Another hot, humid day. The worst part about it is that I have to work on my laptop, which gets really hot when it's on. I can feel it singlehandedly increasing the temperature around me.

Went into Boston yesterday with Helena and Linda. I got to see a little bit more of Helena's natural personality, which is a lot more outgoing than she came across at first. I think some of the time she was holding back because Linda and I are so quiet, but she really has a spunky personality. We went to the North End and had lunch, and Helena showed us her apartment. We sat and watched a Tae Bo infomercial for a little while, then switched to a Tai Chi infomercial with David Carradine. Then we went to this street market, which was really cool because it was all crowded and smelly and loud--for the first time since I've been here, I really felt like I was in a city. Helena also showed us this nice park called Christopher Colombus park, right on Boston harbor.

There was this one year anniversary party at the Adidas store in Harvard Square that a bunch of TEP people were going to. It started at 7, but I fell asleep and woke up at 9 and walked over. I saw Oscar there and he gave me a copy of the CD from "Can't Stop Won't Stop," which I've wanted for a while. We were talking about the book the other night, and I guess he knows Jeff Chang. I had a conversation with Christina about favorite bookstores in the Bay Area.

After the Adidas store we went to Hong Kong for drinks and some food. We ordered a "scorpion bowl," which is basically a bowl of alcoholic punch that everyone shares by drinking out of long straws. Then I went upstairs to the bar with Kevin and Natalia and had a couple of glasses of whiskey. It had been a while since I had a glass of whiskey. I felt bad, though, because Natalia kept yelling at me that I hadn't even eaten anything and shouldn't be drinking that much, which was true, but I just hadn't had time to get anything to eat before going out. I stopped at Pinocchio's on the way home, but didn't have enough cash to get some pizza.

As I was walking home I did a fun thing to amuse myself. There are all of these picket fences along JFK street, so I trailed my hand against the top of them, making this tat-tat-tat sound. Then if I looked at the fences as I was walking it would make me kind of dizzy trying to focus on the individual pickets, so I would see how long I could go before I got so dizzy that I thought I would fall over.

I realized a couple of things on my walk home. First, how nice it is to have to walk across the Charles River every day. I complain about how far I have to walk to class--it is a long walk--but the river and the shoreline are so beautiful. It reminds me of Florence and London, but it's also very distinct. The red brick buildings look like legos stacked along the shore, and to the east you can see the tips of the skyscrapers over the trees. I was talking to Rick when I got home last night and we talked about that Anne Sexton poem "Just Once" where she describes walking along the Charles at night.

The second thing I realized was how nice it was to walk home alone, and to know that once I got here I would be alone. Obviously I enjoy being around Adam, but I feel like this past week we did *everything* together, and it was nice to have some time to myself other than just when I'm in bed.

Here's the Anne Sexton poem:

JUST ONCE

Just once I knew what life was for.
In Boston, quite suddenly, I understood;
walked there along the Charles River,
watched the lights copying themselves,
all neoned and strobe-hearted, opening
their mouths as wide as opera singers;
counted the stars, my little campaigners,
my scar daisies, and knew that I walked my love
on the night green side of it and cried
my heart to the eastbound cars and cried
my heart to the westbound cars and took
my truth across a small humped bridge
and hurried my truth, the charm of it, home
and hoarded these consonants into morning
only to find them gone.