oh to feel infinite

It was so nice to get out of Virginia for awhile, especially to go and see friends.  I spend a few days up in Boston with Alanna and we stayed at her Mimi's house in East Boston. That house was so amazing -- pretty much everything was original from when the house was built and there were so many cool little things to take pictures of, which of course I did.  

 

Because I was so poor and also because it was so cold (we ended up getting snowed in on Sunday) we did a lot of indoor things and not as much driving around as we normally do when I visit.  One thing that I love to do is cook, and luckily Alanna does too. So, we made Aorta Stew. Gross? Not so much. We just threw a bunch of veggies in a pot of broth with some orzo and let it stew for a bit and mmmmmm it was wonderful.  I'm thinking of making it again for dinner on Xmas day since I'll, again be fending for myself.

It's also become a tradition for us to make some kind of craft when I'm able to stay over for more than a night and this time we decided to make little dolls. Alanna didn't end up finishing hers, but I finished mine and he is lovely. You can take off his little coat and scarf but it was cold so I thought, I don't want him to freeze his little doll buns off.

 

The whole purpose of my visit, though, was to go to see Hatebreed with Alanna so she wouldn't have to go by herself.  We actually ended up leaving before Hatebreed went on, but we did see Thy Will Be Done, Hate Eternal, Unearth, and Cannibal Corpse. I had more fun than I thought I would, although I totally dozed off a few times during Hate Eternal.  Granted, we were sitting at a table, but they were just so monotonous I found it very difficult to keep my eyes open.  Cannibal Corpse were pretty funny, Corpse Grinder kept saying that they only had one or two songs left but they would just keep playing anyway. That gave me a nice little chuckle.  Alanna wanted to get her makeup done for the show so we had gone to MAC before hand and her makeup looked so nice.  The lady who put it on was wonderful too and it made my over the shoulder creeping time go by a lot faster, which was very much appreciated.

That was Saturday, and then there was snow.  Snow, snow, snow.  The only thing snow is good for is getting things done so all Sunday we worked on our dolls. While I finished, Alanna got frustrated and is setting hers aside for another day. Poor little guy. We also watched a ton of Six Feet Under which was wonderful. I'm so disappointed in myself that I didn't watch this sooner! I was pretty worried that I wouldn't be able to catch my bus on Monday because of all the snow, but I was in luck and managed to get out of the city without delay, although I was the last person to board the bus. Yikes!

I had set aside time in New York so I could go to lunch with Becka at Red Bamboo for a tasty vegan feast, but since traffic in New York was so bad, we had to make due with Starbucks.  I was greeted by Becka and her friend Jennie (who was adorable!) at the bus stop and bombarded with gifts -- what a wonderful greeting! Of course these gifts were two of my favorite things: sweets (Boston cookies) and words (Neverwhere) so I was absolutely thrilled and thankful for the surprise. Apparently I'm a natural at navigating through New York pedestrian traffic or so I was told by my lovely guides.  We battled our way through the Subway, to Starbucks, and all the way to Madison Square Gardens to catch my bus.  I wish I was able to get some more pictures from that portion of my trip but I wanted to get as much chit-chat time in as possible.  Running through the NYC streets was so exhilarating and made me feel the magic that Khaleelah and Carri had scolded me over upon my first visit to the city.  We were a bit late to the bus, but luckily the bus was late as well so I was still able to board AND get my own seat to boot!

Stephanie and I have been talking about traveling around this summer and I'm really excited at that prospect.  I've been itching to get to California as I'm starting to think that may be the best place for my gallery, but we'll see.  It's hard to make a prediction on these kinds of things when you really haven't spent a lot of time in the places you're considering.

For the New Year, I'm going to start an art blog. That'll be a good way for me to get my footing with all the gallery preparations and hopefully I'll be able to make some connections that way.  I'm also going to get a handle on my veganism and stop cheating so much. I told my mom that and she said that's not a good resolution, but I really want to be 100% vegan rather than just some of the time.  2010 is going to be a good year, I can feel it.