I’ve had a wonderfully social last few days.

On Wednesday a bunch of us hung out with surrealestate to celebrate her birthday. It was a delightful gathering in honour of a delightful person! plumtreeblossom and I had a great time.

plumtreeblossom and I went back to her place afterwards, so I got to wake up next to my sweetie and have coffee with her. On my way in to work Thursday I got Grigori Yefimovich¹ inspected.

Thursday after work I met cathijosephine, and drove with her to xmelancholia’s, where we caught up for a while, cathijosephine gave xmelancholia some excellent socks, and I got to play with big huge wonderful friendly dogs (a mastiff and a German shepherd). Yay for doggie time! And yay for seeing xmelancholia; it had been too long.

Friday docorion had arranged to get group-rate tickets to see Handel’s Messiah performed by the Handel and Haydn Society at Symphony Hall (very near where I work). My typical inability to get anywhere on time was in evidence, but in a somewhat unusual fashion: I somehow managed to get there an hour early. Anyway, I crashed docorion’s dinner nearby and at the correct time, we were all back at Symphony and plumtreeblossom and the rest of the group congregated successfully. The concert was delightful, although I felt a little odd at something so liturgical. I had never been inside Symphony Hall before, and I loved checking out the décor. I’d have loved to see what the original paint job looked like (there was very elaborate moulding and detail work, but it had all been repainted in a neutral colour). I think we all had a great time. Thanks, docorion!

Saturday plumtreeblossom and I got together with dan4th and dabunny at their place and ordered in Thai food and had a lovely time. Along the way, I learned probably three or four little facts about hockey, which at least doubles what I know about the game.

This morning (Sunday morning, although I guess technically I mean “yesterday morning” at this point), plumtreeblossom and I had a yummy and relaxed brunch at The Burren, and then I came home and resumed work on my plumbing.

My life is good!

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¹ My car.

Happy birthday to the delightful and fun surrealestate! I’m so glad you’re my friend!

So I had an awesome date with plumtreeblossom last night, with the help of nex0s, docorion, dan4th and dabunny, the awesome cast and crew of the theatreatfirst festival, gilana, surrealestate, Sears, and two lovely kitties!

First I met nex0s, docorion, and plumtreeblossom at Yoshi’s (a Japanese restaurant near plumtreeblossom’s house and theatreatfirst’s digs) for dinner and catching up while nex0s is in town. Then plumtreeblossom had to run off to get ready for her performance, and docorion suggested ice cream, so nex0s and I accompanied him to J.P. Licks in Davis Square. It was really great to get caught up with nex0s and hear some of her stories! Then nex0s and I went to the performance, where we had the unexpected delight of running into dan4th and dabunny.

The performance was a festival of short one-act plays by playwright Mark Harvey Levine, and it was fabulous! nex0s recently wrote a bit about the festival from an audience perspective, and plumtreeblossom’s post here talks about how well the festival went. It was really, really fun! I love the format — little ten-minute plays are sort of the short short stories of the stage, and I really enjoy them. Levine’s playlets are witty and entertaining and often very sweet and very funny, and the performances were all very well done.

After the plays I stayed to help a bit with strike (which mostly consisted of trying not to be in the way, since I didn’t know where anything went, but I did some vacuuming), and with such a large cast and crew (except for a little bit of doubling-up, the cast of each little play was different) the strike went pretty quickly. Then it was off to gilana’s house for a fabulous cast party. I was incapacitated by the heat for a little bit of it¹, but once I sat still for a while and cooled down I had a great time. plumtreeblossom and I spent quite a bit of the party hanging out with the lovely surrealestate (who lit up the stage as a firefly lightning bug in “In the Jar”, not to mention her development in “Cabfare for the Common Man”), and we ended up walking her home after the party. And of course, she invited us in, and, well, there was enticing green liquid. And we had some. And it was OH THE YUMMY! and we all sat out on her porch and had a lovely lovely time before plumtreeblossom and I called a cab to go to her place. (It would have been a perfectly delightful walk if it hadn’t been quite so late and we hadn’t been quite so engreenified.)

“They kiss. Lights out.”

This morning, having gotten to sleep at FOUR THIRTY IN THE MORNING, we slept until noon, with kitties keeping us company. Then we went to Sound Bites for excellent brunch, and went to Sears to get plumtreeblossom an air conditioner in advance of her mother’s visit next weekend. And then I drove back to Quincy, filled a prescription, checked on cathijosephine’s cat Chickenfinger, had dinner, and came home. I haven’t started catching up on LiveJournal.

Wow, that was a good, full, fun weekend!

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¹ It has been really hot and humid in the Boston area for a few days, and between thyroid hormone increasing my metabolism, longer hair after a many-year hiatus, and testosterone producing more muscle, my ability to handle the heat is diminished.

My last few days have been wonderful. First I should mention something I forgot to post about last time: I got in a nice long phone call with sionnagh on her birthday (July 8, or Double Independence Day as she calls it). Aside from Hamlet, the best dog in the world (see userpic), having a problem with a cut on his paw that won’t heal, it sounds like she’s doing really well. The fact that she had a birthday party the previous night, on the 7th, and it was still very much in evidence in the background of the phone call, speaks well. :-)

I already posted about last Tuesday at Walden Pond with surrealestate, which was delightful.

I had been planning on making a brief day-trip up to BiCamp on Sunday morning, so that I wouldn’t completely miss BiCamp this year, but surrealestate offered me the use of her tent Friday night, so instead I went up Friday night and came back Saturday afternoon. I am so glad I did that, and so grateful to surrealestate for her hospitality. I got to see all sorts of wonderful people from out of town, such as onemintjulep (and I got to meet his sister, the_elle_word), K. and her sweetie A., and a couple people from New Hampshire who don’t use LiveJournal. Also got some hugs in with lilbjorn and docorion, of course.

Swimming on Saturday at the swimming hole was excellent and delightful. (Crossing the rocky, slippery riverbed twice with no shoes I could get wet was somewhat less delightful. I’m very glad that my cellphone was in one of the two pockets (of six) that didn’t get utterly, utterly soaked when I fell. But swimming was totally worth it.)

And oh, my, the stars! If I believed in a Creator I would thank it profusely for the gift of small bladders forcing me to go outside in the middle of the night. Wow.

Then I came back on Saturday to a truly spectacular evening with my gorgeous girlfriend plumtreeblossom. You will forgive me if I don’t go into too much detail. Oh, and there was also good conversation!

Then we had a yummy and relaxing breakfast at The Broken Yolk (a little diner very near plumtreeblossom’s house, and the only place in the Boston area that I’ve found that has biscuits and gravy) before she went to Theatre@First for a work day or a rehearsal (I forget which). She’s a delight and I love her. (By the way, if I can let you in on a little secret, we’re dating.)

For the rest of the day, I got a little stuff done around the house — not nearly as much as I had planned, but given that I now have clean clothes to wear, I can’t complain too much.

Then yesterday (Monday) morning, I popped some corned beef and veggies in the crockpot, and last night cathijosephine came over for that and a beer. Had a great time with her, and I felt good about cooking, because I haven’t been doing nearly as much of that as I want to lately; it had been quite a while since I had the crockpot out. And it came out very good! I mentioned that I felt silly wasting all the broth but didn’t know what to do with it, and she had the awesome idea to cook pasta in it! So that’s what I did, and I just had some for lunch, and oh, my is it yumminess! That cathijosephine is smart! Walked her home (which was nice, because it was a gorgeous night and the first exercise I’d gotten all day), so I got to stop in and cuddle Chickenfinger a bit. Then I came home and puttered around on the computer for far too long and got to bed late, but I slept in a bit (I don’t have work today) and I feel really good today. The plan for the afternoon is scheduling logistics and house cleaning and organization before Diesel.

I can’t tell you all how excellent the last couple days have been, because I desperately need to sleep. I’ll just give you the bullet points:

• Went to Walden Pond with surrealestate on Tuesday, which was awesome! It was great to get there (my first time this summer), and great to get to spend the time with her. We did quite a bit of swimming and quite a bit of work on our impending melanomas. I’m so glad she suggested it! I might have forgotten to go all summer; now I want to go back as soon as possible.
• Then we had dinner at Punjabi Dhaba (sp?) in Inman Square. It was yummy, although it would have been yummier (and considerably less work) if I had remembered to ask them for no cilantro. I often forget that at Indian restaurants.
• After dinner, I got to see plumtreeblossom for Diesel-and-dinner (well, she had dinner; I had just had lunch dinner, so I just had an espresso) and walk her to her rehearsal, which was a delightful cherry on a day full of ice cream and whipped cream.
• Today, devoken got together some people to go see the new Harry Potter movie. (I hadn’t realized it was out yet, actually!) Since I recently discovered I can go to BiCamp on Friday night and stay till Saturday morning (rather than my previous plan to day-trip on Sunday morning), and I have to pack and get ready after work by then, and since I checked the T web site and knew going into it that I’d miss the last train and have to take a taxi home, this was a foolish decision. Like many foolish decisions, it’s one I don’t regret at all. Loved the movie, although I thought it was a bit compressed compared to the previous ones, and heavier on special effects. Very glad I went, and I got some great time to chat with devoken while we discovered that yes, we had missed the last train and in the cab ride (which we shared to her house, since she was more or less on the way to my house).

So yes, I’m having way too much fun. Now I need to have some sleep, too.

Had a fabulous night last night! Went to jadia's birthday dinner — happy birthday, jadia! —, which was delightful, three tables full of happy MITniks make a happy beowabbit.

Then I swung by plumtreeblossom's to pick her up and we went to a fab party at surrealestate's (and sorry for not shouting out to her housemate; I don't know his LJ name). Oh, my, that was amazing. I danced, which never happens. (Well, if you can call what I was doing dancing.) I even danced alone when Rasputin came on. And I snuggled with lots of awesome people, got to reconnect with Dreaming, whom I haven't gotten to see much of since he's been busy with school, got to check out joyeous' lovely tats, and generally had a fabulous time. Oh, and the coconut rum got the 'Wabbit Seal of Approval. Wow, surrealestate throws a wonderful party. (And it was awesome to see her, too!)

Believe it or not, plumtreeblossom and I were too tired when we got home around 4:00am! I must say, it's been a lovely morning.