another north end afternoon

Gabe and I left the house today with no real agenda except to get an oil change in my car. We went two blocks, pulled into the gas station, and saw a car probably in line. I promptly left. I'm that impatient sometimes, especially when it is to avoid something inevitably boring. We went to Revere Beach instead, and strolled along the water. Get that idyllic beach scene out of your head! This is Boston. It was cold and oddly foggy. Stephen King-short story type of atmosphere. Huge seagulls were picking through the washed up debris. We saw two little vodka bottles and a family flying a kite.

Then we ended up in East Boston - not sure if we got lost or it was a decision. We never go here but we stumbled upon some solar-powered building Gabe knew about. There was a beautiful view of Boston's waterfront. We got back in the car, meandered through some streets, and suddenly our car was in front of a toll booth that led to a tunnel that led to downtown Boston. We found parking and went to the same North End cafe we went to two weeks ago. Gabe is once again back-up-plan job searching, and I am once again wishing I could close my eyes, open them, and be in Italy. I was telling Gabe about this occasional Mediterranean wish, and how I'd love to try to shop, fail at the language and come home to him in tears. He was confused at how this is possibly a wish of mine. But I love the idea of the initial culture shock, the frustration, because you know eventually you will feel part of the fabric of that place, and it will be a hard-won victory. Perhaps my wanderlust is getting too strong, when I long to be in tears in some foreign street trying to buy a loaf of bread.

Gabe showed me this stupid site today: http://icanhascheezburger.com. I gave half a chuckle at one, but I think everyone would agree it's stupid. He told me the people that created it are millionaires, because the site is one of the most popular websites and there are ads on it. Seriously? I looked at a list of the 100 most popular blogs today - one I was reading is just some lady's blog about her life, and she said she and her husband no longer work because the blog generates enough revenue. Again, seriously? This happens? I told Gabe we need to have a brainstorming session soon about making money. Because it seems there are a lot of non-traditional ways to do it, and maybe we're just not being creative enough. Or maybe we should just get wicked drunk and come up with an outrageous list of possibilities. The next day we pick the most outrageous and go with it. I'm sure that's how the cat website came into existence. And Crocs. If anyone would like to join our creative, drunken, ridiculous brainstorming night just let me know!