Live Free or Die

When I think of Boston, I think of Cheers and beer, and Matt Damon. I think about the movie Goodwill Hunting. Minnie Driver. I think about tea.

Since the Los Angeles Lakers celebrated with their parade today, I decided to drive to Boston and take in the sights and sounds from there. There was no party. It would have been fitting to have a party though, but the Celtics didn't win the NBA Championship. Too bad, I would have loved to have celebrated.

Instead I went to this market place called Faneuil Hall, and made my way to the Cheers replica, called Sam's Cafe. No one knew my name, there's an option for indoor and outdoor seating. I chose to sit indoors, it was hot outside. I went into the Cheers gift shop, bought t-shirt, a few note cards, and a beer opener/key chain.

I ordered Norm's favorite bloody mary and I downed it in twenty minutes. It was very healthy, unlike the bloody Mary's I'm used to, full of spice, garlic, a hint of tabasco, among other things. This bloody mary tasted like the celery stick that was in it. I'll pass on that next time.

I was hoping to meet up with an old friend from BC, but that didn't go through because said friend was out at a conference, but very disappointed we couldn't meet up during my visit.

God I love the Foo Fighters. Kings of Leon. Notion played in Cheers while I sat and stared into space. It put me under a spell. I love Kings of Leon, I especially love it when their lesser known songs like Notion, get played in public.

Anyways, I also walked a mile through part of the Freedom trail, made my way to the original site of Cheers. Looked at it, then walked back to the parking garage. Paid my $22 and then made my way back to Merrimack.

The drive back to Merrimack was great, no traffic going there as there was heading to Boston.

I made my way to the YMCA, became a member, chit chatted with the front desk staff, found out "Nashua is where it's at", and how no one who is born and raised in Merrimack cares for Merrimack.

I never seen a YMCA that welcomed you with a wooden gate on one side as you approached it. Later I went back to the Y, new member coming through, said hello to the same front desk staff and hit the treadmill running for an hour.

I told them I'd be back tomorrow, and you bet I'll be back to the Y, they have zumba tomorrow, Thursday and Sunday. I can't even complain about whether or not it'll meet my expectations or not, at this point I don't even care. I just need something that resembles zumba at this point.

Dunkin donuts coffee in the morning? I think I will! Happy reading from Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Wow. I wasn't even this excited when I earned my Masters degree. I made it to New Hampshire! I woke up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, went to visit Mina and the boys at their grandparents house in Glen Allen, Va. Then I headed north to New Hampshire.

I stopped at Cracker Barrell for a late breakfast, and I stopped one other time to get gas.

But I'm here! This is still so unreal to me!

While I'm here I told AC I'd help with the place, it is in need of some major cleaning and decluttering. I much rather would have just paid him to stay here. But I probably would've cleaned it up either way. It's not hoarder status yet, although his friend said it was borderline hoarder status a while back. I'm actually excited to help clean. I'm on a break, I get to sleep in, I can sleep late. I don't have a structured day! The only thing I have to plan is what I'm going to wear, what I'm going to eat for lunch, and how hard I'm going to work out. Speaking of working out, I need to find the YMCA.

All is well with me. I'm so glad I made it. I had such gorgeous sleep last night.

Onto the next one!

I wasn't quite sure if I was really going to Virginia Beach today because my cousin and I did'nt have a set plan in place. I was just going to show up and call her when I got to Virginia Beach, and we all know how that can turn out sometimes. But Emily answered when I called and we did meet up.

I have been depending on Google maps since I left Las Vegas, and I am happy to report that it is accurate. As a back up, I also use a GPS to help me just in case. Both have been consistent!

Traffic wasn't too bad going to Virginia Beach, but it was congested on the way to Fredericksburg. I had planned to visit Edel and Mina's boys at their grandparents house today, but I was too tired, and because I don't want to be placed on the list of adults who burn children, I will visit them tomorrow.

That means I have to leave here by 7:00 am and then hopefully leave the residence no later than 10:00 am. I have to coordinate a dental visit in NH while I still have time left with my insurance in order to do so. It's the idiosyncrasies associated with maximizing time and dental benefits as a result of resigning swiftly. I don't regret it. If I have to fly back to Vegas just to see my regular dentist I will do just that, yet another unexpected trip, although I'm hoping that I don't have to do that.

Some of the things that surprised me today:

Diffcult finding parking in Virginia Beach, especially near Atlantic Avenue, be willing to spend twenty dollars if you can't find more reasonable parking.

Never forget what it feels like to be burned by an adult, meaning, being told to expect something and then they never come through. One Thanksgiving one of my least reliable distant uncles promised to bring the turkey to the family luncheon. Well he never showed up and we had no turkey that year. Everyone was let down and I never forgot. Needless to say, never trust that your least reliable distant uncles will actually do what he says.

I will do what I say. So tomorrow, I will drive south to Glen Allen and deliver these items to Ethan and Alex. It would've been nice to sleep in because my cousin rules Virginia Beach, and I'm reminded of Jersey Shore. The experience has left me feeling like I need to talk to someone about it, and the best I could do was remove myself from beach and head north to Fredericksburg to sleep for the night. I didn't know what to expect with this beach experience, and now that I can reflect on it, not only does my feet hurt, but I'm hoping all those oysters I ate were farm raised in Washington state somewhere and not in Louisiana's gulf.

I'm still in Silver Spring, Maryland this morning. It's Saturday, June 12, 2010. We had a fairly unstructured day yesterday. Leslie and I went to Potomac Mills to waste time until Anna came home from work. I got a pedicure and got my feet dipped in paraffin wax. I didn't plan for that but the lady just took my foot and started dipping it so I just let her continue, not wanting to make a scene. The wax didn't hurt either, I just didn't know that it came with the pedicure.

I don't really have anything to write about.

But there has been some interesting conversations that came up as a result of this road trip, and I'm debating on whether or not I should share it here or not. I don't plan to write about conversations usually, unless it's so captivating that I must write about it.

Maybe I will afterall!

So I'll leave you with this.

Often times when I visit with people and tell them about what I did, I resigned from my job, packed up and got in my car, etc. they look at me even more curiously. Some people don't even have a prayer left in life because they didn't do enough planning. Some people pray all the time, which is fine. But some people only know how to pray, and they do nothing else. Others combine action with prayer. I guess you can say I like to trust in God, the way a dollar bill trusts in God. It all goes back to how my family really is god fearing. As a last resort we pray. When we've exhausted everything else, we do pray. I think God is much like the Federal government.

God places the burden of having a happy life on you first. He grants you life, and then what you do with it is your choice completely. We weren't born with a manual on how to be twenty or twenty five, or even thirty two. I used to ask why there wasn't a book on how to be twenty five back in the day.

Similarly, the Federal government places the burden of you having a happy life on yourself first, especially in the United States. The Feds say, "Marissa, you live in this great country that has a democracy, amber waves of grain. You are afforded opportunities that no one else in the world can replicate." The saying goes, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, right? Sounds so cliche, but it's true.

Only after you've exhausted every possible resource will the Feds step in and provide you with assistance. If you've ever accepted any kind of assistance in your life, a scholarship, student loan, a favor even, consider that assistance. There's nothing wrong with that.

Sherry's mom told me that I should apply for food stamps, but I'm not quite sure that my situation warrants that. I chose to resign from my job! I wasn't laid off or terminated, it was a choice that I made.

I think God is one of the last providers of comfort, ease, and hope. It's all faith based though, which is sometimes all we have left when shit goes down.

So the next time you find yourself really doubting yourself, just remember, the burden of your happiness lies with you first, and no one else, not God, and not the Federal government. Lastly, be sure to plan! Plan as much as you possibly can.

Peace

Hello from Silver Spring, Maryland and good morning. Who reads this thing anyway? I had 50 hits to my last blog entry in less than 24 hours, and I don't advertise this to many people.

Today I'm feeling nonchalant about a lot of things. Every now and then an ambitious thought will cross my mind...

Ambitious thoughts here:

Move to Maryland/DC area, work in Maryland/DC area, apply to this job my friend in VA told me about (it's in Vegas!), move back to Vegas, move to Saipan and work in Saipan. Move to Guam, live and work in Guam, and lastly, my favorite, never work ever again and just do whatever the hell I want.

I like the last ambitious thought, "Never work ever again and just do whatever the hell I want." Jason Castro and I believe that we were not meant to work. Don't get us wrong, we are some of the hardest working people we know. We're just very social. Be assured though, that we are at the top of our game in our area of expertise. We just are.

When we graduated from high school, we went straight to college. Some folks decided to marry their high school sweetheart, but Jason and I ditched ours. You would think that our college experience would have allowed us to find someone to marry, but instead of getting married, we chose to get educated and went to graduate school.

So here we are today. I quit my job after scheming about it for two years. Jason had previously quit his, too, and transitioned into a new career field. I go on a disguised roadtrip when really I'm moving. We're both plotting our next move, still. We both believe we can't hold down a job for more than two years because we get bored. It's characteristic of our generation, and hell, our pay scale makes it so that we don't love it that much to stay, so we leave. But for the most part, we're happy. We constantly yearn for things we can't have, but we have problems other people only wish they could have.

I am writing this because I'm convinced I have conquered D.C. as of last night. When you find yourself at a diner in D.C. with folks who help key people in political office, and you're sharing with them your personal thoughts about life, about how there's got to be something bigger and better out there for all of us--I feel it's worth claiming D.C. with my flag on this one.

I could live here, I really could. But I'd need purpose. Extreme purpose.

I'm taking in the sights and sounds of Maryland, the flow of the traffic which often times resembles water to me, and then I think of Paul and Noe and how much I miss them. How I had just created the two best concert buddies I could have ever created and now, because of the up and go characteristic of my generation, I up and left. I wonder, what is the evolutionary purpose of being mobile in today's world? Back in the day, folk had to be mobile in order to survive. To find the best resources, to find more food and water. To find the best climate, to live in the best terrain maybe, where winters weren't so harsh. I don't know what it is, or why it is that I have struggled with two things in the last eleven years:

1. Where should I go?
2. How long should I stay when I get there?

Is it possible that I'm tired of this planet? I really believe in the unknown...

I enjoyed last night. The National Harbor flies the Guam and CNMI flags. I am convinced that I can be planted just about anywhere, the most random place, much like those flags. But I know it wouldn't be forever, and only a matter of time before I'll want to leave again...

(and I'll walk away next time instead of running.)