BJ!

Oh BJ. She was so wonderful. I spotted her outside CVS with an adorable puppy and I HAD to go talk to her. Mainly because her puppy looked so cute. But also because she seemed fairly nice and looked slightly bored. When I went outside and introduced my blog she told me I looked "very pleasant" and that she would love to talk to me. Okay, as many times as I do this, it's nice to hear some affirmation that I'm not being a total creeper. Also, it's nice to be complimented in general. I was definitely enjoying my encounter.

The first thing I asked her was what her dog's name was. Get this: it was Boston!!!!! So weird. (Because I live in Boston.) And as it turned out, she lived there too! Close to the coast, lucky lady. I really liked how friendly she was. I mean she was asking me more questions about my life than I was asking her. A lot more. I wish I had gotten her contact information because she definitely would have been one of those people that would have written a guest blog post. 

She was very knowledgeable of the Boston area. Weird situation: she moved from Boston to SD in order to escape the weather. Now she wants to move back because she misses the weather. I wonder if that's going to happen to me when I leave Boston. BJ goes cross country skiing when it gets snowy...through the city! I did not know people did that. As soon as I get back, I'm going to have to ask someone about that. She also encouraged me to invest time in learning a winter sport. That was a worthwhile suggestion that I definitely think I'll try to follow.

BJ - Your dog is adorable and you are a sweetheart. Thanks for talking to us for a bit! Maybe I'll bump into you in Boston?

John at Vons

"Make sure you get the golds"

It's very hard to find friends in the suburbs. First of all, I feel weirder about it because people in my town seem more private. Or maybe it's just my imagination but regardless, I feel more in my element finding friends in Boston.

My friend today was very welcoming though. He was sitting on a bench outside of Vons listening to his iPod and although wary when I first approached him, he warmed when I explained my purpose. His accent  was so charming!

John is from Louisiana. He has only lived out here for a year and LOVES it. After hearing his description of Louisiana, who wouldn't? 15 degrees during the winter and 110 during the summer? No thanks. Another reason why he moved out here was because of Hurricane Katrina.

Trailer that FEMA gave him

He and his neighbors scattered across the United States, mainly westward, after trying to restart their lives in Louisiana. John had to stay in a hotel for a year after the flooding and FEMA only gave him 2,000 dollars plus food stamps in compensation for the flooding. According to him, it was not enough to replace his home and memories. After that first year, he got a FEMA trailer and stuck it out for four years before moving to San Diego. He now works at Vons and dislikes the higher cost of living but lower wages.

John - I really wish I had gotten to talk to you for longer. You have a great personality and an interesting life. Hopefully I'll see you around again before I leave for Boston. Happy almost Thanksgiving!

Colby, Seat Buddy

Colby and I got so lucky! I got a window seat, he got an aisle seat and there was no one in the middle. Thank goodness. I bet he was silently thanking God to as I pulled out my Nyquill, tissues and Halls throat soothers. Poor kid, I'd hate to be the one stuck next to the sick person on a plane.


Well, I learned what Lafayette was today - a college that Colby attends in Pennsylvania. It's his freshman year and he's having doubts but the way he was talking about his life at school, I know he loves it. Apparently they have a large rivalry with Lehigh University. In fact, it's the oldest college football rivalry in American history. Fun fact!

I liked his headphones. And his iPad. I think the iPad is a technology that you can mock until you see it and realize how super cool it looks! He watched Entourage for most of the flight.

Silence was key in our friendship. Mainly because he was busy doing work and I was busy sleeping off sickness. Nonetheless, throughout the flight we occasionally exchanged words. It was nice to have a silent friend because normally I like to fill up every gap in conversation with words but sometimes it's easier to just coexist.

Thanks for not flipping out because of my icky coughing. You are a trouper. Have fun in SD and at Lafayette!

Hojo Security Guard

He's a self made man and loves a good story. Today my new friend was my favorite security guard at Hojo. When I misplaced my ID card at the beginning of the year he was the nicest one and never gave me a hard time. Also, if I am coming home from work and I am carrying a lot of bagels - sometimes he just lets me walk through. Partially because he knows how tired I am and also because he recognized my face.

I liked his interest in learning how things worked. Recently, his washing machine broke and he watched youtube videos to figure out how to fix it! Very resourceful. His goal is to eventually build a laptop. Hopefully he will do so when I'm still at BU so I can check it out.

We talked about the book he was reading. I forgot the name but it was a mystery novel. I wasn't aware that he was such an avid reader! We exchanged the names of our latest good reads. It's nice to know if I want to talk books with someone, I can do so with him.

I like how he is a go-getter and has such a great attitude towards the things he loves to do. I am soo happy I got to get to know him better than just swiping my ID and walking past. Hopefully more good conversations will ensue.

Laundry Friend

Kiyoshi Harada would be proud. I met my new friend in the laundry room. Let me apologize in advance for the lack of picture and lack of name...I have a reason. But that'll come later.

Funny - the farthest laundry machine in 

Hojo was also out of order...

First, it's story time!

So I have needed to do my laundry for a while now. I don't have clothes anymore. Since I'm leaving for home in a few days, I figured it was about time for me to stop putting it off! I usually get around to doing laundry early in the morning - when people never do their laundry. Today, though, it was a nighttime activity. When I went down...all the machines were being used. And there was someone waiting to use one!

Sad :(

Shortly afterwards, I realized there was one machine that was finished with it's cycle. The boy that was waiting was too nice to take the girl's clothes out! How honorable. I wasn't going to stand for this injustice! He needed a machine. So I suggested he take her clothes out after about 10 minutes. Waiting any longer this late at night is ridiculous. We started conversing and I decided he was a very nice guy. He's not very talkative but great at sustaining a conversation if I provide discussion topics. What more could I ask for to pass the time? We talked about the basics and then came back to the dilemma of taking clothes out of the laundry machines. Finally, I'm happy to say I inspired him to take clothes out of the dryer next to the one that initially stopped. The other washer had been off for about the same time, and there were less clothes to intrude upon. Baby steps. :)

EXPLANATION: This is why I didn't get his name. Our conversation was so casual and so natural that I couldn't bring myself to ruin it. Okay, so I'm being dramatic. It wouldn't have been ruined but the mood would have changed significantly. I should probably tell him at some point that I wrote about him - my rationale for why I didn't have to tell him immediately was that I included no personal facts about him.

(Smiling at the wonders of spontaneous conversation)

In fact, this post is more about the wonders of a spontaneous conversation. I am almost positive if I see him again, we will wave at each other, but we still don't know each other's names. Perhaps in the future I'll figure his out and vice versa. Or not. Either way is perfectly fine. We had a great talk and I learned more about him than some of the people in my blog whose names I knew.

Thanks for a great talk, laundry friend. Perhaps I'll see you again when I retrieve my clothes.

Michael Caputo, 19

My new friend is quite the athlete. We met in the elevator and he was quite an odd sight. He was carrying..a LOT of towels. Like the amount of towels he was carrying went up past his head and he had to angle back to hold them all. On top of that, he seemed surprised when I asked him why he was carrying so many towels. Bet you are wondering why the towels....WELL. I guess this is a good thing: Michael enjoyed being clean. And runs a lot. Thus he does the responsible boy thing. Instead of washing his towels often, he just has a lot of them. I mean honestly it's a really smart system.

This kid runs so much that he's a D1 athlete and represents our school! Yayyy Go Michael! I wish I had met him earlier because he's such an interesting dude. He is very quiet and his voice is calm. Nonetheless, if you have a conversation with him, it's going to be really interesting. He has a great attitude and works really hard. I mean running all the time sounds tiring enough...but it's not enough for Michael. He is ALSO premed.

Our conversation flowed easily and there were no awkward pauses. After the week I have been having of people unwilling to talk, this was a great break. He was so easy to talk to! Also, I am not sure if this is actually a thing, but has anyone ever experienced a conversation that just happened so naturally and without any effort so that afterwards it was hard to remember what you talked about? Just because all the topics jumped around so much without trying to do so. Well, that's what happened to me so whether or not it's a thing, I'm trying for the life of me to remember what else we talked about. Maybe I'll just leave it at this: Michael is a must-meet. I suggest you attempt to, or you will miss out on a good conversation and very chill new friend!

On a side note, I forgot to ask Michael about his necklace. It was an interesting cross, very shiny. I'm sure there's some sort of story behind why he bought it. But he lives on my floor, so Michael, you know what I'm asking you the next time I see you, dude.

Chloe the Birthday Girl

Happy birthday Chloe!

So after SUCH a busy week, I had no idea where to meet someone. I travelled a few doors down to my friend's dorm - Towers. Angeera has a lot of friends and so it was pretty easy for her to find someone for me to meet.

Chloe had such a polite demeanor. I could tell she was thoroughly weirded out by the situation. So weirded out, in fact, that she confirmed multiple times with Angeera that I wasn't a random person. She's guarded but surprisingly has no nervous ticks. Usually people that I talk to will have some sort of a fidgeting habit (no offense new friends, it's completely normal) but I admired her ability to stand still. Hopefully that's not a totally awkward comment to make about her. Since I fidget excessively, I guess I notice that more about other people. Well Chloe, I think that just means you are really confident. Although I'm not completely sure and I should probably look that up.

She has 3 dogs! So jealous. Although apparently she doesn't like one of them because he is old? I'm hoping there's another reason besides that, perhaps one she forgot to mention. Chloe, just be lucky you have dogs.

In hindsight, there were a lot of other conversation topics that were relevant and I failed to ask her:
1. How did you celebrate your birthday?
2. Are you going home for Thanksgiving?
3. Did you see Harry Potter last night?

^All wonderful possibilities.

I'm sorry I freaked you out, have a good rest of your birthday!