When you move somewhere  inevitably your friends say they will come visit.  You make false plans with them about the future and how much fun it is going to be when they come to town.  You talk about all the things that you will show with them in your new city when they get there.  This is a fun ideal to have but it rarely comes to fruition.

In my 10-plus moves, I’ve been on both sides of it.  I’ve made those false-campaign promises and conversely been left high and dry.  It’s just a fact of life.  It’s human nature to make people leaving feel like you will remain in their life but the reality is people are busy and they drift apart.  It’s nothing personal and I don’t take it as such. I just roll with it.

My move to Boston has been the anti-thesis to this.  Apparently, I’ve moved to the coolest place on Earth!

Within days of moving to Boston, my friend, Britt came to visit.  Granted he was here on a business trip but I’m still counting it.  We went to my first Red Sox game and saw them get trounced by the Orioles.  Later, we went bar hopping up and down Boylston Street and I saw my first Bostonian vomit in a bar. Milestones all weekend long.

The next week, I was contacted separately by two friends, Kristen and Jessica,  that I had known from years prior in Raleigh for 2 more get-togethers.

Then my best friend, Jamie, came up to visit and we tore it up.  We went out to watch the Celtics playoff games and got wild at the Greatest Bar for Dirty Water Fridays and even went to Foxboro to watch the New England Revolution whoop up on the Columbus Crew (although the game ended in a tie).

photo by SALT

I thought I would have a respite but that was not the case.  I then had 3 more people come up to town and wanted me to play tour guide.  Jason and Liz with Liz’s friend, Becky came to visit for big weekend that took us from Fenway Park to Mohegan Sun and finishing in Martha’s Vineyard.  It seemed like it was a non-stop weekend, which is not what the weekend is for.

photo by SALT

It was shortly after that visit that 4 more friends decided to come visit and set up a ‘guys’ weekend – 2 returning, Jason and Jamie and 2 new, Rashim and Jared.  They are all staying with me and the kicker is the weekend begins on Thursday morning when they fly in and doesn’t end until Monday when they fly out!  I have already told Kennedy that she will be bailing one or all of us out of jail at some point in the weekend.  The stories from that weekend will be retold for years to come.  That all sounds well and good but…it needs to stop.

This may sound ungrateful but it can be a bit much.  Sometimes, I just want a weekend where I don’t have to do a week’s worth of research to plan ahead of time.  Sometimes, I want to not have a blow-up mattress in my living room.  Sometimes, I’d like to have female companionship.  That seems like more of a personal issue I have to deal with, I digress.

I love my friends.  They are like family for me.  I would do anything for them but…STOP COMING TO VISIT ME!!!

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