Boston - Friday

On Friday night, I went to meet Emily at her bus and Erika at her subway T stop and as it turned out, they both arrived at the exact same moment on the same corner. Brilliant! The evening was chillier than I had imagined, and I only had short sleeves (since I didn't pack as well as I'd thought) but I was armed with the fleece sweatshirt that I got from the conference, just in case. Luckily, once we were walking around I didn't need it and no blatant corporate promotion was issuing from my outerwear. Brilliant.

After hugs and a brief catch-up on the busy corner, we headed over to Newbury Comics to check out the latest issue of the Darkness [plug!] and also a fine selection of Japanese toys in a "blind box" (you don't know what you're getting until you open it). Are you addicted to these things yet? They're so goddamn ridiculous that I will gladly empty my bank account to see which tiny animal thing I will end up with. (I know Kate's got my back.) I blame Scary Girl for getting me started down this dark path of endless plastic toy consumption. I ended up buying myself a tiny scene where I was hoping to score an isty bitsy orange cat and instead got a ferret knocking over bansai trees. I have no idea what it means. I got Ryan a Devilrobot that has these big funky duck lips. On our way over to the hotel to drop off Erika's overnight bag (and my new stash of toys) we got stopped on the street by a man soliciting donations for homeless youth that was absolutely smitten with Emily. She has these fantastically gorgeous blue eyes (none of her pictures are enhanced - they're just that beautiful!) and he was mesmerized and when he shook her hand, he couldn't let go. It was funny and a little unnerving. But he was nice enough and kept flashing his ID card to prove that he was legit. All the same, we ran across the street as soon as the light turned green.

Then we headed over to Tapeo for some tapas, which were fantastic. We had mango margaritas and all kinds of delicious things. The octopus was fantastic but was also more than a little bit phallic. I got the end of a tentacle that looked like the end of a wiener. I pretended it didn't and ate it fast. I was trying to behave myself but was also super glad that Emily was freaked out by a small part that she'd try to eat that looked like a tiny penis. Not glad that she was freaked out, but glad that I wasn't the only one wary of eating penises. The sizzling garlic shrimp were awesome and the warm goat cheese is heavenly. We also had a spread of fresh green olives and garlicky chicken and bread with hummus spread and I think there was something else... we ate it all so quickly that it's kind of a blur.



The surrounding neighborhood is gorgeous and everything, everywhere is red brick. I kept nerding out on it and the Local was like 'uh, yeah, it's pretty much all pretty like that' but humored my out-the-window photography just the same. After over-indulging at Tapeo, we walked down Newbury Street and did a little shopping. We went into Lush, where the scent was overwhelming and the jelly soaps kind of freaked us out a bit. We also browsed through Paperchase, and I ended up buying more stuff for myself, including an adorable laptop bag (different pattern than shown on the website) and matching iPod case - both 75% off!

After some more full-belly shopping, everyone was a little tired so we got Emily a cab and decided to reign it in for the night. The original plan was that Erika and I would go to bed early, maybe watch a cheesy movie on cable and then go to sleep. Instead, we went to the hotel bar and ordered dessert: cheesecake and s'mores. I didn't take a picture, but I should have. Man, those s'mores were awesome. While we were there a sudden flood of Prom kids rushed into the hotel. I don't know where they came from or where they were going, but there had to be 100 of them. When we were done eating, we went out front and watched more kids come in. This group outside was looking in vain for a restaurant that was essentially right next door to the hotel, but they were all so drunk that they were stumbling around and trying to get a cab driver to take them. It was hilarious to watch but also a little off-putting. I guess since I was a NERD in high school (was?) and didn't get smashed at Prom, I just felt a little sorry for them. Because they were so dramatic and annoying, the cabbies all refused to drive them (when they could have just walked anyway) but it was great people watching. It reminded me of the Sunny episode where they let the high schoolers drink at the bar, and even though no one is really drunk, they all act super drunk and dramatic.

Back in the room, we settled in and got cozy in our beds and said that we were going to sleep, but stayed up like little girls at a slumber party chatting about this and that. For like 3 hours. And when we finally, really, actually turned off the lights to go to sleep I started getting text messages from west coast people so my phone would loudly vibrate across the desk and make this awful BRRRTTT noise that sounded like a fart. We'd start laughing and wake up a little. It was a good time, though. So thanks Mark for the levity.