Day 117: Suburban foraging

Sunday practices in Georgetown are now a regular part of the week, and I find it quite relaxing to get up on the early side for a Sunday, pop into Toscanini's for a coffee top-up, and swing by to grab various members of the crew for the drive up 93 and 95.  On the occasions when D. is with us, these mornings often bring foraged goodies into our lives during Act 1 (his character only shows up in the middle of Act 2).  Today we were in for a treat - may apples.  Rumor has it they are somewhat elusive and difficult to find around the Cambridge area, though apparently the suburbs of Georgetown were more forgiving; fact has it they are extraordinarily sweet. To eat them, you squeeze and suck out the juicy innards, which are so saccharine they remind me of Gushers (those things are like crack).

Treat #2 of the day was that the old-school members of the GTW (see the sign behind the may apples in the above pic?) were throwing a picnic complete with swimming pool and bocce ball (which S., our director, and I threw down at).  I could only stay for a bit because I had to high-tail it back to Cambridge to get to the second practice for the Mercury Orchestra chorus, which was being held at the Masonic Lodge in Porter Square.  So neat all the places being in this group is showing us!

The afternoon was complete with a bit more urban foraging in the form of nabbing some peaches (and pears, I believe) en route to a friend's place for dinner, where others had foraged some mushrooms for dining (S.B. made an amazing casserole with chicken mushrooms - was to die for).  Rounding out the evening with some guitar sing-along-ing made it a pretty much perfect Sunday.

Day 109: And to think that I saw it on Newbury St.

Happiness is walking out your front door into your favorite coffee shop on a Saturday morning at 8:30, finding that a close friend has also arrived (freshly back from Germany, no less!), and having an unplanned 45-minute long conversation.

It is not minding the fact that you're working on a Saturday and having no plans at all after, but making it up as you go along. Today was a breath of fresh air.  Eek, I'm sounding rather trite today, eh?

This evening, after a brief stint at a barbecue this afternoon, I met up with the brothers E. to run lines on Newbury St.  [The phrase "run lines" has become a part of my daily vocabulary, but I still think it sounds like I'm into hard drugs every time I say it.]  Sitting on Newbury St. and people watching somehow feels quite like Harvard Square.  Maybe it's all the brick?  Anyhow, the Saturday evening patrons of Newbury St. Starbucks were treated to a double-feature (that is, simultaneously doubled, not in sequence) of some buskers and a trio of aspiring thespians doing our rendition of Rumors -- the whole of Act 1, I believe -- on the patio outside.  We later finished Act 2 in Beautiful Medford, making it an early night before our now-weekly Sunday morning gig practicing on the stage in Georgetown.

Day 103: Small-town pubs

Our second rehearsal on-stage in Georgetown--and our first rehearsal off-script--was a big success, though we did take nearly three hours to get through the first half of a 90-minute play.  Highlights included the initial orchestration of a prat-fall trip my character gets to make, finally seeing the physicality between lots of the pairs of actors in the play, and the scene where my character gets to hide in the bathroom and drink double vodkas with her best friend.


After rehearsal, E. and I headed to have a snack with "Ernie" (2.0 -- the original cast member had to bail!) to a pub around the corner.  We ended up shooting the breeze for a couple of hours, while people wandered in and out. It's always funny to me to walk into an establishment that is clearly more designated for drinking than for eating purposes and find, e.g., a stroller inside.  Anyhow.

E. and I rehearsed lines in the car all the way back home, and weren't quite done chatting so we enjoyed the nice weather in his back yard in beautiful Medford for a while.  When I got home, V was there, and we ended up hanging out for hours.  Really nice Sunday.

[As an aside: I'm not going to lie... after our rager, we seem to have encountered a bit of a Rock Band problem which is continuing, and we just left it set up in Z's room while he's away in Japan.  Above you see an alternate use of Rock Band as an addition to audience participation during Bollywood films from the 70s.  I believe it's probably a good thing we didn't have it set up all year long, else we would have gotten very little done otherwise.  V. commented that they should just put Rock Band rooms on 14-hour-long flights to Japan and the flights would feel approximately 30 minutes long.]

Day 85: Sola Cafe (who knew?)

The Cambridge portion of today was brief, but significant.  I woke up and ran errands/prepared car for road trip with 3 other people (i.e. finally emptied the trunk and threw shit out)/went grocery shopping etc. this morning, and I was still ready hours before we needed to leave for New Hampshire at noon.  Of course I was still late anyway, but that's beside the point.

In my morning endeavors, I happened upon Sola Cafe on the way to the grocery store.  This is a route I have traversed many times, but somehow I always missed this cafe (upon remarking on this to one of the workers there and telling her that I only live a block away above Toscanini, she responds, "wow, you traveled all the way across the street!" -- she has a point; but I digress).

At any rate, the place is owned by the same people who brought you La Luna Caffe (which is _not_ on the opposite side of the street from my house), and is located right next to my favorite Cantabrigian Thursday Night destination, the Asgard.  I decided to grab breakfast there and it turns out you can get a pretty decent brioche for fifty cents.  FIFTY CENTS.  Does _anything_ else in this city cost fifty cents?

After that there was the picking up of Cambridge-area individuals from Jamaica Plain to Medford, the transportation of said individuals to New Hampshire, the playing the "spin-the-kid-around-in-a-circle-without-hurting-anyone" game x a bunch of kids, and many other activities leading to a crazy sing-along campfire lasting into the morning.  All in all, a good day.

Day 54: City-hopping

Each day I drive around this area, I find myself adding more pieces to the jigsaw puzzle in my brain that encompasses Cambridge. It took me long enough even to connect Harvard Square to Porter -- you can imagine my difficulty in trying to connect Powderhouse Square to Medford, for instance.

Well, today was a treat for my mental representation of said puzzle and pieces, for it took me to six different cities in the Boston/Cambridge area -- all so very accessible with my little Corolla.  I'll abbreviate as much as I can, but it was such a fun day that I might indulge in description just a little.  Hemingway was never my favorite author anyhow.

First, back to Fresh Pond (in Cambridge) for a little work in Building 19 (see previous post).  The original plan was to pick up B., pick up a gift, and head with her to an anniversary barbecue (note: it was raining. all. day.).  Then she was thinking of going to another birthday party later in the day. And now, for what actually happened. [Note: skip the next paragraph if you don't to read tedium about a missing phone.]

Last night, I realized when I got home that my phone was no longer in my bag (which, admittedly, was a slouchy, open bag with no zipper/etc.).  I retraced some of my steps but forgot to check at Zuzu (probably the easiest place to lose track of stuff in Central, given that people are always setting their bags on tables in order to dance -- precisely what I did).  So after work, I decided to go there first in order to see if they had miraculously found it, and if not, to at least leave my email address.  Zuzu didn't have the phone but took my info and directed me to the box office at the Middle East where the main lost and found is located for the entire Zuzu/Middle East/Upstairs/Downstairs/Corner Bar complex (yes, 5 entities!).  There I was told that they only had soft stuff like clothes/etc., and that the valuables were kept in the manager's office at the Corner Bar.  So, I was a "barfly" (except for the drinking part) for a bit while the Corner Bar bartenders hunted down the manager from his lair so he could check for me.  No phone was found, but on the plus side I was a) asked if I was a songwriter for a They Might Be Giants song (I was singing a few bars of "Whistling in the Dark"--there was a reason but I'll spare a *few* details) and b) I didn't get a parking ticket even though my hazards were on / my meter runneth empty.

Next stop was to pick up B. from a party she was going to in Somerville -- a so-called "Brew-off", where 7 different amateur brewers allowed their friends to rate their (anonymous) beers.  Pretty cool concept. Ended up staying for a bit to chat and taste beers 6, 7, and 4 (my favorite), and then we headed onward to pick a present for the fifteenth anniversary of two of our friends.  B. noted that the anniversary was the "crystal" gift year, so she first suggested Cristal... when I vetoed this and asked for another gimmicky "crystal" idea, she brilliantly voted for "Crystal Light", and we ended up bringing a nice bottle of vodka and some powder-y lemonade sugar-y goodness in a yellow bottle, with a bright yellow bow I had picked up earlier in the day adorning the booze.

Stop with B. #2 was in Boston, in the South End -- the anniversary barbecue. Rain or no rain, those boys were outside grilling.  Lots of good people there, including E. and his brother and dad.  When I asked about his mom, E.'s dad replied that she was still at home in Waltham, on "baby duty" -- E.'s middle brother and wife were expecting TWINS and the doctor had said it could be any time (though they had scheduled her for several weeks down the line).  An hour or so later, E. got a phone call -- and if you haven't guessed where this is going, you have under-estimated the epic-ness of this city-hopping night.  The twins were coming!

After lots of jumping and hugging and the exodus of all family members related to said twins, B. and I also departed from Boston, and made for destination #3 together: Arlington, where a friend was having his birthday party at B.'s brother's house.  Lots of delicious food, a fun party game, and then B. and I were again departing for our (almost) final destination -- Belmont, where most of the clan was hanging out, waiting for news from the hospital, with E'.s brother's older child (he's 15 months and was sleeping when we got there).

First, a pit stop at a 7-11 for coffee, ice cream, and other midnight-baby-waiting essentials.  And when we walked in the door at stop, #4, Belmont -- they had ARRIVED. Phone calls were happening just then (in a lovely mixture of English and Spanish) and there is now even more beauty in the world.

Stop #5 for B. and me was to take the boys (read: E. and his brother) back to Medford, beautiful Medford, with a sing-a-long to Robert Plant and Allison Krauss along the way.  A beautiful end to a beautiful, rainy day, when two beautiful little girls came into the world.  Cheers to June 2!

Day 6: Trinity

Happy Easter! Or as my mom would say, "Happy Easter bonnet hat." Like last year, I attended the noon Easter service at Trinity Episcopal in Boston. A friend of mine was singing in the chorus, which was lovely. Episcopalians have open communion, which I am a fan of, and the funniest/cutest part of the service was when I went up to communion with a friend of mine, who was being served before me. He hadn't taken communion since his first communion at a Catholic church in Puerto Rico as a child, and when it came time for him to have the wine, the woman serving him said, "Just dip, and then a little 'amen,' and then you're done."

After church we met up with my friend who had been singing (in all three services - 8am, 10am, and noon -- mind you) and went across the street to the Globe for a snack and a well-deserved (for her, anyhow) drink. Now we are in Medford at my friend's house to color Easter eggs to bring to his 1-year-old nephew's house. Lovely, lovely Easter.

Day 4: BBN

Not that I don't go to work every day, but today I decided that I am pretty darn lucky to have my job, so much so that I should include it early on. I work in the northwest part of Cambridge (close to Fresh Pond). While the route from mid-Cambridge (where I live) to this area of Cambridge north of Harvard Square is not the most beautiful, there are very many beautiful things around the workplace itself. Fresh Pond is a reservoir, so it's not possible to go very close to the water, but the paths surrounding it are constantly filled with joggers and bikers (and lots of dogs!) making it a quite scenic location for a picnic lunch. However, if the short trek to Fresh Pond seems ambitious, my workplace also provides its employees with a lovely area outside of the building, complete with the shade of some trees and many picnic tables.

This evening was the wonderful kind of evening where you don't quite know what will happen, and something beautiful emerges. Several people ended up convening at a friend's house in Medford, where there was grilling and chatting and, most of all, singing! It turns out that evening the most casual of singers among us was cutthroat at the board game we played called Encore, where teams battle to show they can come up with the most songs based on a single word or category.

But more on beautiful Medford some other time.... and likely, more on the venue of the night's final events, which involved dancing (which has been done before and will be done again) in Harvard Square, followed by a surprisingly delicious bout of midnight Chinese. Well done, Hong Kong.