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JUN

13

2013

cold, wet rain was the forecast for the day. under these conditions i took the 73 bus to my godmother's new apartment in waverley square, where i would also meet alex's new baby for the very first time. i'm very familiar with the 73, since it's the bus i used to take when i still lived at home. however, i'd never taken it down to waverley square before, so this was a first.

it took me a while to find my godmother's place. part of the confusion was i went to thayer street when she lives on thayer road. i got to an address that i thought was hers but it didn't seem right. i called alex who arrived yet then i called my godmother. she described a brick building, but the only one i saw was this brutalistic structure that housed a bank, not apartments. she then said something about a gas station, so i went to the one behind the supermarket, but that wasn't it either. it took me a good 20 minutes before i finally found it, and only because my godmother had left her house and was looking for me on the street corner.

i arrived the same time as alex. i thought it was just going to be my godmother, her son (alex), his newborn baby, and possibly his wife, but in the car was a bunch of people i didn't know, who turned out to be his wife's family: younger sister, mother, and a family friend. they drove up from new york (flushing) to visit the wife, but i think the mother had been staying with them since the baby was born. they named him skyler, which confused me at first because i thought that was a girl's name. and they insisted on having me hold the baby even though i'm notoriously butterfingered when it comes to carrying newborns.

i left a bit before 6:00. or actually, alex told me he'd walk me to the bus stop, which was my cue to leave, since they were leaving soon as well. by that point the rain had stopped. it was still at the tail end of rush hour so the buses came pretty frequently, at least one every 6 minutes. when we left, there were already 2 buses behind us. and since we were traveling against traffic, the bus wasn't particularly crowded.

instead of returning to harvard square, i got off at my historical stop and walked the 10 minutes to my parents' place for dinner. binbin's mother and aunt are in town visiting from china, and they went to go see my parents at the cafe earlier today. they brought a new ipad 2 for my sister, even though she totally doesn't deserve it because she bailed on a few family dinners the last time they were in town (last year). when my sister came home and saw us using "her" ipad, she had the audacity to yell at us for ruining it before she could even use it. i told my parents they should keep it for themselves (especially now that my grandmother has decided to stay in town a little bit longer and she's currently using my mother's ipad) since my sister is thoroughly undeserving of such a gift.

after some rice porridge for dinner, i got a ride home back to cambridge. the rain had picked up again by that point, even colder now that it was getting dark.

earlier today, before the rain started, i went down to the porter square michael's to look for a small hardbound travel journal. i traditional keep a little diary when i do an extended trip. unfortunately they didn't carry any of the size i wanted. i'll try ac moore in the next few days.