the happy list, "i f*cking love my life" edition.

1) i have a scorching sunburn and look like quite a lobster, but i spent hours lounging on harvard yard lunching on delicious food with a group of my absolute favorite people.  avocado bruschetta, mango salsa, red cabbage and raisin cole slaw, pavlovas, brie, sparkling cider and more tortilla chips than we knew what to do with? so. so. so. goooood.

2) i spent the majority of my weekend playing outside with my friends, be it romping around davis square on a tequila buzz or getting blisters on my hands from the monkey bars at the playground up the street.  this weekend felt like SUMMER.

3) i cannot stop listening to the shout out louds and the love language.  the love language are getting a post of their own because jessie took some amazing, amazing photographs at their show the other night, but in the meantime, i will blast their "lalita" along with the SOL's "very loud" on repeat and dance around my apartment while i clean up the remnants of weekend debauchery.

4) i found my sunglasses, my camera and my missing favorite earring.  scoooore.

5) my thao tickets came in the mail, along with the latest issue of paste magazine! so excited. i've been meaning to pick up paste for awhile.  this is going to be a pretty heavy week on the ear drums: i'm going to go to tt's tomorrow night for the sounds' show with jessie, the bodega girls are playing harper's ferry on friday, and i'm hopefully going to be writing some new reviews/features for chicks with guns in the near future.  

6) the city is in such an incredible mood.  the sox have trounced the yankees SO FAR in their three game series, but it's only the start of the seventh inning of the third game and i don't want to jinx it.  i love watching baseball on my couch.  my daddy would be so proud.  haha.

7) it's nice to finally recognize myself in the mirror again.  i was heartbroken in january, furious in february, bewildered in march and hopeful in april, and now i finally, FINALLY feel rested and refreshed and able to take control of my life again.  i wake up every day EXCITED, man.  i'm optimistic and  i'm no longer wasting time on wishful thinking and coulda-shoulda-wouldas.  i've tried to right my wrongs and it may be too late to salvage friendships and feelings and all that from previous offenses, but i would like to think that the universe'll get me back for that one.  it's cathartic, admitting you're wrong, and i swallowed my pride and apologized in the only way i could.  i don't know what to expect, but for the first time in four months i'm not dwelling on it and worrying about it.  what's done is done, you know?  my hurt and my heartbreak are no longer controlling my outlook and my feelings and that's something to be ecstatic about.  i feel like me again.  it took a little longer than i liked for me to get back here, but that's worth noting all the same.

i am truly happy.

for the past four years, the first sox vs. yankees game of the season has been the true start of spring for me and i've celebrated it with my best friends in new york who all happen to BLEED pinstripes.  with the exception of the spring of '07 when i was still living in spain, i've watched the game go down at a dive bar in yonkers with bren, ryan, billy, larz and a slew of my other ny favorites.  i got all nostalgic sitting on my couch with meg and later jessie last night watching the sox take it in an AWESOME game that stretched into the twelfth inning courtesy of jason bay and his 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th with two outs.  i miss my boys down in yonkers and mel and jules very much, though it was kind of wonderful to just crack open a brew and feel the first drafts of summer passing through my open windows last night.

so, this is meg and goofing around during the game.  photobooth turns everyone into small children who are easily amused.

oh, and jessie and i got excited when they won.  here's the celebratory shot.

this is jessie's anime face.  this is just my scary face.

before the sox went all rockstar at fenway park last night, meg and i went for a feast at local indian food favorite punjabi dhaba followed by banana cinnamon/chocolate banana ice cream cones at christina's.  there is NO BETTER COMBINATION than a delicious, piping hot meal at p-dhabs followed by the best homemade ice cream in cambridge.  we were gonna stop at the thirsty scholar on the way home for a round/some sox action but opted to just drink the beers in my fridge and slouch on my couch for the game.  we ran up to the roof last night because meg's never seen it, and i could've done cartwheels when i realized that it's FINALLY that time of year for drinks and hookah on the roofdeck.

meg had to bust early due to her crazy athletic fitness loving ways (she's going hiking today, have fun meggg!), but jessie, christoph, mikey and matt all came bounding into my apartment shortly after her departure and within fifteen minutes we were smoking honey shisha on my roof while matt cat-called and howled at random pedestrians moseying up and down somerville ave.  (favorite quotation of the evening: "hey BOZO! you got a calzone? .... yeah ENJOY YA PEPPAHRONI CALZONE BOZO.")

after the hookah started to ash, we opted for an impromptu adventure and decided that heading to the nearest playground was definitely the way to go.  the one up the street from my house is an excellent choice for late-night playground debauchery as it's got good swings, monkey bars and a huge basketball court that slants at a pretty sharp angle, ha.  we must've been out there for at least an hour.  here are the best photos from one of the best nights of early spring.

it's gorgeous out in boston today, you guys.  jessie and i are bouncing over to harvard to go find maya in a little bit and i'm wearing the first sundress of the season.  GO SPEND TODAY OUTSIDE! :)