Day 121: Zu x 2

 Something I have often viewed as a double-edged sword is the 2a.m. curfew Cambridge has imposed on its drinking establishments.  It seems crazy early, except that in the end one is very happy one has gone home by at least 2:30 and gotten some sleep.  Except for those nights where you manage to work around the curfew somehow... like tonight.

Long days have recently become the norm, and after work, I picked up my usual duo of E. and D., and also grabbed BNap as an addition to our car-ful to Georgetown.  Tonight was our first time not only off-book but also off-prompter, meaning that we were to wing it if we flubbed on lines.  Honestly, it wasn't half-bad.  We ran through the whole play, which is also rare, and so were quite late getting back into Cambridge. D-Money still being in town, we made sure that he and a small contingency were prepped for our weekly stint at the Asgard, and I managed to sneak one song in - "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" -- my first attempt at Stevie, and it went over well.

Most were too tired to carry on at all, but somehow it was decided that for D-Money and me, the party would go on.  A few moments with Chicken Slacks and the 'Tab was about to close, but ZuZu saved the day and we bonded over a quick beer there.  The night went on to included attempts at throwing old bicycles into the garbage can in front of my house (see above) and jamming with the pre-set midi files on my old-school Casio keyboard.  Just another night in Central Square.

Day 108: The yoga scene

Back in the day when I was a graduate student at MIT and therefore had access to all sorts of delightful perks, I would often go to the weekly group classes at the gym across the street from my building (in the Stata center, which you can see in the background image for this blog).  This mostly involved power yoga, pilates, and something called "PiYo" (an attempt at a pilates/yoga fusion).  Vinyasa yoga was incorporated in most of these (even in the pilates to some extent), but somehow most of the courses managed to avoid the true "hold-this-pose-until-your-muscles-are-burning" part of vinyasa that gives it its punch. [Also probably the case that you don't get the most advanced / difficult classes in the world at the Stata Center.]


When my friend Az asked if I wanted to go with him to a vinyasa class, I was excited -- in fact another friend had just thrown a free class pass my way a few days before.  So A. and I went to O2 yoga in Somerville this afternoon after work, and I must say the 75-minute class really took it out of me.  My body used to feel like a nice happy sack of goo after pilates at MIT, but after this class left me feeling more like a sad sack.  Well, not too sad -- muscles felt used, but in the right way (not the over-stretching way, which is why I used to stick to pilates over yoga), body felt completely mellow, and my brain really felt quieted.  I will have to re-visit.

Even with the very zen feeling, I managed to make the most of the rest of the evening and got to see a bunch of great folks at two of my favorite just-north-of-Central-Square establishments -- the Cellar and Cantab.  [One of my friends brought a girl who looked absolutely terrorized at the prospect of entering the Cantab as we approached the bouncer who was checking IDs and seeing the folks who were entering; we had to pay her cover and coax her in gently.  We all had a great time dancing, though!]

Day 91: The Tab

Tuesday, Tuesday -- so good to me.

Tuesdays have always held a special place in my heart, ever since J. and I decided they were the best day of the school week when we were around 14 or 15 years old.  I don't remember what are criteria were, but I think we pretty much discounted Friday, since it's basically a day of the weekend in disguise.  On Thursday you're just getting desperate; Wednesday is hump day; and Mondays are clearly spent recovering from the week-end's freedom.  But Tuesdays you might just find yourself having a high work ethic or becoming numb enough to the grind of the week that you don't mind it as much (depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist).

Today's Tuesday was probably more like a typical week's Monday for me, except that it still involved Calliope, and therefore still counted as a highlight of my week.  Somehow I always manage to pick only the hottest days in Boston to bike to choir, but there was such a breeze tonight that it didn't seem to matter as much.  We worked exclusively on the Gloria and the Kyrie, which was nice because they are two of my favorites.  Ok, perhaps they're all my favorites (except for the Kedushah... can't wrap my head around that one yet -- but I'm sure I will grow to love it after a bit more practice).

Anyway, after choir there was brief contemplation of a jump into a certain muddy river, but I had made plans to meet some people at the good ol' 'Tab for a friend-of-a-friend's b-day (said friend-of-friend was someone whom I'd hoped to meet for a while), so instead of jumping, there was tabbing, instead.  With a brief pause for some falafel.  Apparently falafel does not mean what I thought it meant -- who knew that falafel was not a generic term for all delicious things coming wrapped up with hummus and other delicious stuff?  Ok, maybe everyone else, but no matter, Falafel Palace has gotten much better since the last time I was there (saying something, given that the last time I was there was probably at like 3am after a bunch of beers).

The Cantab had live bluegrass music (as it does every Tuesday), and Julie (the birthday girl) apparently knew some of the regulars who knew members of the band, which was fun to hear about. Several other friends showed up and it was nice, low-key way to enter back into the Cambridge night scene (they run things differently in Indiana).

Day 61: Graduation/Tropical Mashup

Today I did something I nearly never do: skipped a party.  When I awoke at noon (I often sleep in but noon is pushing it for me), I went back to sleep for two more full hours.  I believe the last time I slept in till 2p must have been in college during finals week or something.

Even though I missed the Pride parade party on a friend's roof deck, there was plenty of celebrating today.  One of my MIT classmates was also graduating with a Master's degree this week, and his parents were in town so he through a celebratory bbq today.  Another classmate and I arrived at a standard fashionably late time, an hour after the start, and we were still the first ones there.  We continued on for many hours, which also involved the joining to the party of another displaced "tropical" party.  Apparently they started out at an apartment in Inman that was just too small and were digging the idea of a backyard bbq-style party.

It was great to see so many of the MIT classmates and friends I have met over the years.  The evening culminated in seeing a performance at the Cantab (downstairs) of a friend's band, dancing our arses off, and some nice late-night chats.  What a way to go out.

Day 50: Straw Dogs

It's that time again.  Straw Dogs time.

What are Straw Dogs, you might ask?  The answer is honestly: I don't know. I always assumed that a straw dog was something like a straw man... here's the quote from the Tao Te Ching which references Straw Dogs:

    Heaven and Earth are heartless / treating creatures like straw dogs

Well, we unleashed those dogs on our rival softball team today, the Base Pairs (get it? ...yeah).  Except, turns out those Base Pairs were pretty well paired, and were heartless in treating us like straw dogs.

But it was great to be back on the softball fields at MIT!  Really cool view of Simmons, a dorm with quite interesting geometric architecture, from the field.  After, I had other plans so was unable to go drink with the Dogs and so-called "Dog Handlers" -- but bluegrass at Cantab did not disappoint.  The band was called Tricky Britches, and they were pretty darn good (I got super-duper happy when they played "Uncle Penn", a cover of a Ricky Skaggs song that my dad played all the time when I was a kid).

Next week -- revenge of the Dogs.

Day 43: Beautiful Waltham.

Second trip to Waltham this month -- and I'd never been before. When I drove with E. to pick up his parents for Mother's day a few weekends ago, I found the place to be very charming. They live quite near the main drag, and there was the "Watch City" (as it's called) Festival going on, with historical re-enactors abounding.

Today's trip was much less scenic, mostly due to the dreary difficulty of driving in the Cambridge rain.  It took L. and I nearly an hour to get there.  Our aim was simple: attend a Mary Kay party. Whatever that meant. A friend from choir recently began dating a girl who does Mary Kay professionally, full-time. I was very curious and told her I'd love to attend a party sometime.  I was thinking low-key, have a beer, watch some people play with makeup, easy.  I was not aware that it would entail a 2-hr commute and three hours of being told how to properly put on exfoliant and the like.  Nonetheless, L. and I agreed that it was pretty informative... and we allowed ourselves to agree to call a toll-free number to give some feedback on a promotion they are doing.

Well. After, we were feeling (or at least I was) the need for a relaxing beer, which was found at Ashdown (one of the campus pubs at MIT).  Then, we joined one of my roommates at Cantab for bluegrass night -- a very low-key way to end a somewhat high-stress evening.

Day 38: Foraged Banquet

With each passing day living here, my heart breaks a little more at the thought of leaving.  I know that learning to love a new city will be an incredible process, but - and here I interrupt myself because I can go no further with that train of thought.  Instead, I will reiterate how much fun it is to write this silly blog and remind myself how lucky I am to have moved to this city and met such wonderful people.

Tonight, E. and I went again to Gallery 263, where our friend sits on the board and also helped start the place a few years ago.  It's an amazing little place with soaring ceilings, beautiful molding, and a great location in the heart of Cambridgeport.  And boy, do they host a good event.  This was probably my third time (?) being there, the first two having been for art-only events -- meaning that the art was the primary focus.  One was an opening for a set of pieces (see blog post #3) with the theme "Gooey, Gobby, Gummy", and one was a silent auction.

Tonight, the primary goal was not to look at the art (though the member show was absolutely fantastic) -- the primary goal was to help raise money for the art gallery by attending a "foraged dinner".  The friend of mine on the board of said gallery is a researcher by day and a forager by - well, by other parts of other days.  Along with a chef (whose cookbook looked great!) he created a menu and a meal which fed us, and helped the gallery out a little bit.  There were speeches, allusions to t-shirt contests, and much, much sangria, and afterward the night went out with a bang at our usual Thursday-night live band karaoke spot (followed by Cantab (!) for a few of us).

Day 17: Genki Ya

 
Poem: Ode to Genki Ya in Eight Lines.

One word: Sushi.
Two words: Best sushi.
Three words: Best cheap sushi.
Four words: Best boat of sushi.
Five words: Best cheap boat of sushi.
Six words: Best boat of sushi in Cambridge.
Seven words: Best ten dollar takeout sushi in Cambridge.
Eight words: Best sushi across the street from my workplace.

Or, perhaps you like a Ryan-Gosling-style haiku better:

Hey, sushi, sushi
Yellowtail and salmon fish
Avocado, too

I mean honestly you can't describe the deliciosity of sushi in words, so why even bother?

*** Late-night edit (please excuse poor quality of photo, but it seemed so necessary).

The night turned more epic than expected.

As per usual, on a Thursday night when only normal events occur, I head over to Asgard for the LBK scene. Tonight, only one of the typical LBK-goers could make it (apart from me, obviously). As he noted, the band (namely the lead singer) seemed a little lackluster, though ever-enthusiastic when the two of us went on (my first song was great crack: "This Love", by Maroon 5, a karaoke first for me; my second was a standard and strangely enough, also a first for me, though it worked -- "Stand By Me").

Karaoke ended a touch early tonight, and since I had worked until after 10pm, I was ready to be out for a bit to offset the mind-numbingness of working 12 hours straight. With very little convincing, my fellow LBK compatriot and I set off down the road for the Cantab to see the Thursday-night glory which is the Chicken Slacks (to which a full post will be devoted I HOPE soon), and the epicness of the night had begun. It turned out that it was the last night with the 'Slacks for the last *original* remaining member of the band (a nothing-if-not-legendary fixture of the Cantab's) . The keyboardist, in fact. So it was quite bittersweet.... even though the Chicken Slacks as it currently stands is not what it used to be.

The best part of Central Square is that a random-walk home can be so serendipitous. Ours involved buying chocolate Cheerios (force-fed chocolate Cheerios, in my case), half participating in an offering of said cereal to stranger and having the entire box nipped, running into two men who were excited to celebrate the date and offered to share their enthusiasm with us (it had already become 4-20 at that point; no, the offer was not accepted), an encounter with a mayonnaise-eating musician at Hi-Fi, and a brief conversation about a potentially epic road trip to Nova Scotia / P.E.I. (a dream of mine since always). This night is just another reminder that I will be obnoxiously depressed to leave Cambridge.