alumnus

My biggest faux pas was probably showing up in my Wisconsin spirit jersey.  

It's taken awhile to collect all my thoughts into one post about Boston.  Most of my attention has been dedicated to readjusting to my ordinary student life after a nonstop weekend.  That and sucking down too much ginger tea and emergen-C to avoid this impending illness.

First bites: roasted lamb, tomato chutney, and goat cheese half-a-sammich at Flour while transcribing notes and watching the rain and killing time while the real people were at work.  The lamb was so tender, and I haven't tasted goat cheese in so long, and the sweet tomato chutney balanced it all out perfectly.
I kind of lost the motivation to work after finishing my lunch, so I did what I do best when I'm alone in bustling cities - wander.
Wandered to the finish line and imagined in what mythical universe it'd feel like to finish running 26.3 miles.

Wandered into Barnes and Noble where I was reminded of how little I read and how much there is to consume.  Where Kyle then rescued me from more studying by feeding me frozen margaritas.
The dinner bell rang, and we promptly went to Myers + Chang ... and were forced to wait what felt like a thousand hours until we made moves to find another restaurant.  It's like they knew because we were seated right after that.
Breakdown:

Kimchee quinoa Bokkeumbap with brussels, bulgoki beef, and pistachios
-the kids thought it was too salty, but I thought it was fine because edamame and brussels - maybe I'm too easy sometimes
-definitely needed more meat

Braised pork belly buns in a pillow bao with brandy hoisin and house pickle
-a favorite of the night
-I think I ate it too fast to really savor it

Tea smoked Mu Shu duck with nam prik pao, suan cai, and pancakes and herbs
-loved the smokey duck, it's been too long since I've had duck
-another favorite of the night

Lemony shrimp dumplings
-I believe consensus here was too lemony, like Lysol lemony
-but sauce improved things a tad

Wok-charred octopus and grilled corn with sriracha butter and spring onion
-Kyle didn't like the char... but I love the flavor of char
-octopus was interesting in texture, meatier than I expected
-char on corn is always welcome, but I felt the pairing of corn and octopus was kinda... meh

And if you thought that the lighting sucked until the final picture...

Saturday was supposed to be beautiful.  While Kyle so generously obtained donuts for me (that hazelnut crunch mmmmm), I got my fill of lobster at North Street Grille where it's all about the benedicts and omelets.  My kind of brunch place for sure.

And it was everything you'd imagine a lobster eggs benedict would be... plus crispy toasty potatoes.

Found the rest of the kids at the Food Truck Festival with cannolis from Mike's Pastry in hand.  Where all the toddler babies just couldn't get enough of corn hole.  And it looks sunny and beautiful, but then the sun kept disappearing and the wind kept appearing and I just wanted to hide away in a bar.  Harpoon Brewery to be exact.  Where the two bites of pretzel I had were amazing, and I wish I wasn't so nauseous and full.
Sidenote: cannolis from Mike's Pastry.  Apparently the best, good enough to prompt Nancy to berate Kyle for not going - "You haven't done anything!"
My thoughts?  Well, don't wait 2-3 hours to finally take a bite.

I guess the kids made me feel a little bit better about still being a student.  Always learning new things and such.  Appreciating that my life is both routine and variable enough.  Keeping it interesting?

Things I'm a fan of - parks, parks in cities, parks in cities on nice days, parks in cities on nice days with swan boats.

I almost omitted this picture because my hair is parted super weird, but it was too sunny and happy.  And I love when my world gets a little smaller.

So much activity.  I didn't want to get on the plane.