Boston!

Jeff and I spent last weekend in Boston - it was a great trip! We decided to drive up, despite the bad omen of the car breaking down at the end of our previous weekend-trip. Also, since we were borrowing his mom's Prius for this trip, we were more confident in the car's ability to survive.

The driving part was fun - it's about 8 hours from DC to Boston, and that's plenty of time for Jeff and I to discuss everything from our childhood Halloween costumes to the merits of out-lawing all advertising. (In summary, I dressed up as a princess, a fairy, and a fairy princess, while Jeff dressed up as a "fat guy" three years in a row... and though we know it isn't practical, we're still deciding whether or not advertising in general should be legal, and if so, what rules it should have to follow.)

It was great to be back in the city - Jeff hasn't seen it since he left to come to DC, so he was really excited. We stayed at Theta Xi, and hung around with all of the people there. Since they change rooms and arrangements every semester, everything was surprisingly familiar - you get used to the house in general, not to specific furniture lay-outs or things like that. It was a cool experience to go back to the dorm-style living with lots of people for a few days. You see your friends so much more often when they're across the hall with the door open, and when you know they're over there trying to think of ways to procrastinate, too. When you move out to the city, you get the benefits of having your own cool apartment and all the freedom and privacy that comes along with it, but you miss out on a lot of the impromptu "hanging out" that happens in college.

It was cool to meet the new pledges at Jeff's house, too. After being around for 5 years of rush, it was strange to think there was a new class of students that you've never met. I also met a lot of freshmen who had been in FAP (Freshman Arts Preorientation Program). I was a counselor for the program for two years, and a coordinator my senior year - I wrote a number of the activities that they do during the program - but, of course, these freshman had no idea who I was or that I had ever been involved in FAP at all. Such a weird feeling to be around familiar places and talk about familiar programs, but have all the new stuff and people mixed in.

We were in town the weekend of the blacklight party at Jeff's fraternity. That turned out to be a great plan, because a lot of the people we might not have otherwise seen were over to the house on Saturday night. It was so fun to see everybody and hear what they're up to. I'm really hoping Jeff and I can manage to stay in touch with people.

We also saw some of the people from my year - specifically Janet, Liz, Jess and Sam. That was great since Janet moved to Boston right after I moved away and we never got to actually hang out. Janet, Liz, Jeff and I had dinner at a Brazilian BBQ place in Inman Square (which is getting to be a really cool area), and then went back to their apartment where we had great blueberry tea and saw Jess and Sam.

So lots more happened over the weekend and I'm sure I could write more about it, but this week is going to be a little crazy - I have four papers due by Thursday (two of which are due in 2.5 hours). If I enjoyed writing about the national system of innovation as much as I enjoy writing about my trip to Boston, I'd probably be fine, but since that's not the case, I better get back to work and make the most of the 2.5 hours I have left.