Day 80: Leaving the city

Perhaps one of the best parts of living in a city is the opportunity to leave it once in a while (not to mention the joy of coming back to it).  Though today was packed with work and rehearsals and even some live-band action at the end, it definitely had a prepping-to-leave feel.  It started last night, when I started the _real_ packing for moving across the country and continued through today as I finished up frosting a cake to bring to my family reunion this weekend, packing last minute odds and ends to bring so that my mom could take them to her house after (I'll be storing at least half my current junk--i.e. all my personal possessions that I could never part with--at her place at least for a while when I move to CA), loading up my car with all of this crud, and generally running last-minute errands, all before getting to work.  Which I could probably barely focus on.  I also printed out a map with a potential route to California so my mom and I could discuss suggested stops on the way.  I think it's time to start focusing more on this move.  But not to worry!  After this weekend (which I predict will be wild and wonderful, West Virginia-style), there will still be 64 more days in Cambridge.  I think.

Day 77: Cambridge Common

For a place called the Cambridge Common, it's certainly rather uncommon enough for me to go there.  It's located just in the wrong spot -- were it on the other side of Harvard Square, I'm sure I'd make a visit much more frequently.  I typically rely on my Harvard-loving friends to suggest it before I go there, and today was one of those days.

The whole Harvard psychology crew that I love dearly had a friend visiting recently -- someone who left Cambridge for California just as I started hanging out with them, so I was really happy to meet her this past week.  Tonight was her going away party, and we made plans to reunite in Southern California (she's living in L.A. currently).

Things that I love about Cambridge Common: the greasy food (they have something called fried macaroni and cheese), the size (never a problem getting a table), the fact that they serve really delicious brunch on the weekends, their outdoor seating, the fact that they have UMBRELLAS covering tables in their outdoor seating (came in handy during the n-teenth crazy summer storm to happen this week, while we were there), and tonight, for the first time, tasting their beer flights (they have picks, but you can choose anything you like from their fairly extensive list).

Things that I do not love about Cambridge Common: the fact that I eat greasy food when I am there, the fact that it does not have as much character as nearly any bar in Central (though I do have a feeling it would be more fun at the bar), its only pseudo-coziness, and the fact really, even though I love certain things about it, I can just never bring myself to love it.

For some reason writing this made me remember how much I miss Razzy's, a bar with diner-style food in Somerville that closed within the last couple years.  Great vibe there, and one of the most "normal" dive bars I've seen host karaoke.  Plus -- it's name was Razzy's, for crying out loud.  What's not to love about that?

Day 30: Mariposa is a cozy coffee shop

Rarely do I go to Mariposa, one of the three coffee shops/cafes within a 20 foot (or so) radius of my house, but boy was I glad I did today.  I never thought of myself as very granola-loving, but I think I've just eaten too many greasy breakfast sandwiches recently because boy, was I craving fruit and health this morning.  Pricey though it may be, the granola and yogurt and fruit (with a whole banana!) concoction with a coffee while I studied for my final before work today really hit the spot.. and inspired me a bit.  Maybe I can go to granola-loving California and be happy after all.

The day sort of flew by, probably because I was just tired, but I was just so, so happy the moment I had finished the final that I brushed the tiredness off.  The evening was going to be a treat, I knew -- a *new* karaoke experience, and a new Jamaica Plain experience, all in one go!  E. and I went with mostly new friends to a place near our friend's house in JP, and it was quite the unique experience.  It was really one of those bars where it feels like everyone is hanging out together -- something I had only experienced via watching Cheers re-runs as a kid.  Costello's live-band karaoke on Wednesdays was way louder, rowdier, and sloppier than anything I have seen in Cambridge.  Thinking back to the previous post, I think this might be due in part to the fact that the "academics" of the area were mostly weeded out, the collar-poppers of Boston don't typically venture that far south, and the result was some awesome menagerie including a dude who brought his own fedora, fireman hat, and stuffed animals which he placed in inappropriate configurations that varied throughout the night.

Glory be to this weird, wonderful world we find ourselves in.  Another highlight of the evening was introducing E. to my favorite e.e. cummings poem:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)