measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Busy weekend, now looking ahead I had an extremely busy, but fun weekend. I took full advantage of the time to relax and just goof off, since the next three weeks will be chaotic ones. I will have to focus on getting things done, rather than finding ways to fit "playtime" into my daily schedule... ugh, not my strong suit. I spent Friday afternoon getting to the UPS office in Brockton, where a package was waiting for [erich] from his new employers... his offer letter, tax forms, brief benefits info, etc. Brockton, Massachusetts is a seriously scary looking town. I kept thinking that eventually I'd get out of what looked like a run-down industrial park, but never happened. I'm now convinced the entire town looks like that. *shudder* In any case, it took me a while to find this damn place. I passed by the road to it twice before finding it. Got the package, and headed on my way out. On the way home, I decided that I did NOT want to go back through the ratty town I'd just seen-- I don't know how bad it really is, safety-wise, but with its appearance, I didn't want to take the chance of finding out. So I used my philosophy about driving in Massachusetts that no matter what, eventually I'd find a major highway. I started driving up Route 28, which I know leads into Randolph, and onto I-93. But it wasn't looking that great, either. So in what appeared to be the center of Brockton, I turned onto Route 123, which lead east. That was a huge mistake under the philosophy of highways, although it was a much safer looking route. An hour later, I found myself on the road that lines Wollaston Beach-- nearly 25 miles from where I started, and basically the philosophy of "I'll eventually hit highway" became "well, sooner or later, I need to hit ocean." And I did. By going UNDER a highway (with no on ramps). To be fair, it was a fun drive. Wasted too much gas (which I quickly replaced in the car), but it was a fun wanderlust sort of exploration. I managed to wander through about seven different towns before getting up to Boston to pick up Erich. After all, it's an area of Massachusetts I don't know very well, but will be moving to within the next month. New areas to explore, new places to find myself going out and getting "lost" in, and find what is nifty around the area. It doesn't have to be "WOW! That's so cool" type of nifty-- but just something different. I think it's a case of chronic sightseeing need. *shrug* So when I finally arrived to pick up Erich (exactly on time, I might add), I did confess my confusion over the afternoon. It got a bit of an amused laugh. His workmates/roommates probably thought I was an idiot for getting completely lost, but hell, who cares? It was a fun afternoon. That evening Erich and I met up with JT and Tan for some 'ritas and Tex-Mex. We drank plenty, had a good time, and scared the waitresses with our constant scribbling on the paper table-cover. :) The four of us had never had a "double-date out" time, so it was nice to finally be able to figure out a time that worked well for everyone. I paid the price on Saturday for my drinking, though, managing to give myself a whopper of a dehydration-due-to-getting-drunk headache for the better part of the afternoon. Oh, but those frozen raspberry 'ritas are soooooo good. It's worth it on an occasional basis. Especially when it falls under the category of "the food was good, the company's better." Before our game on Saturday (Erich's birthday *grin*), Erich came to pick me up -- with Kevin, a longtime friend of Erich's and fellow gamer in our group up in Nashua, in tow-- to do some test driving on cars. I tried out an '03 Toyota Corolla and an '02 Honda Civic EX. I liked both, but as often happens, there were the plusses and minuses of each to consider. I preferred the clutch pedal on the Honda. The Toyota clutch felt very soft-- almost gummy, and it threw my rhythm off a bit. But I partially blame that on the fact that I hadn't driven a clutch since I helped Jason in driving his car up from New York last summer (I just found the subway instructions mentioned in that entry this past week, BTW-- how pathetic is THAT?!?). I picked my rhythm back up relatively well in the Toyota after a few shifts, and did just fine with the Honda. The Honda clutch pedal felt much more responsive. But the ride was far more comfortable in the Toyota-- including in the back, where both Kevin and Erich (the latter standing about 6'3".. he was my leg-room analyst in this exercise) were sitting. And so's the price. By about $4,000 on the new car. So unless I'm completely wow'ed by the RAV-4 when I test drive it later this week, I'm thinking the Corolla might be the way to go. It has everything I need. I know it's safe, I know it's one of the most reliable cars on the road. Of course, that Highlander is rather spiffy, but it's way out of my price range. The clutch pedal is just something I can get used to-- I'm used to driving Hondas/Acuras and an old RX-7, which all had "hard" clutch pedals. That's not a big deal to me, if the rest of the car is what I want and need. So after test driving a couple cars and probably scaring the crap out of Kevin, we picked up Rob and headed up to JT's for a game. Had a bit of a wild night closing a plot thread (we destroyed an avatar of Moander). Then came home, collapsed, and got up early again on Sunday for Erich's birthday party at his parent's. We ate, had a major wrestling battle in the pool, and just wiped ourselves out. Erich now has a plethora of DVD's and books to keep him busy this week on his mini-vacation before starting his new job. Good thing we have lots of shelves for our new place. :) I just collapsed last night. I was exhausted. And with the weather getting hotter and muggy again this week, the more sleep I can get at the front end of the weather system, the better. It's going to be a hot, miserable week, and I have a ton of shit to do. *sigh* 10:43 a.m. - 12 August 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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