Definitely a positive...maybe
01 April, 2002 :: 1:18 p.m.
I'm not sure whether I'm leaning more toward excitement or dread for the weekend of the 12-14...I'm going on a trip to Boston with my American Romanticism class. Dr. K is great, I really want to see Boston at this point in my life and I have the money, so I'm doing it. The downside? I don't know anyone in the class well and a few people in the class that are going annoy the hell out of me in class...we're going 4 to a hotel room to keep costs down so odds are I'll get stuck with the people that annoy me...behold the power of positive thinking! Barring some disaster that sucks the little bit of extra cash I'm holding on to for the trip, I'm going. That's that. The experience is too big to pass up. At one point, I wanted to go to school in Boston (back when I was in high school and had no concept of how I was going to pay for school), so I sent my info to Northeastern University and they pursued me for a while, but tuition wasn't even a remote possibility so I missed out. I have this draw to the northeast that I've talked about before and New England for some reason has a special place in my heart...I've been around Boston, but when I was much much younger and don't know what I actually may have seen. I missed the family reunion where they spent a day going around Boston and I've always regretted it. So I'm going because I need to see and appreciate Boston. I want so badly to take my camera, but it's an expensive ($300+) and I don't want anything bad to happen to it, but I'm not sure I'm content to settle for pics from a disposable camera. But in the info for the trip it says, "Please don't take anything precious or expensive with you." My camera is both. Hmmm. We're doing some touring since it's a class thing, but both Friday and Saturday night from 5:15 to 11 the schedule says, "on your own for evening." Sweet! But it also says to please stay with at least one other person from the group...back to my not knowing anyone very well, and hating to feel like a hanger on. I'm a solo type of guy, so we'll see where that leads...(M.U. Student Stabbed to Death on Boston Trip!...Dr. K. quoted as saying, "We told him to stick with someone and not to wander into rough areas on his own.) As both of my trips to Pittsburgh have proven to me, I have a tendency to wander off when I'm in a big city and a remarkable knack for finding the areas of a city that someone not from the city (or even most people that are from the city) should find themselves in. Definitely not the point when I want to have my camera on me. My favorite part of the tips and info for the trip..."We do not all need to do everything together, but please stay with someone from the group. Don't go anywhere alone--especially in downtown Boston or Cambridge. Stay in public. Stay where there are lots of people. Don't wander off by yourself down deserted streets. Know where you're going before you leave (we have plenty of maps). Don't look lost even if you are. Try to be assertive and confident wherever you go." Riiiight. Don't look lost, yet we have maps. Uh huh. I'll just try to appear assertive whilst I pull out my handy little map which obviously shows that I know exactly where I'm at and am not having trouble at all! Even with all of this, it still is going to be a great experience...even if I hate every minute of it...because I'm doing something and not just sitting by while everyone else does it. I'm not going to hate every minute of it. I may dislike the people I'm with (although I'm holding out hope that spending time with these people outside of the classroom environment, I'll find out I'm wrong about the ones that annoy me), but I'll fall in love with the city...I already know because that's what I do when I visit a city, I fall in love...already done it with Pittsburgh and Cleveland--two cities you don't usually hear a lot of people talking about falling in love with. I need a special rock! It's tradition to leave a rock when you visit the site of Thoreau's cabin at Walden. A special rock...hmmm. I used to have a couple, but they're in my "memory box" which I haven't yet gotten from Char. So I need a back up rock that has meaning to me...hmmm. Maybe I'll try to get out to Andrew's grave and see if I can find a small rock nearby...that way I can take something from him with me. That'd be cool. I mean if it were up to me to leave something significant of myself at Walden, I'd leave a super ball, but that probably wouldn't go over so well. A rock is what I need. A rock... I've got to go get a rock. But not today...I have a deviant behavior test tonight that I have to go study for...
