Look Who Came to Town !

It was just another normal Tuesday at 3:00 in the afternoon when I received a text from Mr. Jake VP. He was in town playing a show in Cambridge only a few miles from my house! Jake is my little brother Jonathan's best friend who has been touring with the band This Providence for the past few years. He's a musical genius and such a great guy. Matt and I were thrilled to be able to pick Jake up and spend a few hours with him before he had to perform.

Jake had never actually seen the city, so we did our best to show him what we could in the few hours we had. We walked through the common, walked through the financial district, told him some of the history and ended up in the North end for dinner.

We chowed down on some of the best pizza in town from Pizzeria Regina, and walked over to Mike's Pastry so Jake could experience his first cannoli.

The woman behind the counter at Mike's thought Jake was the cutest thing as you can tell from the picture below. It was too funny and we had a great time teasing Jake about it the rest of the night. :)

After eating we rushed Jake back to Cambridge with just enough time to spare before he had to go on. Matt and I stuck around to watch the show and . . . that's right, we were on the guest list!

The band went on at about 9:45 pm and even though I didn't know any of their songs, it was an absolute blast to be in the concert goers atmosphere again. It was even more exciting to see Jake up on stage and to hear the crowd go wild. I was totally proud and felt like I was watching my little brother up there.

Matt and I felt a little old surrounded by so many teenagers, I'm sure they all thought we were nuts, but we seriously had such a good time.

It was so good to see Jake, to show him around, to see him play and to catch up a bit. We can't wait until he comes back to Boston again.

Best Surprise EVER!

I bet you're wondering why I've posted a picture of Matty and I sleeping (or pretending to sleep, shhhh don't tell anyone) at the front of a post that says "Best Surprise EVER!" Well, it's because on Saturday morning at about 12:00 am Matty informed me that I better be ready to see him in 5 short hours because he was taking me to NEW YORK!!!

We've been talking about going for a long time now and I haven't been back in over a year, so I was super excited! We boarded our bus at 6:30 am, slept almost the whole way there and jumped off to explore the city that never sleeps. Here are some highlights and all the fun surprises that Matty had planned for me. (Get ready for a lot of pictures!)

It was absolutely beautiful outside, so our first stop was Central Park. It was full of people running, biking, sun bathing (what!) and participating in all other kinds of out door activities. Honestly, the day was absolutely beautiful and I probably could have spent it entirely in Central Park.

I really wanted to ride the carousel but was devastated to find that it was closed down for repairs. I wanted to cry . . . but don't worry, I didn't. :)

While in New York I was amazed to see a whole ton of small dogs being carried around. Really, it was kind of ridiculous. However, none of them were more ridiculous than this poor pooch (below). He had on shoes!

After doing a little shopping and sight seeing we were off to have lunch at one of the best hamburger places. The Shake Shack! We were both starving and I was absolutely not prepared for the line that lay in front of us.

Yes folks, all or at least most of those people are waiting in line to have lunch. As soon as I saw it I turned to Matt and said, "Um, let's find somewhere else to eat I'm starving!" He was adamant that they had the absolute best hamburgers and that we at least wait a little while to see how fast the line moved. So we stood there, and stood there, and stood there. We stood for probably a good 25 minutes. I was just about to complain yet again, when someone familiar came up behind me. Juliet!!!

(please excuse my cone shaped head here. I'm not sure what was going on.)

Juliet and I lived together when I first moved to Boston. She has since moved back to New York and I haven't seen her in such a long time. Matt took her number out of my phone without me knowing and planned to have her meet us for lunch. I was so happy to see her and felt kind of dumb for complaining about the line.

We waited in line for a good hour but it was absolutely worth it. It was so fun to catch up with Juliet and for Matty to finally meet her. Also, just look at that hamburger! It's perfect.

Another really fun surprise Matt had planned for me was to take me to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). I figured he knew that I liked modern art and that was why we were there but I was dead wrong (kind of). Matt didn't tell me until we got up to the counter to buy our tickets that we were really there to see the Tim Burton exhibit! I was thrilled and so excited about it. I absolutely love Tim Burton!

There were so many things crammed into such a small space but it was absolutely amazing. We got to see all kinds of things from original drawings, school essays, early home made films and poems to the original Batman costumes, Edward Scissor Hands costumes, and original clay figures used in his stop motion movies.

Above is a picture to the entrance of the exhibit which was so cool. We weren't allowed to take pictures once we were inside but Matty snuck one anyway. :)



Since we were already in the museum we decided to check out the other art work there and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I had no idea Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night was there. So cool!




After walking around all day we were really grateful to sit on some nice cushioned benches to ponder and observe the art work. It was so nice to get off our feet for a little while.

One person at the museum definitely did not feel the same way we did.



There was a performance artist at the museum who had the most ridiculous exhibit I've ever seen. She sat in a chair all day long and just stared at people. It was a participation type exhibit where they wanted people to take turns sitting across from her. You could do whatever you wanted which is why Matt and I died laughing as we watched people step up, sit down and just stare right back. We wanted to participate and make funny faces at her or sit on the table or something like that but people were so serious about it and would sit across from her forever! I don't think I'm cool enough or artsy enough to understand this. Seriously, when did laziness become art?



Another cool thing Matty and I discovered in MOMA was this VW bus that was extended by clothing. Someone sewed a bunch of clothing together to make the walls of this thing and I loved it. It was really unique.





After going to the museum Matt was so good to let me look around one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. There is nothing for guys in that store, so he happily sat on their comfy couch and played games on his ipod. He was so cute and kept telling me not to worry about him and to take my time. He's amazing.



We finished off our trip with a slice of pizza and a walk to Times Square. I had so much fun with Matty in New York and I couldn't believe all the surprises he had up his sleeve. I felt so spoiled and couldn't believe that I didn't figure it out before hand.

It was a great weekend with my favorite person in the whole world. Thank you Matt, I love you. :)