Beantown

See three new places:

Boston

Some of my college girlfriends and I went to Boston for the St. Patrick's Day weekend. Boston taught me that I have absolutely forgotten everything from my American History classes. We did this tourist thing called "The Freedom Trail" where you see all the historic places in Boston. I got to see the Old State House, Paul Revere's House, The Old North Church, Boston Common, etc. I have no clue what the Boston Massacre or the Boston Tea Party were, oops, but saw where they took place.

This is a statue of Paul Revere with the Old North Church in the background, where he hung the infamous lanterns. One if by land two if by sea. Go Paul.

That circle marks the spot of the Boston Massacre. The balcony, on the Old State House, is where the Declaration of Independence was first read out to the people of the United States of America. Chills.

However, I did know what Cheers was and we went an got a beer at the Cheers bar! I also stopped by Fenway and took a few pictures. The weekend was mostly freezing cold and rainy and as California girls we were struggling. Thank goodness CA welcomed us back with amazing weather this past week.

Where everybody knows your name.

green monster???

Back to Boston. On Saturday we met us with some college friends for a St. Patrick's Day dinner of corned beef, cabbage, and mashed potatoes. Then we made our way to a good Irish bar for the required green beer and excessive drinking. We didn't even realize how late we were at the bar until we got to IHOP at 4am. Apparently, bars are open a lot later on the East coast.

Obviously

Anyway, that was the general trip overview. Saw some history, caught up with the ladies, got soaked, and drank a lot. Boston is such an amazing city and I would love to go back in the summer when the rain and cold wouldn't interfere too much.

Probably my favorite spot on the tour. This cemetery has some of the oldest graves in the country. I took like a million pictures of all the amazing gravestones. They were so chilling and beautiful and even though some were from the 1700's they were still in great shape.

Big names like Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock are buried here. Above is the memorial to John Hancock. People leave pennies and stones as a sign of respect.


Next time.....a celebrity encounter

I love dead people

Sorry its been a while!


Read 10 Books:

Just finished #2. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach. Loved it! This book is so interesting but not for those who are easily queasy. It covers all sorts of stuff about dead bodies. You know how you hear about donating your body to science: but no one really knows what that means. Well, Mary knows. She researched all sorts of things we do with dead people.




I can't believe she (or anyone) actually has the stomach to do the stuff she writes about. I mean thank goodness they do because I am convinced it takes a very special type of person to work with dead people.

Anyway, I learned all sorts of cool stuff about cadavers and how we use them to make our lives better. Everyone wants to attribute our extremely safe cars these days to crash dummies. However, first they have to do all these experiments with human cadavers to figure out a human body's thresholds and then calibrate the dummies based on that info. Doctors practice procedures and surgery on cadavers to make sure they know what they're doing when they work on the real deal. Thank goodness, can you imagine being the 'practice' heart transplant or 'test run' face lift.

I highly recommend this book. Don't you want to learn about the history of body snatching and all the parts of dead bodies the Chinese ingest as 'remedies'?

Volunteer: more than once and actually enjoy it

I volunteered this past Saturday with the Princess Project. This organization provides prom dresses, accessories, and other fun stuff for high school girls who can not afford them. I helped at a Dress Sort. That means I inspected hundreds of dresses looking for stains, checking sizes, and zipping zippers. With over 2,000 dresses at the San Francisco location I am glad there were a bunch of other volunteers.

The actual giveaways (where the girls come in and pick out their dresses) aren't for a couple weeks but I will be there for the first day along with my roommates!




Learn how to drive a stick

So my boyfriend just got a new car and.....it's an automatic. Obviously, this goal is on the back burner for now. I don't even know anyone else with a manual. If they are so rare maybe its pointless to learn.

See 3 new places

Leaving for Boston on Thursday!!!



To refresh your memory here is the list:

1. Read 10 books
2. Write an article and submit it to a few magazines
3. Throw 2 great parties: I’m talking invitations, a full menu, create a “tablescape”, you know the whole domestic goddess thing
4. Run a race: over 3 miles
5. Volunteer:more than once, and actually enjoy it
6. Learn how to drive a stick shift
7. See 3 new places:destinations or noteworthy spots not something like the newest bar on the strip
8. Re-learn how to ski:after 13 years its time to get back on the mountain
9. Create 5 unique paintings
10. Learn how to spell:seriously, it’s embarrassing