Au Revoir, Lil' Rhody!

Tonight will be my last night in Rhode Island!  I can't say I'm too bummed to leave this wintery land but I will sincerely miss my family!  Although I don't get to see them all that much, when I do it's a blast!  My mom's so cool! We bump Biggie and Outkast in her car, she's always got tips on how to live life more simply that she shares with me, and introduces me to everyone after they guess that I "must be the son Trish is ALWAYS talking about!"  She's the best!  She makes KILLER brownies too!

I love meeting up with my brother, Monty!  He's the raddest dude!  Very passionate with his writing and quite a funny man!  He's always busting up laughing and coming up with wild ideas for stories to write.  Of course, we get into the brotherly battles, but we always stop, then apologize, then go chill like nothing happened.  To the outside world it may look futile, but that's kinda just what happens and we both dust it off.  We're tight!  I've got mad love for my big brother and one day he's gonna rock 'em!

It's always a pleasure to visit with my Memere (French for grandmother).  She's so lovely and such a stern woman.  She knows exactly what she likes and "won't bother" with anyone tellin' her different.  Everytime I talk to her on the phone she says, "When are you coming home?".  Hahah! Meaning to her house of course.  No matter what she says I'm "too skinny", and then she'll proceed to cook enough food to feed an army! She's great! She makes the best meatballs in the world!  She loves her family more than anything too.  And we love her!!

So for now, au revoir to the fam! Until next time! Thank you for the good times and memories!  I definetely won't miss the cold weather though!!  NYC for a couple of days... then SPAIN son!!  Peace!

Is New England further from the sun or something?

It's cold. Really cold. The temperature has been about mid 20's to 30's most days, except for yesterday when it was a whopping 9 degrees.  Wow.  It has snowed a couple of random days and with the low temps, the snow doesn't melt.  My feet have pretty much been cold for 2 weeks except when I take a shower. The wind is the worst part of it all but luckily it hasn't been to windy.  I haven't really had to really walk anywhere, thanks to my mom for letting me use her car.  But when I get out of the car - HA! it's a burst of frigid air straight into my bloodstream!

Being from San Diego, where snow and seasons are virtually non-exsistent, I thought this may be the perfect time to take some pictures of this Winter Wonderland!  Enjoy and stay warm!

This is Purgatory Chasm! Super rad spot! People jump across the chasm.. that's hectic!

This is Elephant Rock, a place my friends and I would jump off of back in the day. You have to time the jump into the swell and then swim away from the rock to avoid a vortex that will suck you way under the water. It's about 25 feet high.

This is the reservoir.  It's frozen over here but we would jump off of this too! It's like 12 feet high.

This is Second Beach.

So until next time... I'll be here, waiting for the snow to melt...

Slidin' Through Boston, Massachusetts continued

After devouring those tasty morsels, we sealed the deal with some more food items.  An entire bag of fun size packs of M&Ms and Reese's for myself, and the whole pack of Double Stuffed Oreos and a large kit kat for Joey.  With the "itis" flowing through our bodies, we tried to let ourselves settle by watching "Inception".  Within 30 minutes of the film I was awaken by Joey informing me that I was sleeping. "I know..." I said as I rotated my body away from the tv and adjusting the enormous amount of precious delicacies in my gut.  Joey followed suit and we subconciously listened to DiCaprio on repeat for about 4 hours.  Our friend Mike came to stay overnight on his way through to New Hampshire.  He came over at about 1:30 am.  With a second wind, we decided to watch another film, "The Fourth Kind".  Heavy business.  After watching this alien abduction thriller, we were not only NOT tired but nearly ready to push through the night and rise with the sun.  At 6 am we thought it might be a good to sleep.  Good idea.

After Mike left in the morning, Joey and I decided to go on a car ride to places unknown, not only for me but for the Massachusetts resident as well.  With random decisions of left and right turns we stumbled across the raddest icicles we had both ever seen.  These ice dreadlocks reached from the roof to the ground of this office. We had to stop and get photos:

We roamed the roads of suburban Boston for a bit longer and decided to see the remake of John Wayne's "True Grit" at the theater.  Joey and I loaded up on gummy bears, chocolate clusters and peanuts, gumdrops, sour patch kids, and Life Saver gummies before the show and handled that about 20 seconds into the movie. The movie was an excellent choice!  Jeff Bridges' character, Rooster Cogburn, way of speaking is amazing!  Raw! After the flick we looked for another place to eat.  We checked out a "Brazillian Steakhouse" but rejected it due to the stale buffet food items.  We settled on Wendy's.  Once again back on the couches with the "itis" taking over, this duo was out cold.

Thanks to Joey for the historical lessons and opportunity to stay in Boston!  Till next time.  Check out his work - braintree.patch.com

Slidin' through Boston, Massachusetts

Well, another notch on the ol' belt - Boston, Massachusetts.  With the help of my gracious host and stepbrother, Joey, I was able to see essential American landmarks and my stomach enlarge to near basketball size.  I originally flew in to Boston from San Diego to start my voyage and decided to come through again just to get a little more travelling in my veins.  The first trip was rad!  Joey's a reporter on patch.com for the town he lives in, known as Braintree; one of the oldest cities here in Boston and the US.  He was full of "exciting" and historical information, ranging from the birthplace of Declaration of Independence signer and second president of the US, John Adams, to reasons why new roads are being created to merge sections of the town.  He was excited to purposely share quite possibly the driest tidbits of his town with me.  I enjoyed his enthusiasm very much!  Joey's very intelligent and hysterically fun to be around!

We took a train ride into the downtown area of Boston, which is littered with historical sites.  A few graveyards that house many of the "Founding Fathers", old markets like Faneuil Hall, Harvard University, and even stone roads in some parts.

Joey took me to the Massachusetts State House, which was a very cool place.  Although I'm not too into authority figures, I was very intrigued by the space in which people work to create laws.  Very rich with marble and original oil paintings of former officials.  Rich colors and very clean areas.

We also came across a Holocaust memorial which was very moving and surreal.

Boston is a very cool town.  It's historical value is tremendous and is much easier to take in with a good host.  Tons of beautiful ladies here too...

So I visited again over the weekend and this time Joey and I just kicked backed and stayed local.  We had no plans and decided that a proper meal was in order.  Once while sharing my mandarin orange pizza experience with a friend, I was enlightened to the chicken caesar salad pizza!  Although I hadn't had this extravegent fusion food yet, it was thorned in the depths of my food dictionary.  We decided to have pizza the first night and found a new place for both me and Joey called, Schoolhouse Pizza.  When we arrived at this pizza haven to our delight we saw the appropriately named, Baked Caesar, on the board.  "Yes, please!!"

We accompained this gorgeous gift with the "Atomic", which contained sopresatta (a type of salami-ish meat), Sicilian olives, and red pepper flakes.  This too was a fantastic choice.  Praise Jah for pizza!

Snow Daze

Just another day in New England! In this part of the country, seasons actually happen. With the winter season comes arctic winds, piles of snow, and lots of reasons to stay inside and fatten up! I've been taking the latter to new personal heights! Everyday seems to be full of what kind of extraordinary foods I can find to fill the tank! Dunkin' Donuts' Dunkaccino (hot chocolate and coffee) is a smash hit! Of course, with a chocolate sprinkle donut and an everything bagel with cream cheese on the side. I've been visiting the local hot dog shops like clockwork! Ben's and Wein-O-Rama! Gotta get 'em while I can! I also found a pretty decent burger joint too. Lots of pizza around! Being able to order online to Dominos and walking thru one parking lot to pick it up, just makes it that much easier to load up the foodbox!

The other day I had 2 eggs, a healthy amount of corned beef hash (Aka The Dank), half of an avocado, toast, and a mango-peach with apple juice smoothie. Then made my way to Ben's for 4 chili, cheese, mustard, and onion dogs. Later, a plethora of Mrs. Fields cookies and Oreos.

Yesterday I took down 2 eggs, toast with ham and cheese melted on top, and a coffee for breakfast. Then hit up, my favorite, Wein-O-Rama for 6 dogs "all the way", which means a warm bun, dog, spicy mustard, minced beef, chopped onions, and celery salt on top. Sided with fries and a coke. Then later in the night about 7 slices of pizza.

Yes! Eating food is so rad! I'm just living! Don't hate, participate! I went to the dentist - no cavities, only pearly whites. Been going to the chiropractor - spine's lookin' good. Visited the doctor for a check up - checked out healthy!

I must say though, I'm very anxious to eat healthier and cook more once I'm in Spain. The keyword there will be "FRESH". This will apply to all things.

"He who works like a slave, eats like a king." - RZA

MW

Location:Rhode Island 138,Middletown,United States