Monthly Archives: December 2009

Rhode Island to Baltimore

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As always, my vacation is flying by way too fast.

Leaving Rhode Island was more difficult than I expected. I always feel like I never get to spend enough time at home. My last day went by like a whirl wind.


I ended up running into my friend Justin and his girlfriend Paige in the airport, and they ended up on my flight. They sat with me on the flight and provided the distraction I needed so that I didn’t think too much about how I was already leaving the ocean, the farm, my family, and my home behind so soon.

On the flight, we discovered some treats left in the pockets on the seats. Paige found an unopened pack of pretzels, and I found an opened bag of candy. Even though Justin warned us we were literally “taking candy from a stranger”, Paige and I didn’t hesitate to eat the candy. Classic.
The flight was so quick and before I knew it, I was in Baltimore, getting picked up by my friend Katie and her sister Karin. We hung out at their house in Reisterstown for the night with their adorable dog Toby and took an outing to the Olive Garden.
I woke up Thursday to find Baltimore covered in snow. What a surprise. Katie went out to sweep the snow with a broom in her flipflops. Gotta love when it snows in Baltimore.

And now I’m just anxiously awaiting for some skate sessions to begin. Hoping today to start is easy with a family session on the Vu mini ramp, Joey, Gabe, and me.

Sick as a Dog

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So far I’ve managed to be sick throughout my entire winter vacation. Each day I pretended to not be sick so that I could do everything I wanted, and at night I came home to whine and complain about how terrible I was feeling. I’m sure my family loves having me home.

As I’ve battled the different stages of my sickness, I’ve also had a fantastic time each day. Saturday I finally got to skate! YES!!! My friend Aaron said he was going to skate Skatersedge in Taunton, MA. I usually only skate there on Tuesdays since they let girls skate for free on Tuesday, and after the hour drive to the park, the last thing I want to do is pay $15 for a 3-hour session and another couple bucks to rent a helmet, which I sometimes get charged for. Luckily, my friend Aaron was awesome enough to hook up my session and they hooked up a helmet for me. Score. The session was amazing, and somehow, on a Saturday night when everything was covered in snow, the indoor park was actually not too packed. I didn’t throw down too much, but was happy with my usual shuvit and kickflip over the hip, and I was psyched that I came the closest I ever have to landing a varial flip over the hip. I was also happy with some consistent hip transfers and that the mini ramp is mellow enough that I could land some front disasters.
Sunday was ALL about football. The whole gang showed up just in time for the Patriots game at 1pm.

The game turned out to be a blowout and the Patriots won with ease. After the game, I rode down to the beach with the girls (Liz, Ali, and Steph) to check out the sunset over the ocean. The waves were HUGE and there was barely any beach left. With a slow shutter speed, the waves are hard to see, but I kind of like how the picture turned out.


Afterwards, I headed up to East Greenwich to meet up with Sara and Kendal, and later Abbey, a friend of Sara’s from high school. Nothing too crazy, but it was good to see Sara. I haven’t seen her since I stayed with her and her boyfriend Mike in San Diego in August, so it was about time to meet up for a drink.

The next day, I drove up to Boston to spend the day with my friend Kat. Kat and I went to high school together in Andover, MA and college together at Mcgill University in Montreal. Over the last 5 years or so, since Kat graduated and left Montreal, I’ve only seen her two other times, once in England and one other time in Boston. Right now she’s living in Mission Hill, and the first thing we did was to check out the local skate shop Orchard. The shop was definitely legit and I picked up the sweetest hoody ever. We ended up hanging out until around 10pm, when my I started seriously feeling like shit. The pain in my throat was unbelievably painful and my lymphnotes were so swollen and tender, it hurt to turn my neck. Just around that point, we took a photo and then I headed home.
For the drive home, I took some sucrets complete, which are oral anasthetic/menthol drops. My throat did go numb (sort of) and also my tongue and over parts of my mouth. Even though it was a relief that I couldn’t feel my throat as much, I started feeling sick to my stomach from the anasthetics, which made the drive home worse than I expected.
That night was the sickest I felt throughout this cold. I could barely sleep and finally decided that I wouldn’t pretend to not be sick. So today I drank about 6 cups of green tea with orange, along with a ton of honey. My friend Ama came by to visit and join me for tea. Eventually she agreed to come with Chip and I to the Verizon store and then Andersons, a ski store where I have a gift certificate. At Andersons, I checked out the coats, as well as this sweet sign:

After, Chip and I finally got to see the house our brother Clay bought. It was awesome. Seriously. I was blown away with how big it is and how much potential it has. Clay is still working on just about everything though, so hopefully this summer it will be transformed.

We later met my dad for a family dinner at a restaurant close to home. The food was delicious and after a family hug, we all went our separate ways. For once this week, I’m finally feeling good (after probably way too much Nyquil). And tomorrow I’ll be on a plane to Baltimore…

Home for Christmas. RI livin.

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My first day home in Rhode Island since June. Time for Christmas shopping. Chip and I hit up the one and only Wakefield Mall, then Home Depot. When it comes for shopping for the family, this is our typical routine every year. After Home Depot and a much needed stop at Dunkin Donuts,

we headed up to Providence for one last present. It turns out that even though we grew up in Rhode Island, we can still manage to get lost in Providence for a solid hour while search for Thayer street. We had a fantastic time touring the city, nonetheless, and even cruised through a bit of Pawtucket, including the interesection between Pidge Ave and Ridge St. I’m not quite sure why we found this so hilarious…

After Christmas shopping, I skipped a skating session to go out to dinner with my brothers, my aunt and uncle, and my uncle’s nephew at Fat Belly’s in East Greenwich. Dinner was delicious, the company was amazing, and it wasn’t until 6 rounds of drinks that we decided to head home.

Instead of calling it a night, Chip and I arranged for some rides so that we could hit up the Ocean Mist for Ticket Tuesday. Tuesday’s is usually the Mist’s busiest night and has been for years. Back in the day, you used to pay $7 to get in and receive 4 drink tickets in return. Now its $5 for 2, but still a great time. After the Mist we spent the night at our friends’ place in Charlestown, hanging out and playing Sorry until everyone fell asleep.

Chip and me.

Showing love for Rose.

Rose’s dog Remy.

Mid-game.

The view I woke up to in the morning.

In the morning, Rose brought us to Randall’s car so he could take us home. At Rose’s house, we found these lovely gloves. Can you guess the meaning of the two red (if it helps, pink) fingers and the one brown finger?

Justin modeling the gloves.

The next day was rough, to say the least. I had to struggle to pull it together because that night was the annual RCB Christmas Party, hosted by Dano, Zimma, Randall, and Max. I didn’t take any photos, but like every year, the party was fantastic. Golden Oldies, Crazy dance parties, awesome people…the works.

The next day I woke feeling sick as a dog. I spent most of the day in bed or moping around the house, until it was time to get ready for Christmas Eve. Every year, my family has Christmas Eve dinner at my aunt Anne’s and uncle Bruce’s house somewhere in the North Smithfield/Smithfield/Foster/Glouster/Johnston area. I guess I really have no idea where their house is.

Chip, ready to go and messing with the dogs.

The men. Clay, Charlie (my dad), and Chip.

I wish I hadn’t felt so sick, but even so, it was good to see the family. Sadly enough, I just couldn’t help wishing I was in bed. Eventually we made it home and I crawled into bed, while the rest of the family worked to get the house ready for Christmas.

Christmas Day!

We had 19 people at dinner and so much fun.

A singing Christmas tree. It drives me crazy, but my little cousins Emmie and Cece were very entertained by it.

Alan and Daria. Also checking out the singing Christmas tree.

The kitchen table during the dinner prep.

Sitting down for dinner.

My plate.

Clayton and Barbara.

Chip and Alan.

Ready for the Yankee Swap. (same idea as a “white elephant gift exchange)

Grandpa Chet, Judy (my mom) and Charlie.

Emmie and Cece. Emmie would rather me have left her alone so she could watch the movie, but Cece was happy to pose.

Bruce. The first to choose a present from the swap and opened some gel toes.

Vernon began with a skunk that dances and sings the song “Blue Moon”.

Barbara was excited about her pick.

The audience.

Keely and my mom.

Bill, wearing the hat he unwrapped.

Anne, Clay (wearing the scarf I eventually swapped for), and Barbara.

Grandpa Chet opening his present.

He was clearly not happy with the rules and when Anne tried to swap him for the game of Sorry he just unwrapped, she had to wrestle him for it.

After the Yankee Swap and exchanging gifts, the party slowly came to as a close. As our guests headed home, we settled down on the couch to watch the Hangover (a gift Clay received from Chip) and call it a night.

Before the movie began, Chip helped Beau put on his tie.

During the movie, we got one last house guest… Rory.

Once the movie ended, we all headed to bed for an early night. The end of one more Christmas of family, friends, good food, and good fortune, enough to allow us all to exchange gifts as we please. I couldn’t ask for more.

Boulder is (not) beat…and home to RI.

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I was just beginning to think it was a perfect time to skip town and head home to RI. Everyone in Boulder was either leaving for somewhere else for the holidays, busy working, or just being lame. After spending a few days in a row trying to get my curriculum draft done for work, I was desperate for some excitement. I was just about to give up on fun in Boulder until the weekend struck.

Friday night was a mellow start, with an awesome outing to sushi zanmai with my friend LP. Our friend/classmate Erik works there and hooked us up with some sake and sushi recommendations. Unfortunately we didn’t get around to any sake bombs, but the adventure was great and everyone at zanmai was friendly and made me wish I could be there every night.
And then Saturday hit. And it hit hard. Jen and I made it to yoga, and then went christmas shopping for a bit. Afterwards I skated red curbs for about an hour, encouraged by Reed mocking me about how girls can’t do anything, along with Kaya and Lazer’s company. I managed to land a new trick (twice!). I’m not sure what it was exactly… so I’ll call it a f/s 180 switch 50 f/s half cab out. And it was on a red curb! Then spent the remainder of the day working on my curriculum work…until it was party time.
It almost caught me by surprise….almost. I headed downtown to meet up with Lazer, Reed, Jake, and Matt for a night of debachery. It really tunred out to be a perfect night full of awesome energy, and allowed me to leave on such a good note (in my own opinion).
Jake…looking particularly creepy.

Matt and Reed

Kaya, Ashley, Jake, and Lazer

Ashley’s magnetic balls were the entertainment for the night. Each ball is a magnet and they can be arranged any way that their magnetic fields will allow. You’ll never guess what my friends tried to create with the magnet balls…seriously, such a surprise.

After spending most of the night at catacombs, we ventured over to the sundowner to play some pool. Eventually it was time to head home, and we hit up Nick n Willy’s to cash in the coupons I had for free slices of cheese pizza. Then it was off to Lazer’s mom’s house, where he was housesitting and where Reed, Matt, and I crashed for the night. The next day was painful and I struggled to get through my curriculum draft, until Lazer picked me up. I spent the night at his mom’s place so I could walk to the bus stop in the morning.

Finally, I was on my way to Rhode Island. Traveling is always ineresting. On my first flight, I sat next to an older woman who talked to me for quite awhile and suggested I try to meet some nice guys by going to church. Oops, is that where I’m supposed to be meeting them? During my first layover I watched a pregnant woman try to manouveur her 3 really young daughters into a bathroom stall. Ugh, no thanks. Traveling around christmas really killed my motherly instincts. Especially after listening to little kids and babies scream and cry throughout each flight.

On a more positive note, I did scope out some present options in the always impressive sky mall magazine.

Is this even for real?

Ever feel the need for some mood lighting in the shower?

What’s the one thing that could possibly be better than a marshmallow shooter?

A marshmallow bazooka! Obviously!

Eventually I finally made it to Rhode Island. Home sweet home. And where is the first place I went (other than my parent’s house, of course)? Any guesses?

The Ocean Mist! Was there any doubt? Much to the dismay of Corey’s hatred, I happily enjoyed a can of Narragansett beer. Love lil rhody.

Aah. So good to be home. And lastly, a few classic photos. Here, they are pictures of pictures, some in a frame, so bear with me!

My brothers, Clayton and Chip, and me, on an outing with Grandma Gert in Watch Hill.

Family Ski Trip to Park City, Utah. I’m the little kid to the far right in navy blue, next to my brother Clayton in red. I was 4 at the time.

My Grandpa and Grandma Samson. Hard core skiiers right til the end.

Completely Random.

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Yesterday I was in my office and talking to another guy who shares the office with us (TEAMS fellows). He explained how everyone feels awful for two days after their last final. I couldn’t agree more. I always get depressed at the end of finals, just when I’m convinced the fun is about to begin. Every finals schedules I am so busy and stressed out and when it ends and I don’t know what to do with myself. Boredom is far worse than stress.

This finals schedule was a breeze considering I only had one real final exam that I had to sit for, and I still have a ton of work to finish for my job, but I still have the inevitable post-exam blues. Plus it seems like nothing is going on and everyone is skipping town.

So as a result I’m left craving (is needing too strong of a word?) a drink and some social interaction by midday. Since everyone is busy and I’m trying to keep it together to finish up my work my main form of procrastination is endless hours on facebook and now searching for anything to write in this blog.

One moment of entertainment was watching a guy riding a longboard down the bike path while using a long pole with an plunger-like base to propel him along. That was cute.

The only other thing I came up with was to search my crackberry for any unused photos. So here’s what I found.

Organic Budweiser. Compliments of Reed from a long night of poker. Another poker night has been scheduled for tomorrow night and a win would be a nice holiday present. Here’s to hoping.

Chip and Jules. This picture was taken at Dots one morning, the day after my work dinner at Efrains. Chip told me that I was the most annoying that I had ever been that night. The next day Chip, Jules and Keith picked me up on campus and drove to Westminster to pick up 3 chairs for our dining room table so we would have enough to seat all our Thanksgiving dinner guests. After picking up the chairs from a women who sounded like she was 60 years old on the phone and looked 30 in person, sporting some fine Nascar apparel, we headed back to boulder and hit up Dots on the hill. I challenged my level of annoyingness by reading one of my blog posts aloud at the table because Chip refuses to read my blog.
Fried Mac and Cheese! Yum! After picking my friend Meagan up at the airport around 10pm the night before Thanksgiving, we hit up the Pearl Street Pub for some grub and beers. The first time I ever had fried mac and cheese was the day after the video premier at the Fox and the start of the “Octizzard”. Our crew included myself, Gordo (from SF), Brian and Mariah, Reed, and Lazer. I was feeling so rough that day that fried mac and cheese along with a half-pound cheeseburger and some beers was almost magical. This time around the fried mac and cheese was less appealing, but still quite a novelty.

The day of my final presentation for SCD I tried my best to look presentable. I hadn’t had my hair cut in months, so I had been relying on braids to hide the poofy mess. I went for double french braids and tried to snap a photo that would be evidence of the work I put in that morning.

And that’s all I got so I’ll end this blabbering.

Finals Week? Really?

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This week has been the most relaxed finals week I’ve ever experienced. Two finals and one was a take-home. No problem. (At least that’s what I think now… once I see my grades, I might have a different opinion.)

To brighten up the week with a little fun, my friends and I decided to have a potluck dinner on Tuesday night. I took it upon myself to take over, have it at my house, and cook a million dishes. Okay not a million. I made a pumkin banana mousse pie with a graham cracker crust at around 7:30am that morning. Then went to a hair appointment, stopped in my office, and then back home to make a red/purple/sweet potato salad with red bell peppers and a sherry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmellows, an “adult” mac and cheese with broccoli, cranberry sauce (that I completely forgot to serve), cranberry apple bread (it was supposed to be muffins but I couldn’t find the muffin tins in time), and a spinach salad. The succotash I was going to make also got skipped until another time. The spinach salad received the most compliments… it was baby spinach, crumbled gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, strawberries, cherry (or grape? I never remember…) tomatoes, red onion, red bell pepper, and sweetened dried cranberries. I was going to add cucumber, but forgot when I was in the moment. For dressing I made some balsamic vinagrette with the help of a good seasonings packet.

Besides my own contributions, my friends also prepared an amazing meal. There was delicious guacamole and pico de gallo, bean and cheese dip, chili, spicy sesame (I think?) chicken wings, sweet potato/kale dish, chicken parmigiana, yummy cookies and nutty buddies (the chocolate/peanut butter/chex mix dessert). Awesome food and even better company. Unfortunately I may have killed the party by throwing on Off the Couch, but I think everyone had a good time…

Other than the food, my big excitement for the week was that my hairdresser offered to straighten my hair. When I try to flat iron it myself it takes about 2 hours, so when someone else offers to do it for me, I can’t help but accept. I was too wrapped up in the potluck to actually take photos, but (again because I’m a total narcissist) I snapped some photos of myself with straight hair this morning. So weird… I feel like I look like a completely different person.

Really, I think the photos were just another way of avoiding studying for my finals. On the way to school to do my last review of my statics notes and take the final, I stopped to get gas and snapped this photo. A little psyched on it…

Now I’m done with finals (woohoo!!) and trying to work on my curriculum draft that’s due on Monday for my work. My last distraction (besides writing this post, of course) was an email from a friend/photographer from Baltimore, Geoff. Not entirely sure the premise behind this teaser, but there’s a quick clip of me skating in it, and I was extremely flattered when I checked it out. Here it is:

Never Too Old To Run From The Cops!

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This week I’ve had more run-ins with the cops than usual.

#1. After the Art Party Saturday night, I went home and went to sleep almost immediately. 7am I woke up to my brother Chip banging on my bedroom door and then barging in to anxiously announce “our house is surrounded by cops!!!” I looked out my window and in fact, our house was surrounded by 6 cop cars. An immediate feeling of panic set in, although I couldn’t begin to imagine what would warrant 6 cop cars at our house.

Turns out they were there for our next door neighbors. Chip was in a panic though since he had to work at 7am and the cops had his car blocked in. When he went outside, the cops asked him to go back in the house… what a start to his day. In the end, the cops didn’t stay long and Chip made it to work only a few minutes late.

Unfortunately, this is the second time a house of mine has been surrounded by cops for an incident that I was not part of… and I know exactly what my other neighbors in both situations must think of me. Especially since this time the next door neighbors are a family and we are a house of college kids. Who would you think the cops were there for?

#2. Last night I was sick of studying for my statics final and instead went skating with Glen, Lazer, Jake, Jason, and Nate downtown in Boulder. We had a pretty big crew for skating around downtown and everywhere we went, we seemed to run into the cops. I’m pretty sure this time of year the cops aren’t really that concerned with skateboarders, but after our run-in a few weeks ago and the narrowly avoided trespassing fines, we weren’t looking for a confrontation.

While skating a tiny quarter pipe-hip-over-rail thingy by the Wells Fargo downtown, a cop drove up and stopped his car between our “line-up for a turn” and the obstacle. We sort of just stood there until he opens his door and went to get out. Then we bolted. We ended up getting split up, and Glen, Lazer, Jake and I skated the smallest hubbas ever outside a church. We watched two or three cop cars drive by, before we decided to move on and see if we could find Jason and Nate.

We stopped to skate a white ledge in the entrance of a parking garage. After a few minutes and atleast one drive-by from another cop car, I was stading outside of the parking garage and looked over to see a cop car on the side street. “That’s a definitely a cop” came out of my mouth immediately and before I could explain where the car was, Lazer, Glen and Jake bolted again. I followed suit, fleeing before the cop could even react.

I absolutely love being the most mature 27-year old ever.

Effing Cold Week. In review.

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It was so cold this week! I seriously could not help missing Montreal when the weather dropped below 0 degrees F (about -18 C) for about 3 or 4 days straight. Some weather forcasts even claimed that it “felt” as cold as -20 F (-29 C). It was so cold that my cats Wallace and Grommit, who are brother and sister, decided to snuggle together on my bed. Now that they’re grown up, they rarely show each other any affection, so this was a rare scene.


Tuesday was our last TEAMS seminar for the semester…and Will’s last seminar ever since he is leaving us next semester. So sad.

After the seminar, Jon, Eszter and I headed to the ITL holiday potluck party.

On the way to Jon’s house to get his car, I snapped some photos because it was so beautiful out by the creek with snow falling. Unfortunately, Jon and Eszter were not about to wait for me so I just took the photos really quick on automatic. Here’s one with the flash…

…and one without the flash. Crazy how bright it looks.

I was supposed to be back on campus for a group meeting to run through our final presentation for the next day at 6:15. Jon promised he would get me back in time, but the party was so much fun and the food was so amazing that Jon convinced me to tell my group members I wouldn’t be able to make it to the meeting. After a sketchy text message I felt terribly guilty, but the cajun rice, elk green chili, as well as the tirimusu and rum cake seemed to soothe my guilty conscience.
In the end, we met again as a group an hour before our class on Wednesday, and our actual presentation went smoothly. We received some very flattering compliments from our teachers as well. Luckily we were the first group to present, which meant that we sat and listened to 5 other presentations over the course of the next 3 hours and 30 minutes. It became increasingly difficult to be serious and pay attention, so we entertained ourselves with the clementines, provided by one of our instructors.
After class was over, our teachers took us out to an amazing dinner at the Nepali restaurant Sherpas. The meal began with an appetizer that was a very thin wafer with dill flavored yogurt.
The table was covered in naan, one of my favorite types of bread. Nepal borders India and not surprisingly, the cuisine is very similar.
My plate before I devoured it. I actually ate lamb for the first time since I was probably 8 or 9 years old, along with chicken and some vegetable dishes.
At the end of dinner, we found out that one of the men in the kitchen had climbed Mt. Everest 10 times without oxygen. He came up to our table after we enthusiastically requested to meet him. I felt extremely rude snapping a photo, but I just couldn’t help it. The man in the apron spoke for him, since he didn’t speak English, and reluctantly admitted that he had also climbed Mt. Everest without oxygen…but only once.
The next day I woke up with a stomach ache from all the food I had eaten at Sherpas. I had to pull myself together to get ready for my last day teaching for the semester. The day went smoothly and with the help of the teacher I work with, all the students finished the project. All the groups were engaged and excited, and I’m really going to miss working with these students.
After teaching I met up with Lazer for a drink. He promised that Harpos had awesome bloody marys and he was not lying.

Finally Friday came and it was my last day of classes. After I made it to both Statics and Water Chem I congratulated myself for my perfect attendance by hitting up happy hour at Hapa’s on the hill with Chip for some midday sushi and a drink. We later borrowed Tombstone from a friend and watched it on the couch at home with popcorn and a fire in the fireplace. Not bad.

Saturday, we headed up to Keystone for a session with Jules and Sam Fox, another friend from Rhode Island who found his way out to Colorado.

Jules and Chip
Sam (and me in the reflection of his glasses)
Jules, Chip, and Sam. After our break in the lounge that included hot coca and whiskey. It was delicious but possibly curdled in my stomach because I felt a little sick afterwards.
After a meal at Beaujo’s on the way home, it was time for another ART PARTY!

Reed and Lazer, busy at work.

My painting (in process) on the left, next to Reed’s rollerquade painting from last Art Party.

The Art Party-ers!

Buildering?

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For my brother Chip’s final project in one of his classes, he made a video about buildering. I always thought the random people that climbed the engineering building on campus were a bunch of weirdos but apparently it’s kind of a big deal around here. Even so, Chip had some trouble finding actual builderers with some extra time to spare, so our roommate Max and Keith, formerly known as the guy on our couch, came through and played the role.