so I was shocked and pleased to discover that, due to the price wars, the Chinatown bus had responded to Greyhound's $50 round-trip coup by cutting their fares to $10 each way, all the time! whoa.
i sat in front of these two teenage kids (girl in high school, boy a freshman at NEU) who were talking about the most ridiculous things the whole trip. i ended up writing down stuff they were saying because it was so silly.
the boy had come and sat down next to her and introduced her and was totally being fake-interested in the things she had to say the whole time. also, the stuff that was interesting about her he totally didn't ask her about (like, she was like "well, i was raised ba'hai" and he was just like "uh huh" and pretended he knew what ba'haiism was and then started blabbing about new jersey).
she: what kind of music do you like?
he: oh, everything!
(she looks through his CD book)
she: you seem to like a lot of rap.
he: well, sure. one of my friends loves 50 cent and he's great, but not the best rapper EVER!
she: ...i don't listen to rap.
he: oh...well...musical taste is something you can't criticize. like, i see you're reading a book. you don't think worse of me because i don't read, right?
she: ...no!
(he then put on his headphones and listened to Evanescence so loud everyone around us could hear it and was shooting him dirty looks)
he later went on a tirade about how American music "sucks" and is "just not there" and how there aren't ANY really good American artists. she was like "right on!"
it quickly became clear that he was a dumb college kid.
(as we're going over a bridge)
he: it's cool how so many important things in history have happened on bridges.
she: ...yeah! (pause) uh, like what?
he: umm...well...lots of things...it's hard to say.
(pause)
he: i used to be pretty shallow, until like a year ago. so i can't think of it now. but, yeah, bridges.
anyway they exchanged phone numbers at the end of the trip, so, like, good luck to them.
i got down to NYC around 10pm and we walked around the village looking at costumes. a lot of my pictures didn't come out (bleh) but some of the best costumes were a pair of Ghostbusters with blinking, homebuilt proton packs!
i ran into the_preppy and was like "whoa amanda you have big legs!"
then we ate and went out to a couple of bars.
the following day, we went to Harlem and walked around and I bought cheap DVDs of "Return of the Living Dead" and "Phantasm". we walked by Clinton's office and went to this insanely good soul food buffet. that night was my real halloween night. it was nov.1, but who cares, we had costume parties to go to. i did not know about the costume parties beforehand so i had to scrounge a costume. i went over my old roommate tami's house and hung out with the kitty we used to have when we lived together (he was a kitten then) while she got gothed up.
i got some KITTY EARS from tami and that was my costume.
we went to the party and i talked to a dog dressed like ZORRO who kept shaking off his mask and hat:
you can see him lunging toward my ear in that picture and immediately following it i was savaged. OH NO!
then we left the party and went out to one of the few smoking-allowed bars left in Manhatten and played pool. my pics from it weren't very good, unfortunately. i don't remember taking them because we were wasted.
the next morning i woke up and puked and then hurried to catch the train. i made it by 45 seconds because of the goddamn NYC marathon (you didn't run, right, amanda?). i blame P-Diddy entirely.
but then i was back in Connecticut where my parents made a big dinner and my family all came over. we had braciole and Swiss chard and a trifle for dessert. my little cousin Lucas was crawling around under the table attacking peoples' legs so i put my camera down there and took some blind pics and what did i get? photos of Toby secretly kicking him under the table!
further abusing him, we tied knots in his socks so he couldn't pull them on all the way:
it got pretty chaotic. this picture shows Mia in mid-fall and Toby in mid-play (with M.A.S.K. toys).
notice Lucas is half-naked? we had pulled his sleeves down and knotted them, too. but he circumvented that problem by slipping out of his shirt entirely.
then i took some photos of our pissy cat arrow.
and then drove back to Boston and listened to Khanate's Things Viral.
the end.
i sat in front of these two teenage kids (girl in high school, boy a freshman at NEU) who were talking about the most ridiculous things the whole trip. i ended up writing down stuff they were saying because it was so silly.
the boy had come and sat down next to her and introduced her and was totally being fake-interested in the things she had to say the whole time. also, the stuff that was interesting about her he totally didn't ask her about (like, she was like "well, i was raised ba'hai" and he was just like "uh huh" and pretended he knew what ba'haiism was and then started blabbing about new jersey).
she: what kind of music do you like?
he: oh, everything!
(she looks through his CD book)
she: you seem to like a lot of rap.
he: well, sure. one of my friends loves 50 cent and he's great, but not the best rapper EVER!
she: ...i don't listen to rap.
he: oh...well...musical taste is something you can't criticize. like, i see you're reading a book. you don't think worse of me because i don't read, right?
she: ...no!
(he then put on his headphones and listened to Evanescence so loud everyone around us could hear it and was shooting him dirty looks)
he later went on a tirade about how American music "sucks" and is "just not there" and how there aren't ANY really good American artists. she was like "right on!"
it quickly became clear that he was a dumb college kid.
(as we're going over a bridge)
he: it's cool how so many important things in history have happened on bridges.
she: ...yeah! (pause) uh, like what?
he: umm...well...lots of things...it's hard to say.
(pause)
he: i used to be pretty shallow, until like a year ago. so i can't think of it now. but, yeah, bridges.
anyway they exchanged phone numbers at the end of the trip, so, like, good luck to them.
i got down to NYC around 10pm and we walked around the village looking at costumes. a lot of my pictures didn't come out (bleh) but some of the best costumes were a pair of Ghostbusters with blinking, homebuilt proton packs!
i ran into the_preppy and was like "whoa amanda you have big legs!"
then we ate and went out to a couple of bars.
the following day, we went to Harlem and walked around and I bought cheap DVDs of "Return of the Living Dead" and "Phantasm". we walked by Clinton's office and went to this insanely good soul food buffet. that night was my real halloween night. it was nov.1, but who cares, we had costume parties to go to. i did not know about the costume parties beforehand so i had to scrounge a costume. i went over my old roommate tami's house and hung out with the kitty we used to have when we lived together (he was a kitten then) while she got gothed up.
i got some KITTY EARS from tami and that was my costume.
we went to the party and i talked to a dog dressed like ZORRO who kept shaking off his mask and hat:
you can see him lunging toward my ear in that picture and immediately following it i was savaged. OH NO!
then we left the party and went out to one of the few smoking-allowed bars left in Manhatten and played pool. my pics from it weren't very good, unfortunately. i don't remember taking them because we were wasted.
the next morning i woke up and puked and then hurried to catch the train. i made it by 45 seconds because of the goddamn NYC marathon (you didn't run, right, amanda?). i blame P-Diddy entirely.
but then i was back in Connecticut where my parents made a big dinner and my family all came over. we had braciole and Swiss chard and a trifle for dessert. my little cousin Lucas was crawling around under the table attacking peoples' legs so i put my camera down there and took some blind pics and what did i get? photos of Toby secretly kicking him under the table!
further abusing him, we tied knots in his socks so he couldn't pull them on all the way:
it got pretty chaotic. this picture shows Mia in mid-fall and Toby in mid-play (with M.A.S.K. toys).
notice Lucas is half-naked? we had pulled his sleeves down and knotted them, too. but he circumvented that problem by slipping out of his shirt entirely.
then i took some photos of our pissy cat arrow.
and then drove back to Boston and listened to Khanate's Things Viral.
the end.
