When I checked the weather last night, it said it would be 33 degrees outside today. Add in the wind chill factor, and it was supposed to feel like 23 degrees, so I made sure I had everything ready ahead of time: snow boots (because the insulation in these things is awesome), long sleeved shirt, super warm jacket with fuzzy faux fur collar (it's not tacky, I promise!) and knee high socks to go under my jeans. I was feeling like a pretty good New Englander-- I mean, I had this layering thing down.
My first mistake, though, was when I walked outside and thought, "Oh, this is 23 degree weather? Jeez, I can handle this!" Because then the wind picked up, and then I immediately stuffed my hands into my pockets to yank on my gloves. The wind is no joke out here, people. It's icy-- I look like I'm crying when I'm walking to class because it makes my eyes water so much.
My second mistake was thinking that layering was the way to go. Silly me! People here don't layer, apparently. They just put on a sweatshirt. I got on the bus, and the first person I saw was some show-off New Englander in a North Face windbreaker and boat shoes-- minus socks-- reading the Globe in the back corner. There I am looking like a penguin, and there he is casually reading the paper, completely oblivious to the fact that it may as well have been 23 degrees outside.
It doesn't bother me-- why should it? I just thought it was another example of the classic New Englander. He may as well have been saying, "What, you think this is cold? Wise up, California, or you'll be frozen solid by February." That's how it usually goes. If it's raining out, I've got an umbrella and almost every else is in shorts and a baseball cap. If it's cold out, I've got gloves on and my Bostonian friends are shaking their heads at me. I think it's going to take a blizzard to get these people to acknowledge the fact that it is wicked cold outside and bundle up.
And I thought New England prided itself on its sensibility.
But then again, maybe I'm the insensible one. Maybe they've got this whole seasons thing down to such a science that they know exactly how many layers to add for each ten degrees the temperature drops. Maybe I've got a lot more to learn that I thought-- but hey, it's all part of the adventure. By the end of this, I will be able to present you with my scientific findings on the subject of the sartorial habits of New England natives.
Ok, so maybe I'll just be able to present you with chattering teeth and frozen ears. But I'm hoping for the former.
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Rain, rain, go away-- for now, at least.
If there's anything I openly despise (besides mathematics of any kind), it's rain. Especially rain falling on my head.
Anyone who's walked through it with me can tell you that I huddle under my umbrella, I splosh through puddles in rainboots, I always have a raincoat buttoned up to my chin. I really, really hate rain.
Bostonians, however, have no such aversion. People on my campus don't use umbrellas or raincoats-- in fact, it's not unusual to see hordes of people walking around in flip flops. I never understood how they managed, so imagine my complete dismay at suddenly being forced to become one of them today after my second class.
Rule #1 of New England is to always check the weather in the morning. But seeing as I stayed up until 2 last night to play pool with my roommate and her friends, checking anything other than the charge on my laptop this morning was not going to happen. Ok, I knew it was going to rain today regardless; the 5 day weather forecast said so. But somehow that detail managed to escape my attention, and now I find myself in wet Keds (now a lovely shade of grey around the toes), a thin trench coat that is almost soaked through, and dots of water on my glasses.
On the one hand, this is all very Bostonian of me. On the other hand, I despise rain. I'm getting used to it, but right now I'm staring out the window of my classroom at the sheets of cold sliminess falling outside and shudder to think that in two hours, I'll have to go face it--unless, of course, it stops raining, in which case I will be rather happy.
In other news, the doom and gloom is back in town, and THAT I can handle. Gloomy weather is great weather for reading Louisa May Alcott thrillers-- if I had the time for them. Newspaper articles and general goings on about campus are keeping me busy, not to mention the fact that my dorm room gets messy all too quickly and needs a good pick-up every single day.
Speaking of cleaning, will a bleach pen work on Keds?
Anyone who's walked through it with me can tell you that I huddle under my umbrella, I splosh through puddles in rainboots, I always have a raincoat buttoned up to my chin. I really, really hate rain.
Bostonians, however, have no such aversion. People on my campus don't use umbrellas or raincoats-- in fact, it's not unusual to see hordes of people walking around in flip flops. I never understood how they managed, so imagine my complete dismay at suddenly being forced to become one of them today after my second class.
Rule #1 of New England is to always check the weather in the morning. But seeing as I stayed up until 2 last night to play pool with my roommate and her friends, checking anything other than the charge on my laptop this morning was not going to happen. Ok, I knew it was going to rain today regardless; the 5 day weather forecast said so. But somehow that detail managed to escape my attention, and now I find myself in wet Keds (now a lovely shade of grey around the toes), a thin trench coat that is almost soaked through, and dots of water on my glasses.
On the one hand, this is all very Bostonian of me. On the other hand, I despise rain. I'm getting used to it, but right now I'm staring out the window of my classroom at the sheets of cold sliminess falling outside and shudder to think that in two hours, I'll have to go face it--unless, of course, it stops raining, in which case I will be rather happy.
In other news, the doom and gloom is back in town, and THAT I can handle. Gloomy weather is great weather for reading Louisa May Alcott thrillers-- if I had the time for them. Newspaper articles and general goings on about campus are keeping me busy, not to mention the fact that my dorm room gets messy all too quickly and needs a good pick-up every single day.
Speaking of cleaning, will a bleach pen work on Keds?
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Hello Again
So I haven't posted anything in a very long time. In fact, I haven't written anything in my own journal in a long time. College does crazy stuff to your head, people. Actually, it doesn't, it just steals all of your time. And energy. I seriously contemplated going back to my dorm to sleep in between classes today, despite the fact that that would require taking the bus, which in turn requires more energy than just sitting in the little lounge-y place right by the cafeteria.
Anyways, college. It's pretty much what I expected, I guess. I think what I didn't expect was the level of independence. Last week I took the T to Harvard Avenue--which is VERY sketchy at night--by myself to meet up with some friends for dinner. Naturally, I could hardly handle it. I'm so used to NOT being allowed to do things that now that I can quite literally do whatever I want, I have such a hard time. But I managed to get there in one piece (with much help from my best friend, who is my friend because she puts up with all of my craziness like this)and felt pretty good about myself. Ok, so I had a little panic-attack, but the fact that I got on the subway in the first place was a big deal.
Last night I stayed up until one a.m. (which is why I'm so tired) because my roommate was going downstairs to the lounge to play pool with one of her friends, and I decided I'd go along too. Why not? I had no homework left, I'd finished studying for my test--it was already 11 and I should've been going to sleep, but whatever. It was one of those times when I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm in college. I can go out and do something whenever I want, because there is nobody here to tell me not to." It's the little things that are mattering a lot to me.
On a different note, last week it snowed over here--even the locals were up in arms over it. It wasn't much, but it was October and nobody expected it. I loved it. I always tell people that I love snow, and they all roll their eyes and say, "Sure you do. Come talk to me in February when you've gone through a real New England wintah and then we'll see how much you love snow!" But I seriously don't think I'll get tired of it any time soon.
So that's that for now, I guess. Hopefully I'll have the time to post at least once a week from now on. I realize that this is all a bunch of very un-creative rambling, but oh well. I'll start worrying about making sense after I've had some coffee. A lot of coffee.
Anyways, college. It's pretty much what I expected, I guess. I think what I didn't expect was the level of independence. Last week I took the T to Harvard Avenue--which is VERY sketchy at night--by myself to meet up with some friends for dinner. Naturally, I could hardly handle it. I'm so used to NOT being allowed to do things that now that I can quite literally do whatever I want, I have such a hard time. But I managed to get there in one piece (with much help from my best friend, who is my friend because she puts up with all of my craziness like this)and felt pretty good about myself. Ok, so I had a little panic-attack, but the fact that I got on the subway in the first place was a big deal.
Last night I stayed up until one a.m. (which is why I'm so tired) because my roommate was going downstairs to the lounge to play pool with one of her friends, and I decided I'd go along too. Why not? I had no homework left, I'd finished studying for my test--it was already 11 and I should've been going to sleep, but whatever. It was one of those times when I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm in college. I can go out and do something whenever I want, because there is nobody here to tell me not to." It's the little things that are mattering a lot to me.
On a different note, last week it snowed over here--even the locals were up in arms over it. It wasn't much, but it was October and nobody expected it. I loved it. I always tell people that I love snow, and they all roll their eyes and say, "Sure you do. Come talk to me in February when you've gone through a real New England wintah and then we'll see how much you love snow!" But I seriously don't think I'll get tired of it any time soon.
So that's that for now, I guess. Hopefully I'll have the time to post at least once a week from now on. I realize that this is all a bunch of very un-creative rambling, but oh well. I'll start worrying about making sense after I've had some coffee. A lot of coffee.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Original Social Network
So today I went to something called a "Freshman Year Send-off." It was in Pacific Palisades at this absolute PALACE of a house-- the thing took up three lots, easily. And there was a garden in the back and a waiter walking around with itsy bitsy chicken taco appetizers. Ritzy? Totally.
I met a fist-bumping priest that called us Freshlings and made us name the state capitals that the Missouri River goes through for no apparent reason. And then he started off on a tangent about his days as a football player in St. Louis, prompting my dad to turn around and tell me that this guy was either drunk or senile. My fellow Freshlings thought that was a riot, and to be honest, so did I.
Hanging out with all these kids made me realize how much I love talking to people. It seems silly, but it's true. There are times when I'm sitting here at home at night by myself randomly clicking around on Facebook and Twitter looking for something, and I wasn't really sure what I was looking for really. And-- allow me to get transcendental philosophical etc.-- I found it today. I'm looking for people and social stuff beyond inane updates about parties and other cryptic "Why don't u just explain urself fool" things. (Side note: dude, these updates directed at anonymous antagonists are not going to do anything other than annoy people. Stop. Por favor.) It was incredibly fun to talk to all of these totally new people about myself and next year and roommate drama.
At one point there were five of us sitting at a table eating mini red velvet cupcakes and making fun of the music (stuff like "Too Little Too Late", by two-hit wonder JoJo), so one of they guys asked what we listened to and pointed at me to start. At which point I kind of panicked, because I was like, "I'm going to say swing and Sinatra and they're going to be like, 'Whoa, really? Do you listen to like, normal stuff too? Because that's weird.'"
But they didn't.
Instead they all thought it was the coolest thing ever. And honestly, I thought it was the coolest thing ever that I'm going to be hanging out with a lot of these kids from now on. Twentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydays...
I met a fist-bumping priest that called us Freshlings and made us name the state capitals that the Missouri River goes through for no apparent reason. And then he started off on a tangent about his days as a football player in St. Louis, prompting my dad to turn around and tell me that this guy was either drunk or senile. My fellow Freshlings thought that was a riot, and to be honest, so did I.
Hanging out with all these kids made me realize how much I love talking to people. It seems silly, but it's true. There are times when I'm sitting here at home at night by myself randomly clicking around on Facebook and Twitter looking for something, and I wasn't really sure what I was looking for really. And-- allow me to get transcendental philosophical etc.-- I found it today. I'm looking for people and social stuff beyond inane updates about parties and other cryptic "Why don't u just explain urself fool" things. (Side note: dude, these updates directed at anonymous antagonists are not going to do anything other than annoy people. Stop. Por favor.) It was incredibly fun to talk to all of these totally new people about myself and next year and roommate drama.
At one point there were five of us sitting at a table eating mini red velvet cupcakes and making fun of the music (stuff like "Too Little Too Late", by two-hit wonder JoJo), so one of they guys asked what we listened to and pointed at me to start. At which point I kind of panicked, because I was like, "I'm going to say swing and Sinatra and they're going to be like, 'Whoa, really? Do you listen to like, normal stuff too? Because that's weird.'"
But they didn't.
Instead they all thought it was the coolest thing ever. And honestly, I thought it was the coolest thing ever that I'm going to be hanging out with a lot of these kids from now on. Twentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydaystwentydays...
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Things You Should Know About this Blog (Or, Hi!!!)
2. The title is in pink and Courier font because I like pink and vintage-y things like typewriters. Typewriters are incredibly cool (when they're working, at least.)
3. The background is books because I love love love books. Do not say the words "Kindle," "Nook," or "e-reader" around me, because you might a) get yourself a lecture about why paper books are as cool as typewriters, if not cooler, and b) I'll probably cry. Ok, I won't cry. But I'll be sad.
4. Fridays you (and I!) will be treated to Fictional Crush Fridays, in which I lament the fact that all of the best men are, in fact, fictional. But this isn't Seventeen magazine-- you can expect analyses and like, full character breakdowns. We are doing intelligent crushing here, people. (Again...I think.)
5. But don't worry, this won't all be Key-dollar sign-ha and crushing on fake people. I happen to be MOVING TO BOSTON in exactly 21 DAYS (yes, I counted. Of course I counted!) which is going to be complete and utter craziness and fun and I'M ACTUALLY MOVING TO BOSTON!!!!!! I'm incredibly excited, in case you haven't noticed. Also, as I mentioned before, I adore books. So you can expect a lot of bookish posts. Also, my best friend happens to be a writer with her own publishing company, so you can expect to be hearing about/from her often.
Aaaaaaaaand I think that covers it. Stay tuned for the next post, in which my little sister breaks into my Facebook to find potential boyfriends for me. Ay dios mio de mi vida...
In the meantime, look! Sparkly Ke$sha shorts! I promise I didn't buy them...I just found them at the mall and took a picture to show you that yes, other people do dress like Ke$ha.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)