Day 123: Sanders Theater

There was so much to do this weekend that I did not really have any idea how it was all going to get done.  So instead of fretting I did the sensible thing and just tried to DO things.  Today that entailed waking up early enough to go grocery shopping, make cookie dough (tried it with vegan "butter" this time, and it seemed to go alright! tomorrow we'll see...), going costume shopping with our two "cops" for the play at Garment District, and then getting the pleasure of finally meeting the newest members of E's family -- two BEAUTIFUL twin girls born late at night on June second.  The bike ride out to meet them at their pad in Belmont with E.E. himself was quite pleasant.  Their names are Eva Penelope (EE the second) and Amalia Rose, and both are as sweet as can possibly be.  They look a little like my youngest sister did upon her arrival into the world -- mostly due to the shock of nearly-black (but not quite) hair gracing their little noggins!  Oh dear.  Must not because nauseatingly baby-oriented.

Anyhow, they had quite the visit, with I believe five extra adults around for the evening (all Espada brothers and some compatriots).  Upon our exit, it was time for me to go home and get ready for the upcoming performance at Sanders Theater with the Mercury Chorale, which I was pretty pumped for.  We all knew we could have done with more rehearsal time, but honestly we peaked tonight, which is a good sign for any performer.  (Such a waste to have ever done it better than the night you perform, right?)

E. and several of D's friends came to the show, and it was really a treat to perform in that theater space.  The rest of the evening was a big treat as well -- with B. still in town, we had a nice little crew for tearing it up at karaoke at Courtside (what I suspect will be my last venture out there for this stint in Cambridge -- even said my good-byes to Mark the Shark!), and paid a small social call to our director from Mercury.  Really nice experience singing with them in the past couple of weeks.

Day 68: Go to Casablanca without leaving Cambridge

In addition to going to Hong Kong without leaving Boston, it is also quite possible to go to Casablanca without leaving Cambridge. I believe this was only my second time going there, which is a shame, as it's quite charming and usually fairly empty. Today, there were too many plans to keep straight (festivals in Central and Harvard, two barbecues, etc.) so I opted for what I thought the simplest option with the highest pay-off would be and bike to get hot dogs to grill at my former housemates' place on Plymouth St. near Inman.  After walking there with T. and spending a couple of hours chatting, etc. (in the it-was-supposed-to-be-beautiful-but-instead-it's-kinda-blah weather), we decided to rejoin the rest of our crew in Harvard Square, where they had attempted to enjoy the music festival but found more solace in enjoying Charlie's beer garden.  By the time we got there, people were ready to head to Brattle St. for some Casablanca action.

After a drink or two and some appetizers, it was apparently time for bbq #2 (a "not-the-father's-day"-themed bbq, no less), located in East Cambridge -- a bit of a hike.  We took a cab, and the end of the evening was apparently quite lovely (with lots of food and sing-a-long), but I missed a portion in favor of going to Courtside (seriously like 2 blocks away -- how could I resist?). But the end of the night involved reconnecting with friends and making some new ones, so all in all, a very nice (and actually somewhat relaxing) Saturday.

Day 59: Late-night live-band

Many weeknights in Cambridge involve karaoke. However, very few weeknights in Cambridge involve karaoke until 2 in the morning. Typically it's because the joint isn't even open at all for karaoke on a weeknight (e.g. Charles Playhouse), the joint itself closes before then (e.g. Courtside), it's a flippin' Wednesday and people are exhausted well before 2 a.m. and the joint is located miles away (e.g. Costello's in JP), or in some cases, the band is done before then (e.g. Asgard; photo above c/o a the lovely Erica). In actuality, the only karaoke place my friends and I typically attempt to patronize on a weeknight is the Asgard on Thursdays, when they have their epic live-band-karaoke nights. It has come to pass only once before that they managed to play past 12:30am, apparently due to a late start.

Well, tonight was another one of those instances, because apparently no one told the band that they would be unable to start at 9 due to game 6 of some almost-final series of basketball between the Heat and the Celtics.  I have never seen the place so packed.  The upshot was threefold: first, it meant that E. and I could hang out with the lead singer for a bit while he scarfed a couple of burgers out of boredom. Second, it meant that Sarah B., D., and others who were at yet another Boston ball game (the Red Sox) had some extra time to get back in to Cambridge. And third, it meant that the band played until about 2 a.m.  Cheers to bars staying open till 2 on Thursdays, cheers to musicians who are rad enough to stick it out, and cheers to good friends who stay up past their bedtimes.

Day 53: Building 19

Today was The Moving Day.  All of the annotators from the Speech and Language department at BBN were moved to Building 19.  I was later told that apparently "Building 19" has cultural significance, and a quick google search confirmed that there is a chain of stores called Building 19 with the slogan "Good Stuff Cheap."  It's kind of funny and a fairly accurate description of the annotators.  They say that any change in the workplace is good for productivity (no matter what the change is) -- but I'm not totally sure about that.

Let me describe the BBN version of Building 19.  First of all, it's a warehouse--it's where shipping and delivery at BBN resides, and trucks come in to the room next door to drop things off throughout the day.  (At some point, when the fumes were bothering someone, I checked it out with a co-worker, and we were told by a guy in that department that "I sneeze once in the morning but then you get used to the fumes" and that "sometimes we turn a fan on if it gets too bad".)

Anyhow.  Our particular corner of the world in Building 19 is kind of cool.  It actually looks like the room would make an amazing bar (kind of reminds me of the pizza place in Davis that is converted from a warehouse).  There are huge, brightly-painted pipes and scaffolding above us (the ceiling is probably about 16-20 feet -- I'm not great at such estimations!), and rows of medium-sized "cubicles" -- really just desks with dividers between them.  Above the desks are fairly low-hanging rows of fluorescent lights, but the room is so big that the lighting is not actually very depressing.  The girls formerly living in 3/123 (ah, that beautiful building, with offices right next to the library and cafeteria...) snagged the first row, right by the door, with frosted glass panes letting in light (but no peeking!).

They also say that groups of people, even strangers, become closer when they have to go through a hardship -- and probably this almost counts.  So we spent part of the day trying to make the space look nicer by hanging up posters that M. (our supervisor) had scavenged and hanging up some hooks that she'd nagged us for coats/bags/hats/etc.  It's a pretty sweet work environment, if you ask me -- even came with fancy bathrooms (close by, just for us, *and* they have a decent-looking shower and lockers) and a mini-kitchen (full fridge, hot/cold water device of some sort, coffee maker, sink, microwave).

After work, I had a good-but-not-so-cheap dinner with Z. at the Druid, where a friend from my class at MIT met up with us.  We headed down the street to Courtside -- which was the deadest I have EVER seen it -- and then sprinted back to Central to catch a song or two to dance to.  Back to Building 19 tomorrow!