"Look, kids... Big Ben!"

We had a nice weekend in Boston, TheBoy and I, though i wish i could say that i saw more of the city. I didn't, and that sucked. But it was meant to be a business trip anyway, so i suppose there was nothing i could do about it.

Saturday we went to "fancy dinner thing" at the Hilton near Logan Airport which was actually quite nice, insomuch that the open bar i had heard was going to be there... was. And the free drinks were big. Therefore good. Good times had by all.

I met some nice people that TheBoy works with and we laughed and drank and ate and watched people win raffled off prizes and watched the hired entertainment which was awful and laughed some more. There were a few singers hired for the event and I have to wonder how they were the ones chosen out of, i don't know, probably thousands of bad-karaoke-style lounge acts that can be found in a city. Terrible. One of them was a Cher impersonator and i found the most unsettling aspect of that was that she was a woman - not a transvestite as one tends to expect with a Cher impersonator. I mean, really.

On Sunday we visited with TheBoy's cousin and her husband in Brookline.

What you have to understand, first of all, is that our hotel was in Saugus - a bit north of the city and many highways away from Brookline. Second of all, is that i haven't been to Boston since i was a kid and the only thing i remember about that trip is seeing the U.S.S. Constitution and going to a souvenir store to buy something with my own money but then leaving my red nylon wallet with navy blue piping and the velcro closure on the counter (it was 1986 - nylon, velcro wallets were cool). I never did see my red velcro wallet again, or all of the 1/2 dollar coins i carried around in it. My mom was kind of mad.
And Third of all, TheBoy hasn't driven around Boston in a bunch of years and he forgot how bad it is.

We got lost.

Of course we did.

I'm not going to go on a rant about what a shitty road system Boston has, because really, it's not like it hasn't been done before. But COME ON people. WHERE ARE THE SIGNS? I don't ask for much, but mark the damn streets. That's just inconsiderate. And why is it that you think you're getting somewhere and all of a sudden you go through some TUNNEL and your directions say "Make a Left" and you're all, "But I'm in a TUNNEL"? It sucked. What i'm saying is it sucked. Luckily it didn't really matter so we laughed at ourselves for missing all of our turns. And passing right by the "Memorial something Bridge" and going straight to some other bridge that we thought might be "Memorial something Bridge" but uh.. wasn't.

We ate at Devlin's in Brighton with his cousin, if you're interested, which was lovely. And i saw a bit of the area near Boston University - and then unfortunately we were sent on our own to go sightsee. Cousin's husband sent us off with verbal directions to go see Newbury Street. But i don't think TheBoy was listening and we wound up back on Route 1 going back to the hotel... which we didn't think we'd ever find again so we decided to take advantage of our luck in finding the route back to the hotel and not screw it up. So... no Newbury Street for us. Next time, i guess.

And there will be a next time. At the fancy dinner thing, we won a one night stay and free breakfast at a local hotel... a local hotel in what i hear is a shitty, shitty neighborhood, but it's a free stay nonetheless. So if we do not want to get shot at while walking down the street, we will rent a car. No biggy.

Can anyone tell me about Chelsea? I do not know anything... and people laughed at us. Of all the incredible prizes they were raffling off, we won a stay in Chelsea.

Eh, i'm happy i won anything at all. Maybe next year i'll win the "Lufthansa airline tickets to any destination they fly to in Europe". This year? Chelsea.