Finally Rid of MySuck

I have finally taken the whole 10 minutes that were necessary to open up a new blog here so I no longer have to use MySpace, which sucks major donkey balls.
Going right into it, I spent the weekend in Boston with a ton of the NYC CSers. Bastien, who a very active CSer here organized the Boston Invasion and over 2 dozen of us made our way to Beantown for a weekend of exploration and debauchery.
I took five other people up in my van on Friday night. The beverages were flowing for all but me and the festivities were lively. Everyone slept off the workweek for the first hour, but after our first stop, lively music was blasted and everyone got going. We spent a good amount of time singing to classics that everyone knew and screaming about Boston and the Fung Wa. The Fung Wa is the Chinatown bus that most of the invaders, about 14, were taking. Reports indicate that Gina was much livelier than the Fung Wa. Score Gina!!
We got to the News, bar where we were meeting the Bostonians, and found that we greatly outnumbered them. It was a good thing that Seth had gotten a hotel room where the Gina crew ended up. Despite the useless and rude waitresses, we had a wonderful time partying it up at the News. Once they closed at an atrociously early 2 AM, the restless New Yorkers who are used to 4 AM bars headed out in search of a party about which we had been informed.
The Gina crew decided to go check into the hotel first. Seth Google mapped it and was dismayed to find that the hotel was not 3 blocks from the News as he had previously believed, but way the hell out in the outskirts. This was the first in a series of atrocities caused by the horrible Boston city planning.
I must interject my professional opinion on the planning on this city. First of all, it is rather small and very logical, albeit not necessarily the
most efficient. The roads are kind of crazy like a European city, but they all radiate out from the center with rings and nice shortcuts, so it should be rather easy to get around. Wrong. First of all, there is an antiquated address system that doesn't actually seem to follow any reasonable system at all. In fact, it would seem to be based on confusion. There is at least one part of Boston, as as empirical evidence points, that was once a different city. When it became a part of Boston in 1805, no one thought it necessary to change any of the addresses despite the fact that some of the same streets with the same names went from Boston into the other part. This means identical addresses in vastly different parts of the city. Next, there are lots of roads that change names when they cross a major road. Now I am used to this in the NE and in Europe, but the signage for such changes is terrible. Signage in general is horrible. There is always only one, if any, street signs to tell you what the intersection is. This sign is usually small and conveniently placed behind a tree or other sign. At one point I was driving down a huge boulevard with four lanes, divided, with two rails in the middle and a row of mature trees along either side of the rails. I was looking for Dean St to turn left. What I was unaware of was this boulevard is one of those roads that divides street names. Dean St only went left, where it continues on the right is a different name altogether. Of course the only sign for Dean St is on the far side from where I was driving in heavy traffic and placed behind a tree. I could have looked for Dean St station, which is the name of the train station here, but they are not signed either. It only says 'station' at every one. Furthermore there are not warnings that you must turn at one intersection b/c the next one is one ways all coming towards you except for the leg that takes you onto the toll highway on which there is no exit for several miles. And yes, almost every road is a one way, often changing directions from block to block. Have I ever said what I think of one ways?
But I digress, after half an hour we got to the address where the hotel should have been. It was the middle of a residential area with no signs of any hotel. There was a closed gas station though. A call to the hotel got us the info that the hotel is actually on the OTHER 822 Washington St, right downtown. Morale plummeted. We decided to go the party then b/c it was much closer than going back downtown. This turned out to be a small hassle only, but when we got there, we got a call saying that it was just a couple of drunk dudes hanging out, so we decided to call it a night. We had turned around and just left the neighborhood when we got another call from the others that everyone from the bar had arrived there, so we went back. We only stayed for a little bit b/c we were all pretty tired. The hotel floor was very welcoming.
The next day we got a late start and just spent a few hours wandering around downtown...Beacon Hill, Financial District, Historical stuff, etc... The thing that struck me the most is that Boston is incredibly cleaner than NYC. In fact, it is one of the cleanest cities I've seen, outside of Iberia.
Sat night we went to the house of a CSer, where there was a party going on for another CSers birthday. The party was quite large and really fun. There were about half and half CSers and other friends, maybe even more CSers. I met and talked to many cool people and there was plenty of debauchery and hooking up. I did neither of these, and I believe there may be some sort of correlation. I had tons of fun though.
I wore my Manu Chao shirt, which I find is incredible for leading to conversations, and heard so many times, "do you like Manu Chao?" Perchance me wearing his shirt is not enough of a hint?
I was also interrogated by a trashed French dude with a lobster hat about why I knew Manu Chao and liked him. I spoke with Claudia, a Quebecquois who was too drunk the second time to remember that we talked before, and got to hear her say douchebag in a cute French accent since it was a word she had just learned. I also taught her the word cockmaster. Bastien had this ridiculous 'magic' unicorn hat that he wore all day that had functioning wings. During the day, not drunk at all, he decided that he should run around in one of the fountains downtown in his underwear + unicorn hat.
I drove the hotel crew back around four in Nicky's car since the cabs would not take 5 people. Nicky, who was drunk out of his mind, made it very clear that I was to be careful and that I should lock the doors. I accommodated.
On Sunday morning I took the girls who were leaving early back to the house where they were to meet their ride. There I woke several rough-looking sleepers and took the hour required to organize 9 people for a breakfast trip. This was not what I wanted because I had wanted to walk all over Cambridge, where the party was, and see the Harvard and MIT campuses. It was fun though and I got to see Harvard at least. Breakfast was delicious and we went our separate ways.
Brandy, who was taking the place of one of the early departers on the way back came with me as I went to play some ultimate with Ely, one of the Boston crew. She got to partake in the Dean St/boulevard escapade.
After ultimate, I met up with the group downtown and took off. This was not before, of course, going out of my way to drive through the Big Dig. It was really cool and the entrance ramp was pretty trippy.
We took a slight detour so that we could go through RI, my last continental state to visit. We went through the city of Newport, which seemed pretty nice and got to cross a couple really cool bridges. Dinner was right on the border of CT in a nice little lounge with an excellent waiter who gave us 15% off for no apparent reason.
The rest of the ride was pretty standard. A little traffic and a drunk driver, but that was all. I chatted with Brandy who is an interesting girl. She works in the fashion industry and I got to learn more about the process of bringing fashion to market. Despite my feelings on fashion in general I am really fascinated with all kinds of industry and their impacts on and dependence on cities and regions. I was invited to her farm on the edge of the mountains in VA for Labor Day weekend, and it sounds really cool, but I doubt I'll be able to make it back out from WI. Perhaps though it will be an opportunity for me to get my car one step closer to Portland?