A Lady on the Street, but a Freak in the ... 24-Hour Shaw's

Herewith are the steps to make the staff at a 24-hour Shaw's Supermarket hate their jobs, lives, next door neighbor's cats, etc:
Step #1: Pick up closest NYC girlfriends from South Station for one of the better weekends on record.
Step #2: Bring said friends back to your apartment for a cheese plate spread and several seasonal craft beers (Post Road Pumpkin, Sierra Nevada Tumbler, etc).
Step #3: Go out to Shay's in Harvard Square, get drunk, get hit on by a man with a pony tail and a fanny pack, stumble 1 mile towards home, witness friend pee in alley, have said friend recount tale of strange man watching her pee.
Step #4: Arrive at Shaw's.
Step #5: Split up, best to divide and conquer. Hear friends yelling all over the store, including one friend harass a man in a sea green shirt asking where the Ruffles are, he insists he does not work there, she couldn't care less and tells him she's simply looking for sympathy (AND Ruffles), watch same friend try to "level" with our check-out girl "Sarah" and let her know she "gets it" and also something about "the man", watch other two friends bicker about the color of the various onion dips and how they look "too grey".
Step #6: Arrive back at apartment and collectively consume: 2 large frozen pizzas, at least 1 pound (of the 3 purchased) of Peanut Butter M&Ms, entire can of onion dip, one half bag of Ruffles Potato Chips.

Please note: steps 3 and 5 are VITAL.

The Best Part of Moving Away ...

... is friends willing to go out on a Monday for drinks. Today, my friend Stevie emailed me to ask if she was imagining that I had taken pictures on Monday night when we went to my favorite local bar Sweet Afton. I took my camera out of my bag and flipped through. The last pictures I had were of my current room for a Craigslist ad, and then pictures of my friend Lillie's girlfriend mock-humping a guy who had passed out drunk at a bus stop (what?).

Then. Then, I checked my cell phone camera and WOW. Why didn't I remember this until now? Well, something in the neighborhood of six beers and a "Pickleback" shot (whiskey followed by pickle juice) is a pretty good place to start. Here it is, the photo series from Monday night, presented without commentary.

Isla Nublar

Look at that baby hand! Have you ever seen something so disturbing? I look like that creepy sister from the Lawrence Welk show parody on SNL.

That picture is from my recent trip to Costa Rica, and had it been time-stamped, you would know that I was drinking a beer at 11 am. During the trip, that would be considered a "late start" for boozing. Our first day there, we were drunk by 10 am, and swimming up to a bar by 11 am for more tropical drinks. The trip was amazing and exactly what I needed.

I've never considered myself the beach vacation type, but this trip has changed my mind. The people there was incredibly friendly, the beer was delicious (and cheap!), I had SO many opportunities to talk about Jurassic Park and we saw a ton of wildlife. This little guy was eating a lizard up in the trees, and decided to throw the intestines of said lizard down at the tourists below. Cheeky!These guys were running all over our resort. They were running even faster when one of my friends decided to start chasing them.
There was some surprising wildlife there, too, like the deer we saw, or these rabid, daytime raccoons above. I stupidly thought animals like deer or raccoon are exclusive to North America, or a similar climate. We also saw a raccoon at our resort, too - through the peephole in our hotel room's door. We heard a loud crash outside our door, and one these menacing-looking bandits was going through someone's room service tray across the hall from us. We called the front desk to alert them of the creature, and no one came up to investigate for HOURS. While we were being held captive, we just decided to play "Colones" - a came of quarters using the local currency.

I definitely have a travel bug now, and can't wait to play games called "Euros", "Pounds" and "Yen" hopefully in the near future.

Bacon vs. Tofu: A Happening

"What gives? First, you say you're going to be a vegan, and then you start failing immediately. And now? NOW, I hear you're going to a BACON and beer tasting tonight?"
"Did somebody say 'BACON'?""Ugh, not THIS guy." "Shut up, tofu. She ate you for lunch today, alright? Tonight, tonight is our special date night feast. And you know what else, tofu?""What?""Tofu SUCKS! UHH!"

"And, scene."