i've been thinking more about the boston bikeshare program. i didn't think it made economical sense but i didn't quite understand how the rental system works, but now i have a better idea. so long as you ride within the 30 minute limit (from station to station), you never have to pay any extra other than the initial membership fee ($5 in the case of a single day membership). the only problem is if you ride and park somewhere, when you return to the bike station there might not be any bikes left (since nothing prevents somebody else from taking the bike you were just using). i don't know how they can solve this problem (especially at the more popular destinations), other than to have more bikes always on reserve, so they never run out. maybe they have a bike van riding around the city, restocking bikes, or removing them when a station gets too crowded.
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dinner came relatively late, well after 8:00. what they thought was liver turned out to be "pork melt" - which is a euphemism for pork spleen. when my father picked it up at the chinatown supermarket he thought it was a high quality piece of liver because it was so red. nobody knew how to even cook the stuff, so i was told to go online and look it up. we prepared it basically like we would with liver. nobody seemed to like it (my mother took one bit and spit out the rest) and i ended up eating the most because of 1) my propensity for weird foods, 2) my contrarian nature (if nobody likes something i have to like it), and 3) it was one of the few dishes i could eat since the bitter melon was too bitter and the fish too fishy. it sort of has a liver taste, but while real liver is dense, spleen is spongey and soft. it reminds me of blood pudding without the pudding consistency, more of the flavor. it's not bad in small amounts, like maybe mixed with some other meats in a soup of some kind, but eaten on its own as a main course it's not for everyone. it's unusual to find a piece of offal we actually don't enjoy eating, since chinese cuisine is no stranger to variety meats (gizzards, hearts, tongue, feet, tail, intestines, tripes).
the house was hot when i got back and smelled of cooking. bram knows nothing of ventilation, and on a hot day combined with dinner making the inside of the house can be sweltering. i went around opening windows, not to chase away the smell but more to let the cool air in. the kitchen lights were on but bram was in his room. he does that a lot, lets something cook on the stove or bake in the oven unsupervised. apparently he has no fear of kitchen fires.
i went to wash a glass and saw that the sponge was missing. it's almost like he purposely wants to annoy me. i like my dish sponge next to the dish washing liquid, but whenever he does the dishes, he leaves the sponge on the edge of the sink counter. i don't know why and i can only theorize it's some sort of OCD thing. but i know it's not. i wish he had OCD, because maybe then he'd be a cleaner roommate (that's a whole other gripe). anyway, the sponge was on the other side of the kitchen, by the microwave. maybe he had an accident.
i also noticed the water pitcher was on the counter as well. i wonder if he uses that water for the electric kettle? it's kind of pointless, since the filter on the britta pitcher is so old it doesn't really do anything. he never refills the pitcher after he's done, leaving it in the fridge near empty. and whenever he boils water in the kettle, the spout is right underneath the kitchen cabinet, steaming the supplies inside.
maybe it's because we hardly interact that i find my current roommate so annoying. knowing none of his good traits, all his irritating habits are magnified. i won't have him to kick around much longer though; he told me yesterday that he finalized his departure date, the 9th of august. after that i'm back to single living again!
one of my favorite things about my roommate though? it's when he leaves. i wasn't used to it at first, how he just quietly slips out without telling me where he's off to, but it's kind of refreshing. i don't know where he's going, and he never goes where i'm going. we are men of mysteries, sworn to secrecy, never to discuss our private lives. when he goes out on the weekends though, i imagine he's going to disco bars. i try to imagine him dancing and it makes me laugh.