Cupcakes and Corilanus

Wednesday night, Saori and I went to see the free concert put on by the orchestra in conjunction with the Lyric Opera company of Boston. "Around the World in 80 Minutes" showcased a dozen opera pieces by Puccini, Wagner, Sullivan, and others set in locales around the world, and demonstrating a few pieces from the season's line up of operas. Nessun Dorma was great, and I also really enjoyed the Flower Duet from Lakme.

Thursday night, we went drinking with some people from my office to celebrate Chuck's final week. We started off at a totally overpriced but interestingly decorated restaurant/bar/themed experience called Empire, where the waitresses served bustiers and the interior decoration was kind of a neuvo-opium den. Seriously overpriced drinks. $35 and two drinks later, we met Saori and headed out to an Irish pub in Harvard square. The bar was actually the original home of the House of Blues before it got really big. I got a big burger, the Redneck Burger, with BBQ and bacon and cheese, and more beer. For the next 24 hours I felt absolutely great.

That night, Tay came back to Boston, and we met him at the apartment.

The following day, Chuck and I had a surprise going away party at the office. I don't get email, so I was only by chance over at his desk checking email that I saw the message about cupcakes and beer, about a minute before they made an announcement over the speakers. It was really sweet that they'd gone to get boutique cupcakes for us and hauled out a bunch of beers. Chuck downed one and then without prompting, got everyones' attention and made a short speech before turning the floor over to me. I thanked everyone for their kindness in hosting me, and lauded the design and expertise of the firm, and I sincerely wished that I would be back to continue working with them. They also gave me a $50 Amazon gift card which is really cool.

That afternoon, it rained hard all evening, so I went home and met Tay back at the apartment and hung out with him and Elise and we played some bananagrams. Saori also got a going away party, although her's was a bigger affair. They didn't get her an Amazon card, but a photoshopped poster with everyone's face grafted onto a fantastic body like giant gorillas, centaurs, Jedi knights, Hello Kitty, etc with Saori fighting with a laser-breathing kitten over a photo of the model she had been working on. It was a fantastic thing with everyone's participation to add a new layer.

I met her and her coworker Steve for more pho after work, and we headed back to the apartment. All of us then sat down with some beers and watched Mission Impossible: Time to Retire Tom on Tay's laptop.

Today we all slept in and got up around 11 or so. One of our roommates, Cahill, made blueberry pancakes, so we got to whet our breakfast appetites before we headed out. We went to a local cafe, the Berkeley Perk, where we got coffee and played banagarams and durak for a few hours. Finally, we went shopping over in Porter Square over in Cambridge before heading back to get ready for the Shakespeare in the Commons play of Coriolanus.

Elise, our flatmate, is in the ensemble, and through her, we were able to secure a spot right up in front of the stage where we all met up after returning from our various tasks. Tay met Elise to save the spot, I went to the apartment to get blankets, and Saori hit CVS to get drinks and snacks. Go team!

We made it and we had a fantastic view, right up in front of the stage, and eventually, everyone from our apartment made it for the show. It's very intense and very active, so we were right up in the action. It was a great show, and if I had difficulty following exactly what was going on and what was being said, it was not for the fault of the actors, who were frankly outstanding. It was one of those moments where I thought, wow, what a weird/cool/unlikely place to be, how did I end up with front row seats to a shakespeaerean drama Boston with seven other roommates?