Day 107: Out-of-towners

Today was just another summer 2012 Cambridge Thursday, complete with work (new computer today!), some downtime at home, rehearsal in Georgetown for Rumors, and live-band karaoke after.

Several the usuals were away this week (out of town), so I had no high hopes for turn-out -- but though the crowd was small it was certainly punchy!

Since our own locals were being out-of-towners elsewhere, it only seemed reasonable to interact with some non-local out-of-towners in Cambridge.  P. had already begun to do this by the time E. and I arrived from rehearsal, with someone in town from North Carolina on business.  He was a great karaoke fiend and sang us his son's rendition of the song "I'm sexy and I know it" (hockey-themed: "I'm Gretsky and I know it"); though I was a bit worried when at the end of the night he told us, "I drive better when I've been drinking than when I'm sober.  My wife's always telling me, oh you gotta drive -- better start drinking!" -- just before driving to his hotel five miles away.

Before the end of the night, we decided we'd probably be best off ordering some pizza at Cinderella's, and were somehow approached by the table next to us, a group of brothers visiting, originally from Chicago, spanning nearly a couple of decades in age.  When I mentioned I was from nearby Indiana, the youngest expostulated that he went to school in Indiana, at the best school of the state -- Notre Dame.

I laughed and countered that no -- that school was located in Bloomington, to which he responded with an inflammatory remark by inserting a particularly flexible adverb in between "best" and "school" to describe IU.  After that I was not so interested in conversation, particularly after one of them made some about assuming one of our crew had "just met me tonight."  Perhaps an upshot of the evening was just that I felt lucky to live in a place where the out-of-towners don't make me wish I lived elsewhere?  The Cantabrigians I know are pretty great.

Day 52: Cinderella's

Warning: there is some griping contained within, mostly in the second paragraph.

Typically I tout the fact that my apartment is located above Toscanini's, hands down my favorite place to get coffee and also to get ice cream in Cambridge.  However, this is a slight stretch of the truth -- in fact, my house is above an "Italian" restaurant just next to said coffee shop called Cinderella's.  Much less glamorous than Tosci, yet at certain points in one's life (or one's night), Cinderella's makes a lot of sense.

Yesterday after work, the original plan had been to run errands with Z., make an appearance at Gallery 263 for a bluegrass/folk concert there, and then go to the typical Thursday night LBK at Asgard.  Z. needed to pick up some computer stuff that was big/heavy from Microcenter and we thought we might go shopping at the Trader Joe's next door, as well. So I jauntily left work at 7p, thinking I had plenty of time to make it to the concert by its start time of 8 or just after.  Of course I forgot my phone at work -- and of course I couldn't just leave it there, as my office was going to be moved at approximately the crack of 7am the next morning.  So after I picked up Z. at home, I asked him if he wouldn't mind a) letting me run to work before I brought him back home and b) skipping the grocery-stopping step of our endeavors.  Of course he was acquiescent.  We got in line at Microcenter where he had ordered some stuff online, and when he whipped out his wallet... he realized he left the credit card he needed at home.  Thank God I'm not the only one who does these things.  Anyhow, phone was retrieved, Z. got to see BBN, card was retrieved from home, monitor and processor were purchased, and then I dropped off Z. at the front door so that I could go park.  Except after I circled, having seen someone move their car, a police-mobile pulled up immediately in front of the place where my car needed to go to turn left onto the street with the parking spot. And stayed there.  And stayed there.  Eventually I backed up the entire street to where the preceding cross-street had been.

But that was the last crappy part of the day. Because, as I have foreshadowed, the day was going to end with Cinderella's, meaning that good times would be had first. Said good times were had both at the gallery and then at the Asgard, where a bunch of folks from Calliope as well as some MIT-ers and the gallery crew met up for some soulful tune-ing.

After, there was still a bit more chatting at Asgard, then we proceeded onward to Cinderella's for some tasty grub, which we enjoyed outside in the park in front of my house, obviously also enjoying the company of many other Central Square-ers as happens when out on pretty much any night in Central Square.  Please tell me where I can find such things in San Diego...