Somerville

My friends Sue & Steve had just moved in to their new apartment in Somerville the week before I visited them. It was super-exciting, as it's a great place, lots of space and light, beautiful woodwork typical of those robust Boston houses.

If you're thinking of moving to Boston (you know who you are) you could do a lot worse than Somerville - it's on the T Red Line, and they'll be extending the Green Line there too before long. Great neighborhoods: lots of life but not too crowded, some really good restaurants and plenty of good pubs and bars. Don't know anything about the school system, but I dare say that's easily found out. I'm just sayin'.

At any rate, I drove to Somerville on Sunday, the morning after the Bang on a Can Marathon, and after getting the lay of the land with Sue and Steve, we picked up Laura for brunch. Afterward, I lent Laura my car Lola so she could get back to work without taking a cab, and join us for a nitecap at the end of the evening. Then we watched the end of the Red Sox game and took a walk around a couple neighborhoods before meeting Robin for a drink and some dinner. Robin is a great old friend that I've seen far too little of in recent years: he's now a nurse with three (count 'em, three) kids, and doing better than ever. He has begun a tradition for himself of having his children write their names in magic marker on their 5th birthday, and having the signatures tattooed on his arm. He's got one so far - the other two will come as they learn how to write and turn 5. Pretty cool.

We had a great dinner at a place whose name I can't remember. Then we went back to the new House to wrap up the night. As it happened, rather than showing up for an end-of-evening revel, Laura called to say that Lola wouldn't start. I have the habit of turning the lights on when I drive, even in the daytime, because it makes the car more visible. And Laura isn't in the habit of driving at all, and didn't take note of the lights when she parked on a sun-soaked road. Soooooooo, Sue and Steve and I piled into one of their cars and drove over to Bay State Road to give Lola a jump. Fortunately, she started up right away, so we didn't have to deal with buying a new battery first thing Monday morning or anything like that.

That little wrench in the evening out of the way, we said good night to Laura (who wasn't up for coming back to Somerville at that point) and drove back, found parking (not a small task at that time of night) and let our very small party tick away on the pegs of a cribbage board. We finished up with Sue and Steve singing some of the new songs they've written for My Own Worst Enemy - see them at the Cantab if you're around.

Next morning was my trip to the Vineyard... good material for the next post.