It's been a busy week at the Insideout Barn.

Tuesday we had our first dinner get together (sans dining room table.) Aaron made an excellent salad and pasta and then we all drank a lot of wine and discussed 90's music.



John showed us his new comic book, starring John


Hunter and I played extreme rock paper scissors.


Last night we had a living room karaoke party which probably woke up the entire neighborhood, but it was worth it to hear Hunter rap for the first time. I WAS SHOCKED. And impressed.

Friday night we tested out the Independent where I had:

Pressed Vegetable Sandwich: grilled veggies with gruyere and spicy aioli

After dinner, we went to PA's Lounge for the Union Square Roundtable, which was Eugene Mirman and a few local comedians talking about guilty pleasures.. Even though it was slightly awkward and perhaps not hilaaaarious, it was enjoyable. They have the roundtable once a month and I'd been meaning to go for some time, so I'm glad we did.

Lots of shows this week.. The High Strung are in town. HOORAY.

Washington trip is a month away!

Why hello there blog.

I've been on "vacation" since Wednesday, and by vacation I mean not going to work and instead driving around New England with my mom. We've been in three different states in the last week. Well NH doesn't really count, but still. Many hours in the car. Many times of pulling out the map.

Tuesday I took mom to the new Addis Red Sea in Porter Square cause I figure nothing says "Mom, look at your cool daughter living in a city" like Ethopian food. Watched a movie, fell asleep.

Next morning we got up and drove to Essex, MA which is apparently the antique capital of the United States. Or maybe just New England. Regardless, I think they should rename it the Capital of Overpriced Antiques. So much depression glass though. Amazzzinggg.

Here is a picture that I took in Essex


That night we met up with Hunter in Harvard Square and went to Wagamama, which probably isn't the best restaurant for first-meeting conversation. Still, it went well. I sorta figured it was when they started making fun of my unhealthy vegetarian diet together.

Thursday we drove about 6 hours total. The first hour was from Somerville to Sturbridge Village, where I took a lot of pictures of farm animals and my mom's cell phone went off during the dude's explanation of how they made buckets in the 1800's.





After we were sick of the smell of cow manure and dirt and NATURE, we went to Worcester and Leomister to meet up with some of mom's friends.. Then it was on to Old Orchard Beach, where we arrived at the Aloutte at about 11pm. The place was a ghost town... but in the morning, we disovered how awesome it actually was...







7 miles of beach, about a million seedy motels and an amusement park. Hello dreamland. I've started talking about going back next summer and spending a weekend drinking bud light and wearing a day glo bikini. It's seriously incredible.

The next stop was Camden, Maine, which sorta made us wish we'd stayed in Old Orchard Beach. Camden was cloudy, but we took some naps and mom at a lobster for dinner.




And then it was back to Boston. We went into the city, where mom bought me an early birthday present, which is the greatest coat ever with a collar that, if buttoned correctly, makes me look like a vampire.

She left this morning and I spent most of the day with Hunter and Pate, who's in town from Raleigh. We went to Good Times and played video games and drove go-karts and sorta got addicted to the bulldozer game.

Dont want to go back to work tomorrow, but I guess someone's gotta make some money around here.

As of this weekend, H and I have known each other a year. This makes me happy.

I just spent 20 minutes moving all the living room furniture into the middle of the room. Painting time!

Last night I ended up going to the Puma store on Newbury as a favor to Greg. Vice was sponsoring and he needed a "point person" there, which I half-heartedly agreed to do. When I arrived the organizer Mike basically told me to take advantage of the open bar, so I grabbed a beer and spent the next two hours people watching and listening to the DJ. Not the most exciting time of my life, but I got to meet the Dewers rep and was able to talk to him about Charm School and the possibility of having them sponsor some time. Ahh networking.

After bailing, I headed to Inman to meet Hunter for dinner at Ole. We'd been meaning to check it out for some time, and apparently so had everyone else, because the place was packed. We grabbed a drink at the bar while waiting for our table (great mojito.. reminded me of the ones at Havana in Austin.) Once seated, we ordered some of their fresh guacamole (they make it at your table!) and were wondering how we were gonna be able to eat dinner too... but we did.. most of dinner anyway.

GUACAMOLE EN MOLCAJETE
Award winning guacamole, prepared fresh at your table,
served with warm crispy corn tortillas 9

CHILAQUILES VEGETARIANOS
Baked chilaquiles "Lasagna" with spinach, grilled corn, chil e poblanos,
mushrooms and cheese on creamy corn puree. 19

ARRACHERA
10oz. Adobo marinated grilled skirt steak with frijol es charros, grilled scallions,
three salsas and handmade corn tortillas 19

My "lasanga" was delicious. I felt guitly for not finishing it, but the appetizer + mojitos had made me incredibly full and quite tipsy. That goes for Hunter too. We were a funny pair.

After we finished, we went back to Hunter's and watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is some hilarious show they have on FX apparently. Fell asleep after that. Pretty perfect Friday night.


So today is painting and cleaning. Tomorrow is IKEA (!!!!!!)

AHAHAHA!!!!!

Charm Schooled

Man oh man, going to bed at 3am and getting up at 7:30am is not that awesome! Especially after downing several vodka sodas! I've got the necessary medicine: water, coffee, b-complex and Bugles. So far I'm doing alright, but I have a feeling it's gonna be a long day!

Charm School did well last night.. sold out! Sold out at O'Brien's= 70 people, so keep that in mind. Anyway, we still haven't figured out the key to getting people on the dance floor (Nate thinks it's soul music) but people seemed to enjoy what we were playing. We had the added bonus of a bunch of BU Law students picking O'Brien's as a meeting place (the bonus was them filling up the place, not their actual company.)

+ sold out
+ insane drunk lady asking Nate if he could support her two kids
+ each made $50
+ Matt was a VERY happy bar manager
- playing Respect twice within like two songs because apparently my brain was on the moon
- cds skipping (damn you!)
- people afraid of the dance floorz

Since O'Brien's closes at 1am, we all went down to GS for last call and then poured outselves into cabs. After some cinnamon peanut butter toast, I forced myself into bed.

Here's some pics!

Charm School made it in the Boston Herald! Check out it out here

(thank you michael marotta)

Rowley Flea Market

Purchases:

3-tier metal hanging basket

3 vintage cream, teal, green and gold curtains (aimee got the fourth)

Pyrex 4 qt Cinderella Bowl (Goosebury)
looks like this:


Pyrex 1 1/2 pt Cinderella Bowl (Butterprint)
looks sort like this:


Total $$ spent= $23


After the blistering heat yesterday, it dropped nearly 30 degrees today. And then rained.

The rest of the evening will be spent doing laundry, running, grocery shopping and eventually going to TT's to see the wonderful Rachel Flotard perform with Jon Rauhouse.

Dear Oil of Olay Body Wash,

Please let your customers know that "with luminous brighteners" actually means "with body glitter." I look like a 14 year old from 1995.

Sincerely,

Bethany Jane Pickard

Naked Blogging

Or nearly naked. I'm not even trying to be sexy about this. It's hot as hell outside. It's 7pm and it's 80 degrees. My sweat is sweating! If you want to witness grossness to the extreme, come visit me in Boston in the summer.

I went to the BSC in Central today and took advantage of the steam room they have. I was sitting there alone and started wondering what the point of it was, besides dehydrating me. So I looked it up. Apparently it removes toxic waste from your body. Gross. Also, amazing. I wish I could bottle up my toxins and examine them (ohh that was the deodorant I use.. ooh! There's the deposit from the gasoline I inhaled!) Anyway, it was a good time for 5 minutes. I remember when I went to the BSC a few years back and was completely blown away.. but compaired to the BSC in Watertown, the one in Central is shizzz. Watertown is over twice as big, with a swimming pool, basketball court and individual tvs that are about three times the size as the ones in Central. I'm a gym snob, what can I say.

I went to the Garment District for the first time in months and discovered they had redone almost the entire inside. I managed to find two dresses, a sleaveless sweater, a sailboat shirt, a side buttoning light jacket and a striped brown scarf. Not bad!

Now I'm thinking of showering and departing again.. but not sure where to...

Derek is gonna be in town next week and we have the first Charm School and then it's totally MOM TIME. I think I love fall more than I realize.

I am about to fall over right now. Got home late from the BBQ and then fell into dreams about Bon Jovi and helicopter rides. First commute to job from new place. No more 66 or 70. THANK YOU. Must take nice clean shuttle with comfortable seats instead. Rough.

Went to gym. Got too many groceries to carry easily. Arms are still shaking. Dropped them off and then ran down to Walgreens.

Eyes heavy.. I believe it's time to hit the sack. At 10:20.

Getting up tomorrow for my final useless training session. That means 6:30 wake up.

Pics of new room of which I am so proud:











FFF is in town but I am bailing cause I'm an a-hole. Ohhh well.

Slumerville

I am typing from my new bedroom! It's green and white and the windows look out into the trees. Yesterday I spent a good 15 minutes gazing out the window by my bed and looking at the birds and feeling the breeze.

The last few days were spent moving and painting and organizing and hanging and exploring the neighborhood. I'm feeling good. Actually, I'm feeling great.

There's still loads of work to do, but it's nice to be above ground and in a new area. We can walk to Inman in 19 minutes. We spent some hours there with Hunter and Nate drinking beers at Buks last night.

This morning H and I tested out Neighborhood, which was amazing.. not only because they had grapes hanging from the "ceiling" outside, but because it was the best omelette I've had in a while. Must go back, several times.

Ahhhh. Everything seems to be on the up and up. Greenwood Terrace is gonna be good, I can feel it.


I would post pics but my batteries are dead. Can you handle the suspense?!