It's been a while, but I'm back.

I'm also procrastinating from finishing my presentation, but who's counting. It's only happening a week from today.

Yeah, so the trip was great. Boston was fun. I loved the Freedom Trail. For those of you not fortunate enough to have been to Beantown, it's basically a red or brick line that you follow around the city. It leads you to fun historic sites, such as the North Church (where Paul Revere famously hung the lanterns), Bunker Hill, and Paul Revere's home. I think every city should do something like that. Well, I suppose they can't all -- can you imagine Baltimore with one? You'd be all over the freakin' city -- and in some not-so-safe neighborhoods. Anyway, Boston was great fun. I got my picture taken in front of the exterior Cheers bar and ate lunch in the interior Cheers bar. I also bought myself a schnazzy T-shirt with the Cheers logo. But best of all -- it's a youth XL. And it's pink -- but the Cheers shop calls it fuschia.

We also stopped in Cambridge and walked around Harvard. It was cool -- I got to see their library, which I had ordered books through ILL from when I worked at Marquette. We also stopped at the Harvard Book Store and I ended up getting East of Eden. Thankfully, my edition does not have the Oprah's Book Club logo plastered all over it. Then we ended up watching a street performer, er, I mean street entertainer. Lucky Bob was a magician and juggler and was pretty darn entertaining. His best bit is making fun of people who walk by the act and don't stop.

Then Saturday it was Habitat time! I felt like a girl -- basically, the guys were doing the majority of the work. I stood around a lot and felt kind of useless. But I did manage to pound in some nails and assist with putting in some windows. Yay. Plus we had an excellent lunch from the girl scouts. Tasty!

Saturday night we went to the Grecian Festival and ate very good Greek food. Greek beer, I wouldn't recommend too much. But their food is excellent. I love cheese, and there was lots of cheese to be had. I forget what the best one was -- some kind of hard cheese that was fried. Yum! After eating, we tried to join in on the traditional Greek dancing, but it was harder than it looked. You have now been warned -- dances that take place in a circle are not always easy, especially if they are not the hokey pokey.

Sunday I tried to sleep in, somewhat unsuccessfully. I did manage to finish a book that I borrowed from Sara (one of Jenny's roommates) -- The Island of Lost Maps. I had read about it quite a while ago -- two years -- and it was pretty enjoyable. But it also has a lot to do with libraries (it's basically about a man who stole a ton of maps from rare map books in libraries) and security and stuff like that. His comments about rare book librarians/archivists secretly considering themselves as "keepers of books" was pretty accurate -- being a librarian isn't necessarily the coolest profession, but it does have an aura of being knowledgable and being a keeper of knowledge. Or at least how to access it!

Well, enough of that tangent. We didn't do much on Sunday -- I ended up watching Lost in Translation while Jenny fell asleep midway. It was okay. I didn't really have the feeling that it was fantastic, as some of the reviews I have read of it seemed to say. I do enjoy Bill Murray though, and his role was pretty good. Scarlett Johansson to me seemed too young. Perhaps I was colored by my knowledge that she is only like 18, but it just seemed...I don't know, forced? Essentially, I'm glad I didn't go to the theater to see -- or even spend the money to rent it. End of movie rant.

We got lunch at Tatnuck Booksellers. They have so-so breakfast food -- I think if I were to go there again, I would get a sandwich. But they have excellent books. I bought three books there -- all on sale or used. Picture by Lillian Ross, all about the filming The Red Badge of Courage. I started it, and so far it's pretty interesting. But I've become fascinated by stories of Hollywood, and this one covers my favorite studio (MGM) when it is becoming to fall from its hallowed position in Hollywood. I also got The Forsyte Saga, which has got a pretty picture of the cast of the first miniseries, including a very hot Ioan Gruffudd. I have checked this one out from the library a couple of times, but I never managed to actually start reading it. I'm hoping that I can be motivated now -- and if not, the library has both miniseries on tape. The final book I picked up is Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in Screen Trade by William Goldman. If you can't sense a trend here, I am more into reading about film now than I have been in quite some time. It's pretty interesting so far -- rather antecdotal about his screenplays and everything. In case you are unfamiliar with the name William Goldman, he's a great screenwriter and novelist. He wrote The Princess Bride (book and movie), Marathon Man (book and movie), All the President's Men (screenplay), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Maverick, and Absolute Power.

And then Jenny drove me to the airport in Providence and I flew home. There were some mix ups at the airport -- basically, both Shayna and I were there, but both of us had the idea that if you stay in one place, the other person will find you. So I got home late and my week got off to a not-so-great start. But today is looking up, and if I can finish this darn presenation, I will be doing well.

Oh, and I can officially say: I'm going to be a bridesmaid! Yippee! Kelly is getting married the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I will be participating in her wedding. I am even considering making an appointment to try on dresses at David's Bridal either this Friday or next Friday so I can get an idea of colors and what looks good on me (at least). The problem is: Kelly is in Japan, and her bridesmaids are scattered around the country. I'm in Maryland, her sister is in Buffalo, Jenny is in Worchester, Megan is in Minnesota, and Durand's sister is in Wisconsin. So, it should be interesting finally deciding what we should get. Honestly, I don't really care -- it's not my big day. But I waver between having the attitude of "whatever-you-want-I-don't-care-it's-your-wedding-and-I-just-want-to-be-there-for-you-and-wear-what-you -want-me-to" and wanting to look cute. We'll see...

Yeah, so this has wasted another hour. At least it isn't busy on desk tonight!