In completely unrelated news, J and i are going to Boston for Christmas. We've been wanting to visit Boston for a while because it randomly seemed like a fun place within striking distance, but money was always a problem. The Greyhound ride is hellishly long and flights always seemed a bit too much to make it worthwhile. Over Canadian Thanksgiving (early October) her parents mentioned they might be able to help us out, though... So we started looking into it and found a reasonable deal that they pitched in over half for. We're both stupid excited.
It's going to be a bit strange for me. I don't think i've ever spent Christmas outside of someone's home. Even when i've spent Christmas alone i've spent it at home. This year we'll be in a hotel room in a whole nother city.
But it's not really a whole nother city, because i've been there before, when i was just 17. It was my mom's graduation gift to me, a short vacation in Boston before leaving Holland for Australia. Mom had been talking about leaving Holland for a couple of years at that point, and i always pleaded with her to choose the US as our next home. In my final year of school i met some people from Massachusetts online and got all wrapped up in the idea of attending Berklee College of Music after finishing high school. Of course there was no way mom could afford it - even if she had decided to move to the States - but there was my dream. So when i graduated she helped me have a little bit of the dream come true and i went over to visit. I stayed with my uncle's family in a big house in the suburbs. I met up with my online friends, toured Berklee as a prospective student (that was heartbreaking), checked out the record stores, walked around downtown, just had a blast. I've always wanted to go back.
We've got four days. I'm not sure how much tourist stuff will be open in the middle of winter and over Christmas, but i have no doubt we'll fill the time. It's something for both of us to look forward to, which is awesome.
It also stole Halloween's thunder, but what the hey. I'm going to Boston, bitch.
I've started to think the last few years that I'd really like to visit Boston, and five thousand other places.