Yesterday was very productive. I visited every bank in Cambridge collecting information on account types and interest rates. Eventually, I made an account online at Bank of America (they paid me $50!). So that was one major item off my to-do list.
While I was in the Harvard computer lab I decided to look for free stuff at Harvard and sure enough, there’s a Harvard Furniture and Recycling Center, or something like that. It doesn’t have a website, and it’s only open from 11-2 on Saturdays, but I decided to check it out anyway, and sure enough, there were a bunch of swivel chairs, good as new. I was in Allston by this point, so I biked back to my apartment, then drove back to the recycling center to pick up the chair. One was already gone (even though nobody knows about this place), but I got the one I was looking for anyway.
It had been raining, and my chair was very wet, so I borrowed a roommate’s enormous fan and subjected my chair to gale-force winds for several hours. I’m sitting on it now, and I cannot describe how much more useful it makes my desk. Free!
Last night was a Harvard party. It had a moderately inane “Boston” theme, a little like a geographical haunted house (it occupied the whole grad-student center). The highlight was probably seeing the head of my department in full pirate regalia, eyepatch included. I got bored after about an hour and biked back home. I hung out with my roommates for about 15 minutes before a friend called, saying he was at the party and wondering where I was. After some deliberation, I biked back. The party had transitioned into its second phase, an enormous dance party occupying the whole cafeteria floor. I danced until 12:30, when it closed. It was a lot of fun, barring two unfortunate incidents.
I dropped my bottle of Nantucket Nectar on the dance floor and it shattered. While I have mastered the art of picking up shards of broken glass, it is always nerve-wracking, especially in the dark, to pounding music, on a slick black floor. Later, my glasses flew off my face while I was dancing and somebody stepped on them. I was able to bend them back, mostly, but a few adjustments are still required. It appears that they used Flexon for everything but the critical corner pieces.
Today my friend Paul came in, and together with a few other friends we wandered around Boston, visiting the pro-marijuana Freedom Rally (surprisingly dull, bad music) and Barnes & Noble (no free internet). I must have walked at least five miles today.
Tomorrow: Chorallaries rehearsal, and whatever’s left on that list.