Fall Leaves and Freezing Buttholes

 

 The parks were all incredible in Boston. We don't get autumn colors
like that in California.

If you read my blog last week, you already know that I was on an east-coast college tour with my 17-year-old niece, older sister and brother-in-law. As goes with those sorts of trips, much hilarity, extensive snarkiness, and some good-hearted shouting at each other ensued.

My niece and I never tired of teasing my sister on the trip. Often her mouth moves faster than her brain, so she provided us with countless verbal gems to work with—and has really done so throughout most of my life. "Freezing buttholes" is one of her famous quotes. I think she might have meant to say she was freezing her butt off, but it came out the other way. 

We used that phrase quite a bit on the trip, as our wimpy California skin wasn't quite cut out for the wind chill in Massachusetts. "Snow bitch" also got used on the trip. Big sister once called me that when I guessed a Wheel of Fortune puzzle before she could. We have no idea where the "snow" part of that one originated. And then we had our favorite line from last week: My brother-in-law was preparing to turn right onto a street, but there was an older woman crossing in front of him. Instead of saying, "Be careful of that lady" or "there's someone crossing the street," my sister shrieked, "Watch out for mama!" 

We must have quoted that five dozen times during the trip. Anyway...

I hadn't been to D.C. in 13 years and I forgot just how much I love all
the buildings and monuments there. Such a great city!

We started out in D.C. and I was fortunate enough to be able to meet up with GeekHiker who is on a cross-country road trip right now. He is camping outside of the city center and took the metro in to join my niece and I for pizza one night. Of course, he and I had to have a couple drinks after dinner so we could discuss the ins and outs of dating. But that's a post for another time. 

GeekHiker wasn't the only blog friend I met up with, either. In Boston, I got to finally (after 4 years) meet Brookem and her Manfriend for dinner. What a treat that was! Those two are so darn cute and funny together. And they were so nice to us after we complained endlessly about how confusing the streets of Boston were. (Seriously, we drove around Harvard for an hour trying to find the bookstore. My niece and I were literally ready to suffocate ourselves with our rain coats.)

 

Me and Brookem. She's so cute—total fashionista. I had outfit envy when I saw her. 

The conclusion of all the college-touring was that my niece loved Georgetown and Boston College the most. If she gets in and becomes a student at one of them, she'll be the first person in our family to go to school outside of California.

Georgetown was one of the most gorgeous schools I've ever seen. Felt like Oxford.
And of course my niece was smitten because it reminded her of Hogwarts.

Selfishly, I'm hoping my niece ends up at UCLA or Berkeley. The thought of her being so far away gives this snow bitch a chill. Freezing buttholes style.