My new guilty pleasure

VH1 and Entertainment Weekly are putting the country's pop culture savvy to the test with the new original series "The World Series of Pop Culture," presented by Alltel Wireless.

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/wsopc/series.jhtml

A word from the President

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Team Aniston vs. Team Jolie

Ok, is anyone else disturbed by the fact that Angelina Jolie stole the role of Marianne Pearl from Jennifer Aniston? The fact that she got a role over Aniston is not what disturbs me so much as the idea that either one of them was up for the role of a Marianne Pearl.

Take a look at Marianne Pearl

Angelina Jolie to star in Brad Pitt-produced film

Red Day - In more ways than one

Saturday's journey was not for the faint of heart. My plans were very ambitious:

1. Aquarium
2. Museum of Fine Arts (second visits)
3. Institute of Contemporary Arts
4. Skywalk Observatory.

I made it to the aquarium and 9:45 am after coaching a follow tourist about planning day trips. After making sure she got some water for the day. I headed for the aquarium. The penguins were cute. There were a million kinds of fish in a thousand tanks. There was one large take with a ton of big fish including barracudas and the giant sea turtle from Finding Nemo. I immediately wanted to know how old he was because Sandy Plankton said that sea turtles live to be 100 years old. But hey what does Sandy Plankton know? As it turns out the sea turtle was 65 years old.

I left the aquarium with a slight headache and feeling a little icky, but I chalked it up to not having a good breakfast. I went back to the subway station and headed out to the Museum of Fine Arts for the second time. I really wanted to go back to the gift shop. When I went on Thursday, I didn't have enough money to get anything. This time I went in armed with cash. I found a poster for my mom and a postcard or two.

I left the MFA intent on seeing the Institute of Contemporary Art. It was on the way to the Skywalk Observatory. I arrived at the ICA subway stop and wandered around Boylston street, but I couldn't find the ICA. I walked and walked and finally found it - and it was closed. I did find the Virgin Megastore and yes, I went in. It was a pretty nice store, very well stocked with a variety of selections. Just in case you're wondering, yes, I did buy some music.

It was odd being in the Virgin Megastore. It made me think back to my days at Sam Goody. You know, there was a period of time when I really loved working there. The days when it just about the music were the best days. I still really love music and I think that's what I miss the most about Sam Goody. My goodness...My thoughts have strayed.

I left to go to my next destination, the SkyWalk Observatory... Oddly enough, I didn't realize that I was one block away. I got on the subway and transferred trains just to end up one block away. By now, I felt really strange. I figured that I should take some pain medication for my now throbbing head. I went into the Prudential Center intent on finding food. I ended up going to Qdoba, the Mexican restaurant I discovered in Philadelphia and got a chicken taco salad.

Now, here's where the trip gets a little bit graphic.

I made my way to the food court and as I was sitting there, I kept feeling like I was going to pass out. I was having mini blackouts and I felt like the room was moving. I decided that it was best to go to the restroom in case I got sick and of course there were a million people in line. There were women with children, friends talking and all I could think was, "please don't let me throw up in line". Finally, my turn... Nothing... Man, I really thought it was coming. I guess it was a false alarm.

See that's what I thought....

I started walking out of the mall and suddenly...SPLAT!!!

I fell to my knees and tried to get myself together. No one stopped to help me, but I managed on my own to make back to the restroom, which was, of course, empty. I cleaned up a bit and headed straight to the subway to get back to the hotel. I finally made it back to the hotel and crashed in the bed. I felt horrible the rest of the night so I just stayed in bed. My mom told me to let the hotel folks know if I get sick again and to have them take me to hospital if I threw up again. Thankfully, I didn't.

Blue Day - Friday

I have been reading about the Freedom Trail ever since I decided to go the Boston. Its history dates back to colonial times just before and after the American Revolutionary war. The major characters in this tale are, Samuel Adams (yes, the beer guy), John Adams (the president), John Hancock (the signature guy), and Paul Revere.

The trail starts out in Boston Common near the new state house and goes for 2.5 miles. It has several stops along the way including the Park Street Church (a.k.a Fire and Brimstone corner), Granary Graveyard, Spring Street, Old State House, The Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's House, and Old North Church. It was an interesting trek, but at 90+ degree heat, it became a bit hard to keep interested. We lost some people along the way.

There were two interesting things of note for the Freedom Trail.

1. If you go, you have to know that you will most likely start in Boston Common, which is the main (central) park in Boston. Now there may be people randomly lying in the grass asleep...Some are hobos and some aren't don't be alarmed, just keep walking.

2. If you wear a backpack and look young, you may get a student discount. They may or may not ask for your ID. They took me for my word, which was good because I think my ID card was expired.

After the Freedom Trail, I went to Harvard University, "There is no substitute!" (From the movie, Soul Man). Harvard's Museum of Natural History has some exhibits that are similar to the Museum of Science. But they did have some cultural exhibits, like art and artifacts from central and south america. It was great to see artifacts from the Aztec and Mayan people and to see Teotihucan represented as well.

In another room, there were photos by Anne Winston Spirn. Her photos were mostly rural, but very powerful, capturing nature's beauty. After seeing Winston Spirn's and Laura McPhee's photos, I have a new respect for the art of photography. Photographers capture life as it is, but they bring things to our attention that we may both have noticed on our own.

As fascinating as the exhibits were, I was getting restless. I was really excited to be on the campus of Harvard. I felt like I was in the episode of the Gilmore Girls when Lorelei and Rory went to visit Harvard. I walked around Harvard Yard, desperately wanting to see a dorm, a classroom, and then I saw the library. I didn't go for fear of incurring yet another library fine. I have incurred fines in libraries all over the place.

After exploring campus a bit, I walked around cambridge for a while. I found a Harvard souvenir shop and bought a Harvard shirt and cap. I grabbed lunch, listened to three guys play some music in the town square and then headed for the subway...Next stop, JFK Presidential Library at UMass.

The JFK Library was interesting because it detailed John F. Kennedy's days as a senator, his presidential campaign, inauguration, highlights of his term and his family life. There were videos of actual events (presidential debates and the "ask not what you can do for your country" speech, replicas of actual furniture pieces from the oval office, and real hand written notes for speeches. In one hallway there was a video of Bill Clinton talking about meeting JFK when he was a teenager. It was funny to see the video of that meeting.

The JFK Library closed at 5 pm and I decided to head to Fanuiel Hall to get some dinner. I read about a restaurant called Durgin-Park, so I decided to look for it. It is right near Cheers, which was jammed packed. I ordered the seafood platter and tried to recover from the day. It was really hot and I was thoroughly exhausted. Heat stroke did cross my mind, but since I was drinking lots of water, I thought I was fine.

I made it back to the hotel at 8 pm in need of a shower and lots of sleep. I got both :)

Green Lines and pasty white people

After a couple of hours of planning, checking and replanning, I decided on an itinerary for each day in Boston (check out yesterday's blog). Gina told me to start out early to take in the most activities. So I started out at 8 am and took the hotel shuttle to the subway. On the way, We drove by the NECCO factory...you know NECCO wafers.

Apparently, NECCO stands for New England Confectionary Company. The headquarters is in Revere Mass, just outside Boston. I never really liked NECCO wafers, but it was cool to see the factory.

The driver dropped us off at the airport metro stop and off I went. After a couple of tries, I finally got a day pass. Today is green day, so all my destinations are on the green line. Ok, off to the Museum of Science. The Museum of Science is like the Maryland Science Center, I think bigger. one of the first displays I saw was related to something we just learned in science class - the principle of conduction. There were three squares, one copper, one wood, and one granite. The copper square appeared to be the coldest, but they were all the same temperature. Since copper is a good conductor, it pulled the most heat from my hand, making it appear to be the coolest square.

I walked by another display that I never thought about being scientific. Remember view masters? It never occured to me that science was involved in those 3D images. Of course, I haven't seen one since I was a kid, so why would I have thought about the science behind view-masters?

The mathematics room had some interesting exhibits including the pinball vortex looking thing that simulated the orbit of the planets in the solar system. As I watched the silver ball go round and round, I felt like I should place a bet... black 17. It took about 6 minutes to finally go down the hole. Next stop, animals live. It was a mini show with a live animal. This was clearly a show for young kids, but hey, it sounded interesting. Right behind my seat was a glassed in display of bats. Needless to say, I didn't really need to read about nor see any bats. I've already seen too many as it is. The featured animal was ground hound aka the wood chuck and before you ask, yes the host did bring up the infamous question, "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" To set the record straight, woodchucks can't chuck wood at all. I was kind of disappointed to hear that, but hey, what are you going to do?

There was another exhibit about the human body and where babies come from. They showed the female reproductive organs and male reproductive organs. There was even a video with a real child birth. There was a little boy about 9 or 10 who declared that only the girls needed to see that video. I opted out. One of my last stops was the Theatre of Electricity. It was really cool. They simulate electricity and create an indoor lightning storm.

Ok, off to destination #2... Museum of Fine Arts. E line to Arlington, transfer Heath line. The Museum of Fine Arts, located across from Wentworth Institute of Technology, is a grand old building that from one side looks like an old municipal building. They're building a new wing, but I have no idea what it looks like, I wondered over there, but go so turned around and lost. Anyhow, inside, they have two rotunda areas that jet off in several directions with halls with art from various lands and times. Of course there was european art from the 16th through 19th century. There was one thing that I noticed about museums - the lighting is different in each room. The dark paintings of plump naked white people are kept in darker rooms. My first thought was that it would lessen the chance of you noticing just how naked these white folks are. Question, what was the deal with naked white folks. They were always fainting or looking very tired. They were in a pre-fig leaf frame of mind because it didn't seem to be a big deal that
most of the people in the paintings were naked. Although there was one painting where a man was trying to cover up a lady who was nude, as if to say, "DUDE!, you can't paint my women in the nude!"

Now the folks who did have clothes on seemed annoyed that they had to sit for the painting, no one looked happy or interested at all. They kind of looked like me after I had seen about two rooms of naked people...bored. I know it's art, but it's just not the kind that I'm terribly interested in. There was one painting that I did find interesting out of all the European art exhibits. There was one of Salome, from the bible. She was being handed John the Baptist's head on a silver platter. Now, this painting was based on the account from the gospel account according to Luke, where King Herod is hosting a birthday party for Salome. He promises her anything she wants and because John the Baptist made it know that Salome's mother and King Herod had married on unscriptural grounds, Salome's mother told Salome to ask Herod for John's head on a platter. It's interesting because I did something in the museum that I never did before. I listened to music on my mp3 player. As I was walking to this painting, I was listening to evanescence's song Missing.

"Even though I'm the sacrifice,
You won't try for me, not now."

When she sang those words, I felt so bad for John the Baptist.

After evanescence and the european paintings, I headed for 19th and 20th century american art. Dave Matthews' Before these Crowded Streets was my soundtrack and I really felt like it added the experience. During my trek through the 20th century I saw a Joanne Hawkins look-a-like. She's a lady from work. I didn't think much of that except for the fact that she really looked like Joanne's twin. I wanted to take a picture, but there was no discreet way to do it. Of course, when I went through the main hallway and saw another person who looked like an HCC employee, I started to worry that my subconscious was missing work. Again I tried to shake it off and then low and behold, I saw a VK look alike. Well, that was more than enough for me. I went to the gift shop, picked up a couple of things and left the museum. I don't know why all those HCC employees had to follow me to the museum. They weren't going to get me to help them with their web pages, I didn't care what they said. No help desk calls on vacation.

Before I left, I did go through a great photography exhibit for Laura McPhee. She is really good.

My final destination was Boston College. I read that there was a Nurembego Park Exhibit at the John L. Burns Library. When I got to Boston College, I discovered that no one even knew where the Burns Library was located. I got there and I have to say that I was mildly disappointed that the exhibit was a bunch of old post cards and flyers in a glass case. I was in and out in 5 minutes.

I made my way back to the hotel in about an hour and finally got off my feet. They weren't quite on fire but they were close to it. I sat on the bed for while and answered some email. I don't understand why I've gotten so much email in the past two days.

Tomorrow is the Red Line day.

Beantown

Although I slept well last night, I did wake up a couple of times throughout the night. I managed to get up on time and get my house organized for the trip. I have people coming to my house on Monday and really didn't want to have to clean Sunday night after I get home.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful. I did get my seat changed to the emergency exit row. It's pretty cool because there's more leg room in that row. Of course, if there's an emergency, you are obligated to help the cabin crew and your fellow passengers to safety.

The flight, which took all over one hour, went smoothly and I was pleasantly surprise to find out that AirTran has XM satellite radio on its flights. You can connect to it through your arm rest. I think I like XM satellite radio, but I don't think I can afford it right now.

When we landed at Logan Airport, I saw another plane on the run way that said NWA. I instantly thought of the rap group, but then I realized that it probably stood for Northwest airlines. But how funny would it have been if the airplane had been "pimped out" with spinning rims and huge subwoofers in the back?

I retrieved my suitcase... yes it actually made it there... and headed for the shuttle pick up area. Two hours later, the van finally showed up. I don't remember seeing anything on the hotel website saying that you needed to call to ask them to pick you up. But oh well.

The Four Points at Sheraton is a small hotel, but my room has a great big bed. The bed is a king size bed, the largest bed ever. It's a big girl bed for sure.

It was raining when I got here, so my plans to go explore were sort of dashed. But in the long run, it was ok because I arrived with a really bad headache and a stuffy nose. I wanted to get some rest and sleep off this thing that is trying to become a cold. It also gave me the chance to plot out my itinerary based on the detailed subway map I got from the lobby. So here's the plan:

THURSDAY - Green Line
Museum of Science
Museum of Fine Arts
Boston College

FRIDAY - Red Line
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Freedom Trail
John F Kennedy Library

SATURDAY - Blue Line
Boston African American Historical Park
New England Aquarium

I'll post my thoughts and some pix each day so you can read about my adventures.

Exploring Philly

Last night I went to Cereality and it was very interesting. A cereal bar is really cool if you love cereal. Of course after I ate the cereal, I was still hungry. So I went Pat's King of Steaks. I liked the cheesesteaks that I got last year, but the "cheese wiz steak wit" wasn't that good. It had lots of fat on it, which is not good for cheese steaks.

I went to Geno Steaks for cheese fries and saw the most offensive yet patriotic sign. It said, "I'm an american, so I order in english". I have seen patriotic signs before, but something inside me was so incensed by that one. I would think that a store, in what seems to be a poor neighborhood, would want customers from all backgrounds. It seems like they are deliberately alienating the latinos in the neighborhood. But I guess it's ok because over at Pat's, their folks are multilingual and they welcome everyone.

East Coast Gal

After a day of traveling, I'm completely tired. But it's a good tired. I drove here to Philadelphia and I managed to make it here without any problems. I did forget my camera, but I'll deal. I was thinking about getting a disposable camera. But the thought of getting the pictures developed and transferred to CD was more than I could stand. I know, it's lazy, but hey, I'm tired.

I arrived at the hotel and made my way to the check in desk. I picked the Sheraton (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/search/hotel_detail.html?propertyID=992) because I've always loved their service, pricing, and cleanliness. But today, I had a few problems checking in. We got things settled and I even found out that my internet connection was free (wooohooo!).

I went to my room and found things exactly as I had left them a year ago. Now of course, I'm not in the same room, but somehow it felt like it was. I unpacked my bags and decided to go on the hunt for food. I resisted the urge to play it lazy and pick up something from the wawa right across the street. I kept walking by and looked at the cafes in the area. It was so nice to walk around University City, a name that is appropriate for the surroundings. Right near by is Drexel University, Penn State, many other colleges, universities and specialty schools for art, culinary arts, writing, and design. There's a school for everything here and there are a million students. Interpersed are buildings that look as old the country itself. Cobbled stones streets in some areas transport me to colonial days where things were simpler.

I continued walking sort of following the crowds of students. I was channeling my inner Rachael Ray, looking for a great place to eat, off the beaten path with great eats. I walked by one place that I made note of called Cereality. It is the greatest store ever. It's a cereal bar. You can go in any get any kind and combination of cereal you want and they put it in a Chinese food take out container for you. I think I'll go back and actually get some cereal one morning before I leave.

I wasn't up for cereal for dinner, so I kept walking. I ended up at a Mexican food place called Qdoba Mexican Grill. They have a few items on the menu, not many. I ordered the chicken fajita burrito, chips and guacamole (smile Gina!). The burrito was not your ordinary burrito. Everything that you would have with fajitas was jammed into this burrito. I didn't actually know how I would eat it. I walked home, talked to my mom on the phone as I walked and marveled at all the scenery that I had never seen in Philly before. All the college students walking around, studying at benches and socializing... It made me realize why I'm not having that great a time in college. As an online student, I don't have the social interaction that goes with a traditional college education. I don't mind for the most part, but there are times when having other students around would be helpful and encouraging to me. Don't get me wrong, I get plenty of support and ultimately I like being unencumbered by the social responsibility that goes along with the college life.

But I digress...

Tomorrow is the first day of the Deliverance at Hand District Convention. I've heard really good things about the convention from other people. I know that I'll leave spiritually encouraged and rejuvenated.

More tomorrow...

MySpace

I don't want to say that I have MySpace envy because I don't. But everyone seems to joining MySpace. I keep getting invitations to join MySpace, but there is something about it that just doesn't sit well with me. I can't put my finger on it and I don't have the words to verbalize it. But I have no desire to join. Odd for me, I know. I'm the techie girl always looking for something new.

Go figure :-/

Shopping

There are days when I am fully convinced that I am lacking some of the most important "girl" genes. Whenever it's time to go shopping for clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry, makeup... basically anything that is unique to women.

I took my poor unsuspecting friend shopping with me because I am hopeless on my own. We started out a little after 1 pm and didn't get home until close to 8 pm. She said that she had a good time... it was torture for me, mostly because I didn't have a clue. I take that back... I knew exactly what I didn't want. But she and my sister Tiffany managed to find three skirts and a top for me. I did pull out one top for myself. I surprised myself. Now, I have to find two more tops and then my outfits will be complete. So tomorrow I have to go to Old Navy to get some camis.