i grabbed the subway from harvard square to go into chinatown to have a late lunch with jack and bruce, susan and dennis, and the two young ladies (rebecca and casey) staying with them (i actually saw jack bruce susan dennis on a passing train). suishiya was the restaurant, a place i used to frequent before they started skimping on the box lunch specials (check out my box lunch comparison from last year). susan ordered a nearly non-stop stream of sushi, while i had the kalbi box lunch (hoping things had improved since my last visit). here's my recommendation for suishiya: excellent sushi, awful box lunches. we had sushi that i'd never seen before, each plate more exquisite and beautiful in presentation than the previous one. susan ended up treating us all to lunch.
i separated from the gang after lunch and wandered chinatown a bit. i could spend the whole day here, eating and shopping. having worked nearby when i was at squid gave me a good opportunity to really explore the area. i know where all the best food places are, places to go for lamb noodle soup, for pan fried rice, for the best bubble ice tea, for smelly tofu, for spicy thai basil chicken. i really miss the area. now that the chinatown buses have moved their operations inside south station, chinatown seems kind of dead. i bought some grocery items, then walked down to park street station. there was some kind of pumpkin carving display, the works of children, not professional pumpkin carvers. it'd have been nice to be here at night, but i have a world series to watch. speaking of which, i rode the green line to kenmore square. it must've been the must excruciatingly hot and crowded train ride i've had in a long time, the trace malodor of sweaty ass permeating the crush of red sox fans. i stood behind a young woman who no less than 3 times grazed my groin area with her posterior. the horde of people continued outside of kenmore square, as folks shuffled in the direction of fenway park. i grabbed a few quick photos and left.
on the ride back, i eavesdropped on an interesting exchange. a pretty coed wearing a red sox hat sat down next to this fratty-looking guy. she was asking people on the train if anyone knew the score of the "fighting irish" football game between boston college and notre dame. "why, do you go to BC?" asked the boy. "no, i'm rooting for notre dame." said the girl. so they started talking. at one point she said she was puerto rican. looking at her hat, the boy asked, "you a red sox fan?", since he was wearing a red sox hat as well. "no, i'm actually a yankees fan," she whispered loudly. there was a long pause. i could just imagine him thinking, a yankees fan? i hate the yankees! still, she is pretty, and she's wearing a red sox hat. "so why're you wearing that hat then?" asked the boy. "you think i'd be wearing the hat of a loser?" replied the girl. that seemed to repulse the boy even more. "i got to school in new york, but i'm still a red sox fan," the boy pointed out. "they [red sox] don't have any puerto ricans on the team," the girl explained. nothing more came of this exchange, and the two left in different directions.
back at home, i wasn't hungry the entire rest of the evening, solely because of how much i ate during my late lunch. i parked myself in front of the television and got ready to watch the game 1 of the world series between the red sox and the cardinals. moments before steve tyler of aerosmith finished singing the national anthem, i heard this loud rumbling sound outside, like a massive blowdryer. seconds later, i see on television 4 jet planes do a fly-by over fenway park. AWESOME!
the red sox got off to an early lead, 4 runs in the 1st inning, 3 more runs in the 3rd inning. it seemed like a game 1 win was at hand, but then the cardinals came back. having not seen the cardinals very much, we didn't know what to expect. with the yankees, we knew everyone on their roster, as well as players on the red sox. not so with the cardinals. game 1 was about testing the waters, seeing what the team had for defense and offense. and judging from their performance tonight, the cardinals are every bit as capable as mounting a comeback, eventually tying the game (they can have manny ramirez to thank for that, who made a few errors and some bad plays). but have no fear! immediately in the bottom of the 8th inning, mark bellhorn belts a 2 run homer to reclaim the lead for the sox and that's all we needed to win the game.
it's weird watching the red sox play the cardinals, like competing against a totally alien team. i don't know any of the cardinal players. there's like this whole other baseball universe, the national league, that exists in tandem with american league baseball, like a bizarro world. their players look just like our players, they speak the same language, they play the same way, with the sole exception that in the NL, pitchers actually have to come to bat (that's totally weird!) and because of that there's no designated hitter position. beating these cardinals doesn't have the same meaning as beating the yankees. sure, we win the world series, but there's no backstory with this team, no rivalry, no animosity. i see them with more curiousity and mutual respect that the naked hatred i have reserved for the evil empire. i mean, what's the point? does the cardinals humiliate us year after year? does the cardinals steal our players? does the cardinals think they're better than everyone else and go prancing around in their dynasty dance? no no and no! this postseason is all screwed up if you ask me. maybe we should've played the cardinals first before the yankees, or not even play the cardinals at all, go mano y mano with the bronx bombers in a best out of 14 series.
my father stopped by after work. we checked my heating system, the pilot light in my furnace has an annoying habit of going out. i'm not sure what it is but it stopped doing it after we jiggled around the heat sensor wire a bit, so maybe it fixed itself.