Written by Brian Illustrated by Marc So about my trip to Boston. The plan was to visit several people who lived there and record a line that Blake was supposed to say in the movie but we forgot to get it from him before he left to go to Harvard Law school. It was a magic day. Because Marc's car was too precious to drive in Boston, we were all going in my car, the "Pale Falcon." My friend Lisa arrived before Marc, who was late because he's an idiot. So Lisa and I were playing frisbee in the road. For awhile. To pass the time. Then I see Marc's car coming. "Lisa! Give me the frisbee!" I take an expert throw directly at Marc's car ~75ft away. It was perfect, solid. Marc sees this danger and veers right to evade. Then the frisbee banks right, as if it's tracking him! Marc panics, stops and then starts left then stops. It's as if the car is feinting, trying to fake the frisbee out. The frisbee, implacable, careens to its mark. Then Marc floors it and his car actually ducks and the frisbee passes right over, striking the antenna. Then it seemed like Marc might run me down so I ran onto my lawn behind another car. Then he parked, snatched up the frisbee and locked it in his trunk. Afterwards he said he'd wanted to punch me in the face. Then we're driving up 84 to Boston and there's this car dealership next to the highway. It has two large balloons floating 50 feet above it, tethered by ropes bejagged with colorful triangular flags. So I see these balloons designed to grab highway motorist attention and I see them and I say to Marc, "Man if I had a BB gun I'd shoot that one *points* and then I'd shoot that one *points*." Marc turns to me and says, "That'd be pretty funny." Then Lisa, in the back seat, gasps "Oh my God" and points. The first balloon had spontaneously ruptured! How improbable is that! Then after a good time eating with Leinwand and this other dude at this pizza place, T. Anthony's on Commonwealth Avenue, we were standing outside talking, saying good bye. Then I hear this obnoxiously loud and grating "MCNAMARAAAAHHGHGH" being yelled from a passing car. Midway through hearing this I divert my gaze from my Leinwand who's saying something, to this unknown assailant and respond with an equally loud and grating "HEEEEEEYYYYGHGH!" Then once I fix on the source I realize that it's CONNOLLY. We were supposed to meet him at Burrito Max at 6 but he wasn't answering his cell phone and it was already 6:30. I had all but written him off. Then I was like "Let's get him!" and we ran to my car and gave chase. I was really happy with our emergency response time. We had him within 30 seconds and we beeped at him and tailgated him mercilessly. His girlfriend was driving. We headed toward Burrito Max. Unfortunately there was a Bruce Springstein concert at Fenway Park and parking was hellish. So we drove around for like 20 minutes. I knew the area so I was confident that we'd find something eventually. On like the third recon circuit, I noticed a familiar walk walking on the median in Kenmore Square. "Marc! That's fuckin Johanna! Fuckin that's fuckin Johanna!" We hadn't seen Johanna for two years. She went to highschool with us and college with me. For whatever convoluted reasons I'd stopped hanging out with her. Long story. So I screeched up in front of her. We stopped basically in the middle of a 5-way intersection. I waved my arm out the window, "Johanna! JOHANNA! Get in!" She was stunned but quickly recognized me and advanced cautiously. Then Marc was like a kidnapper "GET IN THE CAR! GET_IN_THE _CAR!" Compelled by the force of his voice, she frantically got in and we sped away, running a red light and breaking some other law. And I beeped. I'd beep at anything. My horn is awesome. We were all happy to see each other after so long. "What are you guys doing here?" I was like "LOOKING FOR YOU! We were just about to give up!" So then she joined us on the rest of the day's furious adventures because she has no life. Then we were still looking for parking and I saw this lady looking at a car as we passed. I kept half an eye on her in my rearview and then saw her go for the door handle! I put my blinker on and prepared for a full U turn. Then I noticed there was a purple cavalier with tinted windows behind me and that he and I had conflicting ideas about this spot. Mid-U, I glared into the gloom of his windshield and pointed at the spot then at myself. He pretended not to notice and tried for his own desperate U but failed and recoursed to a K turn. Thanks to my superior BMW turning radius I snapped out my U with tires chirping and sped toward him. He was vulnerable - just having hit his first point and preparing to back up, so I accelerated to check him, slipped by his rear and gracefully took up a parallel parking position in front of my rightful spot, blinker on. After I parked the purple cavalier pulled up next to me. The rascal glared at me coldly for a few seconds and I glared back trying not to look alarmed. I wondered what he was going to do. Would he pull a knife? Throw a grenade into my car? Probably. I was ready to throw it back at him. But that wouldn't be good actually because I'd still be within the blast radius since he was next to me. To prevail I'd have to throw it right over his car. That way he'd take damage on the driver side and it would be pretty unlikely that any substantial shard would find its way to my car. But wait. His car might blow up. Dammit. What an asshole this guy was, dooming us both! My mind raced and then tripped and fell as, abruptly, he pulled away. I took my camera with me to Burrito Max in case he wanted some kind of callow revenge on my car or its contents. On the way to Burrito Max, Connolly, still in search of parking, intercepted us and we decided that we weren't really hungry and that we should just go hang out at his apt. It was then that I found out he didn't_have_his_cell_phone. It really made me appreciate our chance encounter at the pizza place earlier as well as the chance encounter right then. A lot of time could've been wasted in confusion. Very lucky. One of the main goals of the day was for Connolly and Marc to meet with an eye toward future collaboration. I couldn't have hoped for a better result. They got along swimmingly and shared similar tastes I had not even been aware of. Oh and we got Blake's line on like the first try. It was beautiful. These are the main few highlights that come to mind but seriously the day was like nonstop excitement. I've never had a better road trip.

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