As I paged through today’s Metro newspaper, I came across this amusing entry in the letter’s section. My blurry cam made it a little hard to make out though. Here is the text:

Read Tolkien, puzzlesmith
Re: “CROSSWORD: 9/23″:
I take issue with your 43D
clue “Folklore dwarfs”
(TROLLS). It’s just not
right; dwarves and trolls
are generally different
sizes and races. I appreci-
ate precision in cross-
word clues, and this just
seemed like sloppy clue-
ing to me. I enjoy the puz-
zles.

Another day, another disabled escalator at Copley Place.

Aside from several MBTA stations, I can think of no other place on my travels around the city of Boston that has broken down escalators more often than those in the Copley Mall. Considering this is supposed to be the ‘trendy’ mall for the city, you’d think it would be quite the opposite. There are three main sets of escalators that are the usual suspects for needing to find a detour around. The set by Louis Vuitton (pictured above with blurry cam!), the short set by the Gap, and the long set at the entrance to the Westin hotel area. Admittedly, I’m not even sure the Westin set falls under the Copley Mall, but the Mall is connected and this set is by far the biggest hassle when not working. There is no alternative stairwell nearby. One actually needs to walk into the hotel to use their escalator (which is always working) to get to the second floor that connects directly to the Mall.

That being said, escalators that are not workiong are such a common site everywhere that noone gives it a second look. These things have been around since the very late 1800‘s. You’d think that the technology would have progressed over a 100 years to a point where they were at least somewhat reliable.

Today, November 1st, I got a text around 2 or 3pm saying that my friend would be at Boston Beer Works with the tickets. I panicked. I checked the spreadsheet and sure enough today was the first game. Not only that, but Red Auerback died on Saturday (possibly the most well known coach in Boston sports history) and there was going to be a big tribute to him before the game. I was certainly not going to miss this. I responded saying that I had to get a T pass first, but I’d see him there at 6pm. As soon as 5pm came, I left work and headed straight for the Back Bay station to get my monthly T pass. I then proceeded to walk all the way to Fenway Park (a decent walk) with my laptop bag in tow since I am working from home tomorrow. I got there about 5:35-ish. Gave my friend a call and let him know that I was there early, that there was noone there and that I was going to sit at the bar. After a series of text messages were exchanged between 6 and 6:15pm. One of my other friends called me. He was obviously with my other friend and asked if I was at the Boston Beer Works and I replied yes. He then asked if I was at the Boston Beer Works across from the Fleet Center. To which I responded, “There’s more than one?” I really just wanted to cry at that point. I’m not an emotional person, but I was having a stressful day at work and this was just utterly embarassing. I hung up on my friend after I heard laughing in the background.

I finished my beer and got on the Green Line to North Station. Twenty minutes later when I got there, I called my friend and he said they were still at the bar. I am at the Fleet Center already so he tried to give me directions from where I was to get to the Boston Beer Works nearby. He clearly did not know where I was, because that led me in the opposite direction. I called him again and just told him to meet me at the Fleet Center. He told me that they wouldn’t be there for about another twenty minutes. I pretty much said I didn’t care and I’d meet them there. It didn’t really matter since I spent nearly the entire twenty minutes in line to use the bathroom. Needless to say, the fury within was rising and quickly. When they finally got there, I got my ticket from my friend and we all went up to the turnstiles. As soon as I was through, I was immediately stopped and told I couldn’t go any further with my bag. My LAPTOP BAG. This is not something I can dispose of readily or just put somewhere. My job is not just at risk if something happens to this laptop, I will be fired. There is no question about it. I pretty much just turned around and went home in a furious rage. An hour and a half later, I finally got to my T stop and walked home from there and here I am, ready to tear someone’s head off.

Its noones fault really. I keep blaming people in my head, but its just a series of unfortunate events that just kept falling down a slippery slope.

Thank goodness this day is almost over.

I inadvertantly took the money out right in front of him as though I was going to give him some and then put it back in my pocket. I’m not sure if he thought I was teasing him or I was just being a dick or not, but he was yelling something at me. I didn’t care enough to take my headphones off, but I figure he was entitled to be a bit angry about the chain of events. I liken it to buying a new toy for a child, letting them see it and know its for them, and then immediately running it through the garbage disposal or throwing it in the trash. In other words I was holding the carrot on a stick in front of him, taunting him with it and then eating it myself. Let me tell you, it was delicious.

Sometimes I think I felt safer when there was no MBTA police presence at the stations at all.

I’ll make the Charlie Ticket post at a later date using stock pictures from the MBTA website. I really have no desire to be fined or in any type of legal turmoil. Whatever happened to freedom of the press…

Two weeks ago I sent in my information for the Underworld Evolution screening as soon as I got out of my first meeting that day at work. After that, I quickly forgot about it. The day of the screening came and passed. Underworld Evolution came out in theaters and I went opening night. I liked it and thought it was a good sequel. I’ll certainly keep the movie poster up in my room.

I just came back from my parents house to pick up my mail and discovered, mixed in amongst the mailings, an envelope from The Metro Boston. I ripped it open and sure enough there was a voucher inside with Kate Beckinsdale on it staring back at me. So I won the tickets for the screening that happened two weeks ago. -_-

I tried my remote starter and my car wouldn’t turn over and start. I put my key in the lock and tried to unlock the door. When I pulled the handle, the door wouldn’t budge. I tried the passenger door and the key wouldn’t even turn in that lock. The tailgate was frozen shut, no matter how I tried to open it. At this point, Eddie had come over and helped me with all of these doors. I’m started to panic a little because if I don’t get to the Braintree parking garage by 07:20 EST, the garage is full and I have to head to the Quincy Adams T Station and fight through a great deal of traffic to park there. Eddie suggested getting some hot water and pouring it over the door. In my panic, this sounded like a viable option. At that moment, any suggestion would have sounded like a viable option. So I went inside and got some steaming hot water in a glass and brought it outside. As I poured some of the water on the frame of my driver’s side door, I watched it instantly freeze. In effect, leaving me worse off. Not realizing I had gotten some water on my glove, I tried to wipe at the window. Instantly, my glove was frozen to the window. Flabberghasted, I had the option of leaving the glove on the window for the rest of the day and hope it wouldn’t get lost as my car heated up on the way to the T station, or just pulling and praying it didn’t rip the glove. Still in a semi-panicked state, I pulled quickly on the glove and it broke free without any visible damage. However, in my rage of irrational fury, I took the glass with the hot water still in it and splashed the rest of the water across my windshield. I realized immediately what I had done as I watched another thick layer of ice form on my windshield. -_-

This was not turning out to be my day. I went back inside, semi-defeated, in order to regroup and think of another strategy. Around that time, I remembered my mother had gotten me some lock de-icer as part of a big bag of practical gifts for Hannukah in 2004 and it was still in my room. I ran downstairs and grabbed one of the cannisters and rushed outside back to my car. One spritz in the lock and my key turned just a bit further. Just enough though, that I heard the door fully unlock and with a quick tug, the door opened. I started my car and sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for the car to heat up. After a while I decided I could wait no longer and grabbed my ice scraper. I went to work quickly and furiously on the windshield. Fortunately some of it had started to melt, not all of it though. For that reason, my wrists were in a great deal of pain for the next day and a half.

When I drove into the Braintree parking garage 45 minutes late, I was astounded to see that I could not only get in, but there were so many open spots that I didn’t even have to park on the roof. It was Martin Luther King Day and I had no idea. So the day turned around after that, even though it seemed like we were the only company working in the state that day.

After we dropped Christy’s luggage off at the hotel, the next priority was food. It was far past time for the feeding. I decided our best bet would be to go to the Prudential Mall right near where I work. This would actually kill two birds with one stone, since Judy, Rodger and Eric still needed First Night buttons. I bought mine at the Prudential visitor information booth and it was on the way to Legal Seafood, which I figured would be a chance for Christy to get a good stereotypical New England meal, clam chowdah and all. As we walked through the mall, I ran into Jeff and Emily. Jeff was my roommate when I was living in South Boston. I hadn’t seen them in a while so it was really great to see them.

The time was about 18:00 EST. Everyone had their buttons and we were trying to be seated in Legal Seafood. The hostess told me that they would be unable to seat a party so large as ours for another three hours. Astounded, I went back outside the restaurant and back in the mall to where the others were standing and relayed the news. At this point we decided based on how busy it was, it would be best to head to the food court to eat and we did. After a good ten minutes of table sniping and upgrading until we had an area big enough to fit us all, we (minus Christy, who ran off the first chance she got to get some food and I don’t blame her) made another decision that we should put in a reservation at Legal Seafood for whenever they can seat us and just have a snack for now to tide us over. Susan and Jay went to make the reservation and I got a slice or two of pizza from Pizzeria Regina and a water.

We all ate what we got and talked all the while. Out of nowhere, Peggy and Joaquin appeared. I assumed Joaquin would probably meet up with us with Peggy, but Peggy never said one way or another. Jay, Sue and I all looked at each other knowing without a word that we were now one short on the reservation for Legal Seafood. All the necessary introductions were made, then Jay and I headed to Legal Seafood to the change the reservation. They said it would be tight but definitely possible. While Jay was talking to the woman I saw what table number we were going to have and looked to see it on the map in front of her. It was a large circular table so I felt more comfortable about that because it’d be easier to add the extra seat to the table without too much squishing for any one person. When I noted it to Jay, he mentioned something about stealthy ninja skills.

Once everyone was done eating and I gave Peg her birthday and holiday gifts (because I NEVER see her anymore), we headed outside to battle the masses and walk up Bolyston Street to see the ice sculptures, the New Years Eve ‘Procession’, and finally end up on the Boston Common to see the fireworks at 19:00 EST. While we walked down Boylston, it was snowing and not lightly either. Fortunately, by the time we got to the Common and in a good place to see the fireworks, it cleared up. Jay, Susan and Christy all went across the street while we waited to get some ‘hot hands’ because their hands were obviously cold. Of course, while they were in the store the fireworks started. The fireworks were by far the best I’ve seen yet, not to mention the loudest. The Common is surrounded by tall buildings on all sides so the booms were echoing off the buildings back toward us. It definitely added to the experience.

After the fireworks, we headed back to the mall so we could see the ice sculptures on the way and maybe catch some anime before we had to get back to Legal Seafood for our reservation. The walk back from the Common seemed a lot longer than the walk to the Common in the heavy snowfall. We had about an hour to kill before we were to be seated for dinner, so we ended up going to the anime marathon to catch whatever was playing. They were giving away a dvds with a free episode of Record of the Lodoss War: Heroic Knight Chronicles. I made sure I picked one of those up on the way in. I have the original series but not the Heroic Knight Chronicles. Inside, we ended up catching the last half of Chrono Crusade, which was mildly amusing, but not much to it. At least, not in the fifteen minutes we saw of it.

The second anime was called Jubei: Ninja Girl. I would consider it to be a very slapstick based series with various fights along the way based on the first episode. It was so ridiculous, you couldn’t help but laugh. Especially during the fateful meeting of Jubei and the loyal servant of the original Jubei who was the caretaker of the ‘lovely eyepatch’. The eyepatch gave her the embodiment of the original Jubei’s fighting techniques particularly with a sword, much like the mystical sword wielded by He-man gave him ‘the power’.

After the hysteria of Jubei ended, we headed back to Legal Seafood for some food. Such a gluttonous meal, I have never had. I had some New England Clam Chowdah to start, then had an entree of fried haddock with chips/fries, and for dessert I ate three outstanding scoops of chocolate ice cream. Conversation moved from the new squirty bottles of ketchup to the lack of any springs in Jay’s chair to a number of other random subjects. Ronnie even made an appearance.

Once finished with dinner and the bill settled, we all headed back toward Copley Square where the ice sculptures were to see the final countdown to midnight. Apparently the guy on the stage that was counting down wasn’t in synch with Times Square broadcast from New York that was playing in the back of the crowd so when he got down to five have the crowd released their balloons and then the rest released theirs when he got to the end of his countdown. It was really nice though. We decided it best to head back to Jay and Sue’s hotel right then, while the cops converged on the groups with the open containers of alcohol. Peggy and Joaquin headed home from Copley Square. Rodger, Judy and Eric parted ways to catch their train at Back Bay. Christy and I hung with Susan and Jay for a little while but we had to get going in order to make our train. While we were there though, I discovered Susan is a fellow Battlestar Galactica fan.

When we got on the Red Line, we ended up sitting across from a group of sloshed kids. They were maybe about 19 or 20 years old. I whispered to Christy that I hoped they weren’t going to the end of the line like we were. As if one of them read my mind, he asked me where we were headed and when I responded, “Braintree.” He said, “Awesome! Us too! We’re gonna be seeing alot of each other on this ride.” -__- It didn’t turn out so too bad though. They were friendly and didn’t really get out of hand except for that one kid took one of the girls’ hairclips and threw it down the car without thinking and instantly regretted it, as it hit the feet of a couple people further down the car. He apologized and you could tell he felt really bad about it. Not too long after that, he and one of the girls decided they needed to sing. After several failed attempts at finding a song everyone knew, they started singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The ensuing sing-a-long made my side hurt because I was laughing so hard. Not only were they singing it, but they had somehow gotten half of the rest of the car to sing too. Easily one of the most amusing rides on the subway I’ve had.

Once we were home, we dropped Christy’s stuff on downstairs and headed upstairs to assess the situation. Some of my roommates and friends of the house were upstairs playing poker all dressed up. They must have gone out earlier and returned to continue their celebration. Greg asked me to do a shot of Jagermeister with him, so I acquiesced. Then took a second that was just sitting on the counter when I got there. Greg was drunk so he was attempting to relate to Christy through the minute amount of anime that he has watched with me. Mind you, watching anime with Greg is like watching a movie with a drunk five year old asking questions every other minute. Needless to say, that doesn’t occur very often. Soon after I headed to bed and Christy slept on the couch downstairs. Those two shots put me right to sleep.

For Christy’s point of view of the evening see here.

December 31, 2005 started out appropriately like a lot of days that year. I overslept.

I woke up at 11:00 EST, showered and got dressed. Susan and Jay came in at midnight the night before on the $10 Chinatown bus (as we call it) from New York. Being the old fashioned city Boston is, transit stops at 12:30am, effectively making it impossible for me to meet them until the next day. So I gave Susan the call to let her know I was awake and going to head into the city as soon as I packed a small bag for the rest of the day. She clearly was woken up by the phone call. Most of the following conversation was unintelligible due to her near unconsciousness. I recall her asking me to say my repeat my phone number for her so she could hear me say the number 4 with my accent (Foah!). I always was a fan of the following quote:

“The Boston accent is more of an attitude than an accent. Underneath everything you say has to be the attitude of: You’re an asshole, I know better than you, fuck you.” – Ben Affleck

So I packed my bag and off I went. I spent the rather uneventful subway ride with my face buried in a SuDoku book solving puzzles. It turned out I actually had a vague idea of the area around their hotel, so navigating my way there didn’t turn out to be the 3 hour tour of the SS Minnow I thought it might end up to be.

Once salutations were exchanged and they got something to eat at an Au Bon Pain nearby, we walked merrily down the street on a quest to find a record store. As we walked down Boylston Street, we paused across the street from the Hynes Convention Center for Susan to call American Airlines to make sure Christy‘s flights were on time. Fortunately I had written all her info down in my trusty moleskine. Susan got all giddy, as she does, when she saw the notebook because she had a similar notebook, only less cool, of course, lacking the inside pocket. Christy’s flights were indeed on time so we continued our search only to discover that Daddy’s Music by Berkley School of Music does not actually sell music. They sold instruments for playing music but no music for us to listen to that we could see. I was totally duped.

At this point, we felt it best to head to the airport to meet the redhead so we wouldn’t be late. We got to South Station and switched to the new Silver Line. It was my first time riding the Silver Line and I have to say it was a positive experience. It made maybe three stops and then went straight to the airport and stopped at each terminal with an overhead announcement of the terminal we were entering and what airlines it served. Definitely not what I was expecting and ridiculously better than trying to use the silly Airport stop on the Blue Line.

Once in the airport, I dropped Christy the call letting her know that we were there. I asked her where she was and she responded that she was in front of the Boston Deli. With that helpful piece of information I stared blankly at Susan (Jay was in the bathroom). Susan, being the quick witted one, ran over to the map on the wall and I followed. Together, we found where the deli was and realized it was directly above us. I told Christy she needed to come downstairs and she responded that she was downstairs. When I told her that she was not downstairs, she seemed in complete disbelief, but she found the escalator and came down. As we see her, I am still talking to her on the phone and am standing next to Susan. Christy says, “I only see Susan…” then hangs up her phone to give her a big hug. I apparently need to work on my celebrity a bit more. Jay returned, we made our greetings and waited for the next Silver Line bus to come, which supposedly had some more friends of Christy’s on it coming to meet her. We got on the bus and met her friends, then headed back to Jay and Susan’s hotel to drop off Christy’s baggage so we could dive into the festivities.

To Be Continued…

For Christy’s point of view of the day thus far, see here.