Happy 4th!!!

This is going to be a long massive post. Because I have not had the time to post in a while. My mom and Alan have left and now I may have more time to update everyone more often.

I started the weekend with celebrating Yolanda's, another MAIPer, birthday! Happy Birthday Yolanda!!!

Then it was off to Beantown the next morning to visit Gaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbby.

She lives in Beacon Hill. It is a lovely, beautiful place. And at last minute, Jackie, another MAIPer and fellow Longhorn, decided to come to Boston too. She wanted to visit her friend from high school (Jackie went to International School in Hong Kong ya'll). But since it was last minute she couldn't ride the BOLT bus with me and took a Chinatown bus instead...good ol' Fung Wah!

Don't be fooled, the Asian buses are faster. Jackie and I left at the same time each way and she always made it there at least 30 mins faster.

Breakfast before the bus, Lemon Puff:

Also bought a bunch of croissants for snacks but surprisingly did not eat them!

Gabby's BEAUTIFUL neighborhood:


We ate lunch at Fill-A-Buster and then Gabs had to go to work. So I hung out with Jackie and her friend Andrew. Andrew is a European History and Art major at Suffolk University so he took us to the First Friday in SoWa. Basically an open studio day for a bunch of artists in one building. It was really cool to see all the different kinds of work from paintings to jewelry.

On the 4th Gabby and I went to a delicious brunch at the Paramount. It was heavenly:


We decided to be efficient and shared a spanish omelette and french toast with fruit so that we could both have something sweet and savory!



Then Gabby went to work and I had plans to go to the MFA but it was CLOSED for the 4th. Sad. But Andrew took us to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) instead. Let me tell you, the building is beautiful. It's right on the harbor or whatever and is one of those modern glass structures so you can see the water in their special viewing areas.

Jackie and Andrew, no they are not holding hands!:


Harbor and views from the building:




There were really cool exhibits including one about Shepard Fairey who designed this world-famous image:


One of my favorite works, Cornelia Parker's Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson):


Sorry for the bad pics. I had to take them covertly.

Then onto Quincy Market for food from the Boston Chowda' Company. I know it's on my Facebook but this deserves another spotlight (WHY DON'T THEY MAKE LOBSTER ROLLS IN TEXAS?!?!):


Watched fireworks from Gabby's roof-top with her room mates (they are BUNDLES of energy! Super nice and hilarious) and their friends and other Globe interns. Read about it on Gabby's blog as I am too lazy to post pics to mine.


Highlights of the night include:
-tater tots
-salt on a wine stain
-potpurri-looking patriotic chips
-making patriotic nachos

I just needed to mention that they whole day I thought of how awesome it is that I was in BOSTON of all places to celebrate the 4th. I mean, it's where is all happened! It was lovely and Mattie's mom told me to throw a teabag into the harbor for good measure via Facebook!

And the weather was soooooo beautiful. Blue skies, bright sun and a lovely breeze. Perfect in the 70 degrees range. I don't even know what summer is like in Texas at this point. I have forgotten.

After the explosions in the sky (HAH) we went to a club in a hotel. People started going home but Gabby, Jackie and I were in the mood to DANCE our pants off so we cabbed it to a club called Gypsy. It was sooo much fun and all I need to say is Texas girls love to dance. We ran into quite some characters. Quotes from the night include: "We are all TAKEN!"
"No means NO! What don't you understand?!"
and my favorite, from Jackie, "We are not DRUNK enough to talk to YOU!"

Oh it was a lot of fun and to be honest, I had more fun going out in Boston than I have had in NYC so far. I don't know why but I will figure it out. Oh, and we've all decided to party it out together once we go back to the beloved dirty 6th in the ATX.

Lovely sleepy time in Gabby's broken bed. Woke up, packed and went to this:


nom nom nom dim sum.

I love Gabby.

That is all.