Another Labor Day gone. Tomorrow John and I are flying back west on a 6:30 a.m. JetBlue flight. Sigh. I’m exhausted and disappointed. I began the journey with high hopes of visiting my long lost friends. I was going to catch up with my FMF peeps, some college buddies, some CDM folk. I apologize, because that just didn’t happen. John and I spent most of our four days in a car, shuttling from DC to Frederick to Rockville to DC to Rockville to Frederick to Potomac to… you get the point. I know, we really need to allot more days next time. I guess this visit was particularly busy, because well, we’d been overseas the last two and a half years, so there was a good bit of catching up to do with family. My in-laws insist they’d forgotten what I look like…

John says we’ll return again for Christmas (yikes); hopefully he’ll use vacation days then, and we’ll actually get to see people. In the meantime, if anyone’s traveling to the Bay area, please give us a holler.

Generally, the family time on this trip went ok. Pretty much the usual, except that my parents surprisingly refrained from pressing my hot buttons. My father says he doesn’t care anymore about my barren womb outlook; guess the Johnny situation isn’t making any progress.

Our food safari went well– Chicken Out pot pie, steamed Maryland blue crabs, Ledo’s pizza. I also ate some incredible peaches from my parents’ tree. They say the tree bore 2000 peaches this year. I thought they were exaggerating, but apparently a ton of neighbors and friends got their share (and they kept coming back for more). Amazing, considering the tree was totally organic, i.e. neglected. Wouldn’t it be cool if my parents set up a roadside fruit stand??

John and I made some headway cleaning out our junk in storage. Gave away another nine boxes worth of crap. In my unpacking/repacking, I came across a book the ladies at work gave my mom years ago: American Slang. It’s just what I need. Btw, did you know that “scumbag” actually means condom? Interesting tidbit. After thumbing through the book, John finally acknowledged that my immigrant parents are a contributing factor to my cultural illiteracy… Jesus, you have no idea how long John’s denied my claim. Anyway, I think I’ll be mostly up to speed after I complete that book. And then a bit of MTV should round out the rest of my education.

I left SF a few days before John to hit Boston first on my East Coast tour. The last time I was in Boston was 16 or so years ago when my parents had taken me on an East Coast colleges tour: Harvard, Wellesley, MIT. Yeah, Boston was intimidating back then. This time around though, I got a really good vibe– maybe because with Shanghai now under my belt, navigating a new place is no longer as daunting as it used to be. I don’t know. Anyway, Boston is ultra cool. Guess it also helps that my friend Josh is there, and he’s an expert urbanite– he’s all up on the public transportation and major attractions. Plus, he gives the most accurate, concise directions ever. The weather was crummy, but we had a blast anyway. We saw Shear Madness at a small theater downtown, checked out the IMAX, went to a couple open houses in Charlestown. It was as if college were yesterday. Then again, I guess it hasn’t really been that long since Josh and I last met. No matter where in the world I am, we somehow manage to meet up a few times a year. Just kind of worked out that way, because John used to fly to CA for work, and Josh lived and worked in SF until last April.

Anyway yeah, public transportation in Boston rocks. Super cheap to ride the T (the metro/subway) and great access to all the major hubs– airport, train stations, etc. Day two, I caught the commuter train to visit my grad school roomie Grace in Providence. Again, the weather was shit, but she had the cutest little pad near Brown. We shopped (and purchased identical pairs of shoes), rented a movie, ate grilled cheese sandwiches, shared boy troubles. Was fun.

My final evening in Boston, Josh and I had dinner with my childhood friend Joyce. Joyce and I go waaaay back. Our parents are good friends. She was out in LA for a couple years and recently relocated to Boston to attend Harvard B school. That’s right, running with the big dogs. I enjoyed catching up with Joyce, but in retrospect, I think I yapped too much about me and didn’t get enough scoop about her. That’s what happens when you get into the danger zone– the brain doesn’t think straight. It was probably 9:30 p.m. or so by the time we got our food (hearty comfort food) at the Silvertone Bar & Grill. Not a bad find, thanks to my newest city resource, Yelp!