Day 120: Boss-ton

 Today was a special day.  A friend (let's call him "D-money") was in town from NYC -- he's the reason I met D. originally and it's been about three years (!) since I last saw him, so I was particularly excited.  In honor of the occasion, Bruce Springsteen decided to play two concerts in Boston this week (or at least, that's my interpretation).

I only recently became aware of the greatness of the "Boss", so I was hoping to be able to snag some tix to the concert. D-money was to arrive just before the concert would begin, and D. and I had chorus [chorus #2 that is - the group singing with the Mercury Orchestra] until pretty late, so it wasn't clear how all this would play out.  It's been quite the treat singing with the Mercury Chorale, and today's rehearsal brought us again to the Masonic Lodge in Porter Square, for our first combined orchestra + chorus performance.  It was a bit of a bust, unfortunately -- the fans attempting to cool the huge room made so much noise it was difficult to hear anything, much less the three other second sopranos singing in front of me.  But hearing the orchestra for the first time was (unsurprisingly) amazing -- it's at least three times the size of Calliope's orchestra.  Made me realize how desperately we need more strings.

Anyhow, I'm now getting to the important part, which is that after chorus, we bike into Fenway, where the Boss was playing. [And in fact he was actually playing on the field -- only super-awesome people get to do this, I was told, and therefore I decided to use this as further evidence that Bruce Springsteen is great. Though still, I will contend, not as great as the Coug.]

D. and I attempted to score some tickets by asking people coming out for theirs and squeezing in, and I think if I had been a little more upbeat and willing to be chatty with the security guards, we would have made it.  But we were content just chilling outside and listening from behind the ballpark, and we met up with D-Money after.  Veggie burgers at Miracle and then some jamming on the keys were in store for us after, as can be witnessed from the above picture.  I think that was some Billy Joel action going on.

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 66: Rod Dee

Of the times in one's life one is happy to have many close friends, the top time must be moving day. Today, several friends and I helped move H., who was moving just a few blocks away. I swear when he moved in to his current place a few months ago he did *not* have as many boxes.  Very little furniture but something like 30 boxes!  Of course the first three people to arrive to help were me, followed by two other (even thinner?) women, but we muscled through carrying all the stuff down (with the help of an elevator, albeit a flaky one :)).  Thankfully some strapping lads arrived in time for the stuff to be moved *up* (walk-up, no elevator).

The best part of moving for the friends of the move-ee is that typically moving someone induces hunger, and given that we did all of these in a period of about two and half hour, there was plenty of time for some Thai food before the nearly-weekly ritual of live-band karaoke on Thursday nights.  I'd never been to Rod Dee in Porter Square before (mostly because I rarely go to Porter Square), but I am now a convert. I thought Pepper Sky and at least Chilli Duck would have it beat, but not at all.  Whatever their version of the Panang curry-esque dish was... wow.  I also love that the place looks like a total hole in the wall, doesn't even serve alcohol (something rare for me to say), has very little wait service, and is really all about the food.  Must get back to this place in the next three months!

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.