Christina on Greece

Maria: How was Greece?!

Christina: Girl it was fantastic. It was amazing.

Maria: Man. I'm jealous.

Christina: It's so... different there! I mean. Men are actually... respectful! What happened to guys here?

Maria: Haha I have no idea.

Christina: ... Girl I don't think men wax their eyebrows there.

Maria: What? Do guys do that here?

Christina: I meannnn..... Their eyebrows. There were some hairy, hairy men there.

Maria: Well. Greeks ARE notoriously hairy.

Thanks for calling, Jess and Christina!

The rest of you... get dialling.

This Winter Wonderland is ruining my life.

I am FINALLY finished!!!! No more finals!!!! Now, all I have to do is get to Michigan. Which may be more difficult than I imagined.



Michelle was supposed to fly out tonight but her flight was canceled... Then her re-booked flight for tomorrow morning was canceled... So tonight I will be having nightmares of Logan Airport packed with angry students and old people. I am not a very patient person when traveling. I get claustrophobic sometimes. This is not a good combination.

If I weren't flying out tomorrow I'd be loving this snow storm!



It's a winter wonderland!



Christina! My dark little snow angel!



Fed Steve for the third time since he arrived this afternoon (not including snacks) and he's out.

When Thanksgiving bites back.

Thanksgiving Feast #1: Devoured with great success.

Tara decided it would be mandatory to host a Thanksgiving party in our room. She organized it. I helped.

Long live Team Taria.



I lobbied to enforce a strict "Pilgrim or Indian" dress code but the only one who complied was Meesh. (Who was lovingly referred to as a "NavaHO" for the rest of the night.)



The initial thought of 20 people in our tiny apartment was a little daunting but the preparation was fun. We were a little worried there wouldn't be enough food but ALAS! We have a fridge full of delicious Thanksgiving leftovers. Including but not limited to:

The remainder of the divine 20 lb turkey Brian carved after Noelle cooked:



... and delivered atop a shopping cart contraption:



Delicious ricotta stuffed shells thanks to my mom's recipe and my mad cooking $killz:





Heath Bar/Pudding/Cake Mass of Heaven (that I've been told I have to recreate when I get home):




While standing at our massive buffet of scrumptious food...



... Noelle and I both eyed the corn bowl.

Noelle: Wellp. Everyone'll be seeing that later tonight.

The wine was fantastic. The food was fantastic. The company was fantastic. And in true Family-Holiday-Gathering form, the night ended in injury.

I stood in the kitchen frantically washing the growing pile of dirty dishes. Reached for the aluminum can opener Tara used for the cranberry sauce. Tried to quickly scrub it with a sponge. Instead sliced open my thumb and watched as the blood poured. I left it under water watching the red fall into the drain while repeating Tara's name until she came over, dialled her mom and announced my injury.

Christina sprung to my rescue.

Christina: Girl. Sit down.
Maria: I'm fine.
Christina: GIRL. SIT. Elevate your hand and press this towel against it.

For a second I thought I'd lose my thumb. But I just ended up with this little cut. Which is a lot more badass in real life.





So glad I'll have a scar to remember our first ever Big Girl Party!

Weekend Update: Dating is not dead.

Just when I was starting to give up hope on single life in Boston, I met a genuinely nice guy who surprised me and proved that people still go on dates.

So last weekend I met this guy at Jake Ivory's. Let's call him J. We talked the whole night, made fun of people, danced a little... It was a good time. The bar closed and he asked for my number, so I gave it to him and by Thursday he had asked me out on a date.

I told my mom about this date and felt the repercussions shortly thereafter. My dad sent me an e-mail with a subject line, "So, he's interested in my daughter now, is he?" and with two attachments, the Rules for Dating my Daughter and the Application to Date my Daughter, which I re-posted below. The same day, I received the following text from my youngest brother:

"Maria. Tell J to watch his back when I'm there cause I built a special shank that has his name written all over it."

Saturday rolled around and J brought me to Joshua Tree for some drinks. Totally different experience going on a night other than Thursday, when the bar is usually full of the same BU kids you see every Thursday. We got a table, ordered some drinks and talked about life. UFC matches were on and Murilo Rua (who's photo below some of you may recognize from my desktop) and Andrei Arlovski were fighting so I was happy. Of course the only person most of the people cared about was Kimbo Slice who lost after about 10 seconds. Didn't even get to put up a fight. It was extremely disappointing. But I digress.




That was a great first date for me. We hung out, drank some beers and watched some fighting. He drove me home and asked if I would want to hang out again. I said no. His face dropped as he said, "...what?" which I followed up with, ".. just kidding.." Mom said it was too early to joke. I can't help it though. The situation was tense and I needed to break it up a little. So I guess if I didn't scare him we may go on another date. Or something. Who knows.

On my way home, Joe and I had the following exchange of texts:

Maria: I'm back from my date. We watched the Kimbo Slice match at a bar.
Joe: How'd he do?
Maria: He lost in ten f-ing seconds it was ridiculous. His eye got split open.
Joe: Not Kimbo bitch. The kid you went with.

This morning I received the following e-mail from my father:

Well, where are the completed forms? The review committee has been waiting since last night to begin the evaluation!

The committee decided I am allowed to go on a second date, so stay tuned...



In other news.

Friday was fantastic. Erin, Katie and I went to go see Beautiful Lies play at Berklee. I hadn't seen Dave play in a while so that was fun. After the show we went to Phil's apartment to party with the band. We kept hitting our heads on underwear hanging from some hangers. The undies were either not dry or decoration supplemental to a Bill Cosby sweater and random squirrel figurines propped up on speakers and sinks.

I always forget how much I hate gin. It tastes like Christmas. But instead of leaving presents, all you get in the morning is a raging hangover. Damn you Katie!

The quote of the night occurred while Katie, four of the boys and I were squashed in the kitchen taking shots.

Katie: What would your personal physical manifestation of weather be? Mine is drizzly.
(Silence)
Maria: ... Thunder and lightening.

Love those boys.

Saturday after the date I met Noelle and Christina at Tequila Rain. It was pretty fun. A group of guys started talking to us. One was wearing a Tap Out shirt so I asked if he watched the match earlier that night. He said yes and that he was an MMA fighter himself so we talked about fighint for the rest of the night. Saturday made me want to go watch my brothers fight. Hopefully that will happen some time soon.

Noelle stole the hat of one of the fighter's friends and danced around throwing up signs like she was part of the Korean Killers.




The bar shut down and hat-boy, who Noelle named Jersey even though he was from Florida, ran to say goodbye to us and slipped and fell flat on his ass. We had to tell Noelle today that the kid actually fell and was not break dancing. Poor girl felt cheated.

As we exited Tequila Rain, Noelle shouted,

"WELL! We sure got our money's worth!"

People send me ridiculous texts.

Aug 25 Joe: Pick a movie time turd stain.

Aug 28 Katie: Wo bist du meine sugarmuffin?

Aug 28 Nichole: You find a cheap flight I'm there quicker than B Spears can eat a cheeto. Hope your bed in a bag is fierce.

Aug 30 Evan: I mean the characters going into Fenway Park are RIDICULOUS.

Aug 30 Evan: Uh Oh. Better not do anything shady unless your shades are drawn!

Sept 2 Evan: Ugh I can't drink. I'm literally about to die. I thought my liver had failed me earlier today.

Sept 3 James: We only have two weeks to get this green card.

Sept 5 Erin: No pain no gain hahha.

Sept 8 Noelle: Don't stress don't stress don't stress. Just tell him to the left left left.

Sept 10 Noelle: Life is a whore and so are you.

Sept 10 Christina: Girl! Life's weird... And so are you!

Sept 12 Dad: Good things happen to good people.

Sept 15 Joe: Woman I will whoop your old ass all over the place.

Sept 15 Noelle: Wanna boop later?

Sept 17 Me: Make me some food wench. Noelle: Suck my peg leg.

Like sand through the hour glass...

The general consensus seems to be that no one in the class of '09 can comprehend the fact that we are now seniors. People have serious internships, are starting to worry about jobs, money, life after college, what happens next...

BUT it's not THAT close yet.

Our mantra, the oh-so-cliche-but-necessary, "work hard, play hard" has been in full force. This was the best weekend ever. By Sunday I felt pretty tired but the excitement induced an adrenaline rush that resulted in hundreds of pages being read. So then I decided that I want to be able to say every weekend was the best weekend ever. Since I returned to Boston about two weeks ago, I've been able to say that. I guess I'm on track!

FRIDAY

Umbrella Today told me I should probably bring an umbrella with me. So I did.

I finally met the other intern at work. She's pretty awesome. We bonded over lunch in the Prudential Center. We share similar views on Boston, the dating scene and our love of all things free.

After work I turned in my 41 page summer internship report. On the cover I displayed one of my tasks as an intern this summer: Have my photo taken while kissing some Astra.



While at Kinkos having my report printed on beautiful glossy paper, I ran into an old classmate from sophomore year who was doing the same. He gave me a ride home. I was very happy I didn't have to walk, considering it was about to rain.

I napped for an extensive period of time (after reading about ritual in Bali) and woke up just in time to get ready for an evening out.

Friday's destination? Gypsy.

The crowd was very diverse, ranging from half naked college girls to middle-aged business men awkwardly bouncing under the lasers to techno and rap mash-ups. The music was a fantastic mix of Top 40s, 90s, oldies, rock and techno. Their choice to close the night with Build Me Up Buttercup was interesting, but it worked.

Did I mention Gypsy was voted Boston's best pickup bar?

It was, in fact, no such thing. I say this while reliving a rather awkward scene toward the end of the night. The girls and I created a large dance circle in the middle of the floor and were dancing (or in my case... attempting to dance) when all of a sudden I felt a tap on my hip. I clenched my fist and whipped around to find a man exactly one foot shorter than I with a huge grin on his face beckoning me to be his dance partner. I respectfully declined laughed in his face, waved my hand to signal "I don't think so" and returned to the dance circle.

Similar situations repeated through the night.

Strange Russian man: (To Christina and I) Do you girls want to dance? I'm a bouncer here on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Me: That's nice. We're going to need a minute, actually, if you could leave.

(Some European-looking man approaches the circle and opens his mouth to speak.)
Noelle: (Puts up hand) No thank you.

Later that night we spent some quality time with the Irish. Hilarity ensued.


SATURDAY

Exhaustion lead to a two hour nap on the couch, mouth agape, while Noelle and Michelle worked on homework at the kitchen table.

Revived, we headed to Banana Republic for the 40% Friends and Family discount graciously bestowed upon us by our favorite BR employee, Jess. Christina tried on the entire store and flattered the cashier endlessly as she discounted every item Christina threw at her.

We shopped. Almost dropped due to starvation. Noelle, Christina and I rushed Champions and ordered most of the menu. Even though we were the only table of girls (large male Red Sox fans dominated the area) we ate more than all of them combined, washing down our feast with a pitcher of Bass. Don't judge.



We waddled to the T stop, went home long enough for me to change and then Michelle, Erin and I headed to the Bell in Hand where my favorite local cover band, Jimmy's Down, was playing. The music was amazing.

Some (good looking) Australian men waved their passports at us. Apparently the new trend dictates that passports get girls. The three of us smiled politely then made our own little dance circle and thrashed around to Cake, Bruce Springstein, Pearl Jam and so much more. The Australians went crazy when the band played Down Under. Good times.

The bar closed early due to construction. We walked up to the main road to catch a cab. We then met Tony, the cab driver from the Phillipines.

Tony: Everyone happy! You boogie boogie all night!
Us: Hah. Yea.

[Later]

Meesh: So what do you do in your free time?
Tony: I hunt.
Me: Hunt what? College kids?
Tony: Lady friends.
Me: You should hit the clubs.
Tony: I don't know how to dance. I need a nice lady to teach me the one step and the two step.

[Later]

Tony: You need a cab later? Take my number!



Ooohh Boston.