Sweet Tea Mob

          It's like I've been dreaming in 4D lately. In this one, I went to prison with Harrison and Sabrina. It wasn't just a visit, since we were in for a while, but we also had special treatment, with hotel room-like quarters. I also bumped into Matt in a restroom, but we pretended not to know each other for some strategic reason. I was running a game of Risk in my room, but I left to take a phone call. When I returned, only Sabrina was left, and she cheerfully informed me that I'd been kicked out of the game. I got upset, gave her a hug and said, "It's okay. ...Just don't expect to come in here ever again." With that, I forcefully threw her out of the room, and immediately felt bad about it. If only a little bit.
          For once, however, my day was more interesting than my dreams. I woke up early to help Alaric and Sean manufacture a large amount of sandwiches for our trip. Iris, Haley, and Katie joined us, and as we set off for North Station with all manner of beach gear, it felt like a family vacation. (Aside: Does it strike anyone as mildly strange or unsafe that North Station is essentially inside of TD Garden?) Waiting for the sleepier members of our party to get their coffee fix, I noticed a Newman's Own ad which read, "Is that tasty or did I just get body checked?" The implication being that Newman's Own products are so tasty, the sensation when you drink them is indistinguishable from a hairy, armor-clad Canadian guy violently smashing you to the ground. We also discussed the mildly Orwellian Google ads all over the place. "Kaplan has gone Google." "Eastern Mountain Sports has gone Google." Can we just cut to the punchline? "Civil liberties have gone Google." I, for one, welcome our primary-color-wearing overlords.
          We rode the commuter rail for an hour or so, disembarking in the charming town of Manchester-By-the-Sea. Singing Beach was only a ten minute walk away. The beach itself was long, beautiful, and almost empty, with less than thirty people occupying the whole of it. The day was somewhat cold and windy, but not too cold to enjoy the sand or sunbathe on the rocks. We kicked a ball around, played badminton, ate food, and generally savored life. Sean, Alaric and I climbed the rocky outcropping that serves as the left endpoint of the beach, which sucked with no shoes, but at least I felt hardcore afterward. At one point I found a camera tripod behind some rocks, which was later reclaimed -- quite rudely -- by whoever had left it there. Poor Iris was subjected to this while I was off doing something, and I wish I had been there to give them some trouble. It's not like I was the one who abandoned my possessions. When it was time to go, we stopped by Captain Dusty's ice cream, a quaint little ice cream shack. I was quite pleased with my usual cookie dough, Katie went in on the surprisingly tasty ginger (delivered on a grossly overstacked cone which challenged her and Sean both), and frozen treat connoisseur Iris was completely repulsed by the Rocky Road (apparently the ingredients were all wrong). We waited around at the train stop for maybe half an hour, fooling around and taking Stand By Me pictures; for giggles, I crafted a Pain Train by hammering a long tail into an abandoned wooden handle. All in all, our beach trip was pretty amazing. I'm glad we spent some time together before everyone vanishes for the summer.
          Sean had to leave North Station immediately, but the rest of us stopped to indulge in some McDonalds food. I satisfied my hankering for a Shamrock Shake and Big Mac, we sat on a staircase and were content. It's been forever since I ate fast food, excluding Tasty Burger, which barely counts anyway. I also decided that I just wasn't in the mood for Game of Thrones and chose to skip it, meaning that I'm forbidden to watch the rest of this season until I can watch that episode. This is another reason I prefer to watch shows at my leisure rather than on a weekly basis.
          Quotes of the day:
"I can words, I swear." - Katie
"Are you my mommyyyy?" - Sean
"Google France." - Alaric
"My body just produced a sudden jolt of umadium..." - Alaric
"Advertising has gone Google." - Alaric
...
Me: "Tremendous quantitites of umadium."
Alaric: "Umadite."
Me: "U mad, ight?"
...
Alaric: "The ocean is that way."
Me: "Technically, the ocean is in all directions."
Alaric: "Technically, fuck your face!"