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my new roommate pau showed up around 9:30 this morning to drop off his suitcase. he was on his way to work and brought along his mexican co-worker friend roberto1. while pau was getting settled in his room, i chatted with his friend. before they left, pau paid me this month's rent. with that a brand new roommate season is upon us!

around noontime i went to the bank in union square to deposit my money, as well as picking up my losartan prescription from rite aid. a mt.auburn hospital nurse actually called me this morning. she apologized for the delay, said she just came back from vacation, and informed me that my drug authorization had went through. i played along like i was surprised by the news, even though i'd known since yesterday. i had to confess and tell her i knew in order to stop her from faxing another prescription to the pharmacy. finally, picked up some groceries before returning home, some rueben sandwich ingredients as well more beef jerky making materials. all i need now is the meat, but i couldn't find anything that looked good. i'll come back another time after they restock the butchery.

my father called to let me know he had 2 free tickets to the red sox game tonight. he thought my new roommate and i would be interested in going. i went to the cafe to pick up the tickets then wrote to pau when i got back home.

my godmother's son alex called me asking if i could take some photos of him with his motorcycle. he came by a half hour later and we rode our bikes to the star market parking lot where there was a lot of open free space. i got a chance to ride his yamaha vstar, did a circle in the parking lot. we traded some riding experience stories. he wanted to head down to MIT with the more picturesque backdrops. i led the way via memorial drive, but made a wrong turn as we crossed the MIT bridge into boston. we managed to take a few side streets and get back onto the cambridge side of the river. apparently alex didn't want the boston backdrop, and was thinking more of MIT architecture. so i took him to the frank gehry building and we shot a few more photos. he came back with me, and took my motorcycle again for a spin around the blocks. he said i could ride his bike but i declined, didn't want to be responsible should something happen. besides, with his straight pipes, his yamaha was incredibly loud.

after alex left, i read the response e-mail from pau. turns out seeing a live american baseball game was on his list of things to do while in boston. he actually lucked out, since the red sox season will end in just one more week. he got back home before 6:00 and we left for fenway park.

the traffic during game days are always a nightmare. but compound the problem with a 20 minute delay on the red line made it even worse. i was the subject of special scorn from one girl: "look at that guy in orange! he has so much space!" only because i was standing at the end of the subway car in a wheel chair alcove while everybody else was crowded by the entrance. "hey lady, if you want to crawl over here, i'll gladly share some of this space with you!" i shouted back. once the large influx of people arrived in park street, the green line trolleys were crammed with people. it took us 10 minutes per stop, as people shuffled out of the cars while others tried to get onto the already maximum capacity cabins.

our seats were in the right field grandstands, section 3. the red sox was facing the baltimore orioles (3rd game, sox lost the first 2). the first inning had already started by the time we got there, and we didn't bother to stop for food or drinks. for the next 3 hours we watched the game, chatted, and photographed. turns out pau was familiar with the basic rules of baseball, as it's a children's game back home in spain (majorca, actually). he couldn't understand how a team with a fairly bad record could actually earn a spot in the playoffs by the simple fact of winning their division. pau got to experience the 7th inning stretch, when people stood up and began singing "take me out to the ball game." then in the 8th inning, they began playing "sweet caroline" and people were pumping their firsts in unison, singing along with neil diamond. the sox ended up winning, and we even saw 2 home runs, including a 3-run homer from david ortiz. we stayed until the end, even though people were leaving early to beat the traffic once they figured the game was already won.

back by the kenmore station entrance, we decided to get some dinner first instead of an encore performance of angry subway sardine can. there used to be a nice indian restaurant but i didn't see it anywhere. we went across the street to a boca grande but they were closed (it was 10:30). we swung back around and finally settled on a qdoba. we each got a burrito, a first for pau. when we finally caught the subway, it was mostly empty, a far more relaxing ride back home.


1 pau and roberto actually met in taiwan at a astrophysics conference in taipei. when i told him i was born there, he said i was the first person he's met from taiwan who identifies himself as chinese instead of taiwanese.