Fen-tastic

Erin and I went to what appears to be our final Red Sox game last week. While we both made our orders separately and without knowledge of the other, Mick and Jason also wound up with tickets to the same game only 3 rows in front of us. We sat together as long as we could before we were supplanted by a rowdy group of pre-teens with piercing voices and pierced whatevers... The highlight of the game was probably some random people a few rows behind us actually shooshing this one girl. I mean, who shooshes someone at a baseball game? In all honesty though, she was probably one of the top 7 most annoying people I've ever come across.

Tale of the Hat

If you know me, you should know that for the past 10 years of my life, I have always worn a hat of some sort to all manor of occasions, including the borderline inappropriate ones such as weddings and bar mitzvahs. Regardless, I find it important to talk about the evolution of my headwear for a few reasons which will become apparent.

"Fitty" (Not pictured): Fitty was the first hat I wore for any considerable amount of time. Logging about 2 years atop my scalp, Fitty was a faded fitted Yankees cap. While it wasn't replaced by any direct hat descendant, I gave up the hat because of my growing distaste for the Yankees at the time who were growing more and more successful and I have always been a sucker for the underdog. Regardless, Fitty laid the groundwork for many hats to come.

"Blue": Blue was my second major hat. Purchased at the Susquehanna Valley Mall near Bucknell University in the first week or so of class in freshman year, this hat wound up defining my personality. I was known as "the kid in the blue hat" through most of my education. As you can see, it's a bit torn from overuse. There are literally no seams on this hat that are intact. The brim detaches from the cap and the cap is detaching from itself. I brought the hat on a recent trip to the beach in an effort to keep the sun off my face as I lay down... but all i got was sunlight pouring through threadbare cloth and the innumerable holes that were worn into the top beyond the normal air holes pre-sewn in. For those who would ask, the two ribbons that adorn the hat are green and blue; the green is for organ donors and the blue is a September 11 ribbon.

"Orangey": Orangey, pictured left, was the hat I wore when I got to Massachusetts. A fixture for about two years, this hat was worn only while attending Northeastern University for my Master's degree. The second-most worn in hat my repertoire, the pin above the left brim is my graduation pin, symbolic of the fact that I haven't worn it since graduation (as you can't wear a baseball cap with a pin sticking in it.

"Failure": Pictured right, the black cap is more symbolic than anything else. Worn for the period after my graduation when I couldn't get into a PhD program and where I was working as a freelance teacher, it was a bit of a misnomer. While I wasn't a "failure" in the sense that my life was headed nowhere as I had great jobs, I felt crappy about being rejected from Boston colleges. Of course, I didn't where this hat all that much for obviously depressing reasons and I wasn't sad to see it get buried in the closet. As you may notice, it is completely unadorned by ribbons, pins, fraying edges, etc. In the words of my mother, "it is what it is." A chapter best left forgotten, despite its worth.

"Newbie": The impetus for this post is the recent acquisition of my new hat. Pictured right, the white symbolizes hope and faith amidst the tumult of the blue ocean. No it doesn't, but it could. Anyway, I'm not sure I like the white as it gets dirty easily and shows wrinkles, much like my pasty, alabaster skin. But I do like it. I will wear this cap for the duration of my PhD program. Hopefully by the time I get out, I'll be able to pull off the fedora look. Until then, newbie here will set the tone for the next chapter in my life.

Beach Mad Libs

It's been a while since my last post for one simple reason: not much happens when you're unemployed for the summer. With no day-to-day routine, there's little to comment on. However, Erin and I have been busy with little odds and ends-type things around the house that have been keeping us busy. Erin has taken to painting again, and I'm... blogging. But here goes with a few fun tidbits.

Last Tuesday, Erin and I took a trip to Crane Beach just north of Boston. A beautiful day trip complete with naked toddlers throwing sand at one another and high school seniors cutting class and playing volleyball poorly.


We did, however, have a great time despite the temperature of the water being a balmy -30 degrees fahrenheit. Here we see Erin going as far in as her toes could handle. I, on the other hand, decided to go all out and see what all the skeptics of hypothermia have been talking about. It took Erin a good 7 minutes to take this photo, so after 30 minutes in the E.R., I was good to drive back home.


While there were many eaves-dropped conversations, probably the least interesting of them was the one closest to us where two chatty cathy's regaled each other with stories of public drunkeness. Of course, Erin and I were fairly convinced that none of them had taken place. Or at the very least, the story happened once, and the author decided to retell the story, but change the events. This is humorous because, as you may or may not know, public drunkeness stories are essentially just a mad libs and are thus easily multiplied even if they never happened.


Okay so __(relative distinction of time)__ I got so wasted. Me and my friends went to ____(name of bar)____ and we totally were like "whatever," but we got so ___(synonym of "wasted")__ that we didn't care. __(Name)__ got his foot stuck in the __(noun)__ and we laughed so hard that I spit up __(beverage)__ all over the floor. Then we went dancing and we were so ___(synonym of "wasted")__ that we were CRAZY! We were so ___(synonym of "wasted")__! Anyway, I didn't get home until ___(early hour in the morning)___ and then had to go to work at __(fast food chain)__.

Of course, the most offensive of their stories had to do with some girl who was "banging" two different guys. While we were put out by the situation, I think we were more upset by the use of the term "banging" being used repeatedly.