So my christmas cards are not even close to being done...as in all the supplies are still in the Hyatt's bag but I will get them done...I must get them done...60 dollars is not going down the drain.

So I just saw an article that says Christmas Office Parties are going to be tamer this year. Well as I've mentioned mine definetely wasn't, but Eckerd always tries to buck the trends. Last night me and a few coworkers went to the Deuce for some Happy Hour fun and to watch the video from the party. As we all pieced together parts of what we remembered of the night, the whole picture became clearer. Then after a brief wrestle on the pool table, one of my coworkers stole the tape and is holding onto it until we get together and agree on erasing parts. I guess she had the most embarassing parts on the tape so it makes some sense but still those are memories and y'all know how I feel about memories. You just don't erase them...grrrrrrr.

I haven't seen (e:amanda) in a really long time and I miss it. I'm so jealous that (e:paul) is eating lunch with her, AMANDA we need to do some Juicery soon!!!! Stupid workweeks that give me no free weekday lunches.

Our Christmas tree is up and it is so much smaller than usual. That's what happens when I don't go along to pick it out. I knew that is what owuld happen. My dad's like "it seemed so big on the lot". Um now way Jose. It is a tiny tree that will not nearly fit the ridiculous amount of ornaments we have and that I liek to put on. Seriously youy will see no branches and only ornaments and still that will leave like a huge box of ornaments unused. How sad...

So at Eckerd we always have kinda crazy parties...we mostly all are heavy drinkers and so these parties tend to get a little out of hand sometimes but always are really fun. In the past we have gotten the cops called to our parties, gotten into the private boxes at Sabres games, had to keep watch while one of my 40 year old bosses pees in an alley on Chippewa, and so many more things but last night I think topped them all. I got quite drunk and passsed out in people's coats at some point I guess and don't remember all that much of the party but what I do remember is that when I woke up there were only like 8 people left and some of them were naked and it was very strange to wake up to 4 coworkers in all different states off undress playing beer pong...oh eckerd how i love the randomness...I guess at Eckerd thats just how we roll...needless to say I had a video camera...uh oh

I just went to Hyatt to get some wax for the seals i put on envelopes with the intention to buy christmas cards. Then decided it would be better to make christmas cards. So I spent like at least a half hour with jesse who works there going over all the different kinds of papers and options. Needless to say $55 later, those of you on my christmas card list better appreciate how good they are going to be. Ok, my artistic skills are minimal but improving so hopefully they come out good. With glitter, wax seals, silver star paper, and caligraphy how can they not be amazing?

Why do I agree to do thiese things? So one of the ladies from one of the Medicare seminars I gave called me today and wanted me to find which Medicare plan would be best for her since she currently has Medicaid and will be forced into a plan. Ok first of all, people with Medicaid have the least to worry about b/c they can changel plans each month and secondly al lthe plans are reasonably the same for them. But anywho I did say at these meetings that we would be able to help people do this (nevermind you that was the crap eckerd was feeding me at the time, we now realize it is way too much work) So instead of saying no we can't relaly do that of course I agree to do it. Of course it is at minimum an hour long project and of course I have no time at work to do it. So i do it at home. ANd my computer is about 1kb/hour internet speed. So Frnakly i have been doing this for the past two hours or so for this one lady. She better freakin write a letter of thanks. I hope she doesn't have any friends. This way they don't call and ask for help too!

So today is my last day in good old Beantown. They say there are supposed to be major storms between here and NYC tomorrow but not until 12 o'clock I should almost be back in Buffalo by then so hopefully there will be no plane disruptions for me. We went to the NEw England Aquarium today and it was really cool. The entire center of the buliding for like six floors is a coral reef aquarium wiht like 600 fish and turtles and the such. The one turtle whose name is Myrtle has been in the aquarium since it opened 65 years ago and now weighs over 600 lbs. It was so cool to see all the really huge fish. There was also a special jelly fish exhibit which was pretty neat. I never knew anything about jellyfish and would now consider myself an expert.

It snowed here today for the first time since I have been here and everything looks really cool in the snow. Especially Boston Commons with all the lights and the ice skating rink and stuff. Hopefully once (e:maureen) uploads the thousands of pictures we took this weekend, a few will find their way to this website. Trying to find a church to go to today I foudn one that happened to be the home of the Boston BOys Choir so it was a cool mass. There was a lot of theatrics and good singing which was fun. I also felt like the people really meant the peace be with you. I don't know but that is one of the reasons I switched to my nonna's church becuase I felt the people there really meant it unlike at St. Paul's in Kenmore and so did these people which I enjoyed.

We ate dinner at Longfellows which was very tasty. I guess their new england clam chowder has been served at the last 7 presidential inaugurations. Frankly the soup was not that amazing. It tasted basiclaly like Campbells to me. I don't know what i was expecting from it but defientley something better. THe food in general though was really good.

The one dissapointment from this trip is the store around the corner from Maureen sells strawberry chewies which are my favorite candies in the world and are no longer sold anywhere in the Buffalo area that I know of. I have eaten a bunch while I am here but was going to buy some to take home but the store was closed tonight when we went. Considering I have to get on the subway at like 6 am to catch my flikght tomorrow, I don't think the store will be open yet then, but we'll see tomorrow.

Ok thats all for now, if all goes acording to plan I should be back in the b-lo tomorrow ...see ya soon

So in the last two days I have walked every inch of this city. Seriously I think they are going to give me the key to the city because I probably know more information than anyone else in the world about this city. WE have taken every tour and the such. I would say my favorite part was the Maparium. IT is this globe that is really 608 stained glass panels that illuminated and you walk on this bridge in the middle that is at the equator. And the weirdest part is that the globe is the world as it was in 1935 because that was when it was built. They try to play it off liek there is a meaningful reason why they never updated it and that it is about become one with the world in all its forms or something. But that is a load of bull hooey because there is an article in their museum about when it was built and it said the reason they did it in so many panels was so that they could update it as the world changed. Me and (e:maureen) cut a tour gropu and so got to go in it alone. THere is like a video presetnation inside.

I almost forgot the coolest part. THe acoustics were amazing. IF you stood in the center under the north star and talked you could hear yourself in surround sound. The only weird part was that the whole Maparium was started by a Christian Science Foudner and is in their museum thing which made it feel a little bit like a recruiting ground. I kinda felt like they wanted me to become one of them. But it was still cool... I"ll update more about this crazy city later...

So I flew to Boston to visit (e:maureen) all by myself today. On the way from Buffalo to NY I got kinda sick but prevented myself from throwing up because there were two seriuos businessmen next to em that I felt like woulodn't be ok with me throwing up next to them. It was so gross though cuz i was getting that about to throw up feeling and like sweated through all my clothes. The flight from NY to Boston was much nicer. I actually must have fell asleep because I dind't realize we had even taken off and the pilot announced we would be landing in Boston in 15 minutes. The flight was seriuosly like only a half hour long. I followed the buses and subway directions maureen gave me perfectly and got to her apt. with no problems. How crazy is that? The only slight fiasco was when I walked through security at the Buffalo airport without stopping. I didn't relaize that that part was security and it didn't seem like any of the workers were paying attention. Needless to say it was a small yelling fiasco from the workers for that. THey don't appreciate people running through the security in the post 9/11 world I suppose.

Saw a lot of Harvard and the Harvard Square/Cambridge area today. Tomorrow much more stuff to pack in. We are hitting up everything I could think of. Or at least that is what we wrote down. IN truth we will probably sleep and then forget to do anything...ok this is mike signing off from beantown for now

Oh yeah and the most exciting thing is coming tomorow....the Maparium....I'll let you google that if you want to find out more...I'll tell you what it was like in person tomorow

First of all I want to say Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope everyone else ate as much food and had as much fun as I did. I really think this was the first year in memory that my family was relatively calm and stress free for the whole day. My parents let me sleep in til like 1130 and dind't really make me do much to set up excpet go pick up my brother. And even when he wasn't ready for like another hour they still were ok with that. Just everything was calm and cool, which if you know my family I belive the last time we went more than ten minutes without yelling was circa 1992, maybe earlier. Eh, we're Italian, yelling is what we do! We tried to play family feud and it didn't' go so well, (e:terry) is a terrible game leader and it was much more complicated than you would think. Later we moved on to password which was fun and we found out my mom knew all about blunts. WHo woulda thought?

Wednesday night was a lot of fun. Everyone was back in town, except (e:mk). We went to Frizzy's and were gonna see where we were going to go from there but ended up staying there the whole night. It was lots of fun seeing everyone again all together and having fun. It was nice to catch up with everyone. Ok i pretty much knew everything about eveyrone but it was nice to hear them tell each other. Guest appearances were made by (e:amanda) and her b/f and Laura and other fun peeps. erock perhaps? Thanks to Jill for being my DD...

Well the weekend has arrived, let the fun continue

Oh and I almost forgot, i got to see my cousin's new baby Sylvia who was so freakin cute!!! Babies are nice, i want one...now.

First of all I want to say thanks to all the people who commented on my last journal. ALas, I think i was overreacting to a situation, as those of you who know me, know I often do. I still don't know how the situation will turn out but really it wasn't nearly as drastic as I made it out to be.

I SERIOUSLY CANNOT WAIT UNTIL 6:20 pm tomorow night when my favoritest (e:beast) TERES COMES BACK TO THE B-LO!! I NEED HER PRESENCE MAJORLY!!!

On that note, Wednesday night we are going out (as is everyoen else in the world right cuz it is the night before thanksgiving?) but we are going out to celebrate Teres coming back. A welcome back party of sotrs with the other thousands of poeple out wednesday. Everyone should join in the festivities. When i know where we are going , I will post it there. So stay tuned...

Ooops how did I let myself forget for the last few days that I am completely undesirable. How many times will I make the same stupid mistakes?