Getting out of Manchvegas

This past weekend I went to visit the brother and his girlfriend in Quincy (40 min south of Boston). To get there I drove 20 minutes to a bus station in North Londonderry and took the Boston Express bus to South Station in Boston, then I took the T (subway) to Quincy. This whole process only takes 2 hours and looks more arduous written out than it really is in practice. The drive is easy (a rarity out here) and the bus is fun because I like to make friends (aka chat up strangers) and this time was no exception.

I was sitting at the station reading and waiting for the bus when a guy asked me if the bus had come yet. When I told him it hadn't and that I too was waiting for it (a lot of busses leave from and come from that station) he told me he had never been to New Hampshire and was just up for an interview. This then aloud me to exercise my small amount of knowledge about this fine state and the Boston Express. When we got on the bus we sat across the aisle from each other and pulled out our books to read quietly. This plan was thwarted by a group of 4 girls (or women I suppose is the better description as one of them was 50 "I'm half a century so I know a thing or two") cackling and gabbing about babies/raising kids/things I don't want to listen to. Although to be fair there is no subject I would have liked to listen to them chatter about. I wanted to read dammit. I did attempt it for about 20 minutes, but gave up in a huff (passive-aggressive to a fault). At that point I turned my head to send them a scathing look (I'm telling you-passive aggressive) the guy was looking at me and we shared a look of annoyance/I can't believe these rude-ass people talking on a bus in which every one has turned off their light to be quiet. Anyway the hour passed and I got the hell off that bus and trekked to the T successfully.

I got into Eric's around 9pm and we hung out a bit then went to bed. Laura had to work until 2am so she slept in late the next morning and Eric slept till 8am, but I am a morning person so I got up at 6.30am. You know I usually say at this point that I can't help waking up so early, but it's more that when I wake up and know it is after 6am I can't stand laying in bed anymore. I feel unproductive and bored so I just get up. Anyway it was lovely. I took my blankets out into the living room and wrote the last post on this blog and caught up on emails and read my book.

After Eric and Laura were up we watched some HGTV, drank coffee and then went to a sports bar close by so they could watch the Marquette basketball game. Getting the waitress to find the right station on the tv was a whole kind of fiasco and when she finally got it, the screen was all pixelated and unwatchable. It took another 20 min to get her back to change the station to non-HD. It was ridiculous. After that we hopped on T into Boston to get dinner in a part of Cambridge called Davis Square. Unfortunately the 3 restaurants we tried each had a wait of over an hour, which would be fine if the bars were full because we just could have gotten a drink to wait. We ended up staying at the last place since you could eat at the bar so we staked out seats. It was an awesome restaurant. Actually it's a restaurant/bowling alley. But New England bowling is this bizarre game where the pins are a lot lighter and are kind of like blunt cylinders. The ball is weird too, it's small and heavy, like a bochi-ball. Anyway it was a pizza place that would fit perfectly in Madison - they use only locally grown ingredients and serve only locally brewed beers. I had a really good beer and the pizza was amazing! So fun.

Then we went back, watched a movie and went to bed. The next day we just bummed around until I let at 2pm. A nice relaxing weekend.