Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
I feel like I did nothing all weekend when, in fact, I actually did quite a few things – some fairly substantial.
On Friday night, Mike and I got together after work and saw the Strangers with Candy movie (I love Amy Sedaris…though Mike loves Onyx Blackman). It was funny but it re-hashed more lines from the TV series than I’d have hoped for. But it was a good laugh and stayed (mostly) true to the TV series. I do miss Orlando, though…and the original brother.
After the movie we grabbed some food (BoLoco) and returned to the theater to see The Devil Wears Prada – but it was sold out. Instead, we opted to walk back to Boston from Harvard Square (via the Mass Ave Bridge) and talk. Without going into too much detail (despite having a blog, believe it or not, I do keep some things private) Mike and I continued what has been a series of “where are we?” talks.
We’ve been together nearly 8 months (can you believe it?) and started having some much-needed conversations beginning at a restaurant in Amsterdam. Those conversations continued back to Paris…into London…and now back in Boston. It’s been really good, we’re opening up to each other, we’re being 100% honest, but despite all of that – we’re still not sure what’s going on. Time will tell, I guess.
On Saturday, I did laundry all day then met up with Mike and his friend, Justin, at Francesca’s Cafe in the South End. We then headed over to Fritz for a drink before Mike and I went to Jack’s for a BBQ on his roofdeck. You may recall I wrote about Jack a month or two ago…he lives in the apartment owned by the founder of Manhunt. It’s a 1970’s porn dreamhouse with urinals and multi-head showers. But the best feature is the roofdeck with 360-degree views of the city.
We spent over 6 hours up there chatting, eating and drinking wine. We really had a blast and were surprised when we discovered it was after 12:30AM.
On Sunday, I cleaned my apartment. It was horrible. Apparently, these evil dustbunnies took up residence while I was in Europe and their eviction yesterday was quite difficult. But I believe they are gone.
Then sometime around 4PM (I believe) I began hearing horns. And screams. And fireworks. Living in the North End I knew this could only mean one thing: Italy had won the World Cup. After basically being followed by World Cup hoopla throughout Europe (and being in London when England lost…watching drag stars interrupt their shows to keep the audiences updated) the fever followed us back to Boston.
Mike, Marin and Roger came over around 8:30PM and we headed over to Hanover Street to see the festivities. It was mad. We were there until about 10PM (nearly 6 hours after the game ended?) and it was still crazy. Streets were closed to traffic, people were waving (or wearing) Italian flags, the chanting and hollering were nonstop. Quite impressive.
I’m normally a bit uncomfortable surrounded by such levels of testosterone, but I have to admit it was fun. I’ll never understand the appeal of team sports nor the mentality of victory-related rioting, but it was an interesting scene to observe.
And now it’s Monday and life is back to normal. I’m hoping to head to Provincetown this weekend with my friend, Fernando. I guess it will depend on inn availability and weather. But right now it appears it will be in the 90’s and humid – no better time to be on the ocean if you ask me!
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I was wondering what would happen in your neck of the woods last night . . . and now I know. Better you than me. I have to admit, the past few years, when Brazil has won the cup, they come out in force close to where I live . . . and proceed to destroy the neighborhood (i.e. noise, trash everywhere, kicking in the sides of cars, etc.). Oh well . . . it’s something bigger than I’ll ever understand.
I feared similarly last night, to be honest. But there was nothing like that. There was celebrating and yelling and flags. But no violence. No property damage, nothing like that. People were quite respectful.
There was debris on the street – but that’s inevitable with any gathering like that (cups, papers, etc…).
I’m back from Indiana and all caught up on the blog. It sounds like you had an amazing trip, Karl…OK, NOW can we get together for cards?!