What a Jet Setter

I don't really know what a jet-setter is, but I know the first time I heard it was on a tv commercial in South Africa in Beautiful Downtown Jane Furse at the humble abode of the good Doctor Tom Barker.  

(I did a quick search for a youtube video of the commercial, but all I found was this, which is not the commercial I had seen, but is entertaining nonetheless)

But I digress.  Terribly.  

I have been on the move the past 2 days, stepping up into the world of "Those Who Are Employed" as well as "20-somethings Who No Longer Live With Their Parents".  Moving up this rung on the social ladder has it's upsides and downsides.  I won't get into either, but it's nice to be starting a different chapter of my life now.  

I left good ol' Long Island early Saturday morning after a fantastic Friday evening spent with two beautiful friends, Allie and Brianne.  We made a fire, drank red wine, and ate chocolate ganache and cookie dough ice cream.  If there is a better way to spend a nite at home, I don't know what it is.  

Mmmm... Chocolate ganache

 

I got to NYC around 10 am, and stood outside Madison Square Garden watching an amateur Mormon church choir of about 40 people sing hymns into a single microphone.  They were not very good, even for an amateur choir.  In fact, they sounded like someone took the most awkward and untalented people from every junior high school in northwestern Utah, assembled them for this NYC gig, and told them to make up the words (and notes) as they went along.  

No comment.  They weren't very good.  

 

They even spiced up their sets by preaching about Jesus in between every single song.  The people they picked for the preaching job were all men - men who obviously had never been in front of a microphone in their life before, and who also all needed a cheat sheet to remember the lines they were preaching...

"So remember... my... friends.  Earthly friends will turn their back... on you.  But... if you want an... if you want an eternal friend, you always have a friend in... in... Jesus."  

Practice makes perfect I guess.  

I took the Bolt Bust up to Boston around 11, and sat next to a nice girl named Michelle who plays cello in an "indie-rock, folk, punk" band called Kittens Ablaze.  She was good company for the trek up, and we had some good conversation, except for the time period when I fell asleep hanging over into the aisle, blocking people's routes to the bathroom in the back of the bus.  I woke up with a terrible crick in my neck and back, and a line of about 5 people waiting to get past.  

I was stoked to use the internet on the bus - what a cool thing to do!  I opened up my laptop and started to check emails, look at photos on facebook, and edit some photos of my own.  The only problem for me (as I found out) is that I can't look at the screen too long in a moving vehicle - my eyes start to bug out, I get dizzy and I start to get a headache and feel funny in my stomach.  

Kinda like what happens when I see a really really pretty girl walking towards me.

I'm still going to try the internet thing again the next bus ride I take.  I can't resist the idea of being online in a situation where the former form of entertainment was playing rock, paper, scissors with my brother for hours on end during car rides to see distant relatives.  Now I can even research RPS strategy while on a bus and kick my brother's ass next time!  

I arrived in Boston and hopped on the T to go drop my bags off at my good friend Ben's place.  

Ben, studying Spanish

 

Ben (aka BenJAMMIN') is one of my most favourite people in the world.  I haven't seen Ben since the day after we graduated.  That was 3 years ago.  

After getting a bit lost in Brighton while lugging my 4 bags around (yea, I was that guy, in a new city), I found myself at Ben's place.

But Ben wasn't home.  He was climbing a mountain in New Hampshire.  

Typical.  

I dropped off my bag, wrote Ben a short note, and hopped back on the T.

Love note to Benjammin'

 

I was on my way to see good ol' Boston Jen.  She's from Boston.  

Jenny picked me up at the T, and after handing me a snack pack and water (she intuitively knew I was hungry and dehydrated) drove me to a friend's graduation party.  Jen just graduated from law school at Suffolk, and I met a lot of her very awesome friends and laughed with them until my face hurt from smiling.  

Me, Boston Jen, and Nate, circa New Years 2004-2005

 

We went back to Jen's house early in the nite.  Her parents' house was totally "baller" - as the kids say.  Her dad designed the house and her mother decorated the whole thing.  It was by far one of the nicest and most comfortable houses I've ever been in.  I'll have to take some pictures of it next time I'm there.  

We watch Spiderman 3 (which I liked quite a bit actually) and then crashed hard.  

Today we relaxed on the hammock outside, I showed Jen some pictures of my time at Escuela Helen Keller in Guadalajara (which I have yet to post up here), and she drove me to the airport shuttle around 12:30.  

My flight was pretty much cake.  I ate a small bag of peanuts and had some apple juice.

Had some Indian food a little earlier, and now am getting ready to crash before my first day of training tomorrow.  

I'll be posting more throughout the week.  I'll try to get some pictures from Escuela Helen Keller up in a few days.  

That, ladies and gentlemen, is all he wrote.

Goodnite.

-JoeySee