The Greatest Weekend EVER!!

I don't even know where to begin with how SPECTACULAR my weekend was.

The happenings of Friday morning couldn't bring me down. I went to Target Friday afternoon, got a new outfit for the festivities, had the greatest bagel ever at dunkin donuts, came back to school to get my friends and drove into Cambridge.

We got to Cambridge, found a parking garage, found a bathroom in a grocery store (with escalators, it was amazing), figured out where we needed to go for the concert later in the evening, and got in the T to get to our first stop. The hookah bar.

We went to this place called Tantric, an Indian food restaurant slash hookah bar. My friend ordered mint Naan, which was the most fantastic thing for my very hungry self, and we ordered a honey flavoured hookah for three. It was so unbelieveably awesome. I personally really enjoy smoking, but I am very aware of the health risks, which is why I don't smoke on a regular basis. I can see myself going to a hookah bar every once in a while, though, on special occasions like "the best weekend ever." The waitress was amazing, too. She thought (or knew) how ridiculous we were and thought it was the funniest thing.

After we Hookahed, we walked around for a bit, trying to warm up (Friday night was freezing, and you can't smoke inside), and then headed back to Cambridge, where we got terribly lost but eventually found our way to The Middle East. We were there to see The Ray Hendrix's Revival (their last show), but I didn't really care for them. The first two bands, whose names' escape me now, were actually pretty good, kind of Sublime-esque. We had the good fortune of finding a bench where the three of us could sit, out of the way of all the drinkers.

So there we were, sitting and listening to the music and watching the drunks do outrageous things, when a woman walks up to me, literally sits in my lap and says "don't worry.. I won't bite." I've never been so taken-aback in my life. I just sat there, stammering and blushing, while she continued to attempt to have a conversation with me. But the music was so loud and I couldn't hear anything she was saying, she was practically in my ear and I still couldn't hear her. But we had a moment, and my friends were in utter disbelief, but eventually the woman got up and walked away. It was pretty freakin awesome, even though she did get away.

We left the bar a little after 1 am. I was trying to navigate Boston traffic on a Friday night, with no help at all from my GPS (who I call Betsy). Betsy was being a big bitch this weekend. At one point she told me to drive 400 feet INTO THE CHARLES RIVER! It was pretty terrifying, but still hilarious. We made it back to campus by 2:30 (we made a pit stop at Wendy's) and I was asleep by 4.

Saturday was just... insane, to say the very least. I got up at 11, talked to my friend in the city, got ready and started driving to the closest T station (like 10 minutes tops). They were doing roadwork yesterday, so the ride there took closer to 25 minutes. After I paid 3.75 for parking, I realised I left my cell phone in my room, and I had to drive all the way back to school. I got back here and discovered my phone was in my pocket the entire time. At that point in time I was really not having a good time at all, and I made my way back to the T station, paid another 3.75, and got on the train.

We got to Eliot and they told us all to get off the train, because it was going out of service. so there we are, an entire train full of people, standing in the woods of Massachusetts. Any residual joy from the night before was fading fast, so I called my best friend and talked to her, and my day got better. A train came within 15 minutes, I got in to the city, had lunch and starbucks with my friends from home and all was right with the world.

Last night was Tegan and Sara in Worcester, and it was such a fantastic concert!!! Tegan and Sara are one of my favourite bands, their music is almost indescribeable. Their opening bands were Girl in a Coma (we were in the balcony for them, so the sound kind of sucked but they were really into it, which was cool) and City and Colour (which is bed time music if you ask me, but he has such an amazing voice). And then Tegan and Sara came on, and I screamed like a little girl (at this point we were in the sea of people in front of the stage) and jumped around. They are so adorable, as my friend Mark put it. After every song they say "Oh, thanks so much!" when the audience applaudes. I just want to be like "Oh no no, thank you so much for rocking my socks clean off my feet." And they're hott too.

The girl behind me in the line to get in was talking about how she wanted to get as close to Tegan as possible. And then she proceeded to point me out to the dude she was with and he said something along the lines of "Ooo, yeah you're into the butch types aren't you."

I could have turned around and decked him, but I didn't. Labels make me so disgruntled. I'm just me, I'm doing what's right for me at any given moment in my life. I'm not trying to please anybody. I don't want a chick to like me for what I dress like or what I act like, I want her to like me because I'm Rachel. But I'm over it. Labels make people more comfortable.

In any event, Tegan and Sara was an amazing concert, and I will definitely be seeing them again when their next album comes out.

I got tons of pictures and videos.



If I absolutely had to pick a favorite Tegan and Sara song... it would probably be "Nineteen." I love that song so much, mainly because I am 19 (I love "Nineteen" the way I loved Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" when I was 17, but I think everyone loves that song when they're 17, or all the time) and "Nineteen" is a very accurate description of my first serious relationship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqJbHM-KGWU

Every time she calls me, or texts me, or IMs me, this song pops into my head. It's not fair, she is almost four years older than me. She should have known better than to mess around with a freshman's emotions. I guess we all make mistakes. Lesson learned.

I'm not bitter.

Moving on. I love Tegan and Sara, they're very raw and VERY real.

I love concerts. The last one I went to was Celine, and True Colors before that.

Thursday my friend bought tickets to see Ani DiFranco at Symphony Hall in November. I am peeing my pants with joy!!!!! Ani... DiFranco... I will weep at that concert.

And next weekend I'm going to Canada!!! My life is pretty much an unbelieveable blur of wonderful right now.

Ironic Spontaneity Rant Extraordinaire

It seems funny to me that nothing is ever spontaneous in my life. Everything is always planned well in advance, there are no mysteries. I couldn't even come out to my mother spontaneously, I had to carefully plan out not only what I was going to say to her but also all of the potential responses she would have and my reaction(s). I guess it's true, we do turn into our parents. There is no one more overly-analytical than my mother, except for me.

That being said I'm pretty freakin excited about going into Boston to see some small town band play this coming Friday, it should be a great time. And then Saturday is... TEGAN AND SARA! I have been DYING of anticipation all summer for this concert. I will probably faint and cry like a little school girl.

And the following weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving so the madre and I are trekking up to the great white north for family time and home cooked meals mmmm. There is honestly nowhere in the world that I love more than Newfoundland. It's just a brilliant place, beyond gorgeous. It's usually not too cold this time of year, which is good because I'm more of a Florida girl. But Florida doesn't have scenery like this:


or this:


I'm pretty excited about the "upcoming events," if you will.

I was asked to be on the student athlete advisory committee here at school, (the acronym is SAAC, which makes me gafaw every time) which is just another thing to add to my already outrageous schedule. But somehow I am ahead in my work, and currently working on Thursday's assignments... Busting my ass to get stuff done last night was super successful and very productive.

And people are so so so interested in the GSA, which is great and I'm so glad. I was talking to the madre about it yesterday, and I told her I was kind of wary in telling her that I was starting a GSA here. She said I need to trust her, that she is fine with it and I need to cut her a break. She's not going to freak out because she is totally fine with the fact that I am and have always been gay. She's not shocked that I'm gay, she is shocked that I kept it from her.

I guess maybe I'm the one having difficulties here in that, I've known I was gay for so long and I've kept it hidden from her for so long that it is hard for me to be honest with her and to let her into my life. Which is really sad, but I think it's the truth. I can't call her up on the phone and tell her all about the girl I like or what my crazy ex girlfriend did this time or how much it hurts when people say cruel things like "just move to Canada" or when I find out that I am distinguished by my out-ness and not by my personality as a human being.

I think that's the scariest part of being gay and of being out. It's a toss up whether people are going to recognise you for what you contribute to their lives by virtue of your human-ness, or if they are going to see everything you do, everything you are, everything you will potentially do, as being directly influenced by your being gay. Maybe it's just an age thing, maybe college students still haven't gotten a grasp on the fact that very few things are a result of your orientation, your gender, your race, your ethnicity.

I'm starting the GSA at school because I want there to be a safe environment for gay students, supportive students, bi student, trans students, etc. etc. It's too scary to be thrust into college, just when you're starting to be comfortable with who you are. There need to be people here who are approachable and friendly and understanding who have been through it, who know what it's like, and who will listen. We need to do things that prove that we're not just "different," we're fun, active, adventurous, talented, goofy and always learning too. I'm gay, but that's not all there is to me. When people see me walking down the road or sitting in the library or eating lunch with my friends I want them to know I'm not just the gay chick, I'm Rachel, I play lacrosse for Team Awesome, I save frogs and worms when it rains, I love the violin, I try to be insightful in class but often fail miserably, but I'm always smiling, and I have the best movie collection on campus.

I didn't begin writing this for it to turn into a rant about the GSA or about my feelings on out-ness, but I guess that's what it turned in to. C'est la vie. Happy new week, hope it's great all around!