Mooyah Roll Call (And a Clarification on the Cantaloupe Controversy)

Hello Friends! It's been a pretty fun week out here in alternatively sunny and rainy Eastern Massachusetts, but I'm going to focus this post just on what we got up to in Boston yesterday.

Sunday morning, I arose bright and early, took an eager whiff of the morning air and I just knew: Rachel was coming to town. I got to go pick her up from the commuter rail station (which I have to admit, it was pretty weird to see Rachel on my home turf at the Norwood train station), and then we went to my house where she made a delicious lunch of ziti rigati that she allowed me to try some of. I know Ratatouille's 12th anniversary was Saturday but it was a meal Remy himself could have been proud of.

Then we caught the train in to South Station to meet up with Karina, and even though we had a tough time finding her at first, we finally all united on the mezzanine above the food court. We shot the breeze for a bit and then went out to Hit the Town, specifically Boston Common and the Swan Boats in the Public Garden. But it seemed that mother nature was determined to beat us to the punch because just as we arrived at the Common and started to look around the India Festival that was happening, it started to rain - lightly at first, and then really hard.

Luckily we found a safe haven just across the street, in the form of a fast food restaurant known as "Mooyah." I was unfamiliar with the establishment but impressed by the quantity of Idaho Hand-Cut Potato Fries I received for just over 2$. Also I made Rachel take a picture with the wall because it represented both of her home states - and a kind woman helped us get the picture just right (my photography abilities are lacking though, she did all that could have done for me)

Karina was also excited about "Moodle" next to Texas

After the rain died down a bit, we headed back to the Common and sat in front of this Civil War memorial statue to play 20 Questions. Rachel and Karina both thought of some really hard ones and we had some debates over what it means to be "from a movie" or to "see someone in person" and we were in a lot of people's pictures because we were sitting literally right in front of the plaque for the statue.

We walked around the Public Garden for a little, but because of the weather we couldn't ride the swan boats. I'm a little bummed that I couldn't get on a boat with Karina and Rachel because I want to ride the boats with all of you guys (so far, I've ridden with Naoni, Anna, and Caitlin), but I'm determined to make it happen next time!

Locked up :/

Also on the way out of the Common we saw Keytar Bear! He's a local legend - basically this guy who dresses up in a bear costume and plays keytar (as the name would imply) around random places in Boston. I love him and I've only seen him "in person" once before - over two years ago! He's been attacked a couple times by some delinquents, but he comes back, stronger than ever, playing keytar.

In the evening, we met up with Caitlin, who had literally just hopped off the bus from New York, and luckily I saw her come into South Station because by this point all of our phones were nearly dead. We all went to a restaurant in Chinatown and ate together and it was a really nice way to end off the most fun day I've had in a string of really fun days!

Rachel and Caitlin being cute :^)

The Whole Gang, in three parts

When I dropped Rachel off at the train station this morning, it actually hit me that, "Oh. This is going to be the last time I see you for a while." Now that Naoni and I are leaving for Japan in just 10 short days, I'm going to start feeling that a whole lot more, I think. It's pretty weird to think that I won't be on campus next semester, and neither will Rachel, and I just won't see a lot of you guys for a long time potentially! And the future is so imminent! I was talking to Naoni afterward and she reminded me that "different isn't bad, even if it feels like it is." Now I just need to keep reminding myself that too.

But as we were saying goodbye, Rachel also brought up a good point about how it's really nice that we have the blog to stay in touch by, because when you see someone after a long time and ask what they were up to, you inevitably miss out on so many little things. With the blog, we get to see each week of each other's lives and hear about all those little things that we might forget to tell each other about months later, and I think that's so nice :^) I'm really grateful that we're doing this, you guys.

Anyway I don't really know what it is - something with my hormones right now or just a string of really good days, but I've been feeling so happy recently I hardly know what to do with myself. I can get let myself get overwhelmed by negative emotion pretty easily - too rarely do I find myself overwhelmed with positive emotions. I feel very full of love right now and - maybe this will jinx it - but this summer has been probably the most fun summer of my whole life just in the past two months alone. I hope you're all having great weeks too. There's so much to do in my life right now and for once I'm so excited to do it all.

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ALSO IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are a Snapchat user and saw a snapchat on Rachel's story yesterday that said, "Erin's Cantaloupe [x eyes emoji, x eyes emoji]" that is NOT an accurate statement. It was my mother's cantaloupe. I've discussed this matter with Rachel and we're getting it sorted out, so there's no bad blood or anything I just wanted to clear things up ASAP because I don't want people to start asking me about my cantaloupe and create any more confusion.