This weekend was pretty epic, so I thought I should probably record it.

It began on Thursday when my friend and I went to see Eclipse. I sent out this email:

SCIENCE NEWS AND INFORMATION

INCREDIBLE ECLIPSE TO BE SEEN ALL OVER NATION

PROVIDENCE, RI-- An incredible ECLIPSE will soon be visible all over the continental U.S., beginning tonight, June 30th, 2010.

The Eclipse, visible after twilight, will feature stunning visual effects, amazing acting skills, and the white-hot talent of many of the galaxy's hottest stars.

On THURSDAY, July 1st, 2010, members of the Geology Department will be traveling down in the afternoon to the Providence Place Mall, where the eclipse will be visible almost every hour, on the hour.

If you would like to be a part of the Eclipse-viewing, please contact mission P.I.s Bronny or Zanzibar for more information. The eclipse gallery contains many must-see images. Start browsing here.



NOTE: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE ECLIPSE. Because of the expected blinding brilliance of the event, special glasses are advised.


-----

So naturally the only one who came was Bronny, but I got lots of responses to my amazing email and how it actually tricked a bunch of people into thinking there was a real eclipse.

After viewing the incredible Eclipse, we went to Hot Club for a goodbye party for the french postdoc M, who is going back to France, and Rhodes, who is moving to France tomorrow for a year. The Hot Club is great because it has an outside area that is right on a dock looking out over the river and the power plant. Weird to say that the Providence power plant is beautiful, but it really is.

We stayed really really late, and M was pretending that it was his 21st birthday so he was soooo excited to be able to drink. It's a little joke among the foreign post-docs because they all think not drinking until you're 21 is ridiculous. M started smoking and blowing smoke into people's faces and trying to get them to smoke. When they declined he would say, "You don't smoke? Of course you don't smoke... you are PERFECT." Every time the Welshman or his English friend would say anything M would turn to me and ask, "Was he just speaking in English? Was that English? What language is he speaking?" He kept asking if the English bloke was from Germany and if he was speaking German. It was excellent because M is usually very reserved and quiet, but by the end of the night he was tussling with the Welshman over rugby, wars, and which country's men were the gayest. I was DD as usual, so we invited everyone to drive with us back to our place, because hey, why not, and they all came and drank all of our beers that have been in the fridge for almost a year and a bottle of wine and stayed til near three in the morning. I wish they'd stayed longer, but eventually M was sick and they had to take him home.

On Friday morning I went to the bar around 10 and watched the Brazil vs. Netherlands game with some Brazilian friends of mine while eating nachos (they weren't happy). I spent the rest of the day running around doing errands and cleaning my office and was only occasionally seen in my place of work. Friday night our friend Scott called us up and wanted to go out, so we went to McDonald's to get McFlurries. I got a sundae and the woman gave me a pitiful amount of fudge so I asked if I could have some more and she charged me like 30 cents for it. Then we went Graduate Center Bar and met up with our Brazilian friend again and he entertained us with his adventures from Brazil. We had to leave around 1 but we still somehow managed to stay up til 3.

On Saturday we decided to have a 4th of July party, despite the evil "no-party" clause in our lease, so we drove around all day shopping for supplies and decorations. At night we went out to a place called Local 121 to do some serious dancing. We wore Uncle Sam hats and red, white and blue beads and 4th of July outfits and glitter. It was awkward for the first two hours because it was apparently "fancy night' at 121 (it said on the chalkboard outside) and everyone was dressed up. I was trying to drink my water really r-e-a-l-l-y slowly so I wouldn't have to bother the bartender too much. Then the DJ started playing and the crowd changed and we became quick crowd favorites with our festiveness. I decided to practice trapping men... turns out all you have to do is make eye contact with them. For some reason wearing a silly hat does tend to help. We finally left when the place closed, gave our hats to random guys who were cat-calling us on the street, and went to bed at 3 again.

On Sunday we got up and got ready for our epic party. This is the email that went with the party:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, a BBQing attitude to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the time and place and details pertaining to said BBQ.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, and the right to Peaceful Assembly. � That to secure these rights, BBQs are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the party-people, � That whenever any Landlord's Anti-Party Policy becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Party-Policy, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety, Happiness and Kick-Assity.

As for the BBQ, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

The BBQ will begin at 3:00pm.

Prior to the BBQ, let's say, 2:30pm, Miss Rhodes could really use any and all help that you would be willing to provide in moving boxes from her apartment to her basement, in order to help her fulfill the patriotic cause of Moving to France [!?!?!!?!?]
Her apartment is only a block or two from ours.

There is a fairly high possibility that you will get wet, seeing as we bought a metric shit-ton of water balloons. So BE PREPARED. This may happen following the moving of boxes.

There will be an amazing prize for the winners of a water balloon toss.

You can bring anything you want, or just yourself. We will be cooking up some hamburgers and BBQ chicken upon my brand new grill that replaced the one that was unpatriotically stolen from my house. FIREWORKS would be especially appreciated.

Feel free to come dressed as Uncle Sam, Wonder Woman, or Apollo Creed from ROCKY IV. We have Uncle Sam hats for those who are unprepared.


Whenever anyone says the word "America", it is appropriate to respond, "FUCK YEAH".


After the BBQ we will mosey on down the India Point Park for fireworks.
For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

---------------

So the party people came to the BBQ, they ate the BBQ chicken which I had made, they raved about how incredibly delicious it was (thanks, Dad!), they fought with water balloons, they moved boxes, they ate ice cream from the ice cream sundae bar, they shot each other with water pistols (thanks, Mom!). Everyone wore Uncle Sam hats and beads and American flag shirts and we ate potato salad, baked beans, and watermelon. Then we went to the park to watch the fireworks over the bay. While we were waiting my two friends and I gave an impromptu performance of the 'Star Spangled Banner' to the assembled crowd, him singing in his italian vibratto and the two of us in our best operatic voices. We didn't really think anyone was really listening, but they erupted into applause when we attempted and nailed the high note in "land of the free" and continued their applause well after we finished out "home of the brave". The fireworks were excellent, with several new innovations in firework technology making an appearance. After the show we went to my friend's house for drinks. She lives on the hill overlooking Providence so we could see the whole city skyline and watch all of the other fireworks shows across the area. I choked down half my drink (nasty!) and then we were ready to hit the road, we got a ride back and now it's almost 2 in the morning.




I guess I actually have to go back to working next week.

good on u to have such relaxing day. good to record it!!!

RYC: i had the mike but my voice is not reaching to anyone. there was no warmth... so i really need to work on it. >.<
» renaye on 2010-07-08 11:04:50

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