Day 113: Biking along the Charles

For Day 3 of biking to work, I took the path not through Central and Harvard but rather through Cambridgeport and along the water.  The Charles River has always been my favorite part about the city I live in (I speak loosely hear of course -- I suppose I just mean in gross geographical terms, or something), and I will darn well attempt to see it a lot over the next month.  One time my first summer here I managed to make it out by the MIT sailing dock in time for sunrise -- just gorgeous.

After work, I met E. in our "old place", Thelonius Monkfish in Central, for some sushi -- this time, veggie sushi for me.  (I have never, ever ordered vegetarian sushi before.  What is becoming of me?)

Capitalizing on the nice summer air some more, there was a later venture out to Harvard to the beer garden at Charlie's, and later to a friend's house in Somerville who has something that almost qualifies as a roof deck.  It's definitely a... well a roof.

Boston must be a city with some of the best and most diverse views, honestly.  For having so few really interesting geographic features, to boot -- the river winding through really makes it.

Day 98: Biking the city

It was raining today, so after I drove home from work, I took the T to choir rather than biking.  Thank goodness it rained -- the heat just disappeared.  But like most summer rains, this rain was temperamental, and had ceded by the time we were done piping out our Bach [side note: singing Bach's Mass in F Gloria at the appropriate tempo is not easy, but it's a helluvalotta fun].

So after I got home via T, I grabbed my bike to head to Inman Square to meet up for a) Punjabi Dhaba and b) a board game night.  Fewer pleasures greater than biking in a post-rain evening around here (love the smell -- if I'm not going to get to enjoy the crispness of Cambridge's autumn I'll damn well enjoy the cool after the summer rain).  And if it's warm, not so bad biking in the rain either.

Get ready for some sappy posts.  Roomies leaving at the end of the week is hitting me hard.

Day 71: Iggy's Breads of the World

Happy birthday to my beautiful mother! :) To celebrate her birthday (surely this was the reason and not because I think freshly-baked baguettes are delicious), I headed to the very tasty Iggy's Breads of the World with a co-worker for lunch today to pick up fresh sandwich and some java goodness.  One consequence of the recent move of our "unit" to Building 19 is that we are just enough closer to Iggy's to have finally realized it was there, just around the corner from our new building, in a weird wasteland of old warehouses.

BBN is located in a sort of no-man's land in the strip-mall-suburbia area near Fresh Pond, at the other end of Cambridge from my normal stomping grounds, which actually makes getting anywhere for lunch rather difficult.  To get to the Trader Joe's by foot is not terrible but involves crossing some annoying streets -- and forget going to the Whole Foods across Alewife Brook Parkway.  Driving such a short distance seems silly, but might be an alternative if it weren't even more painful due to an excruciating left turn onto Concord Ave. followed by two rotaries from hell.

The discovery of Iggy's for us meant not only access to unlimited breads and coffee, but accessible access!  Er, access that didn't require entering into a mind-fog of navigating Cambridge traffic.

This evening involved enough of that, as I was reminded of the reasons I both love and hate biking in Cambridge in the summer when I bike to and fro for Calliope.  Pros: beautiful evenings solo rides are heavenly; not taking the T is always a plus; not driving a car is always a *big* plus.  Cons: hot, somewhat sweaty late-afternoon rides are not conducive to vocal warm-ups; Boston traffic is still terrifying on a bike (though somewhat more exciting to navigate, somehow); I always forget just how annoying I find the Longfellow Bridge to go up and down (I know, lame of me).  Opted for the "Harvard" Bridge on the way back, as it's much flatter, and repeated last week's veggie burger foray at Miracle of Science because that was a delicious idea.

Day 12: Calliope

This morning started out with a brisk bike ride on a beautiful day in to the Back Bay area, where I was meeting with the director of my choral/orchestral ensemble, Calliope to help out a bit with auditions. The morning ended up being extremely pleasant (although only 2/5 women who were auditioning actually showed!) as I chatted with the director and two of the other women in the chorus.

I was quite lucky to stumble upon Calliope just by searching for a choral group to join last summer. The most interesting part about Calliope is that the chorus both performs *and* practices with an orchestra, and it's a really great group of guys and dolls. I always wished I had taken up an orchestra instrument -- the closest I came was oboe in the fifth grade, and I didn't get all too far with that :). So it's a great experience to be able to practice with an orchestra each week, and getting back into singing with a group has been so uplifting.

Anywho, enough of my goings-on about that. After auditions, I biked up to the Armory in Somerville from Boston to meet a friend at the winter farmers' market there - who turned out already to be gone by the time I got there (turns out, I am a bit slower at biking 5 miles, much of it uphill, than I would like!). But that was fine (and the market was really well-organized, I definitely want to go back!), and I headed to my next destination, Starbucks in Davis Square, which usually has outdoor seating. Turns out they haven't put out their tables yet, but the restaurant next door had, so I had a salad while waiting for a friend to join. He checked out my flashy green bike for a bit and I studied some for my biology exam (this post is being written during an *ahem* extended break). Soon I'll bike back home because it's my roommate's birthday tonight and we are hosting the first "real" party chez nous! (At least the first one I will be in attendance at.)

Happy spring to all!