Goat Man, and other tales from the land of yacht clubs and not much else

Pampered Chef Party

Last Friday immediately after work I jumped in my car and drove two hours down to a Pampered Chef party at my cousin Kristin's house in Connecticut. At a Pampered Chef party, or any other home sales parties, a consultant from the company comes to the host's house and gives a demonstration then hands out catalogues for people to buy things from. Pampered Chef sells cooking supplies, so there were myriad hors d'oeurves made using the cooking utensils set out for the ladies to eat (that's another thing, usually only women attend these parties). The consultant stood in front of us holding up different cooking items, such as large non-stick skillets and spatulas, and explaining why each was unique and practical, and worth paying three times as much as target would sell it for. The main dish of the night that she made in front of us was barbecue chicken sandwiches. All the ladies at the party were impressed because she put chicken in a large stone casserole dish and put it in the microwave for 20 minutes and it came out cooked. I don't mean to be rude, I own a few things from pampered chef, but I put chicken in my microwave to defrost it and if I leave it in for more than a minute or two it begins to cook, so the large stone dish for over $50 seemed a bit unnecessary. However, the sandwiches were delicious. The girlfriend of another cousin was there with me and she and I were flipping through the catalogue trying to figure out what would cause people to think they needed half the stuff in there (a soda can opener? what, so you don't break a nail?).

The entirely necessary microwave chicken cooker, only $85

Watch Hill

The next day my parents promised me we could go to the Watch Hill beach in Rhode Island. It is one of my favorite beaches and only an hour from my house in Connecticut, but two hours from Boston, so it is easier for me to get there from my parents' house. Watch Hill is like a mini version of Matha's Vineyard (or so I'm told, I've never been to Martha's Vineyard). It's a small town in the corner of the state on the Atlantic Ocean with high end yacht club stores and cafes, a ton of beautiful boats and houses, and gorgeous beaches with large waves.

Main road by the harbor and beach in Watch Hill

East Hampton Party

Saturday night I got together with some close friends from home. Justin has a beautiful in-ground pool in his backyard and at least once each summer he invites people over to swim and hang out at night. This time Lily, Dave, and Olivia were there as well as two other friends they had from college. One guy did these crazy card magic tricks for us and the other one, Olivia's boyfriend, was from Romania and a little crazy himself. For example, I learned from him that you can go over 100 mph on a motorcycle on the highway and cops won't chase after you for liability reasons. He knows this from experience. I got a weird feeling of deja vu while at Justin's house that night: I have known these friends for at least 4 years, and some as long as 9 years, and even though I'm in law school now and they are in or finishing college, it's as if nothing as changed from middle school and high school. We would have been sitting around talking about almost the same things 5 years ago that we did that night. Like when Justin brought up yet another random yet hilarious news story he had seen recently: " 'Goat Man' spotted..." Look for yourself: Goat Man news article.

Camilo Comes Home!

I drove back to Boston Sunday night with only two more days until Camilo flew home from Europe. I think I occupied myself pretty well for two weeks while he was gone. It was still great to see him at the airport as he emerged from the customs and border patrol area. I practically ran over to him and he gave me the biggest hug ever even though he was wicked tired and jet lagged. Even after two weeks running around Europe, which I was definitely jealous of, he was so happy to be home and see me again, almost as happy as I was to have him back.

Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez Concert

Last night was probably the most exciting night I've had in the past two weeks: my parents came up to Boston to go to the Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez concert with me!!! As a joint birthday present for my mom and I, my parents bought second row balcony tickets for this concert. I have been looking forward to it for months. 

My mom, me, and my dad from our seats overlooking the stage in between acts

Before the concert, audience members could text messages to be shown on the jumbo tron. My parents totally surprised me-which they rarely accomplish anymore- by putting "Happy Birthday Kelly S Aug 2! Love mom and dad" on the screen! At first, I was surprised that someone else named Kelly S shared my birthday, but quickly realized it was for me. That was so sweet of them. Also before the concert my mom and I went to get drinks. I just got a soda but she wanted a beer. At all sports arenas in Boston, you have to have either a Massachusetts ID or passport to buy alcohol if you're under 25, and you get carded if you look under 30. My mom got carded, and after a few moments the cashier handed back her Connecticut driver's license and apologized. I'm sure she took it as a compliment.

Even though I saw Enrique Iglesias in concert in September and he had exactly the same set, including bringing fans on stage with him and dancing with one girl to "Hero," he was still an incredible performer and singer, and we all enjoyed his act. Jennifer Lopez was a bit more into performing, as she had back-up dancers and some story lines in her performance, but her part of the show was just as good. My favorite part of her set was when she sang my favorite song off her new album, "Until It Beats No More," and actually had a montage of videos and photos of her with her children during the song. I was a bit unsure about attending a concert with my parents, but all three of us were singing and dancing, screaming, yelling, clapping, and waving our hands in the air throughout the whole thing, so it turned out to be a great night.

Mid-Summer Festivities

Last Wednesday, I went to Logan Airport to see Camilo off on his two-week vacation to Europe and around 6:30 found myself faced with almost two completely free weeks! In honor of officially moving in to my apartment one year ago, I decided to do a top-to-bottom cleaning of all five rooms, one room per day. The lady doing my manicure on Friday looked at me like I had three eyes when I told her my Friday night plans were to organize, dust, and vacuum my living room. I must have sounded like the most lame client she ever had, and it stopped pretty much all conversation between us for the entire hour long appointment. I didn't feel like explaining to her that the week before, I had left for work at 8am with the intention of having a couple of drinks after work before heading home, and instead found myself leaving a club at 2am that night. I also didn't think I should mention to her that it was my "annual" cleaning, and that usually I don't have time or energy to do a thorough cleaning of my apartment.

I got done with my bedroom and my living room, and by Saturday I was bored with my plan, so I drove home to visit my parents for the day. This past weekend was the Old Home Day town fair in East Hampton. East Hampton has a population of about 14,000: about 1/3 of the population moved there sometime in the past twenty years, and 2/3 probably had their great great grandparents living there. The town fair is generally populated by the recent 1/3 and their children on Thursday night, middle and high school students on Friday night, and the latter 2/3 of the population on Saturday. When my family stopped by to get some lunch on Saturday afternoon, it was almost scary to realize that this was where I had grown up. I actually have a lot of pride in and love for my hometown, but it's not necessarily the most exciting place in the world. Therefore, I was surprised that one of Connecticut's Senators, Senator Richard Blumenthal, was at our small town fair speaking about how great East Hampton is and how we need to work together to rebuild the bell factory that burnt down last month. He must have been trying to win votes for November. His speech was followed by a town councilman (councilwoman?), who claimed that East Hampton would "once again" be the jewel of the state and the nation. Just to be clear, I'm pretty sure that in order to be the jewel "once again," it had to have been the jewel of the nation before, and I can guarantee that most of the country has never heard of my town before. 

After eating fried and greasy fair food, we left to spend the day on the boat. It was so hot out that all of us jumped in the water. Though I love living in Boston most of the time, I miss having summer at home where I can take the boat on the lake or down the river on any nice day, and drive an hour to the beach whenever I want. At least having my car in Boston allows me to go home or to the beach from time to time to pretend I still have that freedom.

Saturday night I had to get back to Boston to celebrate Erin's birthday! I met Erin the first day I got to BC. We were both in marching band together and so arrived on campus two weeks before classes began. We were also assigned to be freshmen roommates. Except when I studied abroad, we lived together all 4 years at BC. With our birthdays being in the summer, this was the first year we could celebrate together and I was definitely not going to miss it. We went out with four other friends from BC, Deb, Andrew, Mikey, and Brian, to a bar with a dance floor. Deb and Mikey turned 21 this year, so it was the first time the 6 of us went out dancing together and it was such an amazing night! I know Erin had fun, which is most important, but I also had a lot of fun and am glad I was able to go. I even ran into a group of friends from law school who I had not expected to see that night.

Now that the weekend is over it is back to cleaning and cooking. My discovery of the week is that the recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the back of the chocolate chip bag yields about 4 dozen cookies. I had all the ingredients at home and just wanted to bake something: now I have 4 dozen cookies in my kitchen that I really don't want to eat (so if anyone wants them, please tell me!). I love cooking and baking and trying new recipes, but if I eat everything I make I will probably gain 50 pounds. My apartment is too small for a dinner party or I would just invite a ton of people over and serve a 10 course meal, French style. I need to find people or occasions to cook and make food for so that I can continue to pursue my passion of trying new, fun, and exotic recipes while avoiding the inevitable weight gain in the process.

Fourth of July week in Boston

Happy Fourth of July!! We only got Wednesday off from work, but I feel like I have been celebrating all week long.

Katie's Graduation Party

It began on Saturday when I drove down to East Hampton for Katie's graduation party. I have been friends with Katie for over 8 years and have known her pretty much forever (we played Park and Rec basketball together in 5th grade! there are some really priceless pictures of us from that team), so she is one of the few people for whom I would drive 4 hours in one day for a graduation party. I had a great time so it was well worth it- I got to spend time with Katie as well as a few other really good friends, Alicia, Lily, and Tyler. Other than us, a lot of Katie's family and neighbors were there. It was such a beautiful day out and a chill backyard party, so we all had a chance to catch up with each other. I've more or less officially and permanently moved to Boston, and Katie and Tyler moved to their own apartment in New York two days after the party, so since we're all spreading out, it's rare to get time to hang out together like at the graduation party.

Tennis and Hampton Beach

The next day I continued to take full advantage of the summer by playing tennis for an hour in the morning with Camilo and going to the beach with my friend from undergrad Sarah and her sister in the afternoon. Camilo and I have been dating for over 9 months and friends for over 2 years, and this was the first time we managed to find a nice day without plans when we could both wake up early enough to get to the courts! I drove an hour up to Hampton Beach earlier to meet Sarah and her sister. It was both my first time going to Hampton Beach and the first time I had seen Sarah since she returned from studying abroad in China.Though I had followed her blog during the past semester, hearing her stories were still unreal. She had practically no internet connection and basically couldn't leave the country on her visas if she wanted to get back in. The beach was packed because it was so hot out. We would lie on the beach for about an hour and get really warm, then jump in the 55 degree water and run back out. Actually, Sarah and her sister would jump in, I went in up to my ankles and ran out because it was numbing-cold.

Reunited on Hampton Beach

July 3rd (pre-July 4th festivities)

Our office unexpectedly got out at 3pm the day before Fourth of July, which afforded Camilo and I an opportunity to go explore the ships in town before the Pops concert at night. In honor of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, about 10 foreign naval ships sailed in to Boston Harbor for the week. On Tuesday, we went to see the Norwegian and Danish frigates, and were able to take a free tour of the Norwegian one (the Thor Heyerdahl). The sailor who gave us the tour was about our age, maybe younger, but he was explaining how he was in charge of one of the biggest sets of guns on the ship. We got to walk around the bridge (the control room) and see a lot of the different guns on the ship. We even held and looked through the sailor's on-deck gun. I think Camilo may have enjoyed the tour a bit more because it focused on the fighting and war games the ship plays with others, but I have to admit it was cool to tour an active navy ship.

In front of the Norwegian ship (Danish ship next to it)

At night we met up with Brigid and went to watch the Boston Pops perform on the Esplanade. It was packed by the Hatchshell where they were performing, so we crossed over the bay to get closer to the orchestra. This was the first year I'd been in Boston for the Fourth of July, so it's the first time I've seen the Pops concert. I thought it was fantastic: first of all, it was a full-length concert for free. Not only did the Pops perform, but they were joined at various times by the Dropkick Murphys, actresses from Mama Mia, and Jennifer Hudson. We knew there would be no fireworks that night, so when the Pops played the War of 1812 after an hour and a half and left the stage, we began to pack up, thinking the concert was over. After walking away for about 5 minutes, we heard the loudspeakers near us saying that Jennifer Hudson would be on stage again soon and then "the best fireworks display in the nation!" So we went back and sat down to watch the last half hour, but unfortunately there still weren't any fireworks. The concert was still incredible, from the instrumental John Williams' selections to the Patriotic choir to the summertime sing-a-long. I really love Pops concerts.

Fourth of July!!


I did not get to really sleep in on my one day off during the week. Instead, I got up slightly later than usual to meet Camilo, Brigid, and Nicki for a holiday brunch/lunch down by the water. We ate at Joe's on the water so we could watch the USS Constitution and USCGC Eagle do their turn around in the harbor, watch the Blue Angels do their flyover, and watch the US Navy parachute men unexpectedly perform their jump. 

USCGC Sailing through Boston Harbor

After lunch, Camilo and I went to the other site of the tall ships to tour naval ships from Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Colombia. He was of course most excited about the Colombian ship, the ARC Gloria, which is the flagship of the Colombian Navy, so we went on that first.

Standing with the Colombian ship in the background

It was really impressive, new, and one of the largest ones there. Toward the aft of the ship, they set up a table where they were selling stuff the brought from Colombia. There were a ton of t-shirts, bags, jewelry, and some rum. I was particularly confused by these sombrero earrings in the color of the Colombian flag, but Camilo swears they are very popular at home and people wear them around a lot.

An example of the curious Colombian earrings

After viewing the foreign ships, we increased our patriotism by watching a Cape Verde concert in Government Center while waiting for my parents. It was their 25th Anniversary and so they also came to Boston for the first time on the Fourth of July to watch the concert and take a mini-vacation to celebrate. They went off on their own for dinner and drinks as Camilo and I went to find Brigid and Nicki again to picnic and watch the fireworks for real. We showed up 2 hours early with our blankets, drinks, and snacks, and spent time making fun of the crazy people around us, including a local Hispanic family where the mother spit and entire mouthful of water out on either her husband or brother, and a group of high schoolers who we couldn't quite tell which was dating which. We also watched a lightning storm rapidly approaching the fireworks area from Cambridge. Luckily the lightning never got to us or the river, but the concert was interrupted for a half hour, and the fireworks almost delayed as the Esplanade near the concert was evacuated. Finally, just as the rainstorm began, so did the fireworks. They were impressive, but the craziest and most impressive thing that night was that Boston got thousands of residents and tourists to stand in a downpour to watch a few explosions in the sky.


CeCe's Goodbye Party


Last fall I realized I knew one of Camilo's co-workers from BC: CeCe had dated a guy I knew from band for a number of years. She stopped being Camilo's co-worker on Friday, so I joined Camilo and some others from LEK to celebrate her last day of work. We expected the celebration to be a few drinks and maybe dinner at their favorite happy hour bar, the Tap, and the night began as such. We were about 10 people, including 2 swaps from the Sydney office and one from the London office. Because there were other Aussies around, I invited Brigid to join us as we moved to the Cactus Club for margaritas and apps. After staying there for about an hour, we proceeded to go downtown to the Estate nightclub. I was rather excited, as Camilo and I have not had a proper night out in a while. There was no line and no cover, so we all walked right in. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of people either, but we were a large enough group that it was alright. Although I enjoy spending time with my law school friends, it was interesting and a lot of fun to go out with some non-law students. We all had an amazing time, and CeCe really appreciated everyone who went out to celebrate with her.

Myself, Brigid, Laila (Camilo's co-worker), Ben (Aussie swap), and CeCe

Cape Cod Beach


Somehow Camilo convinced me to spend a day on the Cape, but since we were invited by some of his friends from work I couldn't really protest. My previous experience on the Cape was driving from home for 3 hours, only stopping for dinner, and driving home because we couldn't find anything exciting to do. My impression was that it's a northern version of retirement country Florida where people went if they couldn't afford a real vacation like to the Caribbean or Europe. However, after today, I admit it's not quite that bad. We sat on Marconi beach for about 4 hours, went in the water, did some body surfing, tried to play whiffle ball, and walked around the sand. Afterwards, we stopped at a local fish shack for clam chowder, lobster bisque, lobster rolls, and fish sandwiches. I rested for most of the way home, but one part of the ride I remember is when Eric Clapton's "Layla" came on the radio, and instantly I thought of the two O'Connor beach trips I took with my Honors class at BC. I still think I would prefer going to Watch Hill in Rhode Island if I'm going to drive over 2 hours for the beach, but the Cape might be nice for a weekend trip sometime so we can stay late, have a bonfire on the beach by night, and wake up to the sand and waves in the morning.