I visited a friend in Boston this weekend, and was showered with AHA left and right! We were very close friends in college and although I've seen him periodically since we graduated, he has lived in Boston 9 years and I hadn't visited. He was sure to point this out to me every chance he got!
After 6 boring hours on the New York Thruway/Massachusettes Turnpike, hitting stop and go traffic on the Turnpike just a few miles before the exit I was suppose to take, and getting some serious restlessness, my tolerance level had plummeted. I was ecstatic to just get out of the car when I finally reached his place. And it helped immensely that he was standing in the middle of the street doing a dance to show me which driveway to pull into! I met a couple of his friends and we almost immediately hit the local watering holes. Which, after the aforementioned annoyances, was just fine with me.
I spent the evening meeting people, having drinks, engaging in conversations, picking on my host (his friends helped, of course) and being told that I have to watch the Will Farrell movie, "Old School," because I didn't understand the one-liners and references that were thrown around. A marvelous time, all around. We finally returned to his place around midnight, and he did indeed make me watch "Old School" (which I realized I had seen before, just didn't remember most of it).
Saturday morning, my wonderful friend cooked breakfast for me and we drank coffee (which was AHA in and of itself - he prewarmed the mugs by letting a bit of hot water sit in it, before dumping it out then pouring in the coffee. Brilliant!) while watching old college bar band videos. Hysterically fabulous!! It brought back all sorts of incredible memories to watch myself and my friends play. And I realized how incredibly talented my friends are, how talented they were even back then, 10 or more years ago! Makes me want to dig the guitar out of the closet and learn how to play it. Seriously. AHA- it's never too late to do what you want, and it's usually not as difficult as you might think. Make the time for it.
After a couple hours of reliving our glory days of college bar bands, we hit the streets. Literally. We walked all over Boston, and it was wonderful! We went through the financial district, to the top of the Prudential Building, to Quincy (pronounced 'QuinZy') Market, to the spot of the Boston Massacre, to Backbay, to the Holocaust Memorial to I'm not even sure where else. We took the T (subway) and had to go up an escalator that felt like we were ascending to the surface from the depths of Hell (it was a -very- long escalator). And I loved every single minute. I loved every minute of walking, of being with him, of learning about Boston's history (he's kind of a history geek, and he'll tell you so), of catching up with him and the goings-on of each of our lives. AHA flew all around me, and I loved every -single- moment.
We met up with a couple of his friends whom I had met the day before, had Tex-Mex and margaritas for dinner, then walked for a bit, passed up a few places that were either too crowded or too expensive, and found oursleves in the "old stand by" dive bar. They've nicknamed it 88, because the atmosphere reminds them of 1988- the DJ, the music, the regulars, the hookups, the drinks, the attitudes... everything. We had also gone there the previous night, and my friend was disgusted with this choice of venue. "I can't believe you drove 6 hours from Upstate New York and I'm dragging you to a dive bar... TWICE!" But I did not care. It was great fun, and again filled with AHA in all sorts of ways. I realized that it was possible for me to step out of my comfort attitude and put on a little sass. I began to strike up conversations with people I had just met and didn't feel terribly out of place about it. I was in a completely unfamiliar place with mostly unfamiliar people, and I didn't feel too terribly uncomfortable. These are big steps of AHA for me.
Sunday morning we once again had coffee in prewarmed mugs (brilliant!) and we watched a film that discusses the disconnect and potential marriage between science and philosophy. Without getting too much into detail, I will say that I was surprised to hear many of the participating scientists reiterate what I had learned from the spiritual teacher Nithya Shanti a couple of months ago. That basically, our thoughts can control just about anything in our lives. One thing in particular that I can remember is an experiment conducted by scientists in Japan. Water from once source was put into multiple plastic bottles and a label was taped to the outside of each bottle. The water was then frozen, and later inspected under a microscope. On the bottles that had a "positive" label, the scientists found the ice crystals to be beautiful, symmetrical, precise. On the bottles that had a less than favorable or "negative" label, the crystals were random and ugly. A line from the film: "If our thoughts can do that to water, imagine what they do to us and others." Wow. Powerful. We didn't get to finish watching the film, but I hope to get a copy of it and watch it all again. It was very interesting and thought-provoking. It's called, "What the bleep do we know?"
I came to realize a lot of things this weekend. I miss playing music. I should find ways to play more. I should sing more and learn to play guitar or piano. I should walk more. I should step out of my own comfort box more often. I can accept myself as a good person. I don't have to be shy. I have lots to talk about. I have lots to learn. I tend to have a very cluttered life, but that's ok. I have a lot that others would like to have. I can appreciate what I have and not brag about it. I can appreciate what others have without being jealous of them. All that AHA in just 3 days' time. What a fabulous weekend.
:) :)
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