Beantown Adventures

I finally gave myself permission to get out Friday and visit a friend of mine in Boston. Needless to say, a night in the city was well deserved and just what the doctor would've ordered, if I had one.

The saddest part of the night was the rainy weather. For some odd reason, the traffic always seems to double on rainy days, don't know why. Fortunately, the radio was playing good music and I was singing and dancing to the beats all the way into the city.

As I drove out of the tunnel, entering Government Center, I let out an unexpected girly scream and started talking to...well...Boston.

"Hello Boston I'm home!" I screeched and giggled, "Did you miss me?"

Boston didn't answer.

There was traffic and pedestrians everywhere.

"Oh yes, busy city streets of Boston that no one else seems to like but me...I missed you!" I said.

Boston still didn't answer. I think it's mad at me for leaving it behind.

I calmed down immediately to focus on the traffic. I took a left and a second later, I was at a red light and Quincy Market was to my left. I let out a happy sigh of relief and took in the sights. I turned left and drove to the light and realized I was going the wrong way.

"Oh it's okay," I said to myself, "I'm one street below Tremont Street I can fix it."

Little did I remember, I couldn't. Ooops. The next series of events turned into a moment in my time which I was able to come up with a saying:

"You know you haven't been in Boston in awhile when you forgot that:

A.   Post Office Square is nowhere near Chinatown!

B.   You forget that for every 3 quarters, there's a red light on Tremont and they do not turn green all at the same time!

C.   You forget how expensive parking garages are in the city!"

After turning on a wrong way one way street and circled around, I arrived at the restaurant to meet the friends, I settled down and started to enjoy myself.

 It felt good to be there; the ambiance; the energy; the music, the German beer, the conversations. I had fun and no, I didn't make a drunken fool of myself by dancing on the tables! Which I probably could've gotten away with considering I was in a German bar and everyone was standing near the piano singing!

I also didn't, however, stop talking about the ex whose name I will not say right now. Oh joy, you gotta love it when the beer controls the conversations and the ex is the hot topic of the night.

I didn't drive back to NH that night; I stayed at my friends. I woke up early the next day and I looked around my friends new apartment and was in love with it. There's something about the apartments in the city suburbs that attract me. I love most of the settings, they're old houses, with hard wood floors; and there's a bit of history about them.

We later left to go for breakfast and for the first time in 14 months I was within walking distance to a restaurant and I will say that I miss that so much! I also miss the sounds of the city.

As we walked and crossed the bridge that was over I93 I heard the traffic pass by and then the train pulled into the nearby station. I was quickly pulled into the scene and all of a sudden I felt inspired. Now, I do not have split or multiple personalities but being a writer, especially one with a script in progress, my ‘protagonist' suddenly came to me.

Being that I was with friends and wanted to socialize, I pushed her out of my mind and re-focused on our conversation. As we walked into the diner, I was once again inspired. I took in the atmosphere, the ambiance, the crowd, the energy. It's hard to explain when this moment hits me to people. I want to be a part of the crowd so I usually ignore this feeling that I get. Then I turned to look behind me and what do I see on the wall? A framed picture of Mark Walhberg (for those of you out west and don't know him, he's the former underwear dude, Marky Mark who sang the hit single, "Good Vibrations;" and aka NKOTB sibling to Donnie)

After reading the article and reading the menu, my protagonist haunted me again and as I looked around the diner, I was even more inspired. I gave myself a minute and felt the moment I was in. I carefully analyzed the crowd; the waitresses; the way they spoke; the way the dressed, how the stood and created a new scene in my story and added a 2^nd antagonist was too.

After breakfast and saying our goodbyes, I walked to my car and laughed my ass off as I was once again reminded of how easy it is to forget something that only the city offers:

My car was parked, no wait, ‘sandwiched' in between two cars with about a ruler's length in between my rear and my front end of car.

"Joy."

So, in I got and pulled an Austen Powers.

Reverse; forward; turn wheel left; reverse; forward; cut wheel left; reverse forward, cut wheel left. After moments, I finally got out of the tight space and managed to turn around and head home.

I could've stayed in the city and walked around, it was a warm enough day but I didn't ‘pahk the cah in Harvahd yahd' to walk around. I stopped on I93 bumper to bumper traffic and really thought about it and decided to not stay. I had a lot of writing to do and I needed to do it as quickly as possible. Especially if I was to get to bed early Saturday.

My weekend was sweet and it was nice to reconnect with good friends. I miss the city I do; but for now, I live close enough to visit often and I remember the scenes, the sites, the sounds, the attitudes, the accent, the way they dress and how good it feels to be in a big crowd filled with energy and inspiration.