The Monthly Zest - May and June 2024
Last fall, I took a trip to Japan with some close friends (If you're so inclined you can read about it here!) and when I returned it felt like I had regained my zest for life. Since then, I've been trying to fill my life with more zest - visiting new places, trying new hobbies... basically anything but wasting away on my computer playing MMOs. I've wanted to write about these experiences on a monthly basis, but in classic Sean fashion I've been too busy to write. I finally found some time to write so here's all the fun stuff I did over the last two months:
MAY
The month of May started with a show I was dying to see - Owen, the solo project of Mike Kinsella from American Football which is one of my favorite bands. He played a bunch of stuff from his new album which I liked a lot. Somehow ended up at the stage and was super close. I got a milkshake on the way back and was basically skipping home in joy that night.
May in Somerville has tons of art events and Nathan and I tried to hit as many as we could. The first weekend of May was the Open Art Studios weekend. I didn't realize just how many old warehouses, factories and mills in the city had been converted to art studios. We spent an entire day wandering maybe a third of it and we barely scratched the surface of what was being shown. The stuff we did see was extremely cool and I bought some new ceramics for my apartment.
That weekend was also free comic book day of course. We stopped at Hub Comics and of course I had to pick up a copy of The Fortune Teller, a new Hellboy story. Was also super stoked to find out one of my favorite comic anthologies Gleem by Freddy Carasco got republished so I grabbed a copy of that for myself. And of course no trip to Union Square is complete without stopping at Johnny Boy's for a longganisa breakfast sandwich, the best food in the whole world.
A couple weeks later was PorchFest! Local musicians set up on their porches or driveways and play music throughout the whole city. I went exploring with Nathan, Connor and Gabe and we spent the day listening to great music and taking in the crowds. OG Boston indie band Guster was doing a show on a side street somewhere but we didn't even bother trying to see them when we heard how insane the crowd was. My favorite acts of the day were two local groups called OldSoul and Tiffy.
Right before Memorial Day, myself along with Nathan, Connor, Gabe, Shawn and Matt ventured down the Cape for a quick boys trip. We stayed at the Riviera Beach Resort for a couple days expecting to spend the weekend chilling on the beach. We got one good beach day out of it, but the rest of the weekend ended up being pretty rainy and dreary. The highlight though was the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Chatham. Nathan, Gabe and I went hiking on one of the more cloudy days and the scenery was absolutely insane. The trail leads you to a long beach and at low tide tons of uprooted trees are visible. It kind of felt like Death Stranding but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Finally, May was the start of the New England Pinball League! I had been meaning to give it a try for a while but coaxed myself to give it a shot finally. I'm not the best pinball player (despite being lowkey obsessed with it) but it was still a super fun time and I looked forward to visiting Pop's every Thursday. The season just wrapped up and I'm excited for the next one starting in September. We love new hobbies...
JUNE
June kicked off with a drive to Montreal with Nathan, Connor, Mariah and Nick. This was actually my second time in Canada this year, after a birthday trip to Blue Mountain back in Feburary. Connor drove the surprisingly quick trip from Boston to Montreal (with a pit stop in Burlington, VT on the way).
I'll probably end up writing a separate post about this since we did so much but man I LOVED Montreal. The food was incredible. We did a lot of sightseeing too - Old Montreal, the Biodome, Mont-Royal and more. And the bagels. Oh my god the bagels. I get it now. We came home with two dozen bagels each and I ate them all within a couple weeks. Guess I better make a trip back soon...
Right after we returned from Montreal, Alex came to visit! We finally made it to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum after it was sold out the last time he was here. It's super quirky and one of my favorite places to bring out of town friends to visit.
We also attended the Boston Pride Festival, and tried to see the Red Bull Cliff Diving at the ICA but it was sadly over by the time we made it there. The next day though we DID get to see the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival which were really cool. And of course no visit with out of town friends is complete without a trip to Sacco's Bowl Haven for some real New England candlepin bowling.
While cleaning out my bedroom some time ago, I found a coupon from Kimball Farm that I got from a work outing from 5 years ago that got rained out and entitled me to 5 free attractions. So of course I had to call up Angie who also kept her coupon from the same outing and take the drive up for some mini golf and ice cream. It was a humid and gross day but we made the most of it and I only embarrassed myself in the batting cages a little bit.
Oh yeah I bought a car too. It was finally time to retire the 08 Corolla I had been driving for eleven years and upgrade to something that doesn't leak on me when it rains. I got a 2021 Hyundai Elantra and I love it. It has too many screens and features but I don't need a FM bluetooth transmitter anymore for music so that's a win in my book. Buying a car was terrifying but my brother was a huge help negotiating since he's a car guy. Was much appreciated.
Couple smaller things to wrap up the month. I saw one of my favorite bands Airiel. Was probably the loudest concert I've ever been to but it completely ruled and they signed a record I bought. I also got a commission back from an artist I love on Twitter - Justin McElroy. He drew one of my favorite guys of all time - Kratos from God of War. Stopped by a local frame shop to see how much it would be to get it framed and got a little woozy when I heard the price, lol.
Happy Summer! FFXIV Dawntrail is out and I am trying to not go overboard playing it. So far so good. See you in July for more zest.