Maine Day

Finishing the semester was great, and for a few days being on vacation was awesome. I cleaned out my closets, did laundry, watched down the DVR, and explored the city with friends. The weather was crappy - cold, muggy and rainy - so a lot of the activities on my summer to-do list were seriously out of the question. In short, we were all bored.

Then Molly had a great idea... let's use her car and take a day trip! It's just a short 2 hour drive up to Maine, so Molly, Parker, Shawn and myself packed up the car and drove up to Kennebunkport for a random day trip.

We wound up around lunch time at a great little pier, where some of our party decided to dip their toes on the Atlantic. I did not, so I took some pictures:

We found this awesome place called the Ramp, where we stopped for an authentic Maine lobster roll and some chowda. This was literally one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. The outside was decorated with lobster cage markers from the local area, and a giant rusty anchor that Parker models for us below:

 Shawn and I

The restaurant was covered in lots of sports and political memorabilia from the last 60 years. Local celebrities had even signed the walls... including two of Kennebunkport's most famous residents.

On the way back into town, we decided to see if we could drop in on George and Babs. The flag was up, they were home... but this was as close as we got. Which is pretty damn close if you ask me! The whole property was crawling with Secret Service... it was pretty cool though!

And speaking of the Bushes... the town was full of memorabilia about both George W. and George H.W. I snapped a photo of this shirt, which (at the risk of getting political) I found pretty funny.

 In all, Maine Day was a lot of fun and a great success. Kennebunkport is definitely work a visit!

Talent Show & Red Sox Game

The end of the semester culminated in one epic day... the day of the Cohort Cup Talent and Art Show, the awarding of the Cohort Cup, and then an outing to Fenway Park for my first Red Sox game.

We kicked off the day on Jim's roofdeck... with this beautiful view of the city.

Then we headed to SMG for the end of year festivities. At BU, we have this great Harry Potter-esque Cohort Cup competition. All year the four cohorts compete in a series of events for points, with the ultimate goal being the coveted Cohort Cup. The final event of the year is the Talent and Art show.

Cohort D's contribution to the art show was the egg-ceptional class room:

I'm the green egg on the far right, second row from the top.

After the art show, we had the talent portion of the evening, which included the Oh Susana singalong that I mentioned in an earlier post. We successfully got all 50 cohort members up onto the stage for the number!

After the show we all gathered in the atrium for a reception (a must in the MBA world) and awaited the decision. Our singalong came in third in the talent show, but it didn't matter... Cohort D still won the cup!

Jamie and Shawn with the Cup

Taking the ceremonial drink from the Cup...

We couldn't celebrate long, because we had to dash over to Fenway for the game. It was my first visit to the historic park... and my first baseball game of the new millennium I think!

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo was triply special this year. In addition to being the celebration of  the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín... it was also the last day of classes AND the day of Carl, Corey, Todd and Trevor's knighting at the BU Pub. So we did what MBA students do best -- we planned a pub crawl. 

Starting at 11 a.m., we hit up about 4 different establishments before landing at Cornwall's (aka Cheers, where everybody knows our names) and busting out the Cinco de Mayo gear that Jackie picked up at the party store. We'd had specific instructions from Carlos not to pick up any "offensive gringo tourist crap." As you can see, we listened:

Jackie, Carl and Jess modeling our decor.

Jess and her husband, Rob, who made his social debut at BU that evening.

Along the way, we picked up an Aussie who was travelling by himself. He stuck around for most of the day, and then tried to pull a pint from one of the decorative taps in Cornwall's. 

 Later that evening came The Knighting. The BU pub offers over 50 beers, and patrons can embark on the "Knight's Quest" if they so choose. To complete the quest, one must consume each of the 50 beers. At a maximum intake of 2 a day, it can take some time. Once your card is full, you're eligible to be knighted.

On the night of your knighting (hehe) your friends gather round and contribute different knight names for you. It's basically a roast. The pub staff gathers everyone at 11 p.m. and reads out your many suggested names. Audience response determines your new moniker.

Behold Sir Natural Born Leader, Sir Come and Live with Me, Sir Sleeps on the Kitchen Floor, and Sir I Married  a Sugar Mama. 

And in case you were wondering, Carlos eventually decided that the sombreros weren't that offensive.

And Jim, quite frankly, rocked it.

Cookie Time

There's one lesson that I've learned several times in my life -- high school, in the sorority, in college, my first job -- if you feed them, they will come. It still holds true in graduate school (though arguably you could exchange "feed them" with "give free drink tickets")... so when I ended up helping organize our cohort's entry into the talent show I decided to dust off my baking gear and engage in a little old fashioned bribery. I also finally got to use the new cookie sheets and other cookie paraphernalia that I got for Christmas - including the tool that Dad gave me that makes all the cookies the same size.  

Boat Day

Spring has finally shown its face in Boston! The weather is my favorite type... cool-ish, but with a big, bright warm sun. This weekend was exceptionally beautiful, and it was perfect for a boat day. My classmate Carl and his wife Jamie live on her Dad's boat, and they hosted a bunch of us this Saturday for some grilling and sunshine.

We also toasted with the first Sangria of the season, courtesy of Jackie. Sangria is one of those things that no one really knows how to make... we just make it up as we go along. The plan is to use the summer to perfect the concoction, so that by Labor Day we've got the best drink made up!

Humberto, manning the grill. We had a great assortment of treats, and a wide variety of sausages -- including a venison sausage made by Scott's dad (who shot it himself, btw)... which invariably led to a lot of jokes about "Scott's dad's sausage." I swear, we are in graduate school, not pre-school!

Despite the somewhat ominous clouds in the background of this shot, it really was a nice day! Note Trevor's super-appropriate "boat attire" on the left. 

His fiancée was thrilled at his wardrobe choice, by the way. Hah!

And there was one other very special attendee, Carl and Jamie's Boston Terrier, Maracas. So appropriate for a couple of BU alums! Most of the day she played with her fox... until Marcus and Scott distracted her with a plastic water bottle.

And that's all that I managed to capture on film before the camera died! :( But thanks to Carl and Jamie for a fun day out on the harbor!

And do not fear, bloggy friends... I'm charging up the camera in anticipation of the Cinco de Mayo festivities on Thursday, and the Cohort Talent Show and Red Sox game on Friday night! Now if I can just make it through this last week of classes alive...