The e2 frog pond gulp

Friday 11/17/00

Quite possibly the most hastily arranged e2 get-together ever. Randir decided friday that he really wanted to go skating on the recently opened frog pond in the Boston Common and, damn it, he was gonna get someone to go with him. Long story short a few minutes after 7:00 pm Orion, Randir, Illumina, drunkenmonkey, cahla, and I were standing in or around the fountain on the east end of the commons. Side note: Orion does not answer to Orion.

After introducing ourselves and finding out cahla lived just around the corner from me we tromped off to Bennigans (one of those crappy faux Americana restaurant chains where you are lucky to find even one vegetarian entree) to fill our tummies. They were fresh out of tables for six when we got there so we decided to begin Orions alcoholic education (tasted everyone's beers and then got himself a Cider Jack). We co-opted a table at the bar occupied by a cute ski bum whose name I forget. Tom? Ted? Something like that...

We got a table soon after and commenced laughing, eating, and getting to know each other in a manner that probably annoyed the tables with small children to no end. I'm not sure why but we're just not prone to G rated conversations... Off to the frog pond (it's not really a pond and probably never has frogs) we get there at about 10:00, and since it was to close in half an hour the ice was not in the greatest of shape. In fact, I would say that it was the worst ice I have ever seen anyone skate on. With, rented skates on our feet (cahla and I both opted for boys hockey skates and later regretted it: pain pain pain  we proceeded to wobble, wibble, and slooosh, while generally not trying to get caught in any of the myriad ruts that grabbed at your blades and tried to take control.

After getting kicked out with everyone else we smiled muchly at the comfort of our walking shoes and wandered about aimlessly trying to decide what to do next. Eventually we freed the parked cars and urged them to deposit us near a bar where we could actually be ourselves. I think we ended up at Crossroads. It was quite loud downstairs but as long as you didn't mind hanging with smokers the upstairs was pretty quiet. Up we went, only to find out that this was the first bar Orion had ever been to, not counting the one at Bennigans of course. We probably would have chosen differently had we known this in advance.

Crossroads was the kind of bar where people don't go to be seen, where hanging with friends and darts appeared to be a big thing. But, really not a place to write home about. We continued Orions alcoholic education with Mike's Hard Lemonade and probably something else. Many verbal getting to know you nodes ensued until cahla and I were starting to fall asleep. Topic along the way included "why not tattoos?", "who stars in your wet dreams?", "where were you on your 21'st birthday?", "What would you be doing if you weren't here with us?" "The misnaming of the Golden Banana.","Why the hell does this city close so early?"Being not quite used to hanging with so many loud, silly, obnoxious, outgoing, gay/bi/straight/whatever people with tattoos, piercings, hair, and what have you people Orion wasn't quite sure how to fit into the conversations, but I think he had fun anyway.

Rather than falling asleep at the bar, we opted to find our beds. It should probably be noted that by this time Orion was at least two hours late for his train home. that's right mom, not only is he hanging with a bunch of strangers from the internet in a city he has only been to twice, but he is getting liquefied in a bar, and preparing to spend the night at some strange girls house. Ahh, there are few greater pleasures than corrupting the youth of America. :) Surprisingly, Orion appeared fairly sober. If he hadn't he wouldn't have been sleeping at my place. Unfortunately, he wasn't drunk enough to appreciate any of the bands I listen to.

The next morning I meandered out into the living room to find him still asleep with is shoes on, what a silly boy. Anyone considering sleeping with this boy should know that he is almost completely silent in the mornings.

Hopefully the other participants will add their thoughts below. hint hint.

The ski bum’s name was Mike…. How forgetful we all are. Actually, I specifically addressed Mike as Mike when we departed from his table. The table which we invited ourselves to become part of. It is quite possible his name is Tom, Dick or Harry, but hey… I called him Mike. Same difference. Bennigan’s had a free meal just waiting for us. Masukomi’s choice between “vegetable stir fry” and “vegetable stir fry” should have mentioned that one was half frozen. I dunno what the other one was, it might have actually been cooked. We’ll never know. I guess we were distracted enough having fun because no one bitched about it. But it was my idea to complain, so I did my part. Someone else should have stepped up to actually speak to the waitress!

As far as the Frog Pond is concerned, yeah… not one frog in site. In fact, as I stated to Orion, aka Sirius, the Frog Pond is at other times (when it’s not cold) a fountain. It’s blatant false advertising if you ask me. I want frogs, damn it! The frogs would most certainly be ashamed to skate there, too, I’m betting. The skates sucked. Plain and simple. They were not sharp, for some reason, the front part of my blade was covered by a plastic film that prevented me from leaning forward while skating, which as anyone who skates knows… is the prime position. Putting weight on the front of my skates made me abruptly stop skating. So, trying to skate entirely upright is difficult. But I learned… I have tips if anyone wants them. Hey, I didn’t fall! Woo! Drunkenmonkey gets the best skater award by far. He had never skated before and just tore up the ice. He worked up a sweat even! Favorite drunkenmonkey quote: “I like skating!”

Crossroads is the most quiet bar ever. You can hear yourself think, hell… you can even hear your neighbor think, it’s that quiet. Orion/Sirius has no basis for comparison so, trust me, Sprint would be there to record the “pin drop” commercial. "Getting to know you" nodes were great. And yes, the Golden Banana doesn’t have any bananas in site, or anything resembling a banana for that manner. I believe it was Randir’s comment that it should have been named the Golden Mellons.

As that night slowly comes back to me, I’ll be sure to add more. But I had fun! I am being pressured to finish up this node, so here ya go already! :)

Good time does not need to be organized ahead of time. You just let it happen. Go with the flow.

It's Friday. cobie has the urge to go ice-skating on the newly opened frog pond in the Boston Common. He calls out to Boston noders on #e to come hang out. He wants to do a few things this weekend one of them being skating. So pretty soon, after going back and forth, urging this and that person, we have Orion, cahla, masukomi, illumina, drunkenmonkey and cobie forming a group ready to take over Boston. I would be meeting Orion and cahla for the first time.

I could not say no this time. Cobie had invited me and masukomi to skating on Wednesday and had turned him down. We got glares from him on #e. And I got plenty more while driving him to and from work. Besides I was in the mood to go out.

Anyhoo, we all met up at the Park Street station and went in search of food. We found what looked like food at Bennigans nearby. masukomi had limited luck. Can't take that vegie girl anywhere. The group rocked tho. We were loud. We were having fun. Conversations went this way and that way. Everyone had some sort of beer except me. I had some coke. Drinking and then skating. How irresponsible. It was clear that quite a few things were new to Orion, having been to Boston only twice before. He was taking it all in. Cahla was cool. Funny and engaging. Made the night even better.

We all stumbled out of the restaurant and arrived at the pond. The skates sucked. I still have broken skin because of it. The ice was all powdery and reminded me of the few times I've skied. Luckily I did not encounter any frogs. This was my first time. Loved it, despite the ice and the skates. Did not fall. But the balance of the Universe being what it is, I probably will meet the ice the next time around. masukomi and cobie looked like pros. illumina had to leave halfway thru.

After the skating we headed to a bar in 2 cars. BTW if you need a good decent parking area around Boston Common, try the garage right underneath it, the Boston Common Garage. Flat rate for the day during weekdays. We got to Crossroads soon afterwards. First went upstairs, then downstairs and then upstairs again. We made noise again. And that's always a good thing. Never ran out of things to talk about. I finally had some alcohol for the night. We stayed long enough for Orion to miss his train and stayed over at masukomi's.

We should do this again. More noders are welcome.

Next time, we're going to Golden Banana. yeah.

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I'm kidding about the Golden Banana thing. Sorta.

ps. I hope this w/u satisfies masukomi, otherwise she can go and deal. thpth!!