4 June 2006: Boston Aids Walk

After living in a residence hall for three years now you would think I would have remembered that schools always used x-long sheets instead of typical twin sheets. However, I didn't remember! I brought these stupid sheets that used to be on my bed when I was 5 years old or something and they kept popping off the edges of the matress all night. I did however get to bed pretty early last night, around eleven o'clock and woke up about 7:30. After shower and shaving and was downstairs with everyone else to eat our quick breakfast and off to catch the T (the "T" is the Boston Subway/Trolley/Bus System).

We took the subway imto town and changed from the Green Line to the Red Line and went over to the Charles River. The Aids walk today was through a part of town called Back Bay, which evidently used to be a swamp, and then around the Charles River, it was five miles. The five miles of walking was not a problem, the problem was the checkpoints they had. Throughout the walk they had 3 checkpoints offering water, oranges, popsicles, snacks, etc. After walking for that amount of time and eating and drinking all of those water based products, you really have to pee! But there were thousands of people there, so the lines for the bathrooms (port-o-pottys) were forever long. I finally had to stop and wait. After a long wait, I relieved myself and was back in the walk. The theme this year was "from all walks of life" speaking to the indisrimination of AIDS. It was moving to see all the people their to support this cause.

After the walk we grabbed lunch at this really good sandwich shop on Charles Street and then were walking through the historical and ritzy neighborhood of Beacon Hill, supposedly it is where John Kerry lives. We made it through Beacon Hill and then into Boston Common, the first official park ever, and over to Downtown Crossing. Downtown crossing are several office buildings where there are retail stores on the first few levels of these tall buildings. One of the main buildings is Fileens, which has reduce cost clothes, rugs, and other houseware items. Even more reduced is Fileen's Basement, which is, guess what, in the basement of Fileens. Supposedly, they have this famous wedding dress sale a couple times a year where people go crazy over cheap dresses. Interesting.

Our visit to Fileen's Basement was to pick up a few more things that people had forgotten or didn't realize we would need. This seems to be a recurring theme over the past two days. I purchased bigger bottom sheet (a nautica sheet set for 8.00 mind you!) and that was it. The most popular forgotten item was a pillow. I remember mine!

Out of Fileens Basement, we traveled to TJ Max for pots and pans, which were too expensive, and then to CVS for some more bathroom supplies. After CVS, it was now about 3 something, and we were ready to cruise on back to the MCPHS Apartments. We caught the Green Line, E Track of the T at Park View station and were on our way back. A few still needed some items so we stopped at this Walgreens that is near the school (which is the one I went to the previous day) and I bought a notebook and some pots and pans for the group. Another student swung into the grocery store to buy some milk. Our idea thus far has been to buy large quantities of cheap supplies that we will all share. It seems to be working since there are only nine of us.

By this time I had quite a headache. I think it was because I haven't had any caffien in more than 2 days, I walked forever, and I've been eating kind of oddly. Back in the room I just crashed and woke up two hours later with an even worse, pounding, migraine. I took four ibuprofen but felt like I needed something more than that. Even though I'm staying in a Pharmacy School, there weren't any better remedies readily available (har har) so I took a hot shower to calm the muscles in my head. After the shower, my roommate had returned and he and I decided to head out for dinner.

We swung into this little pizza/italian place called IL MONDO. The food was very good and a pretty good price. A 12 inch italian sub, toasted, and a water was only 7 dollars. After dinner we decided to start walking the neighborhood and find out what was around. We walked in the direction of some stores we were told about and found a movie theatre. We've decided to go see Mission Impossible 3 sometime in the coming week. The threatre has great late showing times and is within walking distance.

We continued walking and found various shops, restaurants, Fenway Park (which we will go see a game at soon too!) and various churches and landmarks. Guiding us was the tall prudential center in the distance. Once to the Prudential Center, which is a tall building with a mall on the first floor, we went in to start looking around. We spent all of our time in Barnes and Nobel reading through books. On our way out we noticed the book, An Inconvienient Truth, by Al Gore. The Program Director, Dr. Ryan, has been talking about her desire to see the movie, and I believe we are going to see the movie this Friday Night. This however is the book version, but like the movie is about the traumatic effects the climate change is having on our earth. It has lots of pictures and graphns to support the claims that they have in the book.

While looking through the book, I noticed it was signed, I figured it was one of those stupid printed signatures. I grabbed another book to check. It was signed too, but it was different, so I grabbed another, it was also signed, and also different (slightly of course), and the fourth book, well, it wasn't signed, neither were the other ones. After speaking to the manager, he shared that it was a possibility that Al Gore signed the book at one of their off-site events, but he didn't know for sure. The books were signed in a manner, that suggest it was real. I bought the book for the content (and the signature!) and have it in my possession now. I just looked up Al Gore's signature on Google, and guess what, its a match!

After the prudential center, we grabbed the T and headed back for the School. Upon arrival, I grabbed a computer in their library to type this, and am currently doing so. I'll head up to the room in a minute, probably make my bed, clean up a little bit, and head to bed. Tomorrow is an even earlier morning as classes are starting.

I haven't been able to get my computer online yet, but will be able to on Monday. When that happens, I'll have photos loaded onto the blog!

AL GORE!