My Weekend Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Whoooooo, what a great weekend I just had! It was jam-packed with friendship from Friday to Sunday, and I even got to take several long walks in the sunshine - although the humidity around here made those walks sliiiightly less enjoyable. Humidity in the Northwest was at a relative low, compared to these parts, so the past few weeks in Massachusetts have been a bit of a wake up call for me, sweat-wise.

On Friday afternoon I set off on an adventure to Malden (the town just northeast of Medford) to find a shop that ultimately ended up being closed when I got there. Finding my way back to the T station was a bit easier said than done:  My life does not currently include a smartphone, so looking up directions on-the-go is not an option for me (#StoneAge)... thus, I accidentally walked pretty far out of my way that afternoon. Oh well, not the end of the world - especially because I stopped at an ice cream parlor to ask for directions... and of course one does not simply ask for directions at an ice cream parlor without also buying a cup of ice cream. (If anyone asks, my dinner on Friday night was not a cup of black raspberry ice cream with chocolate sprinkles. That'll be our little secret, Internet.) While standing in the blessed shade to eat said ice cream, I also snapped some pictures of the pretty windowsill flowerbeds they had at the shop:

 

Later that evening I went out to a bar in Somerville with my friends J-rod and Derek and their roommates. Brass Union in Union Square is everything that a bar ought to be... and by that I mean full of games to delight your inner child while you drink. We played some shuffleboard inside beside their bar and then moved outside for some Giant Jenga on their patio. It was a fantastic way to avoid boredom at a bar, which can often be a problem for me. It also doesn't hurt that my friends are hysterical, so there was plenty of throw-ya-head-back laughter going on.

.  jrod makes a move!  .

On Saturday morning I pulled myself out of bed around 9 to get ready and then make my way south of Boston to Roslindale to help my friend Anna paint some rooms in her newly purchased duplex.

.  medford to roslindale  .

She and her boyf are working to get the downstairs apartment of the duplex rented out ASAP (um, so if you're looking for a nice place to live in Roslindale, holler at me), which means getting the place painted and making finishing touches to give the older building a more modern feel. Personally I've been reading so many home decor blogs for the last several years that I was actually itching to have a reason to paint a room, so it was a win-win for both me and Anna.

After an afternoon of painting (and getting covered in paint splatters!), my next task was to head even further south to Canton, MA to spend the evening with my friend Steph at her condo.

.  roslindale to canton  .

Steph's boyfriend Gerry was out of town all weekend at a bachelor party (BEHAVING HIMSELF ENTIRELY, I'M SURE), so we thought a movie night and sleepover was in order for the two of us. And because we both enjoy being crafty and artistic whenever possible, I brought along a Care Bears coloring book for us to partake in while we watched movies (Four Rooms and Mean Girls, if you're curious). By the way, don't you dare tell me it's not normal for a 29-year-old woman to have a Care Bears coloring book... or any coloring book at all, for that matter. Coloring is fun - that's just a fact.

Before settling in for the movies and coloring, we sat out on Steph's balcony for about 20 minutes and watched an amazing lightning storm that had rolled into her neighborhood. As I mentioned earlier, it gets quite humid in Massachusetts but not so much in the Northwest - so lightning has been essentially absent from my life for the last couple of years. I'd forgotten how thrilling it can be to just sit and watch a storm in action. I wish I'd taken video!

The movies I brought turned out to be great choices - obviously Mean Girls never (EVER) disappoints, and Steph had never seen Four Rooms before. Here's what we did while we watched:

.  mine!  .

.  steph's  .

Just try to tell me these aren't the cutest pictures ever.  JUST TRY IT.

The next morning, Steph brought me back up to Medford. There was a traffic jam nearly the entire way, so the drive ended up being a bonus hang-out-and-chit-chat session for us (the silver lining of being in a traffic jam with a buddy!). Once back home, I raced to take a shower and head back out the door to J-rod and Derek's place to catch the second half of the Patriots game that had started at 1:30. The Pats unfortunately did not win. There's no silver lining to that one.

All in all, it was a weekend well spent. I'm still kind of pinching myself over how NICE it is to be spending time with my friends who live around Boston. Hopefully they don't start to get sick of me, HAH!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend as well - and a sidebar "thank you" to all of you who visit my little corner of the Internet. My blog hit 100,000 views this weekend, which was pretty exciting for me!

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