December 16th, 2004.

Happy birthday, high school crush. Aleithea, if we ever cross paths again, your’s is the ONLY birthday that has ever stuck in my head.

Boston is full of the brightness. I envy Heather’s capacity for sleeping on her stomach despite the beauty of the sun-filled scene. Yesterday was a day of Scrabble and fish – late into the night Heather and I wrangled tiny letter tiles on to the board. It was a rough game, a veritable war, that nearly ended indecisively.

A blurry rendition of one of the exceptions - Ian was the classic image of a New England singer/songwriter, and his voice, pure and clean, invoking very traditional, strong, folk imagery, was one of the things that got us through the night. Long, tall, mop-headed and floppy hatted, he was like an image out of the 60s. I wanted to see his dusty bootheels clocking down the highway with his guitar bag slung on his back. Thank you Arlo Guthrie, thank you Steven King. His friend -damn - neither of us can remember his name... something ended in "Christopher"? was also really, really good, and we both lamented the rest of the night as we walked together back to the T. Anywho, talk about your small worlds, they've just gotten back from playing the Mojo Lounge back in Baltimore. — A blurry rendition of one of the exceptions – Ian was the classic image of a New England singer/songwriter, and his voice, pure and clean, invoking very traditional, strong, folk imagery, was one of the things that got us through the night. Long, tall, mop-headed and floppy hatted, he was like an image out of the 60s. I wanted to see his dusty bootheels clocking down the highway with his guitar bag slung on his back. Thank you Arlo Guthrie, thank you Steven King. His friend -damn – neither of us can remember his name… something ended in “Christopher”? was also really, really good, and we both lamented the rest of the night as we walked together back to the T. Anywho, talk about your small worlds, they’ve just gotten back from playing the Mojo Lounge back in Baltimore.

Club Passim. What an amazing reputation this place has. And an amazing menu. The food is quite good. John, the doorguy, is quite nice, and I Loved his youthful voice and if he's never Santa Claus during the winter he's doing the world a vast disservice... but... it had a reputation as being an awesome open mic. Awesome both in population and talent. Where we were expecting 80, there was actually closer to 18 performers. Where we were expecting innovation and sparkle, we instead saw a horrid collection of generic artists, including a stand-up comic. There were few exceptions to this. Now, this of course leads me to my occassional dilemma. In my artists' resources pages I'm going to be writing a review of this place... I can't pan it to bad, simply because of the rep it has... it can't BE this bad all the time, right? I guess I'll split it into "what I saw" "what I heard" and "what I think". — Club Passim. What an amazing reputation this place has. And an amazing menu. The food is quite good. John, the doorguy, is quite nice, and I Loved his youthful voice and if he’s never Santa Claus during the winter he’s doing the world a vast disservice… but… it had a reputation as being an awesome open mic. Awesome both in population and talent. Where we were expecting 80, there was actually closer to 18 performers. Where we were expecting innovation and sparkle, we instead saw a horrid collection of generic artists, including a stand-up comic. There were few exceptions to this. Now, this of course leads me to my occassional dilemma. In my artists’ resources pages I’m going to be writing a review of this place… I can’t pan it to bad, simply because of the rep it has… it can’t BE this bad all the time, right? I guess I’ll split it into “what I saw” “what I heard” and “what I think”.

A couple of days ago, Heather beat me decisively, and yesterday, Whitney’s roommate Carl absolutely reamed me (he started the GAME – first turn – by using all his letters and spelling “spooled” – and then repeated himself shortly thereafter… aaand then with “square” on a triple word score with the “q” on a double letter score…). It’s been a rough couple of days for Scrabble. Last night, at around 3am, I regained my title by ONE POINT!

I’m sure that this is far more Scrabble than any of you could possibly be interested, but I thought you should know!

Anywho, yesterday was one of our coveted days “off”. We went to the New England Aquarium and wandered Boston. We had New England lobster bisque (“It’s like eating velvet” Heather said – and no, Deanne, not like THAT… though maybe…). All in all, minus the Scrabble, a very nice day.

The Porter T is apparently where all the gloves end up. Most are bronze, however. I was fooled more than once, they are scattered all over the station.

At the New England Aquarium, they have a LOT of stuff that I've never seen before. Whereas the Baltimore Aquarium is definately larger, and therefore has a larger collection - the New England Aquarium definately filled in some gaps that I didn't even know were there. These guys are Sea Dragons. Look up "leafy sea dragon" on Google's image search, and you'll be just as amazed as I was that such creatures exist. I mistook them for chunks of kelp that had broken free and were bobbing around in the tank. Heather noticed first and exclaimed "They're CREATURES!!!" — At the New England Aquarium, they have a LOT of stuff that I’ve never seen before. Whereas the Baltimore Aquarium is definately larger, and therefore has a larger collection – the New England Aquarium definately filled in some gaps that I didn’t even know were there.
These guys are Sea Dragons. Look up “leafy sea dragon” on Google’s image search, and you’ll be just as amazed as I was that such creatures exist. I mistook them for chunks of kelp that had broken free and were bobbing around in the tank. Heather noticed first and exclaimed “They’re CREATURES!!!”

I can’t get over how beautiful the sky is here. After the constant grizzling grey of Providence, the sun (perhaps knowing that we sleep late and that there are LOTS of skylights here) is pure and clean and coastal, illuminating us with 24 hour ferocity (minus that whole night thing, of course). It really is showing us how beautiful things are here – and we haven’t even got lost yet, other than our obligatory “You’ve entered Boston” wrong turn.

Jellyfish! I was sooo pissed that I hadn't brought fresh batteries! — Jellyfish! I was sooo pissed that I hadn’t brought fresh batteries!

TURTLE!!! Yeah, big ass sea turtle. Predictably, it's name was Myrtle. — TURTLE!!! Yeah, big ass sea turtle. Predictably, it’s name was Myrtle.

Anywho, Whitney’s work is able to get us discount tickets to a couple of different things, and so we went to the New England Aquarium… it turned out that Heather had been there about five years ago, and was able to sort of show me around. Fortunately, even her steel-trap memory isn’t infallible, and we BOTH spent the next several hours simply being awestruck by what we saw. The Jellies exhibit (presumably the same one that travelled through Baltimore – the one that I lamented so much about missing) was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Much, much too small though. More focused on global warming than on the jellyfish themselves, and you are left with perhaps the feeling that ecocide isn’t such a bad thing if you get more of these beautiful things around.

Luckily, an Incident involving my Parts and a Jellyfish when I was very, very young keeps that kind of thinking in perspective. Still, absolutely beautiful, and whoever lit it was a genius.

This is the part that Heather remembered most strongly. Being able to pickup starfish. Unfortunately, these guys weren't nearly as fiesty as the ones in her memories, and sort of just hung out being all floppy. Very sluggish little asteroidea. — This is the part that Heather remembered most strongly. Being able to pickup starfish. Unfortunately, these guys weren’t nearly as fiesty as the ones in her memories, and sort of just hung out being all floppy. Very sluggish little asteroidea.

Hrm. That fierce light finds its way into the shower, as well. Fragmenting into hues through the rippling glass walls, forming multi-coloured shafts as it penetrates the warm, steaming haven of my cleansing… I looked down at one point and my heart just about stopped. I was VERY glad to find that my blue penis was merely a trick of the light.

In the shower, I was running numbers in my head. Revised figures for how much it takes to Live the way we do. They’re not low, let me assure you. Despite the elimination of rent and utilities, we still have health insurance and car insurance – and that’s the bulk of it. It’s sort of disturbing to mostly be making money to cover a…

Heather sharing a moment with a denizen of the deeps. My only lament was that the New England Aquarium often focused on spectacle more than information. It was somewhat difficult to tell what you were looking at sometimes, and the volunteers (with one exception) pushed through their shpiel like they were agonizing in their passing-the-time type job. I can't imagine NOT enjoying working there. I miss the Science Centre. Of course, if you worked at the Aquarium, you always had to wear khaki. Oh, my point being that I can't tell you the name of the fish she's kissing. — Heather sharing a moment with a denizen of the deeps. My only lament was that the New England Aquarium often focused on spectacle more than information. It was somewhat difficult to tell what you were looking at sometimes, and the volunteers (with one exception) pushed through their shpiel like they were agonizing in their passing-the-time type job. I can’t imagine NOT enjoying working there. I miss the Science Centre. Of course, if you worked at the Aquarium, you always had to wear khaki. Oh, my point being that I can’t tell you the name of the fish she’s kissing.

Well, it’s almost a bet, isn’t it? Someone’s betting that we WILL get into an accident, and playing the numbers and making sure that we’re paid up if we do. I have no problem with that – it’s the proportion that I find disturbing. Our bottom line is based around that legal requirement of insurance (and the comfort requirement of having health insurance).

Sunset in the heart of Boston. The light here is crystalline and fragile.

Hee! Christmas at South Station! I wanted to get a picture of an Acela (I'd never seen one before) but my batteries wouldn't spark enough charge to get that one last frame. — Hee! Christmas at South Station! I wanted to get a picture of an Acela (I’d never seen one before) but my batteries wouldn’t spark enough charge to get that one last frame.

I doubt that “Living the dream” in most people’s minds include those two factors. Most other performers that we’ve encountered don’t bother with the health insurance, and some don’t even bother with car insurance… and beyond that I’d ideally take it one step further and insure our instruments and our computers and things as well. It would really be a lot more worry-free at that point.

But the estimates on that are just… painful.

So, we’re struggling to survive. The wonder of sunlight and aquariums and the beauty of travel are somewhat curtailed by the weight of survival. I’d certainly never dreamed it was going to be this hard. There aren’t really any unforeseen expenses, the numbers were all dead-on, but CD sales are slower than I’d hoped, and I’ve forgotten how to market myself as an artist. I worry, sometimes, that I’m too lazy for this job, and indeed – somedays I really, really wish that I could relax, collect a paycheck, and have someone, ANYONE just TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!! It’s the flailing around, unsure if anything will ever pay off that’s most exhausting.

And yet, I wouldn’t trade it. If someone stopped me and gave me the option – I wouldn’t want to go back. Not even to working my job at the Science Centre for twice the pay of my work at Glovia. (well, unless it was part-time). I really am in Love with the travel… it would be soo easy to just relax out of this. Slouch back home and rejoin friends and family. But – I don’t know – in this short year + time scale we’ve seen so many fantastic things, and met so many wonderful humans.

One of my principle laments back home was that, once I was out of school, I didn’t know how to go out and just MEET people. There are the same opportunities back home to do so, but out on the road, we’ve got the ideal ice-breaker, and we’re really forcing ourselves to meet other people.

I have a couple of personal goals – goals about production as an artist, goals about writing and practicing as a musician, goals about self-image changes and goals about personal interactions. None of them are close to being realized, but I think I would not even be making headway if I wasn’t doing THIS right now.

I’m already contemplating my New Year’s Resolutions. They will be Journal entry. I think that people may even be issued Official ilyAIMY Pain Sticks to help me Live up to them.