My parents bought me a ticket to Boston for my birthday. Arrived and immediately ate some chowdah and baked beans. Sectionchild came over to my friends' house and we got drunk and talked about RP geekery. The next day was the first geniune nor'easter of the season but we ventured out into it anyway. Managed to ride three different types of rail-based mass transit, but didn't make it on a ferry, unfortunately. We made it to Wellesley and got the tour, our hostess even missed West Wing to accomodate us. Went to a comedy show in the student union's pub. Drank some Green Dragon. Pulled a drunk driver out of her flipped SUV. Went for some fresh seafood the next day, had raw oysters. Took a walk around the reservoir. Sectionchild came over for some more boozing and a game of "Grass", a 70s weed-dealing card game. Sometime during the night her car got towed, which sucked mightily. She managed to get rescued no thanks to us. Flew home the next day and met with my parents, who took us to a cajun restaurant where I ate way too much hot stuff. My sister slept over and we talked about college life, which she is just beginning. Her roommate tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists with scissors in front of her roommates but was restrained. Kept waking up that night with my insides burning from all the habaneros I'd eaten. Hung around with the rents the next day, making plans to try and make it to either Alabama or my brother's gig for Xmas. My brother is currently at a base camp by a lake formed when deadfall from St. Helens dammed a river. They're fixing up the trails the volcanologists use to get to the mountain, and he wakes up each day from a camp facing the crater and works for 10 hours before fishing for his dinner- he's incredulous that they are paying him to be in such heaven.