The Rest of the Day and then some

Okay, so I have blogged about the first third of my day. Sadly, It's taken me so long to do, I don't want to go into as much detail about the rest of the day (which is unfortunate especially for my boy who spent so long trying to plan a perfect treat for the day before my birthday and for who a long blog post would be sort of like a thank you).

After our bus ride, we walked over to the Museum of Science. It's a lovely walk (especially because the weather was so pleasant) and we paused just before the museum and looked down into the Charles (which is quite possibly one of the least pretty bodies of water out there). We continued to the museum where my boy picked up tickets for the butterfly garden AND the Alaska Imax movie. We wandered around the museum since we had about an hour before we could go into the butterfly garden. We watched kids down below building huge towers of cups and we visited the cartoon exhibit and a model exhibit. Then we headed back to one of my favorite parts of the museum the illusions section. By this point it was time for the butterflies. After some slight confusion and a lecture from a mentally handicapped (though higher functioning than we were) guy we got in the correct line and proceeded to go look at the butterflies. Some of them were absolutely huge and it was fun to search for them and find random little ones so far away and realize you were staring at them through the wings of another one right in front of your face :). At one point a giant brown butterfly (I can't remember the real name -- I am not just trying to protect its identity :)) flew really close to us around in circles and landed at our feet. When his wings were open they were a beautiful iridescent blue and when they were closed they were a drab brown that I am sure keeps him safe. I liked that. One of my favorite things is to have something plain/conservative that inside is wild (a black jacket with a brilliantly colored lining, a plain purse with a wild pattern inside and so on). I feel like I am kind of like that, when people first meet me I am quiet and bland, but once they get to know me I am loud and obnoxious (I like to think of that as a brilliant lining ;)). Anyway, once we had our fill we attempted to leave the garden, we did what I will forever think of as a "tick check" to make sure no butterflies were being carried out with us and we started to walk out. My boy roughly grabbed my arm though which startled me since he's usually not so mean or so quick, I asked what?! and he pointed to the ground and said look out. . . . had my path wavered at all, I would have squished the lovely butterfly that had landed on the floor near us. . . . Luckily we left with no further incidence.

We went to stand in line for the Alaska Movie (which I think my sister showed one summer as her summer job, probably the most conventional summer job she ever had). It was in line that my boy revealed his utter dorkiness (which btw was really cute). He is apparently an IMAX freak. I mean he used IMAX terminology (dog house in reference to the projector) and told me the film used for the IMAX is 10mm larger than the film he uses in his camera. While the dredlocked projectionist was changing films over, my boy told me that it used to be they could only show two movies a day but they've not expanded the projection room to fit more reels on at a time so they can have more showings. He also told me a woman used to work in the room with the man and I started laughing at him. Because really, I thought he was going to give me the dirt on her and tell me some soap opera about the two when he's usually so mean to me about my love of the TLC documentaries/reality shows. . . .

The Alaska movie was ok. I mean it was cool to see the scenery and everything, but it didn't go into depth about any one thing and the generality of it was disappointing.

After the movie we walked back to my library where my boy left me to change as he went back to his respective office to change. By the time I was finished I looked H-O-T-T I had on a beautiful brown 3/4 sleeve Anne Klein dress (I looked for a picture to post but I cannot find the dress online) that was originally $160 marked down to $100 marked down to $89.97 and further marked down to $36. Not only was the price perfect, once my roommate stuck two safety pins in it, the fit was perfect, it had ruching at the shoulders and a crossover top with a sash at the waist. I matched the dress with some gold wedges (yay, styles that come back every decade or so) and a purple velvet purse my friend made for me quite some time ago. My hair was curled and pulled up and I even put on make up I think my sister would have been satisfied with (including an eggplant shadow to mirror the purple purse, but not to overwhelm the face). Anyway, I looked hot (I know because not only did my boy say so -- you can't really trust him-- but a stranger on the street called out to him and told him he was lucky to have such a hot girl :)).

We walked over to the North End for dinner (the Italian district for all you non-Bostonians) to the restaurant he had chosen on Hanover street (the most popular street there). He had chosen the Daily Catch as our destination that night. It's a great restaurant that I highly recommend. It is not, however, very fancy nor very good for a romantic evening. We had to share a table with three business men and couldn't hear each other over all of the noise also, I was wearing a long jacket that evening and had to fold it and sit on it to prevent it from getting stepped on. The food was incredible though. They make a black pasta with squid ink (and it is very black) and they have various toppings we got the appetizer size of the alfredo and of the aglio olio. I was a little hesitant about the aglio olio, but LOVED it. I have thought about it a lot since then. I think that it would be incredible if they put the aglio olio sauce on top of bread and shaved thick bands of parmesan cheese over that and broiled it. I think that would be irresistible. MMMM. Don't you want some now too? Think I can convince them to make it when we go back? Think I can figure out how to make it myself. . . right now. . . .

Whew, ok, back to the story. As we were walking back to the library from dinner my shoe started rubbing on my toe really badly. My boy finally asked me (in the kindest possible way) why I kept squeezing his hand really hard every few seconds. I said oh, that's probably every other step when my shoe hits my toe. We made it back to the library and my toe was now bleeding. I put a band aid on and tried the shoes again but it still wasn't enough padding at that point. I dug under my desk and found a pair of brown sandals from the summer that were beat up and knocked about and put those on, they weren't very pretty, but I assumed wherever we were going next wouldn't be that fancy either so it would be ok. At some point that evening the clasp on the purple purse broke so I ditched that in favor of my every day purse too. I also noticed a hole in the toe of my nylons but assumed it would be passable. . . . We walked to the train and as we were on the platform (far away from any of my fancy accessories) my boy says, "we're going to the Top of the Hub for dessert."

I have never been to Top of the Hub, I have just heard about it from other people. As far as I can tell, it's a fancy restaurant. I have heard of people proposed to there and it seems like a special occasions only kind of place. I don't know that I hid my sadness about our destination very well. I had felt so pretty earlier in the evening and now when we were going to a fancy shi-shi kind of place, I had downsized to the crappy accessories and the tired feet. I feel like somewhere in the experience is a sermon illustration, but I am not sure what, perhaps the bridesmaids with the lamps? Anyway, I felt terribly shabby, and sad that he had mean so entirely well and yet I looked horrible and couldn't possibly live up to Top of the Hub standards.

We got off the train at the Prudential stop and strolled through the mall a bit. He showed me the places his firm had worked on the building and explained why one particular corner was especially difficult which was very interesting. Eventually our stroll ended at the Pru proper where women in evening gowns were passing through the door (in case I didn't feel poorly enough about my appearance). When we walked in there was a long line and a woman greeted us and told us that it would be an hour wait to get into the lounge. I tugged my boys arm and asked if we could save it for another night and just go home where we had left over red velvet cake waiting for us. He acquiesced and we went to the grocery store to pick up bananas for the next day's pancakes (and where he indulged my search for a special wine even though he doesn't drink and in the end I didn't find what I wanted). I realized too late I had no milk left in the house and so we took the train to porter and went to the grocery store once more to get milk and he treated me to daffodils. We went home and I arranged the daffodils and we watched a movie and then went to bed (and I mean that literally, it's not a euphemism for anything and I want to be clear about that since my dad reads my blog :)).

The next morning he made banana pancakes (my roommate cleverly threw chocolate chips in them while they were cooking so we had the yummy chocolate banana combination) and then my roommate, my boy and I headed out for ice skating. Sadly, free skate is over. We caught half a hockey game between the State troopers and the BPD though which was fun and then headed to my candy store (which was not so much fun since it was crowded and my candy store guys weren't there to wish me a happy birthday). Then we went to church and then my boy and I couldn't convince my roommate to join us and another couple for dinner and a movie (she insisted she was a 5th wheel which made me sad because I would never want her to feel that way and I love her and wanted her there). Anyway, we had dinner at Fajitas and Ritas and then went to see Reno 911: Miami which was just as stupid as the show but still made me laugh quite a bit!