Would you like to dance around the world with me?

Moments and Boston

This blog is a week or two old, but it's been a busy few weeks, so here ya go:

Every few moments (and I define a moment as a small event, such as a new commercial on TV, a question from someone, or perhaps a memory triggered by something simple) yesterday, I felt lonely or sad. And I didn’t mind. In fact, I kept thinking about it, maybe trying to prolong the feelings, partly because I haven’t been feeling much lately, and I desperately wanted to feel. It’s like stopping to smell the roses, which I do sometimes even when I’m on a run. Being able to pause and relish in my feelings, whether they are happy or sad, is something I haven’t been doing much of the past few weeks.

On top of that, I didn’t really want to leave Boston last week. It was so great to see the whole gang, old and new, but it was such a brief trip, really. I know part of it was great because I was visiting and people are excited to have me there, which made me feel very loved. I never thought I would say this, but Boston felt homey, smaller, and even slightly more welcoming than LA (even though everyone says people in the Northeast are much more unfriendly and cold). I was reluctant and sad to leave. I mean, I love JPL and California, and I have a lot of great friends, but it, for probably a good reason, feels a tad lonely.

But I bet you want to know what I did in Boston. Well, Lucy’s birthday was the day I got in, so we went out dancing with everybody. We didn’t go to our old sketchy stand by; we went to the best dance club in Boston, so they tell me, and it was great. We need to do more of that in LA (which we actually did on Halloween, so yay us). The next day, I met up with 4 of my sorority sisters. I was in XOT (or Coyote), which was a small, local sorority, so I find it amazing that 5 of us were in Boston at the same time (me for work, Rebekah for an internship, and 3 for school). We had a fantastic historic day in the North End and on the Freedom Trail. I could even impress them with my history tidbits that I learned on a tour of the Freedom Trail when I started MIT. That evening was a chill night with Lucy, Marissa, Nareg, and Jess, and at that moment, it felt like I was back living in Boston. I also went to church, which is a great small community full of vibrance and warmth, had lunch with Danielle, helped teach a salsa class to the deaf community, danced with my old group (I miss that small community too!), hung out in the SSL, celebrated Jeff’s birthday, spent some time with V, and oh, worked too to recruit people for JPL! What a weekend.  I can’t wait till Vegas guys!

posted by Biff @ 10:40 AM