Day 142: The Cambridge Parking Ticket, and Pink

Last day at work!  After a brief venture to the boys' new place in East Cambridge to go a on a scavenger hunt for my long black skirt and shoes (concert attire) for Calliope (which was quite easily accomplished!), I headed over to BBN.  My boss and M. [her co-worker, and my close friend, who told me about the job in the first place] took me to lunch and we ate our tasty Whole Foods meals outside BBN at the picnic tables.

After work, the boys were hosting a welcome-to-our-house/bye-to-me/happy-birthday-to-Kim (a friend) party.  Only fitting for my third-to-last day in Cambridge, I got a parking ticket while picking up some beer for the party on the way back from work.  Also fitting that I would spot the pink car featured to the left -- E. and I have been spotting this car all over town all summer.

Upon arriving at the boys' place, and shockingly finding it already to be spic-and-span, I hung out while waiting for K., who had decided to come on the early side since she's been getting over a cold.  She brought ingredients for a drink (the name of which I don't remember) involving gin, soda, and bitters (the bitter making it a "pink" version).  We enjoyed these while the guests began to arrive.

You may remember from earlier posts reading about former parties thrown by our house, fondly called Jack-in-the-box (after its namesake, my cat).  Well, this was no J-i-t-b party; it was decidedly the largest party I have been at this year.  Amongst other things that occurred, I heard tales of bloody guitars (from rough/excitable playing, not from any sort of actual violence), a pair of grad students up to their shoulders in bubbles in the bath tub, a faculty member's presence at the party, and sundry other instances of rigmarole.  Mostly I was in the basement, singing along to guitar, but there was also quite the dance party upstairs.  Two days left!

Day 141: Surprise cafe

Going through my head all day were the lines from the Rolling Stones song:

This may be the last time
This may be the last time
Maybe the last time
I don't know

:(

Well, today was the last Thursday in Cambridge, and you know what that means.  After work, biking to Calliope quickly for dress rehearsal, hugging a water cooler (see left), frantically searching for food (and finding some at a café that seemed to come out of nowhere on Boylston, Café l'Aroma -- tasty salad! might even have had couscous in it? --, it was time for the Last Time at live-band-karaoke.  While I didn't end up singing that particular song, I did sing some other Stones and Boyan (leader of B11) got me up there for back-ups several times.  I am going to miss those boys -- I know they will keep it rocking though!  And there is now a serious karaoke contingency among my close friends in Cambridge. Three more days!

Day 140: ArtBar and round 1 of goodbyes

Although leaving Cambridge has many disadvantages, one of its main advantages is that I have been making time to spend with close friends. And so have they. So tonight, T. took me out to dinner at a place he (and several other friends, actually) have been talking up for a while -- ArtBar, part of the Sonesta hotel.  The weather was being too unpredictable for us to be able to sit outside on the patio overlooking the Charles, but our table next to the window suited us quite well.

On the walk over (I walked to MIT to meet Tim, and then we walked the mile or so to the Sonesta), we crossed through the parking lot of a converted school (?) to business, which apparently happens to be the location where one of our good friends is now working.  Quoth Tim: "Oh look, that's where N. Works."  (Then point to the window:) "Oh look, that's N."  And so it was. He came outside and we chatted a bit then carried on to dinner.  Quite tasty, and with some sort of very festive drink dispensing device (see picture: that's what you get if you aorder a drink "for two").

After dinner, Tim walked me back to Cuchi Cuchi, where I was meeting the girls from my year at MIT for a drink (well, those who remain -- 2/5 of us are gone!).  It was really nice to be able to spend the end of the evening with just the four of us -- it seems that we had been trying to coordinate this all summer and it never quite worked.  Cuchi Cuchi was one of the first places we tried such a "girl date" in our first year... nice memories there.  It's less than a block from 905 Main and just a few blocks up from MIT.

Funny thing about whining all summer about how you're leaving is that when you're still here a few days into the month of September, you start getting people asking confusedly, "Aren't you supposed to be gone?"  Four days!

Day 139: River Gods

The moving continues!  This morning I shipped some extraneous packages that I had been hiding at MIT, and helped G. move some more things from MIT into their new place, as well.  But then it was back to the grind -- to work, then to Calliope.  It felt wonderful to have those tiny bits of sanity back in place, even if it's just for a few more days.

After choir D. and I looked at each other and asked, "Do you have anything planned tonight?" to the other.  It was in a state of shock we realized that there was nothing planned, and so we took the opportunity to go to one of my favorite bars in Cambridge -- River Gods, pictured above. Always cool music (you can't see it, but there is a DJ way up in the corner behind the bar, perhaps even poking his head out?), always cool (and changing) decor, depending on the season, and good veggie options for food (as well as good beers on tap).  The first Friday of grad school at MIT, I remember for some reason my adviser and his wife took me along to Trader Joe's (probably because we were all leaving lab at the same time and they had a car), and as we passed this place on the way back to my house they gave it a shout out.  Very good vibe there.

As D. was giving me some very good life lessons and suggestions for how to proceed in grad school tonight, I got a call from a friend of mine who lives in Colorado but who often travels to Boston for business.  I have been planning on staying with him one of the nights of my trip out west, but he was apparently also in town tonight!  So he swung by and said hi, was nice to see him.  Five more days.

Day 138: Night-time picnic on the Charles

In the spirit of yesterday, and since today was technically a holiday (happy Labor Day, everyone), I decided to spend the majority of the morning at Dado, a tea shop on Mass Ave., catching up on writing and (mostly) making a plan for pictures for this blog (meta, right?).  D. joined me for a bit, having just come from Harvard Square, and his eagle eyes didn't miss a thing.  Two abandoned salads somehow made their way over to our table.  After he left, I ended up ordering one myself, and I must say that I was pretty impressed -- I don't know when Dado branched out into fancy lunches, but they did a good job of it.

After Dado, I biked around Cambridge and Somerville by myself for a bit, taking of a bunch of shots of Central/Harvard/Inman in a sort of loop.  It took quite a while, and by the time I was done, it was nearly time to get ready for the dinner D. and I had decided to invite folks to, by the Charles.  Quick trip to Trader Joe's for some picnic essentials, including Sangria ingredients, and then back to prep.

But first, we had a bit of a piano jam session with a friend who is also leaving town soon (though in a slightly more drastic manner -- he's moving to Thailand indefinitely!).  After, he drove us to the river, and under the lights of the Harvard footbridge (by the business school), we had a drop-by-and-say-hi style picnic.  Several people came actually, which was nice.  An amalgamation of groups, of sorts.  The evening ended with D. and one of his friends deciding it was still warm enough outside to jump into the Charles, and that the footbridge was a safe enough place to do it from (there is also photographic evidence of that, but it was slightly too obscene to post here :)).  Gotta love the Muddy Charles.

Day 137: Cambridgeport

To the left you'll see a photograph that, to me, nearly looks like the corner of an oil painting -- but no, it's the view from the window of the garret (rather large garret) I've been sleeping in for the past few days whilst homeless.  On an adorable street in Cambridgeport.

This morning I woke up at a reasonable hour, thanks to the many (and reasonable) hours of sleep I was able to obtain last night.  There was talk of going to Provincetown for the day (on the Cape), but given the schedule of the ferry, and my reluctance to run around so very much on this particular day, the morning's hours were instead quietly passed drinking coffee and writing.  Later this afternoon I needed to help some of the boys move more things into their new place, so we took a bit of a tour of BCS and their new place culminating in a drive-by ice cream pick-up from Toscanini's.

The evening ended with a viewing of Rumors, which E.'s brother had just finished translating into DVD format.  Rather, it ended with some barbecuing, some singing along to the guitar (visitors' hazard in Medford!), and then the viewing of Rumors.  Lovely Sunday.

Day 136: Cambridge St.

Don't think I mention it very often, but one of the more diverse and interesting roads in the area, it seems to me, is Cambridge St. (in Cambridge -- it definitely goes into other cities as well, and is called Cambridge St. still at least in Boston).  Many of today's activities centered around this street.

First, in the morning I was still on move-the-boys duty (and move-my-stuff-into-their-closet-for-storage, for they were kind enough to let my things live there for a week!).  I met them at the new place, just off of Cambridge, and followed G. back in the Jeep.  After some brunch at the Friendly Toast and some errands, they were left to make crucial decision like who gets what room, and I decided to take the opportunity to take a rest.

Later this evening, I met up with several friends (one who was leaving soon for the UK, and whom I might not see again before I leave the city for good.  We convened at R.F. O'Sullivans, a pub on Cambridge, and had some dinner and drinks.  We toyed around with the idea of heading to D.'s for a guitar/singalong session, but decided in the end to have D. come out and meet us just down the street at Starlite Lounge (a kitschy diner/bar evocative of the 50s).  Which was a better plan in the end, because apparently word got out on the street -- i.e., some of us passed some friends on the way, and we were joined by another set of folks nearly doubling our size.  It was a relaxing night out that ended very early (which was quite fine by me).