Boston Common--Homesick as a motherfucker...
A PIRATE'S TRIP TO BOSTON

day 1
10.14.2004.
Its 10:30am and I'm already buzzy. Not drunk or sloppy but one Guiness, one Smirnoff Razberi on the Rocks sort of buzzy. I was excited finding the LORD OF THE RINGS exhibit was in Boston and now REALLY wished that JD was with me. I didn't want to call him already and he say "save the good stuff for when you get home" and so I shall write instead of talk.
I am going to Boston by myself. Its mostly b/c I couldn't find anyone to go with me and JD can't take vacation with me. But mostly its out of spite. Watch me go to some city where I know NO ONE and have a good time. I don't need you/them/anyone and I never did! But in the back of my head I feel the need for companionship and feel the only person I'm punishing is myself.
Now I have to pee. And the plane hasn't even taken off yet.
My stay @ a hostel seems like an experience in of itself. I find that the one I picked is farther from anything I wanted to visit but decide to stay there and if everything off, then I'll pop a couple of tranqs and knock myself out.
2pm.
I'm @ CLARKES, right near QUINCY MARKET, a bar that had the look of less touristy than most. Bust of course, I'm a tourist trying to blend in--but my black ensemble makes me stick out like a sore thumb b/c everybody around here are tourists. The rain is what pulled me inside--pissing down on me and my new velvet suit. In my roundabout travels of the streets so far I spied a smoking lounge which means a cigar in the near future. ORDER: Jameson and Coke. Chicken Fingers. I'm surprised by a call from RON T. from the message boards I frequent with a plan to meet up Friday. The message board is quite the phenomenom. It automatically breaks the ice for anyone meeting for the first time in person. You always will inherently have the boards even if you have never interacted with that person before. I wish I could smoke a ciggie bult like all my favorite cities, you can't, not inside anyway. In the end tiredness and the wearther sends me back to my hostel-back to bed-to sleep away a few hours.
9:31pm.
It has been an eventful evening. I woke up to the voices of my roommates, whom I never turned around to actually see, but stayed in bed until restlessness overcame me. Upon leaving hte hostel--the panic and homesick and fear set in--and for about 20 mins. I was considering holding myself up in any hotel I could find until my flight back to Philly. But I set out to find a good place to eat and stumbled upon THE GREEN DRAGON, meeting place of the revolution, and decided to rest my feet there for a bit. I met a civil engineer from Seattle and we got to talking about Haunted Spots in and around Boston. He recommended Salem and at this time my mom called to check in on me as I knew she would. She said "It sounds like you're having a good time" and I could finally say I was. Even though it was just tourists conversing, it was enough social activity to ready myself for a few more hours of silence. I left THE GREEN DRAGON and headed towards the smoking bar I had seen on my first trek out. But before that I visited THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL and sunk in to the real life horrors of the 20th Century. The memorial is beautiful and horrible; a towering monument of green stone and smoke, numbers reading even more omniously than names. I snapped picture after picture of the monument and didn't care about anything about the loud frat boys within ear shot from the bars adjacent to me. To be in one of those pillars and see the grates with lights shimmering like stars in the night sky-a representation of the gas chambers, billowing steam to fill the towers. It was moving. More moving than any memorial I've ever visited. And so now I sit in CHURCHILL'S LOUNGE, smoking a server-recommended cigar and taking pics of myself in various states of smoking and sipping merlot. Most likely the youngest person here. And I'm content. I attempted calling JD to no avail, I'm hoping he's out with MIKE OEMING, although most likely him and and Cav's are watching a movie I wanted to see-and I'm content. My first night in Boston and I'm content. Fuck anxiety. Fuck Meds. Fuck it all. Sure I'm taking them but I know maybe in some way this provies I can get by. That I can be independent. My own person. And this more than anything makes me happy.
Day 2
10.15.2004 1:40pm
I wake up with a headache and the smell of sweat emanating off me. I had decided in leaving CHURCHILL'S to visit one last bar for my 3rd nightcap. A cover band was playing 80's rock and their cover of "I WANT YOU TO WANT ME" got me on the dance floor, which is the only excuse I have for my actions. Bust fuck it, I'll dance to anything. It was 8am--a full hour before my alarm was set to go off and 2 hours before check out time but the nausea in my gully-wuts and cottonmouth proved strong enough for me to get dressed in some bumming around clothes and attempt to get a cab. I say attempt because every taxi I flagged was either occupied or was note willing to drive all teh way to Cambridge. My need to get to my hotel was so dire that I took the subway and realized it wasn't that bad. I am unusally scared of public transportation in other cities, particularly subways. But I made it to my destination just in time to be told my room was not available. Surprise surprise as it was only 9am!
I checked my bags and headed down MASSACHUSETTS AVE. where I spent entirely too much money, and frankly I should be ashamed of myself. The used bookstores intrigues me the most, where I purchased a 3 book slipcased collection of DANTE's THE DIVINE COMEDY, and a gift for my boss. I was able to make it to HARVARD SQUARE and saw the Chess Master who will play you and kick your ass for $2. NEWBURY COMICS provided a place for me to go toy-wild, getting Keg Leg a TOWELIE figure, a SPIRITED AWAY gift set for JD and POWERS #5 so I coud read what the fuss was all about (even though I have a copy waiting for me @ my comic shop back home). I made myself proud and only went into 1 record shop where I found my very first DURAN DURAN record, but also POWER STATION, PRINCE 1999, THE BATMAN SOUNDTRACK, and RICK SPRINGFIELD. Upon returning to the hotel, I went online in the lobby and got my ticket for the LOTR exhibition @ the MUSEUM OF SCIENCE (m.o.s.). I was able to check into my room at last and was so happy with the ultra-swank accomodations that my father provided that I rescheduled my meet-up with RON T. and stayed in until is was time to leave for the exhibit.
6pm
After ordering a mouth-watering sirloin steak from room service and gussying myself up as if I was off to see LEGOLAS himself, I navigated the T to the M.O.S. I had fun before my scheduled entry time (note: The LOTR people take themselves WAY too seriously; no phototgraphy or cell phones, no large bags, no entry before marked time--you would think they were showing off the CROWN FUCKING JEWELS)so I played in the other exhibit halls--although it was more kid firenly than anything else. I did get a picture of a NABOO starfighter from STAR WARS and a mock-up schoolhouse gave me the perfect chance to film some role playing shots. I waited in line to enter the exhibit and was in awe from start to finish. Turning the first corner, the very first thing you encounter is a hulking life-sized (as if they are REAL) Cave Troll. I was particularly interested in LEGOLAS' costume and weaponry, although SAURON's armor, GANDALF's grey costum and a replice RINGWRAITH also gave me goose bumps. The room where the ONE RING was kept was a circular enclosure of darkness, with fire dancing on the walls and the ONE RING suspended in water. I found out through an interactive height-measurer-thing that I am tall enough to be a human, Wizard or Elf. I MIGHT have attempted to shoot a couple pictures of LEGOLAS' costume and the ONE RING. Every major character was represented as well as all the armor. A lifesize URUK-HAI was frightening, even minature versions of the 2 Towers were impressive. My inner geekiness prevailed; upon leaving the exhibit there is a boat with a fallen BAROMIR laid to rest and I got choked up.
I arrived home and almost entered the CELTIC bar on the corner but was accosted by a drunk boy who was a little too pushy about getting me inside with him. The night ended with a bubble bath and a half bottle of Shiraz.
Day 3
10.16.2004.
No hangover but a backache from walking a backpacking began a downward spiral of a day. I take the T downtown and purchase an 1896 edition of the BIBLE for my mum and a book on DALI for Frankie. I walk through BOSTON COMMON and PUBLIC GARDEN, then trek the whole of NEWBURY STREET looking for an extra bag to carry back all my purchases. The entirety of the street was full of stores I wish I could afford. I went into a few and even tried a curbside flea market but in the end only and Army/Navy store had something affordable. My money was dwindling and I had heard from RON T. I had been toying with the idea of leaving a few days early but it was apparent that this was an imperative. I ended up paying more for my one way Sunday flight home than the first round trip to Boston, and this was including a 2 hour layover @ Laguardia. On my way to the hotel after my annoying shopping trip I took a different way back, off the main drag, and ran into the much written about MANRAY. MANRAY has the distinction of being a club that catered to goth/industrial, instead of making it a one night-thing. If RON T. never phoned me, this would conclude my final night in Boston.
What followed that evening was insanity personified. I had a HUGE fight with JD, I was stood up by the boardie, I had crying and pacing bouts in my room. I skipped dinner, well unless you count the Shiraz and Merlot I poured down my gullet. Me and JD resolved our problems and I made myself go dancing. The club was awesome--the front room was devoted to 70's Glitz but the back room housed a caged stage and floor for dancing conjoined with a kickass group of goth/industrial/fetish people whoe were all friendly in an uncharacteristically goth-way. I had a great time although I only stayed for 2 hours. The need to go back to my room and order pizza overcame me. I had gone full circle on this trip--and in the end I think I won. But loneliness seems to overwhelm me and that is a weakness that I need to work on.
http://www.picturetrail.com/psychowank <===click on the BOSTON album.
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