In the apartment we snacked on half the grapes we'd just bought and the rest of the cereal box. I was at last able to finish the Thin Threads book (I'll probably write about it in my book club later), so now I don't have any reading material on hand, unless you count the Metro. You know, that newspaper had Michael Jackson's death all over the front page? How sad. Sorry to go off on a tangent here, but I'd just like to pay a small tribute to him. I really liked his old music, especially when he was a kid. I didn't especially like or understand why MJ had to change his skin color or his face and hair, or all those weird rumors about him, and I didn't really pay attention to news about him in recent years. I understood he was the butt of several jokes in movies, like in Men in Black and Click (It's too bad. Now Michael won't live to see the day when he's the first person to clone himself 7 times and sues himself for molesting himself). But I'm glad everyone will remember Michael as the brilliant artist he was and not as Wacko Jacko or whatever.
Around noon we decided to set off for our scheduled college tour at Emerson. You know, Emerson is just right near the Boston Commons? I think that's pretty awesome. On the long train ride I brought the iPod along to listen to. One of the songs I listened to was a Jackson song. ~,~ Anyway, Annette and I got to the Boston Commons and tried looking for Tamara, Joe and Adrianna, Kailen and Toniann, but they weren't anywhere. Well, while we waited we had another sandwich picnic like yesterday at UMass. Very nice. Later though it got a little windy and looked like it would rain soon, so we packed it up and went looking for shelter. It's strange, because it sure didn't look like it would rain that morning, so we didn't bring an umbrella. So we held the newspaper over our heads to protect us.
I had to go to the bathroom, so we took shelter in a nearby Starbucks, only you had to be a customer to use the facilities. So we looked at what they had to offer and decided to get a couple of these big, awesome looking cookies, Outrageous Oatmeal. They had colorful raisins on top. ^,^ We asked the guy for two of them, and he got the cookies for us, only he forgot to ask us to pay for them. As I stood in line for the bathroom (it was a bit of a long line), Annette and I debated whether to do the right thing and pay up or just walk away with two free cookies. I figured it would be better to be honest (ha ha, I'm the little angel!) so Annette said to another worker, a girl, "Excuse me, I'd like to pay for two cookies." The girl must've been a little distracted, because she took out two more Outrageous Oatmeal cookies and charged us for those. So I guess we got two for the price of 1 each! Incredible.
Annette went to wait outside while I remained in the bathroom line. I noticed a little boy and his mom waiting behind me, and when the bathroom was finally free I let the kid go before me. The mom seemed pretty grateful, so that made me pretty happy. Another cool thing is that after I came out of the restroom, I saw a woman do the same thing for another young kid, offering their place in front. So today I learned that good deeds are contagious! ^,^
It was still raining a bit, so we found a Barnes and Noble to hang out in, although despite my being surrounded by books, I didn't enjoy myself. It didn't seem to have a proper fiction section. Luckily it didn't rain for too long, and we were able to enjoy our Outrageous Oatmeal cookies at a bench nearby. They sure were sweet and tasty! Hey, they were kind of like how I enjoy regular oatmeal, with some raisins in it. Cool! We shared some cookie crumbs with a tiny bird that perched on the table sometimes. So cute. By the time we were finished, it was time for our Emerson tour to begin. We found the office easily enough, but strangely it turned out that we'd been scheduled for the 1:30 tour, not the 3:30 one! Oh well, the lady at the desk was nice and let us go on the tour, only this one skipped the info session. What a strange coincidence! No info sessions on either tours, not yesterday or today!
I enjoyed the Emerson tour very much. Almost more than I did UMass. Lot of famous entertainment people were Alumni there and it's a great Liberal Arts place. Theater, acting, T.V./ Film, Writing, Photography, lots of cool stuff I'm interested in. There were two girls who acted as our guides, and they seemed a lot warmer and friendlier than the UMass guide. They actually asked me questions about what I wanted to do. Saw a big theater and a little sample dorm room and other stuff. What's really cool is that everything is so close to the Commons. (Wait, I already mentioned that, right?)
After tour, we stopped by at the local Boloco's and I got Terriyaki this time, just like I said I would. My burrito was nice and warm. Once done with that, we found a quiet place to sit in the Public Gardens (big difference from the Boston Commons, though they are often confused. The Gardens is the one with the swan boats and pretty gardens.) and fed the squirrels and pigeon some peanuts for a couple hours.
OMG, what an experience! Annette and I are really good with animals, and we've fed the squirrels and pigeons many summers, but I certainly didn't expect what happened. The animals there are very tame and expect humans to feed them, so they just walked right up to us and didn't mind eating right out of our hands! We were soon surrounded by pigeons, and they trusted us enough to start flying on to our laps and even on our arms to get our peanuts. Good thing we were wearing longsleeves! And the squirrels, oh! I have a certain love for squirrels, they're so cute and furry. They just came up and plucked the nut from between our fingers and ate right next to us. Even better, I tried scratching their heads while they were calmly nibbling and they didn't flinch! So much fun! Of course, they ran away once they were done with the nut, but came back once we offered some more. I will never forget that feeling of peace.
Even ducks came by and tried nabbing at the peanuts. But I don't think they were meant to eat that, since they're more suited to bread and stuff, so we tried shooing them away. They kept coming back anyway. I think at one point I got a little bite from a squirrel, but it isn't bad. I've got a good, healthy immune system, so I'm not worried about any diseases the squirrels may carry. Which I don't really believe in anyway. It was such fun when other people would pass us by and smile and say things like, "Ooh, look at those girls feeding the squirrels and pigeons! They're like bird people. Those animals are very trusting!" It was especially fun when a family with little kids (perhaps tourists) would watch us and the kids would try feeding the critters, but they didn't know how to be patient and stand still enough for them to come up to them. Still, I bet they had fun watching us do it!
Finally, when the peanuts were almost all finished, we packed it up and reluctantly tore ourselves away from our spot. I can hardly wait to go back there again! We took the long train back home and called our parents on Skype. It was really fun recounting our day to them. ^,^ After we were done talking to them, we made our first home cooked meal in the apartment, spaghetti and sauce! Remember we bought it earlier in the morning? It was delicious. Especially knowing that we'd made it and it wasn't from a restaurant or something. I ate my portion with some chopsticks we found. *chopsticks, yay!* It was nice eating spaghetti without having to think of sharing it with Benny or Adam. It was just for us. We couldn't eat it all though, so we saved the leftovers for another time. And we went to sleep full and happy. I like that feeling, full and happy. Very pleasant. ^_^
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