What a weekend

We got out at 3pm on Friday so Brigid, her sister and I met up at a new bar called Slate. It is right near Brig’s office and we had walked past it a few times so we gave it a shot. It was a pretty good space and the servers were nice. Weirdly, they had to close everyone’s tabs at 4pm and then after we paid they said they could re-open it again if we wanted. We decided to move on. I’ve told Brig stories about a bar on the waterfront called the Barking Crab. She decided that’s where we should head next so we walked over. On the way we walked past my old office building and I unveiled the secret public bathroom that no one knows about. It’s the nicest in the city and it’s that way because no one knows about it. We crossed the bridge and entered the Crab getting a spot at the packed bar. We got our beers and enjoyed the view of the Harbor all around us. A little past 5pm we left to walk over to the World Trade Center so Brig could pick up her race packet for the half marathon she was running on Sunday. On the way back we stopped at Whiskey Priest for even more boozing. Brig decided she wanted Subway for dinner as a final meal in her Somerville neighborhood and a healthy prep for the big race Sunday. I may have passed out at 9pm while she was finishing packing.

Saturday morning we picked up the U-Haul at 9am and I got to drive the van -- just like last year. We packed up all of Brig’s things and hauled it over to my place where we unloaded. (It’s funny how you can sum up 3 hours of work in 1 sentence. Wait, it’s not funny at all.) Luckily, we didn’t get hit with the 80 degree heat we were expecting or even bad humidity. To imply that we weren’t sweating, though, is a far from cry from the truth. I decided washing the shirt I wore that day wasn’t enough and just threw it out. To celebrate, we went to the same place we went to last year after she moved, Taco Bell.* Then we spent all afternoon arranging the new furniture and trying to find places for all this stuff while battling over who gets which drawers.

Sunday was Brigid’s big race. She had signed up for the Run to Remember which is in honor of fallen police officers. Her sister and I made signs and we were going to head down and root for her near the finish line. Well, some combination of the T being on a holiday schedule and Brig running her best time ever caused us to miss seeing her. But we met up shortly afterward and tried to re-create some action shots. She did an amazing job and got a sweet medal out of it. All of her training and hard work paid off in a big way.

On Monday, the three of us met up with Brig’s friend Vinny to go to the Boston Harbor Islands. We took a ferry from Long Wharf and went to Georges Island. We picked out a spot in the sun and pulled out all the snacks we had purchased at 7/11: Pringles, SunChips, tortilla chips, salsa, PB M&M’s, Peanut M&M’s, Starburst and more. Then we pulled out the games and I won at Egyptian Ratscrew and then followed that up with a victory in Uno. After all that losing the rest of the group wanted to do something else so we decided to walk around Fort Warren which is also located there.** It was a sprawling complex that took up most of the island and we got to walk the whole thing. Once we made it back to the dock we pulled out the beach blanket again and played a little Taboo then the game where each person says a sentence and it creates a story. Our story was about Brigid and her magical sunglasses which could read minds and see through clothing. She lost them one day and a 10 year old girl found them and put them up on eBay. Dr. Evil bought them for nefarious purposes and was hiding in his lair in China. He knew Brigid from medical school and was trying to win her over. Brigid rejected his advances and went to India to recruit some spies to follow Dr. Evil’s activity. While there Brigid met another medical school classmate of hers named BJ. They fell quickly in love. Eventually, Dr. Evil broke the sunglasses by looking directly at an eclipse. The world was safe once again.

After our ferry ride back to the mainland we headed over to The Times for dinner and drinks. We all ordered burgers and they were fantastic. I also tried Blue Moon’s summer beer, Honey Moon. It didn’t taste too different but it was good. For dessert we wandered into the North End and went to Modern Pastry. I had a fantastic chocolate-dipped cannoli.

It was an amazing weekend and it led right into a 3 day week because I’m off Friday for a wedding. Woohoo!


*I had never been to a Taco Bell before I met Brigid. Now, I couldn’t live without it. Ladies, the saying “the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” is 100% true.

**And which happened to be my 1000th check-in on Foursquare. Imagine if I hadn’t stopped using it every day like I used to. I might have hit that number a year earlier.