A New Blog, A New World

I am finally back from Boston, no...Massachusetts after an amazing long weekend with a new knack to write and a readiness to head back into the flow of things. Five days with Rutana, Deke, and Ferrin has put me back into Emory-zone, so packing seems to be the only thing left for me to do.

The trip began with my first experience on the Fung Wah Bus from New York to Boston for only 15 dollars. Imagine the busist corner in one of the busiest places in the world (Chinatown) full with scents of scallops, lychees, and fish mixed with old Chinese women (Amas) yelling obscenities or walking faster than 30-year old businessmen in Grand Central. Within this hodgepodge of Asian livelihood, there is a line that stretches about a block that consists of white people. For a few minutes, life was inverted as an enclave of whites became the perpetual foreigners, out of their comfort zone, and frightened by their alien status. The only difference is that it isn't perpetual. Within half an hour later, the foreign Americans returned to the calming embrace of suburban lawns and tricycles on the sidewalks.

Within the bus, there were a few Asians and one fo them was a 50-60-year old woman who sat next to me. Before I go on with my story, I have to preface it by saying that I wound up sleeping at 6am a few hours before, woke up at 7, and headed out of the house by 8. By the time the bus left, it was 10:30 am and I only had 1 hour of sleep under my belt. That is when I began what I thought would be the greatest nap since Van Winkle. The bus even reached its one and only rest stop, and I was so tired, I said "Screw this. I'll just wait an extra two hours till I get to Boston and 'rest' there." So I continued sleeping, but I had made a fatal mistake. DISCLAIMER: Women, please skip to the next paragraph if you do not want to hear this till you meet your husband. But men, we all know of the concept of morning wood. For those who don't, it is a morning erection that is naturally caused as the brains enters the REM-deep sleep phase. At this stage, the body's skeletal muscle structure relaxes and causes hypervasodilation in the capillaries of the body, resulting in said erection. This can also be caused by a full bladder. By the time I wake up form my slumber, morning wood has made its attack on me at a most inopportune time. For the next half an hour on the bus, the old Asian women next to me tried to keep her eyes from my erection, but she wound up staring for several minuets at a time. Meanwhile, I go through every trick in the male handbook to coverup, adjust, shift, pretend to have a stomachache, cross the legs, etc. all to no avail. My desperation led me to only one option: the bathroom in the bus. And so the journey began. I had to make my way through the valley of the shadow of death known as the narrow and long aisle to the back of the bus. Two thoughts began to run through each person's head as I headed back there. The first included: "Why is this guy coming back there? Does he know its not a real bathroom? It is pretty disgusting and scary and with all the bumps on the highway, it would be pretty impossible. No one goes back there son!!!" These exlamations of warning and confusion were mixed with the second thought: "Holy Crap, That's an erection!!!" I'm hoping my coverup allowed for only the former. Long story short, I ignored teh 70 individuals on that bus, knowing full well I will never see them ever in my life.

The first three to four days in Boston were spent with Adam in rural Massachusetts or as I like to call it, Podunk, Massachusetts. After seeing his environments of cows, corn fields, and small, privately owned businesses, I understand many things. I understand why he doens't pee standing up. I understand why he grows hair in patches. I understand why he's Republican. The days were spent playing catch in random parking lots, incredibly long naps, incredibly long drives, getting lost all over new england, people watching, talking about people who'd call us, listening to boston sports radio, watching def poetry jam, IMing each other, when we were 2 feet away from each other, the boston duck tours, not going to other things out of laziness, seafood restaurants, fast food runs, performing great poetry at poor poetry venues, my first drive-in experience, IMAX watching, and more eating. Our friendship is similar to two complete idiots or morons, but in a cuter way, it would be two 2-year olds who don't have a care in the world and the only objective in our lives is to make the two of us laugh as much as possible. I was supposed to head back down to New York Tuesday afternoon, but my spontaneity often takes often and I hitched a ride to Wellesley to see John Dicamillo.

Before I go on, I must make a few observations on the state of Massachusetts. First, there are two uniforms. 1) Red Sox baseball cap. Women may have the option of wearing a cute pink one. 2) New England Patriots Tom Brady #12 Jersey. I seriously did not go through three minutes without seeing one of these two types of uniforms. Secondly, they have a ridiculous obsession with Dunkin Donuts. It just might beat out Starbucks up here. I am both fightened and jealous. Third, the Big Dig really does suck and it is possibly the worse highway system ever. The fact that the drivers are equally aggressive as New Yorkers but not as good does not help either. Finally, those Boston accents are awesome.

This next section is titled: "Men, and How Yih Does Not Fit." The first thing that John and I do when I arrive in Wellesley is go to REI, the world's premier outdoor store. John begins rattling off to me, himself, and the employees are REI about camping, tents, storage stuff, and other outdoorish stuff. Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself "Bears? What about bears? I like bears! Winnie the Poooh. Yay!!!" Of course I don't show this and I must do what every other guy would do, act like you actually know what you're talking about. My responses include "Yeah! Exactly! That was exactly what I was thinking!" or "Nah. :::chuckle::: Who would think that? Yeah..that wouldn't be very wise." or my favorite, "Wow, man I don't know. That's a tough choice. It's your call." All of these mean, I have no idea what I'm talking about, now give me a free snowcone! Maybe I'm releasing too much information. The next part of my lost manhood exposed is the introduction to the Golden Retreiver, Baker. If anyone knows me at all, they know about my feelings towards dogs, and the interesting yelps I make when those furry things come near me. In this area, however, I have found redemption. Baker became one of my best friends in this trip, from scratching his belly and his ears to feeding him, I have fell in love with Baker and with dogs. It is dogs like him that make me a dog lover, not a dog eater. I hoped no one laughed at that! After great dinners and awesome talks in John's beautiful house, the next morning was all about packing and picking up a man who makes most look like toddlers: Michael Ferrin. Just finishing up the Appalachian Trail in 5 months, he is now in the road trip back to Atlanta with John. I was in the area, so I decided to go a leg of that road trip with them to Connecticut. Just feeling Mikey's beard, seeing his skinny and toned legs, and smelling the camp odor made me go WOW a couple of times in front of him. Forrest Gump, I mean, Mikey helped me have two urges with seieng him like this: start working out right now or just eat and forget about it. I chose the latter.

Meeting a few new friends, going from rural to suburban to incredibly rich Connecticut, having a nice dinner, taking Metro North, and X number of conversations later, I am back in New York City. The vacation was not extroadinary. There were no amazing touristy situations. There were no shocking stories or too many interesting moments. Nonetheless, it was a trip that was invaluably, incredible, and significant to where I am now. I am back, ready to take on Emory once more. I am once more reminded of the amazing friendships God has blessed me with on that campus.

The love and excitement of us is rushing straight at me and past me, and the only thing for us to do...is catch up.