Do you know the feeling? The feeling that makes it hard to sleep, the feeling that makes you mark X’s on a calendar counting down the days, the feeling that leads to persistent day dreams? For many people including myself it happens anytime traveling is in the near future. Last September and October I had the opportunity to feel that for 30 days. Thanks to the wonderful and ingenious people at Jetblue Airways I purchased a month long Airfare pass. If you can imagine a bus pass that you can hop on and off different busses Jetblue applied that to their flights. I traveled on 17 flights, landed in 8 different cities in the US and the Carribean and had a perpetual travel high!!
For people like myself I thrive off of airports, metal detectors, random conversations with strangers on airplanes, in flight snacks and recycled air. Like the Oscar Nominated Movie, Up in the Air watching the country from 40,000 feet, going from friends couch to cheap hotel room; it all was a way of life I have dreamed about and finally was able to live. I flew through metal detectors in a precise systematic way, no belt, sandals, no change, small carry on and rarely had checked baggage, George Clooney, nothing but an amateur in my opinion. Before I developed these systematic and near religious tendencies I had to embark on my first journey, which for me was to Boston with two of my college buddies.
The difference between my experiences from that of the George Clooney’s or Rick Stevens of the world is that I am a recent college graduate with no full time job and little money. I mean the ticket was a very generous birthday present from a combination of every member of my family. When I flew on planes I pocketed snacks, I ate enough dollar menu items and 5 dollar foot longs so much that I forgot that some restaurants you sit then THEY serve YOU. So as I relive my experiences please keep that in mind, I traveled my whole month spending less money on food than they did in 2 or 3 days.
My college roommate, Danny, flew on the same flight with me back to Boston to rendezvous with our mutual friend Steve. Arriving in a city that you have never been to in the evening time creates a sense of mystery and imagination. Seeing the silhouettes of imposing skyscrapers, the constant stream of yellow and red of headlights and taillights and the unquestioning glow of Fenway Park stirred within me an innate desire to explore. As we disembarked the metro in the Cambridge area the past and present seemed to be living in a harmonic and beautiful way. There were cobble stone paths and churches dating back to the 1800’s running along Internet cafes and casting shadows on Starbucks coffee shops. The young college students of Harvard and MIT that share this part of Boston have made it their own while respecting the history. Our Marriott hotel stood tall on the riverfront with a view of Harvard and Boston U. The hard bed and small floor space was welcoming after a day of flying.
Before we slept we couldn’t miss a chance to see the city we have traveled so far to see. As I did when I visited Europe, I wandered Boston with no sense of direction, no place to be and no specific time to get anywhere. It was freeing and created an environment for a great night. We ate dinner, celebrating my buddy Steve’s birthday at the Cheers bar. After our dinner we just began to wander, walking through deserted squares, past towering office buildings and taking pictures at a Samuel Adams statue. The demographic of people in the city at night were Red Sox fans and skateboarders that were enjoying a few sessions under the cover of darkness. However with jet lag creeping in and my intention to get up and run in the morning we headed back to our two bed, 8th floor Marriott room for an inevitable argument of who gets their own bed and who has to share.
As my feet hit one after the other on the riverfront sidewalk I admired the stark contrast between day and night. I walked this same path the night before with not a person around and now I ran avoiding walkers, watching bike after bike fly past me and late college students doing everything in their power to get to class on time. There were rowing teams knifing through the water, cars honking, sirens sounding and in the midst of all this people biked. I saw more bikers on my run than I had ever seen before creating a memory of the first scene of the movie 21 as the main character bikes to MIT. So movies are true sometimes.
After waking my still sleeping friends and taking a much-needed shower we started out on our only full day in Boston. As for many of our cities on our trip we had little time in each one so we tried to make every minute count. Due to our lack of money and no car we relied fully on mass transit to get us everywhere. In our one Boston day we ate a canole, saw the Garden, stood in front of Paul Revere’s house, stood at the top of the famous Bell Tower, sampled Samuel Adams beer at the Factory, walked through the largest outdoor garden in the US, spent some time at the Warf and culminated our trip with the holy grail of Boston, A Sox game.
Red Sox nation is worldwide. It has fans across America. I even ran across a bar in Aruba that had the title of Red Sox Nation, truly incredible. I come from southern California where sports are recreation not like Boston where it is life. The passion, the fans and the environment makes Fenway Park an experience in itself. We sat in center field after buying cheap tickets off of stubhub.com. We sat in the midst of season ticket holders that all knew each other. They wore Sox gear from head to toe and forced us to stand and sing Hey Caroline. Watching a game there isn’t sitting and watching a game with random people, they are a family. Not by blood, race or occupation, they are black, white, asian, plumbers, executives, school teachers but when the Sox play they become closer than family. They cheer with complete passion and love. I have to say that the movie Fever Pitch really grasped the true atmosphere of Fenway and Red Sox nation. I require going to a game for anyone who visits Boston no matter if you are a baseball fan or not. Consider it a pilgrimage as an American or a sports fan, whatever you want to call it. Go to Fenway, get a hot dog, cheer the Sox on and you can’t help but join the Boston chorus in a beautiful symphony of “Sweet Caroline. DaaaaDaaaaDaaaa!”
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Oh The Many Uses of Twitter and Facebook
While waiting for my drink at Starbucks last week I picked up the New York Times to read the headlines. Yes, this is a very normal practice for me, reading the news seems to be an addiction of mine. As you contemplate how someone at 21 could have such a fascination for news, let me tell you about the headline that I read, “Protests in Moldova explode with the help of Twitter.” I wasn’t really sure how to take that so I had to read it. (For those of you who are not sure where Moldova is, it is a small country in the former Soviet Union that is located in Southwest Russia near Ukraine.)
The article stated that 15,000 young people rallied together at the capitol building protesting the current Communist friendly government. They used Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging to bring this large number together.
Okay, so I must admit; I use Facebook and more specifically my Facebook status to update where I am, what I am doing, and how I am feeling. This being said I have never thought of using it to start a political uprising. I couldn’t imagine looking at the home page and seeing a bunch of my friends with their status reading, John Williams is hanging out with some buds at the capitol building over throwing this joke of a government or Hannah Martin is enjoying the big bon fire on the step of the capitol building. This is only if I am not asked to become a fan of, Student Rebellion 2009 on my home page side bar first. Now that is something that I would actually look at and read and not just click ignore.
The article stated that 15,000 young people rallied together at the capitol building protesting the current Communist friendly government. They used Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging to bring this large number together.
Okay, so I must admit; I use Facebook and more specifically my Facebook status to update where I am, what I am doing, and how I am feeling. This being said I have never thought of using it to start a political uprising. I couldn’t imagine looking at the home page and seeing a bunch of my friends with their status reading, John Williams is hanging out with some buds at the capitol building over throwing this joke of a government or Hannah Martin is enjoying the big bon fire on the step of the capitol building. This is only if I am not asked to become a fan of, Student Rebellion 2009 on my home page side bar first. Now that is something that I would actually look at and read and not just click ignore.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Bland
Do you ever have those days that are about as exciting and significant as a blank wall or a turned off TV screen? A day where if days could be lost in a crowd of other days there is nothing that would distinguish this one from any other. That was today for me. I feel like Jim from the Office as he sits and explains how he slowly moved Dwight’s desk one inch closer to the copier every time Dwight gets up to go to the bathroom. He simply states, “And that is what I did all day.” So in a non-literal way, I moved Dwight’s desk and inch closer to the copier all day. How can days exist in a way where we just seem to do the same thing or one boring thing for 8 hours straight? Like there are times that I wish there was a power outage, the copier to start smoking or even the coffee pot falling and spilling everywhere to just add something to the day.
I was reminded as I reluctantly woke up that I feel like a college student stuck in a 9-5 nightmare. Not that the job is horrible, in fact it is a good job with great coworkers, but just the sitting from 9-5 everyday at a desk is hard for me to do. When I enjoy running, traveling, driving, talking, playing frisbee and laughing. Therefore sitting at a desk, typing, quietly listening to Pandora radio, and staring at a computer screen is a little challenging. The show “The Office” is right on its depiction of the silence and emptiness of an office. It reminds me of a small library. You want to talk but if you start talking or make noise you feel like you will be told to just be quite. Therefore you just turn Pandora down low and plug away at the reports and research that needs to be done. Where else other than an office and a tic tac toe board would you create big squares and decide to put things or in this case people inside. FOR 8 BLOODY HOURS!!!! Sorry I must still be in British mode following my last post about Chelsea and English football. I would like to go on record and state that I am now a true supporter in Michael Scott’s idea of a Fun Run to get out of my little box and run for something meaningful, even if it is for a disease that is already cured.
At my desk I have a sky light right above my head that gives the deceptive feel that the sun is shinning on me when it really isn’t. How sad is it for me to look up each morning hoping to see a blue sky and the sun shinning on me but come to the reality that it is only an off white shell extruding from the ceiling. It is just cruel. Thus my sun and my light is the fluorescent light bulbs that light up my office and the glow of the computer screen in front of my face. My conclusion is that if an office job is worked each day for your whole life pasty white skin, early blindness, and carpal tunnel will be inevitable.
As the day inevitably came to an end at 5 and I went home I couldn’t help but think how I like and am grateful for my job, but how bland it can be at times. When you go from interning in the Pentagon, going to class, and living with your friends to working in an office with only 5 other people and living at home, some days are nothing more than just a day on a calendar and April 9th 2009 was one of those days.
I was reminded as I reluctantly woke up that I feel like a college student stuck in a 9-5 nightmare. Not that the job is horrible, in fact it is a good job with great coworkers, but just the sitting from 9-5 everyday at a desk is hard for me to do. When I enjoy running, traveling, driving, talking, playing frisbee and laughing. Therefore sitting at a desk, typing, quietly listening to Pandora radio, and staring at a computer screen is a little challenging. The show “The Office” is right on its depiction of the silence and emptiness of an office. It reminds me of a small library. You want to talk but if you start talking or make noise you feel like you will be told to just be quite. Therefore you just turn Pandora down low and plug away at the reports and research that needs to be done. Where else other than an office and a tic tac toe board would you create big squares and decide to put things or in this case people inside. FOR 8 BLOODY HOURS!!!! Sorry I must still be in British mode following my last post about Chelsea and English football. I would like to go on record and state that I am now a true supporter in Michael Scott’s idea of a Fun Run to get out of my little box and run for something meaningful, even if it is for a disease that is already cured.
At my desk I have a sky light right above my head that gives the deceptive feel that the sun is shinning on me when it really isn’t. How sad is it for me to look up each morning hoping to see a blue sky and the sun shinning on me but come to the reality that it is only an off white shell extruding from the ceiling. It is just cruel. Thus my sun and my light is the fluorescent light bulbs that light up my office and the glow of the computer screen in front of my face. My conclusion is that if an office job is worked each day for your whole life pasty white skin, early blindness, and carpal tunnel will be inevitable.
As the day inevitably came to an end at 5 and I went home I couldn’t help but think how I like and am grateful for my job, but how bland it can be at times. When you go from interning in the Pentagon, going to class, and living with your friends to working in an office with only 5 other people and living at home, some days are nothing more than just a day on a calendar and April 9th 2009 was one of those days.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Soccer: Neglected, but INCREDIBLE!!!
Passion, skill, excitement, and empty; all words that describe soccer in America. This afternoon I took a 2 hour lunch, not to go get a hair cut, visit an old friend, or even take a nap. I drove as fast as I could, weaving in and out of traffic to make it to Lamppost Pizza by 11:45 for kickoff. Not the opening kick of an NFL or NCAA the kickoff of the UEFA Cup Quarterfinals between Chelsea and Liverpool. Lamppost is a place that is full of people on weeknights for basketball and Sundays for football but on a Wednesday afternoon there is enough people to count on two hands. When I got there in my Chelsea jersey one could have thought the place was closed except for my three friends sitting in the middle of restaurant in odd jerseys with SAMSUNG and Carlsberg across the chest. As I took my seat with great anticipation of the hour and a half of soccer that I was about to watch, I couldn’t help but think where are the sports fans. The UEFA cup features some of the greatest athletes in the world doing things with a soccer ball that could only be thought up in movies. How has a sport like soccer not caught on in America? The fan support at Lamppost consisted of the four of us, a group of moms getting a few slices of pizza, and a man reading A BOOK!!! Seriously this is how Americans appreciate the world’s most popular sport. Wow. America needs a reality check. I know that we like sports that were good at, sell hot dogs, and have cheerleaders but the eyes of the American sports world need to be opened to the amazing playing ability of English soccer.
I have over the last 2 years become a strong Chelsea supporter and avid soccer fan dreaming of watching a Chelsea home game at Samford Bridge in London. I have been to numerous NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB games but none would come close to a Chelsea game. We Americans go to games to socialize, relax, and hear our favorite hit songs played as our athletes walk into place across the field or court. In the English Premiere League, chants, yelling, and the crowd on their feet is a typical match atmosphere. I just recently went to two MLS games, one of which was the LA Galaxy home opener, the combined crowded was less than 30,000 people. Actually on Tuesday night my friend Jordan went and the attendance was 6,500. I understand that in comparison to England and other nations in the world the MLS is like comparing a high school football team to USC. The high school team might be good, but when faced with the players of USC they look like a group of uncoordinated boys. The truth is that when the lights of the Home Depot Center turn on to welcome in the LA Galaxy and there are only 6,500 people in the stands who would want to play in that atmosphere? The Galaxy might have the most popular player in the world when he feels like showing up but it still doesn’t help bring soccer to America. Soccer and America seem like a combination that will never find the key to success.
As I sat there watching the Mighty Blues win a HUGE match at Annfield 3-1 I wished that I were there or at least watching it with a group of Chelsea supporters. There is no true passion in American sports. We see the Raiders fans dress in spikes, Browns fans dress like dogs, and Jets chant “J E T S JETS, JETS, JETS”, but Chelsea fans have websites dedicated to informing fans of new chants such as this one,
“I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
They fly so high they reach the sky
But like West Ham they fade and die
Tottenham always running, Arsenal running too
We are the Chelsea boot boys and we're coming after you”
Even at the conclusion of the match groups of fans fight over the result of the game and pure hatred for one another. Compare the movies that portray each sport, The Green Street Hooligans and Any Given Sunday. The difference in support and passion is night and day. To us Americans sport is recreation and fun, to the supporters of English Football it is life. They live for Saturday afternoons and the chance to spend the day cheering on their club to victory.
All this said, I loved the ability to cheer on Chelsea FC, Drogba, and Lampard to victory even though it was the cheers of just Jordan and I. Our excitement and jubilation seemed to echo in the emptiness of Lamppost as Stuart sat silent, the group of moms enjoyed an afternoon glass of wine, and the man with the book just kept on reading.
I have over the last 2 years become a strong Chelsea supporter and avid soccer fan dreaming of watching a Chelsea home game at Samford Bridge in London. I have been to numerous NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB games but none would come close to a Chelsea game. We Americans go to games to socialize, relax, and hear our favorite hit songs played as our athletes walk into place across the field or court. In the English Premiere League, chants, yelling, and the crowd on their feet is a typical match atmosphere. I just recently went to two MLS games, one of which was the LA Galaxy home opener, the combined crowded was less than 30,000 people. Actually on Tuesday night my friend Jordan went and the attendance was 6,500. I understand that in comparison to England and other nations in the world the MLS is like comparing a high school football team to USC. The high school team might be good, but when faced with the players of USC they look like a group of uncoordinated boys. The truth is that when the lights of the Home Depot Center turn on to welcome in the LA Galaxy and there are only 6,500 people in the stands who would want to play in that atmosphere? The Galaxy might have the most popular player in the world when he feels like showing up but it still doesn’t help bring soccer to America. Soccer and America seem like a combination that will never find the key to success.
As I sat there watching the Mighty Blues win a HUGE match at Annfield 3-1 I wished that I were there or at least watching it with a group of Chelsea supporters. There is no true passion in American sports. We see the Raiders fans dress in spikes, Browns fans dress like dogs, and Jets chant “J E T S JETS, JETS, JETS”, but Chelsea fans have websites dedicated to informing fans of new chants such as this one,
“I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
They fly so high they reach the sky
But like West Ham they fade and die
Tottenham always running, Arsenal running too
We are the Chelsea boot boys and we're coming after you”
Even at the conclusion of the match groups of fans fight over the result of the game and pure hatred for one another. Compare the movies that portray each sport, The Green Street Hooligans and Any Given Sunday. The difference in support and passion is night and day. To us Americans sport is recreation and fun, to the supporters of English Football it is life. They live for Saturday afternoons and the chance to spend the day cheering on their club to victory.
All this said, I loved the ability to cheer on Chelsea FC, Drogba, and Lampard to victory even though it was the cheers of just Jordan and I. Our excitement and jubilation seemed to echo in the emptiness of Lamppost as Stuart sat silent, the group of moms enjoyed an afternoon glass of wine, and the man with the book just kept on reading.
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