(7/27/09 – 8/02/09)
What an adventure-filled week!
On Monday, I turned 22! Note to self: there are more festive days than Monday for a birthday. I woke up at my usual 6:30 AM, went to work and wrote some birthday code for 8.25 hours (you can’t spell “birthday” without the R), headed to the gym for a birthday workout, went birthday grocery shopping, and then sifted through the birthday Facebook messages everyone sent me – thanks again, everyone!
Tuesday night is salsa night, but our default BU instructor was in California. Instead of canceling the lesson, the BU Salsa officers decided to take everyone to Ryles, a music club about 5 minutes away from my apartment. After hearing so much about the place from other dancers and riding past it on my way to work every morning, I was eager to check it out. Julia showed up to accompany me, as did one other girl from BU.
I knew that we’d be participating in the beginning and advanced beginner lessons and then social dancing afterwards. I didn’t know that Julia had called ahead to inform them of my recent birthday. But towards the end of the lesson, when we were all in a circle practicing the evening’s routine, the man in charge grabbed the microphone: “Hey, everyone. I’m told that we recently had a birthday. Everyone, please give a birthday cheer for Hoxie!” As the birthday boy, I got to dance in the middle of the circle, first with the incredibly talented female instructor and then with the rest of the women at the lesson, who all wished me a very happy birthday and pretended not to notice when I stepped on them. What a neat surprise!
On Wednesday, I tried to give blood at work, but the nice man with the harpoon couldn’t find a vein. After poking around for a few minutes without any luck, he called over another attendant to take a stab at it (hah!). She couldn’t find anything, either. Although it takes a few tries, the Red Cross usually finds something in my arm… not so much this time. The good news is that I have very healthy iron levels, something I’m always a little bit concerned about as a vegetarian.
I usually hit the gym on Thursday after work, but this past Thursday was special. To say “thank you” for my salsa surprise and because Biogen was heavily subsidizing the tickets, Julia and I went on our very first Duck Tour! After seeing the duck boats cruising around downtown Boston for years (and passing them while rowing on the Charles back in the day), I finally got to channel my inner tourist and check it out for myself. It was fun… quacking at people is always a good thing, the weather was great, and our driver had a lot of good stories. That said, I quickly learned that I don’t quite fit in duck boats, nor is sitting directly under the speaker at the back a good idea. Would I recommend it to someone with an afternoon to kill visiting Boston for the first time? Sure. Will I be doing it again anytime soon? Probably not.
The weekend was spent catching up on life: heading down to the library, organizing a Pine Crest Class of 2005 Boston reunion for next weekend, installing the bike computer I got for my birthday from my parents, writing Facebook birthday thank-you notes, reading and signing the lease for my new apartment next year, a few loads of laundry, and all of those other things that creep up on you. Although only working ~40 hours per week is significantly less than I was doing during the school year, it definitely takes time to make and buy food, commute to work, clean the apartment, and all those other things that weren’t on my radar at college. I’ve been a lot busier this summer than I thought I would be, but it’s a great kind of busy.
This week, I might be hearing about a couple of job opportunities for life past the summer, which I’m very excited about. Tune in next week for the update!