Common trend lately.

Long, crazy couple of days.

Friday.

Right.

The highlights of Friday involved a lot of studying for jazz related things. As I recall. OH.

And I got my iPad that day, and took a long ride home along the river. Hung out with Julia in the evening. I recall that it was raining a lot. Yeeeees.

Saturday morning I got up at 6:30 AM so I could get over to NEC by 9:00 AM. Arrived 15 minutes early, which was perfect.

Found my room (356) in Jordan Hall, got in before anyone else, and greeted all the instructors as they filed in. Spent a few minutes making sure all the evaluation spreadsheets were working, and then we got into it. Played my two things with Joel and a gentleman on drums whose name I didn't catch. Joel was playing bass. There were three others in the room who were kind enough to give me their comments.

I didn't really get to do the chordal parts. Just the soloing. This was probably easier on me. Meh. But... not quite as planned.

After my evaluation, I walked around to the other two rooms and made sure everything was going smoothly. It was like 9:20 AM.

I then left, got on the #1 bus, and took it back to Harvard Sq., where I met Julia at Dado. We got some coffee and breakfasty foods, (her: scone, me: bagel + apple).

We ended up at her place for a few, I took a nap, and then around noon we walked to my place, got in my car, and drove down to South Bay St. in Boston to the food bank, and hung out there volunteering until 3:30 PM. Afterward, we hung out with some Mt. Holyoke people in the volunteer room, and then drove ourselves back. We hung out at my place for a few, and then walked to Porter and took the T to Broadway and walked out into Southie to go to a gallery opening. LaMontagne Gallery. It was an opening for a friend of hers, Monica. We found Eric Fields and Brian Kane there, chatted, drank some PBR, and then hitched a ride with them back to Cambridge.

Then, we quickly went to Shaws for some habaneros and jalapenos. And then to the liquor store for gin and beer.

And then we walked back to my place, got in the car, and drove to Jason and Kat's in Watertown, where we proceeded to watch Up (spectacular movie!), have nachos, and drink beer. Awesome.

We ended up going home around 11:00 PM, I think.

Sunday morning we met Jason, Katherine, Justin, Ali, and Jamie at the Deluxe Town Diner for brunch around 11:20 AM. It was delightful and delicious. I had an omelet and a single flapjack. And some hash browns. And some rye toast. And awesome coffee.

After that, I took Julia home and proceeded to clean my room(s) for the next five hours until around 6:00 PM. I rearranged my bedroom. I thoroughly vacuumed everything. I organized my magic cards. I made the whole place make more sense.

Champ.

Around 6:30 or so, Julia and I went to Danehy Park out back a block or two from my apartment, sat on a blanket, ate chips and hummus, and hung out until just after sundown, watching the sky turn red across the track and football field in the park. Niiiiiiice.

After that, we went to Jose's for guacamole and margaritas. At some point thereafter, we walked back to my place, chatted with Eric, Travis, and his wife about piercings, and then it became sleep time.

This morning, I woke up at a decent time and took the T in to work. The day was pretty straightforward. Learning about all my new projects (of which there are several). Trying to finish up my filter logic parsing thingy. Got some excellent help from Daniel, who was kind enough to improve it for me. I love code reviews. Things are always just better afterwards. Such a great idea.

After work, I went off to NEC.

Oh, and I spent some time studying for my Jazz Theory exam here and there during the day.

The quiz went okay... not quite as good as I might have hoped. It's difficult recognizing common jazz patterns in eight random bars of the form. Crazy.

After class, I took the #1 bus back to Harvard Square. It took 35 minutes (!!!!!). I think I need to start taking the bus, rather than the Green/Red lines.

From Harvard I wandered over to Julia's, and she was kind enough to let me share her dinner while we watched Wall-E. And that, as they say, is that.

Weekend over.

Class (basically) over.

Day basically over.

Stress basically over.

Bring on summer!

I've been reading Bird by Bird again. It really makes me want to get back to writing. Kinda can't wait. Now I just need to block off some time.

Goodnight, world!