we got all night

I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be too busy to post an update. And yet here we are...

I'm not really busy, honestly. I mean, there's stuff to do at work but I'm more interested in writing now. Of course now they're trying to give me other things to do. Yeah.... about that...

Whatever, Boston was phenomenal, as it was last time. We left on Friday and our Megabus didn't have outlets like they usually do--the bus wasn't even a Megabus bus. So we couldn't watch Netflix via our phones like we'd planned. We had music and Cabin Pressure and other things but ended up playing 7 Little Words on my phone, fighting my phone's GPS that was always off by at least an hour, and chatting and/or making each other giggle with misread/misheard moments along the way. As we do.

We stayed with Divya's cousin Syon again, who did his best to be around now and then even though it's finals or something now (IDK, college is so far away~~ to me) and his adorable dog Humphrey, who we ended up essentially making AUs for (The Humphs is his street name). Oh, and Syon's roommates. One of which I saw exactly once, and the other who we awkwardly met again during an impromptu discussion of Zelda and philosophy because he had the same book as I do.

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There were probably more in-jokes that we've forgotten and that will come up later.

Anyway, my sister decided Boston is where she wants to go for her July vacation with my nephew. I'll be going along as her guide. BOSTON, I WILL BE BACK.

** This entry will probably be too late to be properly about her birthday, but the sentiment is still there. This was originally meant to be typed up for our ~ anniversary ~ in August but Hurricane Irene had a hissy fit and threw off my groove that weekend. So I typed it up in Chicago while she was sleeping. :P **

When I was growing up I had a few friends, but they were always more of the kind that did things with me because I was just the only other kid around, or we had shared interests. Whenever I would watch TV or movies and friends would do extraordinary things for their friends I wondered what universe they were in. My friends were always sort of mean. We'd do mean things to each other but that's just what I knew. I didn't know what it was like to have friends who did things selflessly for me or out of genuine love. I guess by today's terms my old friends would be frenemies. They kept me on my toes and I was always aware that I might leave the room and return to find my bag thrown on the top of a library shelf, my action figure missing, money "lost" from my wallet or my cell thrown to the back of a dark theatre. Sometimes I'd even have to find my own way back home because my friends left without me or hear "I don't really care about this, Lia," whenever I rambled on about who knows what. That's just how my friends were.

So when I became friends with splits_thesky over livejournal, I didn't think much of it. I'd had internet friends before. They were cool, but they only added the shared interest aspect to IRL friendships. Now I can say that my internet friends are some of my closest and best friends, especially the ones I've met on LJ. But splits_thesky really changed a lot of things for me. I can't really say where I would be without her. The majority of the traveling I have done in the last few years is entirely because of her. I wouldn't have been able to go to Chicago, Boston, Philly, Princeton or DC as quickly as I have or even be planning future trips to other places without her. Things like Tippo the Hippo, "Is that David Henrie?", ChanBell, Charming Potato, Team Tesla, Igor, "He just wanted a hug!" and "That shit was tight as hell!" wouldn't mean anything. And if they did, they wouldn't mean what they do right now. I've had so many experiences that are because of splits_thesky and I'm eternally grateful to her for that.

But it's not just about where we've gone physically (hurr hurr) together, but how she's made me a better person and what she's made me realize about myself and my other friendships. She's made me less selfish and more thoughtful--I've started picking up random gifts for her and others when out and about because I've watched her take special trips to stores just for her nephews or her brothers and tell stories about geeky purchases comprised of mostly gifts for others. The only time I'd ever buy things for others before was because they had a birthday soon or Christmas time was coming. She's made me a better listener because she listens to the random shit I'm into and reads my ADD comments about random links and long entries about this one time that a podcast came to NYC and makes me want to be that sort of friend to her as well. Splits has done a lot of things relatively selfless (youuuu are not a Hufflepuff, my friend, we know this) for me in ways that no one really ever has. And it's by knowing her and seeing these things play out every day over texts and through daily interactions that I start to realize that she's my first ever real, true, friend.

She's been as patient with me in real life as she has online and somehow she keeps coming back to hang out with me in a city that she could take or leave and keeps inviting me back to her various homes at college and at her family's home. She's the only one willing to travel to hole-in-the-walls and listen to me drone on about that one guy I know or that person I like and somehow make it seem like she cares and isn't actually shaking her head and sighing, "Oh, Lia, you little lost thing, you," on the other end of the phone. She will drag me to someplace she's never been for the ~*~experience~*~ and we'll make it our own experience, even if it sucks horribly, like the time we went to Bronx Comic Con and had to walk for blocks in costumes for a contest we never entered.

I sincerely hope everyone has a chance to have at least half the kind of friend that splits_thesky is for me. Because I know how it is to live life without someone like her and it's not something I would ever recommend.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GREATEST OF FRIENDS, DIVYA. I HOPE IT'S BEEN A GREAT DAY AND I WISH YOU A MILLION MORE, YOU ARE THE SIRIUS TO MY REMUS AND THE R2 TO MY 3P0. <3333

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I spent mine with splits_thesky since Hurricane Irene ruined our plans last weekend. Actually, it still ruined our plans this weekend because the hiking trail we were supposed to go on was still closed because of it. And the movie we wanted to see, Fright Night, wasn't playing anymore at the theatre we were planning on going to. We saw Cowboys & Aliens instead, and it was fun even if it didn't explain ANYTHING about the aliens.

We also went shopping at Wegman's, a grocery store I had never been to before but is AWESOME and has almost everything in one spot. I loved the ethnic food section, not only because there was one, but because the Spanish section was entirely Goya brand beans, rice and seasoning. *dies* I bought a Malta though, because I hadn't had one in a while and I like them, lol. I don't think I've ever had Goya's Maltas, but it was decent. Also the vegetable section was crazy large. Wegman's is basically what happens when you put Stop & Shop, the hot food section of Key Food and the dry goods section of a bigger Manhattan Duane Reade together. Food you can feel good about, indeed.

Other things we did included planning out our entire trip to Chicago next week, watching The Perfect Score (I fell asleep, but it's okay because I own it and have seen it before) and some National Geographic documentaries on Dinosaurs with terrible graphics and horrible decisions when it came to dinosaur reactions to events (I also fell asleep here, different night, but the cliffhangers were boring). Earlier that same day we cooked ourselves lunch (everything we had bought at Wegman's) that consisted mostly of vegetables: vegetable soup with carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions, broccoli, spinach, parnips, etc. and portobello mushroom sliders with avocado pieces in a sandwich. I even had roasted garlic hummus as a spread. And then for dinner we went to a barbecue with delicious vegetables and watermelon. We also took splits_thesky's dog to the dog park where we got bit by the most mosquitoes I have seen since I was eight. I'm sure it was a mix of the barbecue and the dog park, but my legs are currently sporting 14 different bites. :(

Also, neither of us got our Pottermore emails yet and we are highly frustrated about that. POTTERMORE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

I also took video of the cooking portion of the weekend, so we shall see if I can turn it into a vlog. I meant to vlog more and kept forgetting. This is the problem with not vlogging and then really wanting to start. You don't remember to start.

So I didn't have time this morning to post before rushing out to school or rushing to downtown to catch the bus, but I'm on my way to Boston right now with splits_thesky for the weekend. We should have been there by now, but we hit traffic. We watched as many episodes of Undeclared as my laptop's battery would allow and now we're listening to playlists we made for the trip and hoping that gets us through this longer-than-necessary trip. I say "playlists" because we each made one, but our tastes are so similar that at least 75% of the playlists are the same. I just threw more The Departed songs on mine and she included Marky Mark.

Anyway, we'll be gone until Sunday night, but there should be internet where we'll be so we will be in touch!

So next weekend splits_thesky and I are off to Boston! It's her birthday the following week, and she wanted to go to Boston? So... we're... doing that. IT SOUNDS SO WEIRD BUT THAT'S BASICALLY IT. We have a fairly loose itinerary planned for Friday and Saturday (Sunday is when we return) that includes the New England Aquarium, the MIT Museum, a picnic/lunch at Boston Public Garden (Beacon Hill!) and maybe a movie tour or visit to the Zoo or some other museum. Those of you from/frequent visitors to Cambridge/Boston, what are good places to eat lunch/dinner? We're generally going on Yelp! ratings and pictures but after DC we're wary of things going to complete hell on us. So any advice in that area (or tips on far more interesting museums/sites to see) are welcome.

I watched some pilots: Hellcats, Nikita and Terriers. Terriers was the only one that really hooked me. Nikita seems intriguing enough but it didn't focus too much on her. I don't want to judge the show so harshly from one episode, but everyone else was more intriguing to me. Every time it went back to Nikita I was like, "Yeah, whatever, cut back to the other characters!" Hellcats is too teenager-drama-catty for my tastes. Terriers is supposed to be an hour-long dramedy, but it feels much more dramatic than comedic. The only comedy stems from its Psych-meets-Bored to Death premise of LOL THESE GUYS ARE JUST WINGING THIS DETECTIVE JOB, but since I watch both Psych and Bored to Death it feels a bit tired to me. Still, I love Donal Logue enough to keep watching even if it hadn't pulled me in.

I also wanted to start watching Sons of Anarchy again and catch up with Human Target. I can do that within a week, right? >.>