Happy Easter

So here I am in the middle of Malden, MA. It's a little blue-collar suburb just a little bit north of Boston and about 10 minutes from Logan Airport. It's convenient to some of the major highways and roadways in the region. I have been spending this Easter weekend with my folks.

I got in Thursday night after a short flight out of Montreal. The actual flying time was about 44 minutes. I don't know why we were taxiing around YUL for almost 15 minutes before we actually took off. The airport really isn't that big! In any case, this bit of taxiing got us into Logan at about the scheduled time anyway. The flight, in general, was uneventful.

Friday was a work day for most people here. Being that Good Friday is considered a religious holiday, a lot of companies here are not obliged to give people the day off. I don't think the government offices give that day off either. So I just hung around the house and played with my little niece and nephew.

Saturday, we went to Jin's on Rte. 1 for some dim sum. For some reason my nephew was upset over something and through a bit of a tantrum. His sister did not seem to be having any issues and quietly ate her dumplings and drank her juice. Eventually, my sister took her son out to the car with some food (he likes this particular fried thing). She was about to go home with him but managed to calm him down in the car and he ate. My mom got an order of noodles for my brother-in-law to take to sis. Other than that, dim sum was pretty good.

After eating, bro and I went over to Work N'Gear to check out some Carhartt jackets for women. I'm not sure what possessed me to look into these jackets, but I felt the need to have one. They're quite durable and they last for a very long time. My brother has one and it's aged quite well. I found a medium in a sand color. It's a zip-up with velcro flap closure down the front. It's not bad and it fit well. I was hoping to find this other model that's got this sherpa lining. The store closes at 8PM, so bro suggested that we head into town to see if there's anything we can find down there.

We decided to just bite the bullit and park at the Pru parking lot. I figure we shouldn't have a problem with finding something to buy to get the parking ticket validated for discount parking. I did find some stuff at the Body Shop. I think it was more than enough for the parking.

I hadn't really walked around the area in a while, so we got out onto Boylston Street and walked ab it back towards Copley Sq. From there, we got back to Newbury Street and walked up that way. Funny, how over the years, there were times when that seemed like a long walk. Now, it really doesn't seem like much.

It's interesting to see what shops are still there or not on Newbury Street. It's sad to see that the spot where they sold these gargoyles is no longer there. There was a "Space for rent" sign in the window. They had been there for over 15 years. I guess times change. The Faerie place is still there. It's a bit more commercial and sunny. They've only been there for several years.

With the internet and iTunes, alot of the used music stores are now gone. Mystery Train is no longer there on Newbury St. So much ahs changed over the years. My bro says that the only used music place he knows of now is in Harvard Sq.

We went to Newbury Comics. I've always liked going into this store. There's a variety of interesting knick knacks. Since I've been gone they've expanded and now have stores in a number of locations. However, for me the real Newbury Comics will always be the one on Newbury Street. :-) Well, the one located in The Garage at Harvard Sq is a close 2nd.

While we were walking around the Pru Shopping area, we noticed an inordinate amount of people dressed up in various types of costumes. When we got off the elevator from the parking garage, we first encountered a bunch of people waiting to get into California Pizza. Just beyond that crowd, I spied me some people dressed as Star Wars characters. I was like, "Uh oh. Just what's going on here today?" It turns out that there is some sort of anime convention happening at the Hynes Convention Center not far. Ack!

So needless to say, everywhere we went we saw folks dressed up either as their favorite anime character, or even video game character! There were plenty of Naruto and Dragonball related outfits. I think at some point I was ready to get out of there for some air!

I think after spending a couple of hours in the area, we figured it was time to start heading back. I think it was somewhere around 3:30-4PM when we left. The parking cost us $12 instead of $34 (OUCH!), but it sure beat going around in circles looking for a place to park. Sometimes, you just need to splurge a little bit. I don't think I can deal with paying fro parking like that on a daily basis though!

Since we didn't find any Carhartt jackets in town, we went back to the other place. We found the jacket. I tried it on again. The zipper on one wasn't behaving very well, so I tried on another one that had a better working zipper. I took the jacket to the cash. The salesperson rang it up and said it was $55! Apparently, the coats were 50% off! Well, that was a great deal! Hmm.. I hope I don't look too butch in it. :-o

So that more or less brings us to today, Sunday.