What the Hull?

It was dinnertime yet the streets of this off-season beach resort town were near to deserted. Megan and I could hear the sound of heavy waves crashing on the beach as the moon pulled in the high tide. We marched down the sidewalk hand in hand with a mission for a wonderful dinner. It was Megan's birthday and being the horribly broke boyfriend I am, I hadn't bought her a present. The only things I had to give was myself and my love, so I decided the least I could do was take her out to a birthday dinner. So there we were, walking in the dark streets to a very nice-looking pizzeria on the corner which appeared to be open for sit-down, eatin' business. After ordering a meatball pizza, we sit down to see two employees behind the counter making our pizza right then and there. It was amazing, but at the same time we couldn't help notice how quiet this place was...how absolutely devoid of ample human life...

A DAY AND A HALF EARLIER...

Early Tuesday morning Megan, her mom, her grandmother, and I left Lyndonville on a Spring Break birthday road trip to Boston. Our first stop was the University of New Hampshire where we hopped onto the back of the metaphorical undergraduate admissions tour truck even though Megan is applying for the graduate program there. It was a great tour of the campus, and while the crazy biddies and the redneck bro who kept shoving his father during the tour were very entertaining, Megan really enjoyed the campus and the programs offered there. AND they have a Dunkin Donuts on their campus! Sold.

The next stop on our trip was Portsmouth, NH where we checked in to our hotel and explored.

The next morning, it was time to get classy because we were heading to the city. Boston, to be exact, and while I never thought Boston is my city (I <3 NY), I actually found it to be quite beautiful.

We parked the car in the parking garage of a massively swanky hotel at Boston Harbor then went directly to the New England Aquarium where Megan touched a stingray, we made friends with a giant sea turtle, and we watched a group of seals being trained.

After a visit to a Boston Panera Bread (it's delicious everywhere), a walk around the city looking at beautiful buildings and people in business suits, and a semi-stressful drive to get out of the city, we made our way to the beach town of Hull, MA.

The first thing that struck me in Hull were the abandoned carnival fronts that were like ghostly images of childhood wonderlands of summers long past. There were signs for ice cream and fried dough, games and rides. In the back there was a run-down carousel that still held on to its magic even in the desolate emptiness that hung in the salty sea air. Some things we observed about Hull:

• Almost everything was abandoned - beach houses, storefronts, and restaurants. The only thing that didn't seem to be abandoned was our beach resort which was odd because this town was in such an off-season. It was obvious that this place made all its money in the summer.
• A supermarket that had full-floor red carpeting. Weird.
• They had a musical theatre group that was going to perform Curtains in an auditorium that was named after the director...?
• Roads went nowhere, especially not a lighthouse Megan and I were trying to find.
• The internet in the hotel was super slow, almost as though the town didn't want us to have any connection to the outside world
• A pizzeria that was empty at dinnertime.

Which brings us back to Megan's awesome, totally romantic, totally classy birthday dinner. We were sitting there waiting for our pizza and observing the sketchy shit out of this town when the cashier brings a closed pizza box to our table where we have taken our jackets off and asks us if we want plates and napkins...sure... We sat there for a good five minutes trying to figure out whether we should awkwardly eat the pizza there or take it back to the hotel. We decided to take it back to the hotel where we had a pool, a fireplace in our room, and an awesome balcony. So there.

It really was a beautiful place and we had a super fun trip, and the pizza was really good too. Happy birthday, Megan! <3

Peace out!

Days Like These

My alarm buzzed in its glaring tone at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Weary, I rolled over and smacked my hand over the snooze. As the measly bits of early morning sunlight drifted through the room, I knew I had to get up if I was ever going to get everything done in this crazy, messed up day I had planned for myself.

And what a day it was...

My first task for the day was to take down some signs for a conference that had checked in the night before and use them to make my own signs for the hockey camp I had checking in this weekend. That went pretty well seeing how there was no one on the road that early in the morning, and it was hilarious to blast bad rap music while throwing signs out on the sidewalk. Then I had to grab door signs, candy, and cards to do room checks for the hockey camp. That got a little creepy seeing how the dorm complex was completely empty and every room in that place looks like a mental institution. I half expected Samara's ghost to be standing in the corner eyeballing me.

After an hour and a half of hanging signs and tossing maple candies into rooms, I ran over to Living/Learning to check the Puerto Ricans out that had been staying there since I started in May. For some reason, it took them a whole hour to drag their multitude of luggage over to the main desk so they could give me their keys. They were totally nice enough, but they propped the door to the main desk area open which set off this huge alarm. It blared throughout the entire hall, and I'm just running around being like, "GIVE ME YO KEYS! GIVE ME YO KEYS!" After about fifteen minutes, a member of the UVM Police stopped by for a little visit and I had to explain that there were a bunch of scientific Puerto Ricans checking out.

After that ordeal, I ran to make a quick lunch before working at the front desk until four. Then I had to run over with all of my check-in gear, including a stack of parking passes, to get ready to check in some of the hockey camp counselors. The check-in was supposed to happen outside, so I grabbed a small, round table for upstairs in the common room. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in my complete lack of strength as I attempted to hoist the puny, surprisingly heavy, table down the stairs. Then I rolled the monstrosity out the door and onto the lawn. I put everything, including the parking passes, down onto the table and went to go get a chair.

While I was gone, there must have been a monstrous gust of wind because the parking passes were blown everywhere. I spent ten minutes having a makeshift Easter egg hunt with the parking passes. I had just grabbed the last one when my client for the hockey camp drove into the parking lot.

Then I had to carry the table back upstairs...

At least Megan and I made the most fabulous nachos ever that night.

Peace out!

Keepin' It Classy In Cape Cod

As I walk down the glass hallway that leads to my room, rain and thunder pound away at the walls, and I realized that I left both of my windows open. I ran down the rest of the hallway, hurriedly unlocked my door, and dashed into my room to windows. I slipped and hydroplaned across the wet tiled floor and slammed into the windows, stubbing my toe and falling on my ass. This is no joke.

Btown just had a huge storm. While I was walking to the library it looked like the sky was in half with beautiful sunshine, and the other half was completely black. While I was coming back, it was like the storm was chasing me.

The banner I just made for my next group arriving to UVM.

This have been good since Megan and I came back to Vermont from our wonderful trip to Cape Cod, but I still wish we were there. It was a trip we've been trying to keep secret from the Internet because we were trying to surprise Ashley. We definitely succeeded in surprising her, and in rocking out the Cape. We did so much and we traveled all around, it would be really hard for me to go into detail for our entire trip. So here is a list of all the beautiful things we did. Hope you enjoy:

- We hiked around in Franconia Notch and the Basin

- We stopped in Plymouth, NH to surprise Eden then the three of us visited her awesome new apartment
- We stopped off in Cambridge on our way through Boston to find Harvard University, then got lost in Boston, and screamed as we drove through tunnels
- We named out GPS "Susan" and swore at her
- We sat in traffic, got flipped off, and got cut off
- We successfully surprised Ashley when she answered the front door and saw us standing there.

"WHAT THE FUCK! SINCE WHEN ARE YOU HERE!? FUCKING FUCK!"

- We got chewed by bugs
- We learned that Cape Cod belongs to Jesus

- Ashley gave us a tour of the Christmas Tree Shop
- We watched clouds descend onto the land
- We fought seagulls, hawks, and llamas
- We attempted to take a picture on the beach, but the sky was too bright, and Megan got sand in her eye

- We traveled to Provincetown and stopped by the National Seashore along the way

- We explored Ptown

- We went to an authentic Portuguese bakery and got fried dough and other yummy baked goods

- We made it to the end of the jetty

- We went clubbing at Pufferbellies in Hyannis twice, and met Ashley's friend John
- We met a group of Irish who were working on the Cape during the summer and were being discriminated against and being threatened to be kicked out of their apartment. But they were hilarious and had the best accents ever.
- We had a Ben and Jerry's buffet

- I broke my glasses, and then got them fixed in Falmouth
- We went to a toy store

- We went to a beautiful lighthouse on our way to Woods Hole

- We couldn't find parking in Woods Hole
- We couldn't go to Nantucket
- We went to the JFK Monument in Hyannis
- We went to a Zooquarium in Yarmouth and met a variety of different animals, especially the peacock we named Shannequa...because (s)he's sassy.

- We hiked two "Braille Trails" meant for blind people but I think if a blind person tried to walk either of these trails, they would die. Seriously dangerous.

- We frolicked in the woods and on playgrounds

- We met Vince and Laurie's (Ashley awesome parents') mannequin named Wayne

- We went to the beach and got totally sunburned.

- We attempted to ride this crazy paddleboat thing, but it was very hard to paddle in the ocean's currents and after about a million times flipping it over ad falling on rocks, we were done.

I paddled like Sawyer from LOST. Get it.

- We explored Main Street Hyannis including a creepy arcade with a sketchy bathroom where I thought I was going to be raped. Or murdered. Or both.
- We went to Nickerson State Park and tried to have a campfire. Emphasis on tried. Ashley and I did have a sword fight however, and we did eat Oreos with melted chocolate on them. Oh, and we hula-hooped, and we showed a group of kids how to use a piece of equipment on the playground.

- We went to the National Seashore Visitor's Center and checked out the surrounding area. I found a stage and danced on it.

- We went to the Drive-In and watched Cars 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. But it was really more about the Drive-In experience. It's so much better than a cinema.

- We met Ashley's very shy cat named Bandit.

- We went to Scargo Tower in Dennis and saw a lake shaped like a fish

- We walked the beach

-We went to the Salem Witch Museum on the way home and discovered how prejudice in America causes modern day witch hunts. Way to go America. Again.

We had an amazing and wonderful trip. Thank you Laurie and Vince for letting us squat in your house for a week. Thank you Ashley for showing us Cape Cod. We loved it.

Peace out!