last week was biting cold one minute and fine the next

make up your mind weather!

the massachusetts state house always looks nice and we had an hour to kill before our black heritage trail tour so we decided to check and see if we could go inside 

but not before liking all these horse statues and feeling like the last name hooker is very unfortunate.

good news we got to go in! and it was way way better than i ever imagined. i LOVE this place.

we checked out the house of representatives room which was one of the better rooms i've ever been in

then headed over to this room but i won't pretend to remember what it is for

then to this room. once again dont really remember what it is for but met the nicest new bf security officer paul!  he let us go out on the secret balcony and everything. 

after loving that forever and losing track of time we caught up with the park ranger giving the walking tour  which i really loved too. 

new park ranger friend who had a really hard name to remember told us great stories about slave catchers and the underground railroad and how boston was way awesome and in all that time only about four slaves were taken back to their owners because most people felt it necessary to protect the slaves from being taken. after hearing all of that i felt very proud to live here. 

oh just the tour gang. red jacket ladies just loved the f word so much.

since the slave catchers were on horse people running from them would go in these unmarked alley ways where the horses wouldn't fit haha. that yellow house at the end of the alley was a safe haven for these people. and around the corner we have this yappy pup who was so ticked about us being there.

this looked like a cooler spot to take a picture than it really was apparently

after the tour we walked through boston commons

saw this awesome outdoor book store

walked past the boston opera house and thought it was pretty so we went in for a bit. i have a feeling if the entry way is this fantastic the actual opera house must be amaaaaazing

the night was ended with watching moulin rouge with the roommates. sadly those two in the middle had never seen it!  i, on the other hand, watched it for the first time 10 years ago. i think 10 years ago those girls were getting baptized? yikes. 

i'm trying really hard to read scriptures during the day rather than late at night like i have been. why is it so hard?! with those blasted looks like it is raining all the time windows it is still kind of dark even in the day time so i just have to twist that curtain to make it a little better. for some reason it is no longer able to go up by itself so i got creative. 

pictures with james michael curley AND benjamin franklin?! how could this day not be great. dont worry, i will be posting all about the ben sighting in it's own post 

we went and checked out an italian restaurant that had rave reviews on yelp. sad part was when i thought i ordered pasta but really i ordered a panini? why am i the worst at ordering always?

after lunch we headed back over to the harbor and my roommates hadn't seen it yet so it was fun to watch them freak out about it. pictures don't really do it justice. 

every time i go to a new subway station i'm always so happy how different they are. the colors!

i love that those people just have a little baby dog in their jacket while they play.

i do not love the man on the right for where he is standing is this little porn section right in the middle of the store just trying to decide which porn movie he was going to buy. so many things are wrong with that. a. china town store, you can't put a section like that right in the middle of the store! at very least move it to the back room! b. disgusting man, you cannot go to china town to feed your inappropriate appetite. do you do it because you dont think anyone will see you? gah i don't even know if a or b is worse. sorry for my rant, i'm just still not over how publicly open all of this was and how much the whole scene blew my mind and how no one else seemed to be bothered by it.  

anyway look at these nice colorful sticks! they look kind of sick in this picture but trust me they were cool

okay so i looked over as we were waiting for the subway and saw this man and loved everything about him. especially the part where he is asian. those older asian people just really have my heart.

so i'm sure you can imagine my excitement when he got on right by me!
look, we are both smiling about it.

then it got even better because i got to sit next to him and his cute little full body corduroy outfit. ben franklin and this cute old man? and james michael curly?! the day just kept getting better and better. 

happy birthday roommate brenna! just turned the big 2-0. sometimes i wish i was just turning 20 haha oh the glory days!

facetime pictures of the week. 

(just think this could be you next week!)

and we will end on this one.