Time Out

The objectives coming to BU and Boston proper were clear: get a Master's with honors, get into (an accredited, American) medical school, and go awesome neo-Scav road-tripping with fellow ex-Shorelanders, all the while retaining whatever sanity I had left after Chicago. Now that all of those goals have been accomplished, though the sanity one is debatable, I've just been playing Halo 3 and bumming around a city whose surface I haven't even scratched.

Joel Sequitur will be leaving its Boston existence very soon, the fourth move in five years. Most of my friends, save for a few matriculating into BU med's Class of 2012, are leaving or have left. And barring meeting the girl of my dreams (or a reasonable facsimile) in the next two months, I will have little incentive to come back to Boston in those four years. So today I thought of all the things and events I have yet to do that can only be accomplish near a stream of dirty water called the river Charles.

1. Grab a sandwich at Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe or All Star Sandwich Bar.
2. Kayak down the Mystic River.
3. Visit the ICA on free Thursdays from 5-9PM.
4. Try all 36 brews on tap at Publick House.
5. Go to a game at Fenway sober.
6. Star-gazing at BU Coit Observatory.
7. See ImprovBoston.
8. Listen to a book reading at Harvard Book Store.
9. Do the Duck Tour.
10. Watch the Boston Marathon (which is tomorrow).
11. Visit the Distillery Gallery.
12. Go to Wally's Cafe during a live Saturday set.
13. Stop subjugating inner tech geek: visit the MIT museum.
14. Relax by Jamaica Pond.
15. See the Mapparium.
16. Attend the 2nd Annual Cambridge Science Festival (damn me for missing the 1st).
17. Actually walk the Paul Revere Trail.
18. Tour the Sam Adams factory, again.
19. See the Blue Hills Reservation.
20. Attend a Boston Pops Orchestra concert.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I needed to get to the airport for a business trip, so the quickest way to get to Logan from my place was to take the Green Line and switch to the Blue Line at Government Center. So I was on the Green Line inbound last Tuesday, only to find out that the Blue Line was closed from State to the Airport. Now, this would seem like something that the MBTA should have posted on their website as news, but they didn't. Instead, they were shuttling people between Blue Line stations, and I was told by the MBTA police the shuttle I was getting on was going to the airport. Now, if this shuttle had gone straight to Logan, this would be the end of the story. But, as soon as the shuttle got on 1A to Logan, it was told to be rerouted to Maverick Station, where the driver was told she was taking people back to Government Center and we all had to transfer off that shuttle and get onto another one for the airport.

Unfortunately, the driver of that shuttle (this being the 2nd shuttle I've been on today) had never driven to Logan; this wasn't his normal route and no one at the T apparently had ever directed him. So, after he had gotten the bus lost in the Budget rent-a-car parking lot, the shuttle somehow got on the Mass Pike going away from the airport. At this time, I only had an hour left until my flight, and I was pretty pissed off I was being driven by an un-navigated driver and the teens playing craps in the back of the bus. So, finally, before the shuttle got back to I-90 and totally missed all exits getting to Logan, I shouted, "Where the fuck are you taking us?" This prompted three other guys and I to stand up and start asking the driver himself. One guy who was a worker at Logan said he knew the direction to the Airport station, but the driver wouldn't listen. So, half of the bus just got off at Harborside Drive and followed the guy, walking through the East Boston Stadium and Rec Center, to the Airport station, which took only five minutes to get to walking. I asked if they had seen the shuttle, but none of the MBTA officers said they had. As far as I had known, it was still on the Mass Pike.
I got to Logan with 45 minutes to check-in, so I made my flight, despite all the hurdles the MBTA threw at me. Only to find out at Washington/Dulles my connecting flight was delayed for engine trouble...for three hours.
The angel of transportation made it up to me though today. On my flight back to Boston, they overbooked the flight, so I volunteered to give up my seat. Not only did I get the free ticket voucher, but they put me on a direct flight to Boston that actually got me there earlier than if I had gone on my the overbooked flight as schedule. Moral of the story: since there are no black-out dates on that free ticket, I get to go to California during the 4th of July without having to pay $600.