I smell the beach!!!!!! And I don't even have a beach near me. Closest one: Walden Pond abt a 1/2-hr or 3/4-hr walk from here.

What beautiful weather we have today in the Greater Boston Area! I get to wear a short sleeve shirt outside, & it has just turned 10 AM! I could probably use a light jacket, but man! I love the weather right now. Not too cold, not too hot. Yay!

Too bad I have to stay inside until 5. =/

Selfish Me

Over the past three or four days, I've written a ton of entries but haven't taken the time @ night to post them onto my BLOG (wh/ I just found out today means 'Web Log'. Get it? "--B LOG"? Huh? Huh? Yeah. . .I didn't know what it meant for awhile, either, even though I used it). But I guess w/ TV, writing, running, & the latest slew of socializing w/ friends for the fun of it & to celebrate my 24th b-day, I haven't really had the time to actually post the stuff. After all, life, it's all abt me! Well. . .only kinda. =)

The 2nd Installment of My B-day Festivities: Dinner @ the Grasshopper Restaurant

Last night the culmination of some great plans came together. I gathered 12 people from my UU church's youth group, & we all went over to the Grasshopper Restaurant in Allston for some good vegan asian food.

I had such a good time! If anyone who went reads this entry, thank you so much for coming & providing such good company! But man. . .the other vegetarians & I (I think the only full out vegan present) really appreciated the huge amounts of options from wh/ to choose. We could order anything on the menu & not worry abt getting meat or dairy or eggs. It felt great to have such freedom, but. . .we had somewhat of a hard time handling the choice & responsibility, we have gotten so used to getting marginalized to one section of the menu. Sometimes I forget some of the advantages to such superficial marginalization.

But oh. . .I haven't felt so full in awhile, probably a week or two. I had at least one sample of all the appetizers, except for the spring rolls. The appetizers included: dumplings, tofu rolls, & you know what? I forget what else. Tasted great, though. Then I had a sweet & sour dumpling dish w/ pineapples & vegetables; coconut juice w/ some coconut meat in it (hah hah, enough of th/ joke); &. . .& CHEESECAKE!!!!!!! Mmmmmm. . .. A cpl people had some dishes they didn't like. Overall, though, everyone felt satisfied.

A good time had by all. We couldn't even leave the street curb aft we left, we enjoyed each other's company too much.

So now I've got a cpl more activities left for the b-day festivities:

- Dinner w/ friends from hometown. - A housewarming party @ a friend's apartment. - A meeting in western MA tomorrow w/ the group of people who want to form a sustatinable farm. - Possibly either a spring fling @ church or a creative sharing party @ a friend's house tomorrow night aft the meeting in western MA. - and Going out to visit my family for Mother's Day on Sunday.

Whew! I've got a lot going on, I guess. Someone told me birthdays should work this way. I'll find out over this weekend if I like it to work this way or not. Guess I can't complain, though, since I did schedule the dinners over the past cpl nights.

Nonetheless all of this celebrating & such kind of works as a kind of defining independent adulthood for me to a certain degree since I now have a job th/ pays well & allows me to have financial independence. Yay!

The Death of Dr. Mark Green

So aft dinner last night my roommate & I came home. We arrived @ abt 3/4 of 11. Good thing we've got TIVO! Otherwise we would have missed one of the more intense ERs. Dr. Green, the 2nd to last original cast member (unless you count Sherry Springfield, but she had a looooonnnnngggg hiatus for the show, so she doesn't really count) to leave the show died from brain cancer.

Pretty intense, even if sappy @ times. I found myself near to tears @ times. Kinda weird. I guess when a show has a character & th/ character enters my life @ least once a wk for 7 yrs, it almost becomes a friend of sorts. Kinda like th/ feeling I get when a real good character in a novel dies or plain when the novel ends.

And also they made it a good bittersweet kind of death. It happened slowly, so it gave the Dr. time to try fixing the mistakes th/ he had made & the problem of not spending valuable time during those rites of passages w/ his daughters. Then it becomes even more intense b/c over the last 7 yrs, we saw it all happening, esp. during the 1st cpl seasons. So all this stuff from something like 5 yrs ago came to nip him in the bud. They did a good job b/c from everything I read abt death & dying, his dying came off as realistic, especially the wanting to fix most of the mistakes he made during his life. I think this process of trying to fix the mistakes, & the people around him (especially his daughter) not accepting the death & trying to reject the whole thing as happening. Very heart wrenching stuff. . .. =(

A Community of BLOGs

I found a website dedicated to the BLOGs in the Boston area. They even plan events for BLOGgers to attend & times to hang out. Sounds like fun, another community in wh/ to take part. I think I'll see what it has to offer & possibly join. If it strikes up your interest, goto the Boston BLOGS Website.

As The Workday Comes Close to an End

1. The Running Thing I don't want to use health & exercise to make myself live longer. I want to use it to make my time here on this Eart as enjoyable as possible. Running counts as exercise & something th/ betters health. Thus, I run, stretch, exercise, etc. to make myself feel th/ much bttr. The complaining abt not having the motivation to do stuff like this most of the time will come later. =)

2. The Community Thing I didn't really come up w/ any good answers for this one. Sucks, too, b/c I should have had them by tomorrow for the meeting. I kinda came up w/ the idea at the last one, then it became homework. Oh well, I think I'll just have to ramble a bit. I've got some rough ideas up there in my head. Something about affective/effective relationships, wanting to get challenge & encouraged @ the same time, & also shared responsibilities so th/ I can have some time to do the things th/ I love w/ most of the time given to me. Hopefully something else will come from it.

Now I hope I don't do the same w/ the latest idea I just gave to the group. . .. =(

I don't have any other big thought processes th/ I had started but didn't finish. Thought I did have more. Oh well. Not bad really. Almost like a conversation in real time -- starting an idea but then getting sidetracked by other ideas & things happening around me.

Done for the Day

I've finished this entry. Time to send it to myself. Then I go home, take a jog, shower, go to dinner w/ a bunch of friends, then go to a party. Yay!

Just get ready for some changes in the look of this place.