Monthly Archives: January 2014

Jan27

Resolutions for 2014

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Not so much resolutions as goals.  I don’t like the phrase “Resolutions” for some reason… I’m not sure why, to be honest.  But it is what it is… and here we go:

  • Take voice lessons from Mike’s old teacher in Somerville
    • At least three lessons
    • Preferably before August
  • Actually pick up the guitar
    • Learn at least one legit Bass line
    • Preferably before July
  • Take Martial Arts classes
    • Preferably Capoeira, but Wing Chung, or some other Eastern style would be cool too
    • Actually spar
    • Twice monthly
    • Attend for at least three months (six classes)
  • Lead a 5.9 route on full Trad gear (doesn’t matter where)
    • Pretty simple… though I’d love this to be The Gunks or somewhere else awesome.
  • Lead the route “Romancing the Stone” (5.10) at Rumney (Sport)
    • I’ve been in love with this route for a while, and almost got it last year.  Seems a solid goal to push my strength and comfort level
  • Climb 5.12 in the gym, on toprope (boring, I know)
    • It’s in the gym, it doesn’t really count.  But I can clean 5.11a/b now, so it’s a solid increase
  • Go on at least two solid & major trips (week long, roadtrip or flying)
    • Plans right now are France in the Spring, and a roadtrip to Maine for my birthday.  We’ll see how they develop
  • Earn a firearms permit from Cambridge
    • General goal – I don’t really want to buy a gun since they’re so damn expensive, but it’s a thing that I’d like to be able to do.
  • Earn a solid raise at work, at least 1.5x that of 2013
    • Simple and self-explanatory
  • Legitimately look into joining Artisan’s Asylum
    • This is a “maker space” in Cambridge, where they have welding tools, milling machines, and lots of other “building stuff” tech.  Shouldn’t be hard, and I’ve got a few projects that I’d like to work on.
  • Learn to Weld from someone at work
    • Maybe as part of building my new Kayak rack?  Again, this is like the firearms permit.  Not something I truly need… but I feel that it’s a life skill that I should have.
Jan26

New Years Eve, 2.0

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Saturday, 11-Jan-14

As is traditional, we hosted a New Years Eve 2.0 party here in Cambridge.  If you want the story behind New Years 2.0, check out the post from last year.  Basically, we can do it because we can.  We’re adults – if we want to celebrate an event twice… well damnit, this is America, right?  FREEDOM TO PARTY!

The day started out with a call from Jordan’s Furniture, telling me that the van was outside and that I needed to let my new bed into the house.  I’d bought one the weekend before, you see, as a celebration of the new year.  So I let them in, had them bring it into the livingroom, and proceeded to have an early breakfast.  Suitably fortified, my room was torn completely apart, a new bed was installed, and everything was completely reorganized.

My room completed, I started into the rest of the house.  Lizzie’d set up most everything, so all I had to do was some final cleaning and prep work… it was nice, and since there wasn’t much to do aside from put the champagne on ice I took it as a relaxed Saturday.

Once people started arriving,

As per the usual, a few snippets from the party are as follows:

  • Lizzie made Jambalaya… and it was amazing!  I’m learning that having a snack set out is a pretty key component to keeping parties sane…
  • I wore a full suit with tails – dress pants, waist coat, and jacket.  Complete with an Iron-Cross medallion from some school here in Boston… not really sure which, but it looked amazing.
  • Chirag was the party boss tonight – more than a few people commented that every time they saw him, he was on official party business… setting up champagne, making drinks, setting up the hookah, or stopping me from using the road flares as blowtorches.
  • I used road flares as a blowtorch, and torched a cup into pretty shapes.
  • Yes, we counted down and rung in the New Year in style: “A toast!  A toast to a New Year; may it be even more amazing, thanks to being rung in twice!”
  • The combination of my group of friends and Lizzie’s crew was pretty excellent; once everyone showed up and started meshing it worked out really well.
  • My room was comandeered fairly early in the night, to be used as a Tarot room.  I was expecting that it would be one of those “fun party tricks” situations… but not so much – I should have realized that it was serious business when Lizzie’s friend took 20min to “purify the energy” in my room, so that it would be conducive to tarot reading.  Interesting…

The party went until… I think 4:30 in the morning or so?  We retired a bit earlier than that, but I heard rumors that the party went on for at least a few hours longer.  I heard some stories the next morning when we all went to brunch, but nothing too concrete… basically just some fun, and slowing down.  An excellent night, definitely.

Jan17

New Years Eve 2014

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Wednesday, 31-Dec-13

New Years… it’s one of my favorite holidays, though I honestly can’t really tell you why.  I think it’s partially because it’s a time for new beginnings, and it has a “people should make out!” element added into the countdown.  Ohh, and popping champagne corks is always nice too.

So this year, Daniel hosted New Years… I think he held is last year too, but I’m not 100% sure.  Either way, it was EXCELLENT!

I dressed up, as usual, in my Kurta from Jig and Dave’s wedding… if anyone hasn’t seen a Kurta before, look it up quick – they’re amazing.  Very bright colored and lots of sequins… not the best with dreads, I’ll admit, but I survived and thrived non-the-less.  Mine was bright emerald, with perfect aquamarine fancy slippers, so I was definitely the belle of the ball for this one night.

The party night itself was a bit of a  blur – Terese and I took the train out, since the plan was to crash at Daniel’s place anyways, so there was no concern about cars or parking or any of that nonsense.  The train was completely packed, but that’s just the price you have to expect to pay on New Years Eve.  Nothing too bad, though I was a bit saddened by the lack of crazy people or interestingly dressed folks riding with us.

Instead, we got to the party, helped set up, and then proceeded to party down!  There wasn’t one overarching story to the party, so let me sum it up with a few fun points:

  • We had TONS of random and amazing drinks – Daniel and I both spent time playing bartender, though I have to say that I’m pretty sure that my Baileys and Frangelico coffee was basically the best thing ever.  I did make that, right?  Not a dream?  Hmm….
  • Brian (Daniel’s brother) and Mike LeVasseur were both able to make it out from Florida and California, respectively.  Thus, lots of time was spent catching up and hearing about various enterprises.  Damn, both of those guys are getting stuff done!
  • Terese pulled off a VERY nice outfit… I do enjoy events where people dress up.  It’s fun, and is a good excuse to play the fancy card.
  • The countdown was awesome, and lots of champagne was drank by all.  Daniel, I apologize for how messy your floor must have gotten.  My bad.
  • Some people are nice guys, and feel bad about crashing in bed with a girl who’s ex is in the same room with them.  Mike and I are not nice guys, so when the nice guy is drunk and just wants to sleep, we drag him to the room and toss him in the bed with the girl (they’re both clothed, don’t worry about it.  He’s a gentleman) and leave the annoyingly drunk ex to deal with it himself.  Laughs were had by all.  And high-fives.

The night ended well, basically with all of us crashing at random places throughout the house.  Terese and I found ourselves in the downstairs bedroom, on a sleeping pad that Daniel had laid out.  It wasn’t the most comfy thing ever, especially when on a hardwood floor instead of outside in the forest, but it was definitely acceptable, and we slept pretty well.  Very well, when you count everyone getting up constantly, people leaving at 5 in the morning, and the partiers outside.

 

Thursday, 01-Jan-14

The next morning started slowly and painfully… but honestly not nearly as painfully as I expected.  Chirag and I were the first ones away (technically Brian was, since he came downstairs, but that doesn’t count because he went back to sleep), followed quickly by Terese.  After I got up and put Terese back to bed, we got dressed and headed out for a constitutional… AKA a walk to Dunkin Donuts to get stuff for everyone.

Was a nice walk, doubly-so for seeing everyone taking the walk of shame, or being painfully hungover waiting for their coffee.  We got a box of coffee and a ton of donuts, said hi to a few police officers who were just too tired to deal with any of this shit, and headed back to start making breakfast.

Three Bostwicks later, everyone was awake and downstairs, eating bacon and sausage and eggs and other delicious concoctions.  The day went quickly from there, leading us on a few light adventures as we tried to shake the hangovers.  The Hobbit was watched, snacks were had, and the new year started out with a nicely comfortable sigh.