Baratunde

View Original

One of the best days ever

Today was hot in more ways than one. Not only did the sun reveal itself in Boston after hiding for what seemed like weeks in an undisclosed secure location, but I had one of the most interesting days in a long time. Lessons learned: power yoga rocks, HDTV sucks, Crash is a great movie and I'm a whore for conversation

Get Your Asana On

First let me get into the power yoga. My girlfriend and I started about three weeks ago with a beginner's workshop at Baron Baptiste Power Yoga Vinyasa studio in Cambridge. I haven't become so instantly addicted to something since those Entenmann's Pop'ems my freshman year in college.

This ain't your calm, cool and collected pretzel yoga. This is that hot, sweaty haven't-gotten-a-full-body-workout-like-this-since-high-school-wrestling kinda yoga. I've got a goal of three classes a week, and did Class 7 today. Go Me. Go Me. Go Me. Anyway, I woke up at 8:45 for a class that began at 9, but still managed to make it pretty much on time. Afterward, I felt more energized than anything. Leave it to television to try and sap that life out of me.

How TV Almost Ruined My Life

Ok, that was strongly worded, but TV most definitely almost ruined my day. Earlier this week I ordered the HDTV package from RCN so I could take advantage of the better quality picture with my new HDTV screen. I knew my TiVo couldn't benefit, but for $5 extra a month, I thought it would be nice to watch a live feed occasionally on HBO or one of te major US networks.

Problems first started when the cable guy couldn't get a straight picture to show up. Then I noticed that the connectors on the back of the new box didn't match the last one, so I wasn't sure how TiVo would be able to change the channels. I should have taken it as a sign and sent the man packin, but he fixed the picture and I was distracted. An hour after he left, I was still messing around with cables and decided to drop it. I called RCN and told them to come pick up their shit. I wanted to go back to the system that worked. Of course, cable homeboy was off duty, so I had to make an appointment for Thursday! No worries. It got me outside

Lookin up

Once I turned the TV off, it was all good. I went for a beautiful walk all across Cambridge -- picked up some ice cream frrom Christina's, stopped by my mailbox in Central Square, then decided to walk to Boston to see "Crash." What a good choice!

I love seeing movies and having NO idea what they are about. That's how it went with Crash. All I knew is that my man Don Cheadle was in it. I don't want to ruin the full experience for those of you living under rocks. I won't tell you anything about the movie, except you must see it!

Friendly Reunions

Leaving the theatre, I noticed a voicemail from my friend, Enko. I had been talking about him last night with my moms, and he was in town for the night. I was planning on walking to Harvard Square anyway, but he warned me that it was pouring rain up there. About 10 minutes later, the rain made it to Boston, but with his warning, I had time to grab a garbage bag from 7-Eleven and find a spot under an awning to wait it out.

It's pretty amazing to witness a downpour from beginning to end while standing in the same spot. It's like a symphony. First you feel the little drops, like the orchestra tuning up before a big concert. Then, with very little warning, the sky opens up causing a chain reaction everywhere. People run. Cars slow down. And where there used to be dust and dry ground, water now flows. When you get used to that, a whole new instrument section starts up when the gutters on the roofs overflow. It's beautiful.

I made it up to Harvard and spent the next few hours talking with Enko and his girlfriend Silva, then rolled to Cambridge 1 where I ran into cool couple of the millenium, Uyen-Khahn and Eoin, and we talked for hours more about comedy, consumerism, world travel and more...

I'm too tired to go into the detail of all of it, but the moral of the story is clear: life for me went a lot better today once I walked away from the TV