boston part 1

while we live on the east coast we have been trying to see as many nearby cities as possible.
when a bus ticket is $20-$25 i really have no excuse.
then i think- if i were to come back here and just see that one city it would cost 20 times that much just for the plane ticket (and that's if i'm lucky).
so when dale's cousin that lives in boston wanted to do an apartment swap,
we could not turn it down.
free living corridors
mares rides free
there's no possible way we could have ever gone cheaper.
so from the 18th to the 21st we did some boston exploring.
now usually i don't mind bus rides so much
but the bus ride up there was the worst traveling experience of my entire life (at least what i can remember).
it wasn't even mares that caused it- she was an angel.
i was sick-
felt like death was knocking at my door-
couldn't breathe
couldn't sleep although i was exhausted to the point of pass out
couldn't hear because my sinuses were being destroyed by snot
then there was stop and go traffic induced nausea
then add general discomfort- because buses are really made for comfort
and add an hour plus to our trip
it was hell.
the worst traveling experience of my life.
i instantly regretted forcing myself to come on the trip because i'm too cheap to give up bus fare.
i wish i could say i got instantly better the next day and everything was perfect from then on.
fiction.
i was sick the entire trip, but even with that looming around me it was a good trip.

on tuesday we went and wandered around harvard-
i had been here once before to visit my friend kandice while she attended school here.
so this was a bit of nostalgic traveling for me- to see what i had seen before and see if i remembered it right.
since i wasted the majority of our day pent up in a sick house we didn't have much time to do much else.
here's some pics from day one of boston

i had to come see the stadium

i remembered it so clearly from the first time i came i had to see it again.

it was more epic the first time- 

fall

a light mist hung in the air

near dawn

and i ran those stadium steps

like something from an epic sports movie.

 it's still beautiful even if it wasn't as epic the second time around

 then we took to scholarly campus

we let mares wander around- secretly ingraining ivy league college dreams with every step

 this is the most beautiful campus i have ever been on

 that moment when mary found ivy league heaven

 and that one time an elderly passerbyer offered parenting advice

and waited around to see something tragic happen

"that's so dangerous." "that's so so dangerous." 

thank you random scholar

 we tried to sneak into annenberg hall- 

this was as far as we got. 

imagine the harry potter dining hall- and boom that's what annenberg hall looks like. 

they don't let the common man step inside and it's really a shame. 

 then this always seems to happen.... 

we went to catch the subway and naturally it was rush hour

i took one look at those hoards of people and i couldn't do it

so we surfaced and hung out at boston commons until the madness ceased

that's when mares got near nude- (for liner)

harvard was as beautiful as i remember it.
boston is as beautiful as i remember it.
it's one of my favorite cities- probably tied for second with d.c. but possibly just second.
you know there are a few things i regret in my life. (a short college related list)
1. i regret not playing basketball in college
2. i regret not applying to harvard
now i don't even think i would have gotten in, but i should have tried-
my fear of failure caused me to fail,
and i've come to learn that's the worst kind of failing.
when i applied to graduate schools i learned from my previous failings-
i looked up the top schools in the nation and i applied to them.
i wandered around that beautiful campus and longed a little to start over- to just try.
now i know we are to go about our lives living without regret- but if you really live, can you live without regret?
living a life without regret would entail you never made a hard decision in all your life and you never wondered what a different decision would have done to your life.
i don't think regret is always bad- if it makes you look back on your life and improve.
i'm grateful i made the decisions that i did because i see how it's directed the course of my life- but you've got to wonder sometimes.
so i wondered-
i could live in boston.
i could live in any of those new england states really.
i love new england. there's a realness with people up there that there isn't in new york.
perhaps my opinion would change if i spent as much time among them as i have new yorkers- but it seems to me that they are more real.
not so consumed with the this and that and more concerned about others.
anyways i always want to remember how i felt when i went to boston.
it was a nostalgic breath of fresh air.
made me ponder all the things of my life, and i like to ponder.

hope you all are having an excellent weekend.
til boston part 2!