At current, I am home! It is wonderful already as the leaves are everywhere and the weather is cool. I am still riding the high from yesterday, though-- which between 9 hours on the road, lots of walking, great vegan food, amazing show from Ben Kweller AND an amazing and unexpected WIN from the Sox..while I was IN Boston...was just a whirlwind of fun and soul reviving.
I left the 'burg at 7:30, and arrived in Brighton at 4:30...so I made GREAT time. I walked from Michelle's house on Dustin Street to Alli's place over on Sutherland Rd. We caught a bus to Cambridge for super tasty vegan food from this little cozy place called Veggie Planet...
Had some peanut curry rice dish...yum. Then we caught the red line, then the green line ("the destination of this train is: Boston College") over to The Paradise to see BEN KWELLER! We found a spot up on the 2nd floor and enjoyed...
BK was, as expected, fantastic. Easily the happiest performer I have ever watched play...he played my favorite, "Lizzy," amongst all his quintessential tunes ("the rules," "falling," "penny on a train track") as well as most of his new Country/Honky-Tonky EP. Alli, Nik & I danced and sang like fools. :]
After the show, while on our way out of the Paradise, Nik & I popped into the bar to see the score of the Sox game, as it had supposedly not been going too well. Top of the 8th, the Sox had pulled 6 runs up and were a run away from tying up the game. Clearly, as devoted baseball fans, we decided to watch the rest of the game. In the meantime, BK's band (bassist, drummer & slide-guitarist) came into the bar to see the score...Nik immediately befriended the dudes, got them drinks and insisted on high-fiving them incessantly.
THEN, after the most dramaticly long at-bat ever in the bottom of the ninth, Coco was able to tie it up, and THEN he brought the game to an end with his single in the 10th...8-7, Sox! It felt like when the boys were able to come-back in 2004 (remember "Cowboy Up"? haha) and I am so happy to say that I got to kind of be in the thick of it. We were all hollering at the screen, ooh-ing & ah-ing at every fouled ball, every strike, every ball. We all held our breaths and then erupted when we saw the players rush the field. We all slapped fives and hugges strangers, it was crazy. While I wasn't AT Fenway, a few blocks away I was celebrating as if I had just seen it in person...
That's what is so awesome about Boston sports-- every game is like a championship win and every game is just as intense at a local bar or pizza place or convenience store as it is at the field. It felt so good to be a part of that silly baseball culture again last night; I don't get much of that in Virginia, that's for sure.
Then this morning, Pumpkin Coffee from Dunkins with Michelle before heading back here to the homestead? Mmm. Just the way to end a whirlwind 24 hours.
In short-- yesterday has rejuvinated my spirit in many senses, particularly in the sense of intensifying my resolve to come back here after I get my Master's next year. Ha, as if my resolve wasn't already pretty intense. The way I feel when I am walking through Sullivan Square or down Commonwealth Ave is something I can not compare to how I feel anywhere else. The cold air is crisp and the hustle & bustle is soothing, with the Citgo sign keeping an eye out from above Landsdowne Street. The traffic is insane and so are half the people...but it feels like HOME to me. I can't wait until I get to call it home.
In the meantime, enough computer time.
Much love!
