A few random updates:

Last weekend was great. Going out with Michelle these past few months has been really great, and I'm already mourning her leaving. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do when she's gone. It's always us, and it seems like a different group of people every time, which I've been enjoying. Friday night I met a few new people and had a ton of ridiculous fun dancing with Michelle.. until we lost each other haha. (Dear McFaddens, we probably won't be seeing you for a while, but you've been great, really.)

Saturday Michelle, James, Spirko and I drove down to Vinko's place in RI. Another group other Boston kids were there and we met a ton of his friends from home, all of which were really cool. He has a beautiful house right next to a lake in Charlestown. We mostly played drinking games all day, including sloshball, dizzy bat, flip cup, and ended the night playing card games inside. Everyone kept complaining about how hot it was and then we got a ton of mosquito bites, and I have to say I felt a bit like I was back in Vietnam. I can't even complain here because I know it's not as bad as what I lived through!! Anyway, we all had a really fun time and a nice relaxing day on Sunday once we got back. Two more weekends left... I don't want summer to end.

Work is going well. Still don't mind getting up in the morning and getting ready for a day in the office. Still can't find anything to complain about. Still generally love my life. My boss is out this week so it has been nice to get stuff done without other things piling up, and I've set up a few meetings for myself to try and figure some of this budget stuff out. Not entirely trained for all of this... but it'll work out.

Yesterday Marisa and I saw Julie & Julia. Maybe my new favorite movie. It was a feel good movie, the kind that inspires you to buy a Julia Childs cookbook and cook through it yourself (anyone wants to get me a present- I'm completely serious about this.) A part of the movie that I appreciated was that the two women had husbands that completely loved them and supported them no matter how outlandish they (or their ideas) were. We need more of this type of inspiration! I'm so sick of seeing movies (500 Days of Summer) where people just bitch and moan about relationships. It's refreshing to see a change of pace. And this movie was about love in so many other ways too; love for finding a passion in your life (cooking, in this case) and love of yourself. I'm no movie reviewer, but two thumbs up from me. (Although definitely a chick flick, for anyone interested.)

Starting to read a lot more. Since I've been back my collection of books has greatly increased - I really missed being able to buy books. But I haven't read any of them - I just keep getting new ones. I've also started quite a few without finishing. I feel like this has a lot to do with my on the go lifestlye I've had so far - semi living in six different places, always sleeping somewhere else and still living out of suitcases. I'm so ready to move into my new apartment and get settled and get going on these books. I'm currently reading a book my friend Christine lent me called American Shaolin by Mathew Polly. It's the story of a guy who dropped out of Princeton and just up and went to China to live with the Shaolin Monks for two years and study Kung Fu. I know neither one of those things appear to interest me on the outside, but I like it for a lot of reasons. I enjoy his conversations with others in Mandarin... although I didn't speak Vietnamese, a lot of situations he puts himself in are incredibly relatable, and it's nice to remember those moments, regardless of how annoying they were. I also don't know much about Chinese culture and he talks about that a lot. I'm surprised at how many things are similar to Vietnamese. I just read about how the men are overly affectionate (in a friendship way) with each other in public.. holding hands, hand on shoulder, etc. Then he noticed the females are the same way with each other. And concluded that it is because there is no PDA between the sexes (that's strictly taboo... although I think more and more and younger generations in Vietnam are finding ways around that) so they become affectionate with their friends in public as a way to show some sort of emotion, and i have to agree. Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far!

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm shipping off to NYC! It will be my first time there since I've been back, and I'm so excited. Going to visit some friends and have a good old nyc night out. Then Friday I'll be home for our annual OG Crew Ball.. basically a big party celebrating our friendship. (Douglas, you will be incredibly missed!) I'm hoping the weather holds out because it looks like thunderstorms only for the three days I'll be home. Cross my fingers for beach weather!!

Side note, my camera is broken. Yes, it's the one I got for my birthday, two months ago, after loosing my last one in Hong Kong. I have the worst luck and I'm praying for a miracle because I really want it for this weekend. (and publicly posting this in case anyone reading can perform a miracle...)

Hope you're all enjoying the heat, now you know (almost) how I felt all year! :-)

Working on a serious list of places I want to go:

Philipeans

Indonesia

India

Sri Lanka

Greece

And of course, wherever Nikki is in Europe, Chile/wherever Whit ends up in South America, and Germany, because visiting people is always the best excuse to go anywhere.

As for America, my current to do list is New Orleans, which I'm planning on hitting up for Halloween. This will be huge for many reasons. 1) Never been, always wanted to go. 2) Hate Halloween, and can't remember the last time I seriously celebrated. Except for that one time when Ryan made me, and I wore my librarian costume from the librarian party the weekend before AND I won worst costume at the party (but i got a prize!) Anyhoo, I missed the holidays so much while I was gone that I promised I would go all out this year for every holiday. What better place to go all out than in NO? 3) My dear Michelle is leaving me soon and will be meeting me there in what might be known as the best reunion ever. (Except when I came back, because clearly that was more highly anticipated.) 4) I'm trying to bring along multiple friends to make the celebration even more fun and the hotel cheaper, so if you're interested let me know!

Tomorrow a few of us are going down to RI to Vinko's place for Sloshball. This is a drinking wiffleball game that I am not prepared for. But his place is near the beach and it should be a good crew and nice to get out of the city again!

Last Friday I went to Martha's Vineyard with a few people from my office and it was a really nice day. We spent the morning laying on the beach near the jump-off brdige from Jaws. Then we just walked around a bit and had a great lunch and some drinks. Very similar to Nantucket, but I think I liked it better. Nantucket was a little too "every thing is exactly the same" for me. I couldn't see myself spending an extended period of time in either place, since if I'm going to vacation at a beach nearby, I might as well go home) but both beautiful places, and I'm glad I got to see them. It was nice because I went with a different group of people to each island so it was definitely a different experience. All-in-all though, I can't afford either one of them on my own.

Bridge from Jaws

NU @ Martha's Vineyard

Last but not least... A great friend of mine is raising money for the Light the Night Walk through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of a friend who passed away. Please take your time to read this:

http://pages.lightthenight.org/ma/BostonL09/mariseca

A little bit can go a long way, please help in any little way if you can. If you have any questions, just let me know and I can pass them along to her. Thanks for your help!

Have a great weekend! xoxo

Here is a link of a compliation of photos from my travels around America. There is also a link at the bottom of my list. It will prompt you to log in, so use my email (Srthornley@gmail.com) and the password is america. This is the only way I could figure out how to do it. The pictures are from when I drove cross country with Jessie (AKA Charlotte Sometimes) with of course a majority of pictures from Jersey, NYC, and Boston. Enjoy!

A fun fact to share, since I've posted some pictures from walking across the Brooklyn Bridge:
Because the subway runs under the East River, and the vehicular level is under the pedestrian level, it has been said that Brooklyn Bridge is the only place on earth where an airplane could fly over a pedestrian who is walking over a car that is driving over a boat that is floating over a train.

Yesterday I was walking down Newbury & Boylston St and I was reminded once again how much I love living here. When I was younger I promised myself I would live in NYC at least once. I frequented the city quite often with my mom, and eventually quite often with friends/ by myself. I do love the city, especially in the fall/spring and during Christmas. But do I regret not following through with the promise I once made? Not for a minute. If you do live there, and love it, you probably won't love Boston. And your arguments are valid. The skyline leaves a lot to offer, the MBTA stops running before the bars close, and sometimes the taxi's/drivers are unnecessarily rude (like that isn't true in new york?) If you're going to go to Cheer's and Quincy Market, you probably won't be impressed. No one knows your name at Cheer's (and the food isn't that good), and Quincy/Faniuel is always jam-packed with annoying tourists. But you're missing out. There is a charm to the city that you can't ignore. The history, the sports, the stories. Boston fans are loyal. Some of them are Massholes, sure, but Yankee's fans? (That's where I'm ending that, otherwise I'll hear it from my mom forever.) Watch any Sox away game and scan the crowd... I can almost guarantee majority will be sox fans. That's ridiculous! You can't ignore Red Sox Nation. And maybe the new Yankee stadium is 10x bigger then Fenway.. but it lost its charm and you know it. And maybe Fenway can use some updating, but how can you ignore the spirit there! I didn't mean to get on a sports rant there... but it's a big part of the spirit around here. Point being, if you're not into it, it might be easy to miss out on what Beantown has to offer. I love walking around the city... day time, night time, there's always something new to see, a new place to eat, drink, people watch. Completely content with my decision to move back here.. even if it is only for a few years.

I also really love my job. Everyone in the office is great, and I've already had a lot of great opportunities, and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone better. This Friday I am going to Martha's Vineyard with the office and a group of students (I'm a chaperone, how ridiculous.) But I've never been there so I'm excited (and it's free!) Thursday we left work early to go to a Sox game (also for free!) Then we got access to the Bud Roof Deck, which I had never been to before so that was awesome. Since they knew a guy working there we eventually got to sit down at the $500 tables, where we picked up some of the money left on their tab. Not to mention my boss paid for pizza and beer while we were there. How lucky am I? Oh, and we won! :-)



Me, Ed, & Lisa

Overall, thing's are going really well. I've been keeping in touch with Whitney in Chile, and Nikki in Spain, and they are both have an amazing time. It's making me completely miss Vietnam and my whole adventure. I can't believe 1) that I did all of that 2) that it's already over and 3) that I'm already (almost) settled in a full time job and the next chapter in my life. I've been talking to Kristen a lot (still in Hanoi) and that's also been bumming me out. I feel like if I had been in Hanoi for longer I would have chosen to stay in Vietnam longer... but that was never an option. And I am obviously glad I came back. But maybe I'll go back again. Or somewhere else! The fact that three or four of my best friends are in completely different countries semi long-term definitely keeps me going. And now it's my turn to live vicariously through them!!

I decided to add some new pictures on my blog, if you look at the bottom of the list. I'm trying to go as many places as possible and I know that some people have never been so I made a few compilations of what I've seen. I just posted pictures from the other weekend when we went to Nantucket, and I also posted an old photo album of when Ryan and I went to Newport, RI. The pictures aren't that great, and it was a while ago, but if you've never been there it shows a little bit what it's about - Mansions, everywhere, and you have to buy tickets to take tours of the different places. So, enjoy! I also compiled some pictures I've taken the past few years in NYC, Boston, and all around and I'm going to try to find a way to share them, so keep checking my pictures list if you're interested!!

Quote of the day: (not really sharing any inspiration here, but it's another quote that I found at the exact right time and I couldn't have said it better myself...)

"The vague confidence that it will all work out, coupled with the total lack of knowing of how to make this happen."

This morning there was an empty cup of bubble tea sitting on my front steps... a sign?