Who Needs A Map?
Today, I did one of my favourite things - driving randomly without any particular destination or plan. No, really, stay with me here. In my humble opinion (and this isn't just the Y chromosome talking, stereotypes aside), I have always had a pretty good sense of direction. And by "always", I mean "always". My parents are convinced I learned to read by memorizing road signs from the Ontario Driver's Handbook (which I "read" at age 3). That's right, forget the whole "See Dick. See Jane" garbage, skip right to Highway Traffic Act. At age 8, I was the official navigator on our family road trips, based on genuine skill and not (only) because I was a pain in the neck and I needed something to keep me busy. So, random driving unites a skill I seem to possess (direction) with my desire to explore new places. Road tripping is indeed one of my favourite things to do -- I think my "dream trip" is still to drive across the United States and back through Canada -- primarily because I enjoy stopping at the most random places imaginable along the way. Indeed, many of the most interesting places I have seen have been a result of either randomly stumbling across something or deciding on a whim to follow a sign that sounded somewhat cool.
So, I had already explored most of the towns to the north of Cambridge in the week I was here prior to starting at MIT; today was the "south of the Charles River" random driving experience. Three hours later, I had (without consulting a map), managed to explore all of downtown Boston and four of the surrounding cities. I will admit that the North End of Boston (where most of the tourists hang out, up by the Quincy Market and the Harbour) did confuse me a little - the Big Dig is still happening up there, with the old overhead expressway dismantled but not yet transformed into anything attractive/logical - but all in all, a very fun afternoon of city exploring. And not one wrong turn. Of course, when you don't have a plan, not making a wrong turn turns out to be a very easy task.
P.S. Being that the Blue Jays blew up Garza good.... you may have a chance to watch him pitch when Rochester blows into Pawtucket from August 26th to 29th. If you get a chance I would do it as the kid is Santana/Liriano good. (Comment this)
I'm trying to decide whether I want to spend $50 on a ticket to go see the Blue Jays play the Red Sox on the last Friday in August... I found tickets, but wow. Standing room only is $40, it's craziness. However, I am leaning toward throwing economic sense to the wind on this one. Watch, it'll be Josh Towers' triumphant return to the major leagues that night or something. (Comment this)