with Nick and Mark to see the Orioles play after probably at least 10 years of absence, and meeting my bloggy friend Barb and chatting it up with her for a few innings. Happy birthday Colin!
9 (worst): Everything else about that night at Camden Yards, starting with the score- Texas 15, Orioles 1. Sitting in a section where there was no air circulation. Finding out that Boog's Barbecue isn't all that. Seeing so many empty seats. The annoying kids and adults around us. 15 to 1.

8 (best): Pool party and games at Pam's!
8 (worst): Pool party portion not starting until after 8 PM, when the sun was already setting. I mean, c'mon Pam, you waste a perfectly good hot day which is BEGGING for some pool action by waiting inside until it's evening before jumping in the pool? Sacrilege!

7 (best): Having chili dogs for dinner with my sister and her hubby Gee, then going in to Boston to have dessert at Finale.
7 (worst): Having my sister's car conk out on the drive back home, necessitating me and Gee pushing it a few hundred yards into a parking lot and waiting for his brother-in-law to come and jump start it.

6 (best): With the heatwave breaking, enjoying Boston at its best. Having lunch with my friend Hanneke, walking along Newbury Street, and reading on a bench in Copley Square.
6 (worst): Boston at its trafficky worst, with the ted williams tunnel fucking things up when I went to the airport. I had two choices to get to the airport- 1)take the Orange Line to the Blue Line, and then ride the bus to the correct terminal or 2)take the Orange Line to the Silver Line, which is a bus system that goes directly to all the terminals. I opted for the Silver Line. Big mistake. Because of tunnel closings, the Silver Line bus ended up traveling in a big, hour-long loop around downtown Boston before depositing us AT the Blue Line. I then had to wait for 4 trains to pass before I could squeeze onto the next one because no one would squeeze together in the middle to make room for more passengers. A journey that shouldn't have taken more than an hour ended up taking more than 2 hours, and as a result I almost missed the boarding time for my plane. When i checked in, the counter person was very persnickety with me, scolding me for being so late ("but I left 3 hours before my flight time...I can't help it if traffic..." "well, you should have accounted for traffic." "but I didn't know that the T would be all messed up..." "...*scornful look*" "I'm sorry that I was late") and made a little show of calling the gate to make sure that I hadn't screwed everything up by being such a tardy retard.
Of course, it turns out that the plane was actually late in coming in, and left a half hour late. Ass.

5 (best): Cuban food, mojitos, and beers with my brother's sister-in-law, Elin, in DC. She's ridiculously awesome. And beautiful. And cool. She's a lawyer for the National Parks, but she would rather be a personal shopper. Yeah, she's the bomb.
5 (worst): Realizing what a raw deal their family got when Phil and Jen got married. I mean, we totally scored by gaining Jen and Elin and their brother Pat and his adorable daughters and the rest of their family. But what did they get? A buncha funny Koreans. How unfair is that?

4 (best): Learning and seeing what a freak about pandas Y really is. That girl really needs some therapy about this. She's a copyright lawyer and she wants to be a panda scientist. Hell, she wants to BE a panda.
4 (worst): Enduring gut-wrenching, soul-drenching heat at the zoo in DC, and only getting to see the butt of a panda. The icees at the end of the day were good, though.

3 (best): Eating steamed blue crabs, Maryland style. Big, juicy, meaty crabs, lovingly crusted with Old Bay seasoning, dipped in Apple Cider Vinegar, and washed down with iced tea.
3 (worst): Only eating 6 crabs at most and seeing 10 left over, dying to be cracked open and have their flesh sucked out. And realizing that, as I was feasting on these tortured crustaceans, I was being feasted upon by mosquitos.

2 (best): Spending Sunday at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor with Phil, Jen, their friend Eric, and two beautiful New Zealand girls.
2 (worst): The 3 hours before the waterpark fun in the amusement park section, as we only rode a half dozen rides and baked to a brauny sheen. And the torture of having to listen to those cute girls talking in those wonderful accents...if ever there was a girl to crush on, these two were them. And of course, I'll never see them again because one works at Harvard and the other in London. They were very nice, by the way.

1 (best): Air Conditioning!
1 (worst): HEAT!

More to come later. And explanations as to why I've been so late with an update.

Now Listening To : Gabriel Mann- Gabriel Mann
Random Thought : Date today!

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