Day 86: The Importance of Being A Local

Nothing makes you feel more like a local than coming back and feeling more comfortable in your own skin in the city you live in than in the place you came from.  This happens to me whether I'm coming back from my home town in Indiana, my family's stomping grounds in West Virginia, or (in this case), a mountain in New Hampshire.  Was so tired after the trip yesterday that I managed to spend the entire afternoon in bed finishing the second season of Downton Abbey followed by crashing pre-midnight through to the next morning.

Today was simple: work, rehearse for play with E. at S's place (director-on-two-of-us so that we could do scene focus), at then meet up with my roommate and a friend of ours who had also been up for the weekend in NH at a bar/restaurant near my place (Miracle of Science).  This now makes the 4th or 5th time in a row that I did not get carded at MoS.  For some reason, I have an irrational hatred of being carded.  At worst, it means that if you forgot your ID (which I don't), you have to go get it or talk someone into just letting you in -- and at best, it's a compliment that you look young.  But I hate it.  Typically if I'm there with older folks (than me), not getting carded is the norm, but recently it's been because I _am_ the older folk -- and I like it.  Was there a few days ago w/ J. and M. and arrived early, ordered beer, no carding.  Then when J. and M. arrive and order food in addition to beer -- they get carded.  Tonight, I arrived to meet V. and G-Dog after they were eating.  V's passport was out on the table -- but still no carding for me.  And that, friends, is the importance of being local.

All of this is still a diversion to say that I am going to miss this place a ton.

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 49: Nerdnite!

We left NH early afternoon today after a morning full of cleaning and more antics. E. and I were charged with the duty of retrieving the canoe that had been overturned by Sarah B. the night before, and it was a success. Throughout the morning, people kept finding various reasons to have to get in the lake, and by the time we were about to leave, I'd even gone in again.

One of the best parts of leaving the city is coming back to it.  As D. joked, he couldn't wait for work this week so that he could finally be getting some sleep at night :).  When we got back, I had to work for a bit, and then I invited some folks to join for a calm evening at NerdNite, an amateur-"expert" talk series that can be found in several large-ish U.S. cities (though I have a strong suspicion that the one in Cambridge is one of the best).  I missed the first talk (wasn't too sorry about that, given that it was about brain-eating organisms found in California... well, ok, dopamine-depleting, but still) but made it in plenty of time for talk 2, which was about the evolution of cities.  Actually it was mostly about using space wisely in cities, and learning to work with what you have. I think. She was a little bit all over the place. Beautiful visuals in her slides, though.

NerdNite made it an early night, and lovely city nightcap to a nature-filled weekend.

Day 48: Mountain time (NH, part 2)

The second day in New Hampshire was even more packed than the first.  After sleeping in just a bit (although the oldest boy told me that it was no longer morning at 10am, since he'd apparently been up for hours), we were up and at 'em. The morning and early afternoon involved a whole lot of piano playing/singing/dancing in the living room (including some serious attempts at some serious Mozart and Schubert duets, because why not?), a whole lot of swimming and splashing around down by the pool, a trip to the grocery for E. and me, and while others went on a walk, the making of many parts of a dinner.  I made the only slightly fancy thing I know how to - fish (grilled, this time, with the help of A.'s brother-in-law) with a red wine reduction butter sauce.  Mm. Fiddleheads and foraged greens were also provided, in addition to grilled veggies prepped by yours truly, residual potato leek vegan soup from the night before, and some rock tripe (including, perhaps, a few rocks).

And then the night antics began.  It started out with just a quiet guitar sing-a-long, a few mysterious card tricks, and some innocent Lady G's... which quickly devolved into Lady B's (when Sarah B. accidentally subbed rum for gin in her drinks) and then Lady M's (when yours truly accidentally subbed vodka for St. Germain...).  So we politely decided to retire to an area farther away from sleeping children, namely, the pond.  Most were going skinny dipping, but E. and I decided that we would neither skinny nor dip, so in our clothing, we decided to take out the canoe.  Of course it was promptly overturned by Sarah B. (under the guise of joining us).  Hooting and hollering ensued, and at this point I decided I was too sleepy for all this, swam back to shore, and lamely went back to take a shower.  Long, nutty, vibrant day.  Not done justice at all here.

We've been on island and on mountain... next up, on sea?

Day 47: "Lady G" (NH, part 1)

This post involves another slight "cheat", as today was spent (as indicated by the title of the post) in the mountains -- and therefore out of Cambridge.  The day began in Cambridge, of course, as E. and I set out on a(n epic) journey with Grainne (or "Lady G" for short) in tow -- he is dog-sitting, and we were invited to a weekend in New Hampshire.  A quandary solved by a friend's simple suggestion to just bring the dog -- something that might never have occurred to me even after hours of contemplation.

So bring her we did!  And the epicness of the car trip came not from the quantity of time of the trip (just over two hours, even with stops), but rather from the quantity of saliva from the lovely vizsla in the back seat, who never stopped panting with excitement the whole journey!  Hurrah for bringing city dogs to the nearby country.

I digress.  "Mountain time" this weekend was brought to E. and me by friends of the folks who brought us "island time" a few weeks ago (see pic above, c/o R.).  Today was filled with laughing kids, curious dogs, yoga-posing/ivory-tinkling/charcoal-grilling/sidewalk-chalking/baby-bouncing/round-offing/music-making/interpretive-dancing/oar-paddling/foraging adults (I'm sure I forgot some key descriptors, there), and so much sunshine.  Not quite far enough into NH to be in the White Mountains, but the lower altitude area pretty close to the Mass. border (near Pleasant Lake, perhaps?) does not disappoint in its views.  More über-positive adjectives to follow in future posts, I am sure.

At the end of the evening, there was a great meal, preceded by some pre-dinner cocktails (think light and summery: gin/St. Germain/tonic).  After a short think, it seemed quite obvious to said cocktail's creators that it should be christened with a name, and that name was "Lady G".