Love that Dirty Water

An unexplainable crack has caused a "catastophic leak" in Boston's major water supply pipe. Because of this, if we drink the water, we risk serious illness.

The pipe is pumping 8 million gallons of water into the Charles River per HOUR.

SWEEEEEEEEEEET. http://www.mwra.com/01news/2010/boilwaterorder1.htm

Everyone's out buying bottled water, but its running out pretty damn fast. I hope I don't get too thirsty :(

Perhaps this is a hoax created by the water bottle companies. They must be suffering from this whole "going green" trend. Hopefully that's all it is.

nice.

Coffee and Art Supplies

Few things please me more than a delicious latte accompanied by an art supply shopping spree.

But throw in a 1 day only, 40% off coupon to Blick Art Supply and I might as well be soaring through the clouds. Very few things make me feel so satisfied. I bought 55 dollars worth of art supplies, and only had to pay 32! And not only that, but they validated my parking so it was free for the first hour! So I got free parking. In Boston. Never happens.

It was all just a wonderful sequence of events.

I am now caffeinated and ready to get my creative juices flowing! Yay!

Our next assignment for art class is to construct a box 18x24x16, with a lid, out of cardboard and tape. Therefore I had to scrounge around in the recycling room for some people's leftover boxes and such. The security guard walked down just as I was walking out with a huge box and seemed rather confused as to why I was actually removing garbage from the garbage room.

I am so happy I decided to take this drawing class. Everything about it is amusing, even the ridiculous things I have to do, like taking other people's garbage.

My Day at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

For my drawing class, my homework was go to the Harvard Museum of Natural History and pick a skeleton to draw, rib for rib, vertebrae for vertebrae, everything had to be specific.

I loved this museum! I thought it was really cool to see all of the animals they had, many of which I had never seen before, and certainly not as up close! sure, they were all stuffed orskeletons but it was crazy some of the stuff they had! Not only did they have all this cool stuff, but there were not a lot of people there at all! It was very quiet, a very good environment for drawing. It had all the cool stuff that the New York Museum of Natural History has, but 100 times less tourists.

Also, the lighting in there was just fantastic. I took A LOT of pictures, and I'll show you a bunch here!

The Moropus, a descendent of the horse and rhinoceros.

(PS. this skeleton is 42 feet long.) Could you imagine if this creature was still around to this day. No one would ever want to swim in the ocean, that's for damn sure.

The Countdown...

Well, its almost time to go back to school for my LAST SEMESTER AT BU!

I can't even tell you how thrilled I am to finish my undergrad and move onto bigger and better things. Though I have learned so much from my experience there, it hasn't been the easiest time in my life. Good or bad, I've learned a lot, and at this point I think I've learned the bulk of what I am going to. I could be wrong. but, now that I am 100% sure of what I want to do after BU, I am just excited to get to it!

Yesterday, I went to an information session at Columbia University School of Social Work.

Going there, hearing about the program, asking questions... after it all I felt this overwhelming sense of relief. I thought to myself, "I am making the right decision."

Finally, some direction! Even if I don't get into Columbia, just knowing what path I want to pursue and being so positive about it... it feels amazing.

It's weird, on the inside I feel like I am done with undergrad. I keep forgetting that I have 16 more credits to fulfill before I can even be considered for grad school. So in the few days I have left before heading back to Boston, I have so much left to do:

1. Finish my applications. I have already submit my applications to NYU, Sarah Lawrence, and Fordham. I have to finish my Columbia application, which is a little more specialized, and also complete my application for CUNY Hunter.

2. Clean out my room. I am getting it repainted and refurnished for when I move back home. New start, new room, new productivity. Right now, as you've seen in previous posts, my room is a dark teal color. I am going to paint it a light yellow color.

3. Pack my things. I feel like this break went way too fast, so I am totally not in the mindset of gathering my belongings, saying my goodbyes, and driving back up to school. This break, this past semester, these past few years, they have really flown by.

I know that a lot of people say, "People never change."

Though people may never change, they certainly do learn, and I have learned so much. Mostly about myself and the world and how life really works. Though I haven't been completely thrilled with my experience at BU, I am afraid to think about what things I wouldn't have learned if I had chosen a different school, made different choices, etc. Weird to think about, isn't it?

(photo via tumblr.com)

Sleep No More

The title of this post is so appropriate considering I woke up at 7 am for no reason, but no, Sleep No More is actually the name of a play that I went to see last night.
If you can even call it a play.
The website describes it as "an immersive production inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, told through the lens of a Hitchcock thriller."
I hadn't thought of the Hitchcock thing before I went, but now that makes a lot of sense. This "play" was like nothing I'd ever experienced. It was a sort of immersion theater where you walk around this huge building, decorated to the nines, and follow the characters around. It's EXTREMELY dark, and they make everyone that isn't a character wear these really ridiculous alien masks, and you follow whatever characters you want around to different scenes. You end up seeing the play in your own unique way. No one experience can really be the same since everyone sees everything from a different perspective.
I met up with a couple of people from my "Performing Gender" class, but we immediately lost each other because the point of the play is to have your own experience, so I was quickly separated from whoever I knew, and then even if I was around them after that, it was hard to tell because it was dark and everyone was wearing masks.
At first I felt like I was in a horror film, they gave us all some time to walk around and see the setting, but then events began to happen one by one until it got to the point where you were literally running after characters to see where they were going! I never thought I would break a sweat at a theatrical production.

Heres the video on their site, but I must say it does not do the best in explaining. I guess that's the thrill of it though- you really have no idea what you're getting yourself into, so everything is that much more surprising!

Monday Evening Stress

This time of the year is always so crazy.
I am going to be nonstop writing English papers until December 19th, my last day of finals for the semester, along with various other assignments.
And I just finished midterms last week.
The work is seriously never-ending, and I'm dying for Christmas break, but I am trying to make the best of things. It helps to have something like Christmas break to look forward to, even though this year I'll be spending a good part of it finishing up my applications for grad school.
It's so nerve-wracking not knowing what my future holds. Being in Boston has been my life for the past 4 years, and those 4 years have flown by faster than you can even imagine.

Though I don't have a solid thesis for this post like I usually do, I still felt the need to write.
Tonight I traded in my usual Gossip Girl time slot for Intervention, probably in light of all the social work applications I've been working on the past couple weeks. I am really excited for that and I hope at least one school will accept me. I'm pretty nervous though, and I am so excited to move back to the tri-state area, eventually NYC, and of course eventually California.
I have not given up on that yet, and I don't think I ever will. It's been a dream of mine for at least ten years now, I think about how much I love it there every day. It's been too long since I've visited, I should probably make a trip soon, so I don't forget how much I love it. I think part of the reason I am such a big fan of Jack's Mannequin's "Everything in Transit" is because it has such a California vibe to it, but in a different way than I've ever felt it.

Sorry for rambling. My brain kinda feels like jello right now.

also, I've been listening to soooo much music lately its ridiculous, and I'm loving every minute of it. I'll have to do an entirely separate music post for you guys sometime this week.

Things I'm looking forward to this weekend

The weekend got here so quickly.
I don't have much going on, so it looks like it's going to be a good one!
Things I'm looking forward to:

-trying out my new sneakers at the gym

-finally getting around to grocery shopping and having real food in the house

-going to see A Christmas Carol in 3D on Sunday with my little sib, Makayla

- finally getting down to business with my poetry paper due Tuesday

- diving into these Social Work Grad School apps

-celebrating Kelly's birthday tonight

-having time to really clean my room/apartment

-watching "Dear Jack" at least five more times before Tuesday

-hopefully picking up my guitar at some point

-perhaps going out for a delicious dinner in the South End on Saturday

-and sleeping sleeping sleeping.

Salem in the Fall

Sorry for the delay, folks!
These past couple days have been extremely busy, but I have been meaning to tell you about the day I spent in Salem, Massachusetts on Sunday.
You've probably learned about it in history class if you are from the states, but Salem was the home of the Salem Witch Trials and its a must-do for Halloween.
There are all sorts of museums and ghost tours, etc.

I went with my friends Karen and Ellysia, and we walked around a lot because it was gorgeous, took a lot of pictures, went to a reenactment of one of the witch trials, and went to one really cheesy witch museum, complete with wax statues and automated voiceovers. I'll post a couple of the pictures here for you!

I've been wanting to go for so long, and I finally did!
I recommend that you guys all make it up there at some point.
It only takes a little more than 30 minutes to drive there from Boston, but of course there was a little traffic so close to Halloween.
It was totally worth it!


p.s. I promise that someday I'll figure out what my layout is going to be.

Any Given Day in Boston

On any given day in Boston, you can find so many different events going on.
Saturdays and Sundays this time of year are particularly jam-packed with events before the weather gets cold.
My friend Ellysia and I went to the TD Bank Mayor's Cup Bike Race and the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival on Saturday.
It was a beautiful day and I got some great photos.

It's days like these that remind me I need to do my best to get out into the city as much as possible before its time to graduate in the spring.

A Little Redirection.

So I recently got some feedback from from very helpful people.
I went in search of help. I wondered what I could do to get some more people to follow this blog?
I love writing in it, I try to make it look pretty, and I try to make it very upbeat and positive, chronicling the little pleasures in life that help me get by.
Everyone suggested that though my page is visually appealing, it doesn't really have a cohesive idea to it.
I figured that the cohesive idea to it all is the life that I live, but I realized I didn't really provide a background to it all.

Here it is, short and sweet:

I am from New Jersey, and it's the place I will always call home. In New Jersey, I live very close to New York City, so I consider that my home, as well. Then I decided to go to college in Boston, at Boston University, where I am now a senior. I also spent time this past summer studying in London. I love cities, because they are so filled with culture and adventures in such a confined space. I have been very fortunate to be able to do a lot of traveling to different cities around the world. Some of the most interesting people flock to these places and so much is always going on. Even so, I love my little New Jersey town, and I always try to find beauty and happiness no matter where I go, whether it be in a rural town or a crowded city. It's all about the keeping a clear head and staying optimistic.

With that being said, I will try to make these ideas more clear in my future entries.
As much as I love this blog, I would love to have more people to share it with.
I would love to find some common ground for all of us!