I woke up early yesterday morning, around 6am. The sun was barely past the horizon, and I took the opportunity to take a walk outside with my camera and snap some photos. I took the train to Boston University, and took some photos of the Martin Luther King memorial.



Then I went to the esplanade by the Charles river. It was a beautiful morning. People were rowing kayaks down the river, and joggers/bikers were on the esplanade getting their early exercise. I really liked being out there, and hoped to make it a regular thing, but this morning I didn't want to get out of bed when the alarm hit, and woke up much later around 8:45.


Boston along the river

I learn a little each time I take the camera out. I'm discovering how light will translate in the frame, and am thinking about making images more dynamic, so they seem to 'pop' off the page. I know this is helping my eye and will translate well to film. I've thought a little about filming and would like to do some video projects before the summer's end.

If you want to see the photos that I like, you can visit see them here: http://flickr.com/photos/11507905@N07/. I will try to update that regularly.

7/18 Reading Event

I couldn't wait for the weekend to come. Friday was a slow day at work, and I sat around my desk until 1. When the office cleared out, I went to the gym, and decided to stay in Harvard Square until my book reading.

I live in Boston but work in Cambridge, on the other side of the Charles river. It's a 15 minute ride between the two, at least, from where I live and work. On Friday the arts collective I belong to was hosting a reading with a Chinese American author named Ed Lin. I was pretty excited to meet him and was planning on helping set up the event. The reading was taking place at a bookstore in Cambridge at 8pm. So at 5, I met up with Van, another woman from the group and we made our way to the bookstore.


(I can't recall if I've told you about the arts group before. You can read more about them here.)

We got there around 5:30 and started cleaning up the store. Because it's completely volunteer run, the store doesn't have a set schedule, and isn't often open. We occupy the space at least once a month though for events like this one, and often there is sweeping and cleaning that needs to be done.


Van surveys the state of the store.

Ed Lin arrived at the store pretty soon after, around 6:30. We talked to him for a bit while setting up. He was very easy to talk to and smiled a lot. I took some cash from the register and went to buy some refreshments and snacks for the event.

I stopped by Au Bon Pain and asked if they had any spare trays. My work has catered from them in the past and I know they usually have some lying around. A young woman there was kind and found me some to take free of charge. I then went to this small coop market and purchased some strawberries, grapes, carrots and nuts. Then I stopped by 7/11 for chips, soda, ice, and paper cups and plates. When I got back, some familiar faces were at the store, and I started laying out the food. There was a lot! I was worried that more people weren't going to come, but by 8pm a few new faces came into the store, and we had a fairly full house. Jeff came too, at my request.



Ed's reading was great. He read from his latest book, a novel about a cop in 1970s Chinatown. He stayed after to sign books and we sold a few. (The organization ordered 22 books, so we have a lot extra). By 10 pm everyone was out, and Van and I cleaned up the foods and locked up. There was lots of food left over. I went home w/Jeff and took a bag of chips, grapes, and carrots with me. Because it was still pretty early, we decided to go to Jeff's to hangout.

Jeff stopped by the grocery store to get some ground beef, and we made some dipping stuff to go with the bag of chips we had. We drank several shots of vodka and talked until 3 or 4 in the morning when we dozed off in the living room. I woke up again in the night and I couldn't fall asleep, so I watched a movie until morning. The sky began to lighten and I decided to grab my camera that I had left in Jeffrey's car. I was worried that with the heat and humidity it might get damaged. I walked out and was surprised to see people jogging across the street at so early an hour.



I also grabbed a book I'd been reading and went back into his condo. I went to the bedroom and laid on the bed and read, hoping it might help me sleep, but my mind was pretty sharp. Sometimes when I get past the normal time for sleeping, I just can't fall asleep, no matter what I try. I did push ups trying to tire myself out, and I put on an eye mask to try and block out the light, but every time I lay there with my eyes closed I don't feel the least bit tired. So I read the book on the bed until it was done.



Jeff woke up around 7:30 and found me still awake. I said good morning and got a glass of water. My head hurt from little sleep and the vodka I'd drank earlier. I took an advil and went back to the bed, and waited complacently for sleep to take me.

Weekend in New York

One of the perks of my job is that our hours shift in July and August, going from 40 to 34. Monday we come in at 11, and on Friday we close at 1pm. So this Friday, the first of the shortened Fridays, I made an early trip out to New York to visit Jess.

Jeff's girlfriend is in New York also, so we decided to go together. We met at the bus station to catch the 1:30 bus. There is a Chinese bus line called the Fung Wah that offers Boston to New York trips for $15 each way. Jeff and I were able to grab a seat together and it was a pleasant ride into the city.

We arrived in NYC around 6:00, but had some delays because the unloading area was blocked off. The bus circled around chinatown for another 15 mins before we were able to exit the bus. I said goodbye to Jeff and took a bus up to Stuytown, an apartment complex in manhattan with a nice park area. Her coworkers invited her there for a picnic and a surprise birthday celebration (Jess's birthday is this week). We stayed for an hour or so and then left for Brooklyn, to meet up with some other friends for a concert. The concert was outdoors in Prospect Park, featuring a band called "The Brazilian Girls". There are lots of events in New York during the summer held in the parks and public spaces, and many of them are free or very affordable.

There were lots of people at the concert, and we found Jess's friends crowded together on a small blanket. We stayed there until the sky got dark, listening to the music. We left before it was over and went to a bar with another friend, and spent the rest of the night chatting. I was very hungry at that point, and after we left the bar I looked for a place to get a cheap meal, but I didn't find anything that looked appetizing. It was after midnight by this point, and Jess and I took the train back to her apartment. When we got there I grabbed a bag of chips from the kitchen and filled myself on those before falling asleep.

The next morning we woke up early and Jess made a hearty breakfast: eggs, toast, dumplings, and beans. While we ate, her roommate watched an educational French language videotape. Her roommate is traveling to France very soon for school and is trying to learn the language. I ate my food happily to the sound of french phrases being spoken in the background. Comment ca va? Ca va. Et vous?

We took a nap around noon and then got ready to head into Manhattan. Jeff and Binna had found a free outdoor swing dancing event in Battery Park that evening. We took the train into chinatown, where I wanted to grab some dumplings for a snack. There are several little dumpling shops in Chinatown that sell 5 dumplings for a dollar, and are pretty good. My cousin David actually introduced me to them several years ago. We got our dumplings, pork for myself and vegetable for Jess, and then made our way over to meet Jeff and Binna.

Battery Park is located on the west shore of Manhattan. It's a pretty nice area, with a mix of expensive living units and a large walk along the river. By the time we arrived the band had already gotten started. It was a 12-piece brass band from Harlem, and they played old big-band standards like "Fly Me to the Moon." We danced and it was great fun and quite a sight, with Manhattan high-rises on one side and the Hudson river on the other, and the sun setting behind the New Jersey skyline across the river to the west. Jess and I took a break from the dancing to stand next to the water, and I looked at the scene with appreciation and a bit of wonder. There were lots of children, couples, and people walking their dogs, and it was a very nice atmosphere.

The band closed its set at 8 just as it was getting dark. The four of us grabbed some coffee and walked around the shoreline. We saw a beautiful yacht, called the Perseus, docked along the water. We marveled at how elegant it was and had a footrace to try and figure out how long it was. Jeff thought it was 50 yards, I thought it was less. We knew that the fastest 100 yard dash run was under 10 seconds, and we decided to run the length of the boat and see how it long it took us. In sandals, it took me 10 seconds to run the length of it. We discovered the boat was closer to 50 yards (163 ft) after looking it up. I guess I'm not a very fast runner!

We continued walking and wound up at a memorial for the Irish Potato Famine. This was a period in the 1850s when a virus decimated Irish potato crops and millions of Irish starved. It was a very compelling sight. On one side it looks like a irish countryside, with grass and bush and a roofless stone cottage:



But when you walk around you see that it all sits on a building:



One the side of the building there are all these quotes related to hunger, and at night the quotes are illuminated in white. We walked around it quietly for a while, reading the different quotes and passages and taking it in.

It was about 10 at night, and we said goodbye to Jeff and Binna and made our way to the east side of the island to go to a party for one of Jess's friends. We grabbed a bite at a diner first, and I ordered a big basket of fish and chips. I was craving fried food then, but I regretted it yesterday when I played basketball. I felt heavier and slower than normal after the weekend of chips and fried food.

The party was on a rooftop. We got in around midnight, and it was such a sight up on that roof, with beautiful views of the skyline all around. There was a DJ who was playing music, which was intermittently turned off. Cops had come to keep the party quiet, and we could see them shining flash lights on us from another rooftop. We were still able to stay despite it. We met some of Jess's friend's there and had a good time dancing under the stars. It was a beautiful night, and although there was a breeze, we were all comfortable in shorts and light clothing.

The next day I packed all my clothes into my small backpack and Jess and I went to a small park near her apartment. We laid there under some trees and I fell asleep. It was great weather in New York, in the 80s and not too humid. It felt so much cooler than Boston. After a couple hours we made our way to Manhattan, where the bus I needed to take back to Boston was waiting.

I met Jeffrey at 7:30 hoping to catch an 8 p.m. bus. For the New York side of the bus line there is no station, you just wait on the sidewalk where it boards on a first-come, first-served basis. The line was very long and we had to wait until 9! It wasn't so bad because the girls were with us, and we talked to pass the time. I also bought some chicken from a Popeye's there and ate a makeshift dinner.

Finally it was time to board. We said goodbye to the girls and boarded, getting two seats near the front. Jeff and I played video games to pass the time, and got into Boston around 1 in the morning. His sister had left his car near the station, so we walked to it and he drove me home. I got in and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Thankfully I didn't have to go into work until 11 yesterday.

Martha's Vineyard July 4th Weekend

So this weekend 6 couples including myself and Jess made it out to Martha's Vineyard to spend the holiday at a friend's home. Martha's vineyard is an island off of Cape Cod, and you have to take a ferry to get there. It took almost two hours to get to the shore from Boston (it's South East of the city), and then the ferry ride was another hour and a half or so. The girls came up from New York on Thursday night, and we left Boston early Friday morning, arriving at the Cape shortly before noon.



Jeff and Binna on the ferry, and Jess and me.

The weather was fairly mild on the island. Boston's been suffering a muggy heat wave, and it was still muggy there, maybe in the high 80s, but tolerable. Some of our friends picked us up and took us back to the house, which was hidden behind large bush. On the way, we saw basketball star Grant Hill, who's married to one time successful R&B songstress Tamia. You probably don't know either of them, but it was pretty exciting.

Back at the house, we unloaded our things and ate lunch: burgers and hot dogs on the grill. People sat around and played video games, catch, and I dribbled the basketball (that's where you bounce it repeatedly). Eventually the boys decided to go to a park and play basketball, and several of the ladies came along to play tennis. Jess headed off to the beach with another woman and we met up with them after, to go digging for clams.

I wish I brought my camera but I didn't want to get it dirty, so unfortunately I don't have any photos of us clamming. We went to a shallow area off the beach, where the ground was very muddy and inconsistent. There were thousands of clams under our feet. We brought several buckets, and filled them all up with hard-shelled clams, and also some mussels. The mussels hang in the dirt underneath the grass at the edge of the water, and there were a lot of those to be had as well. I walked back to the car carrying a 40 pound bucket of clams!



Back at the house, we grilled a bunch of them for dinner and stayed in during the evening. Jeff set up karaoke, and while he did that, a few of us went to an upstairs bedroom to watch the fireworks through the window. Martha's Vineyard has a pretty nice fireworks show, and we could see most of it through the window. It was peaceful in the room, with all the lights turned off and our silhouetted heads quietly watching out the window.

We spent most of that night singing karaoke. It was pretty fun. Then we played some drinking games, but most people were tired from their early morning and the sports and clamming activities. I had a couple of beers and fell asleep in the living room. With the karaoke system still on, Jess put the microphone to my snoring for all to hear.

Saturday


Watching videos on the computer

The next morning was a quiet one. The skies were overcast and threatened rain, and most of us sat around, watching videos on youtube. Are you familiar with Youtube? It's a popular internet site with hundreds of thousands of videos that people around the world upload, and there are some pretty entertaining ones, like this:




After people got tired of watching, some of the group decided to go fishing. I stayed in with Jess, and napped and read a little. As the day moved to evening, some people from the fishing party returned, bearing a 30 inch striped bass they'd caught.

For dinner we ate prime rib and some of the fish. And again, everyone went to sleep pretty early, after watching some TV.

On Sunday, our last day, Jess and Binna left early with some friends to head back to New York. The rest of us planned on staying until 9pm. We spent the morning walking down the main street of Martha's Vineyard, which was very small. After, we went to the park again and I played some more basketball.

We finished what we could of the clams and fish for dinner, and spent the last hour cleaning up the house. Ms. Lau was a very gracious host, opening up her 4 bedroom home to 13 friends. Here she is with the family dog, C.J.



C.J. had plenty to eat this weekend.



We arrived at the ferry dock around 9, and set off back for the mainland. Jeff drove me home, and we pulled up to my apartment around 12:30. I stepped inside, brushed my teeth, and laid down the bed and fell asleep.