i woke up at 9am so i could see mauricio off. his flight out of logan airport was at 1pm. i found him in the living room, lounging on the couch with his smartphone, blankets and pillows stacked up neatly on the nearby barstool. he told me he planned on leaving at 9:50am. the flight out of boston would first travel to new york, then a flight to madrid which wasn't until 7pm. he told me he'd come back one day with his girlfriend, as there simply wasn't enough time for him to see everything in the 5 days he was in town. having spent all his time in the cities, he wanted to see some of our natural sceneries as well. he didn't buy any souvenirs while he was in manhattan and said he'd pick up a few things at the airports (with the $22 in cash he still had on hand). i ended up giving him one of my spare statue of liberty figurines. he also wanted to return my charlie card but i told him he could keep it. he told me if i should ever visit spain to give him a call.

we shook hands and hugged and with that mauricio was gone and i was back to just one spanish roommate again. as rain was expected to fall later in the day, i biked down to market basket looking to stock on my some of those cheap and delicious sandwiches. but apparently they were all out, and the only thing i could find was a $5 chicken burrito sitting on a heating tray. eating it back at home for lunch, it wasn't very good, just a dense mash of chicken and rice packed inside of a burrito. i would've been better off getting a fresh burrito (around $7) from one of nearby mexican places.

since it'd be raining, i didn't plan on going to belmont. but the rain didn't really start until later in the evening, and even then it was just a foggy mist at worst. in any case it didn't matter because my parents finally decided we'd go to the midwest grill tonight in inman square after my sister managed to shuffle her schedule and agreed to come out.

my parents and sister came to pick me up a little bit after 5pm. since it was so early, we were the only patrons in the restaurant (a pair of college boys showed up when we were about to leave). the first thing i noticed was how slippery the floors were, courtesy of the greasy drippings from the roaming skewers. my aunt and uncle had invited my parents here a few weeks ago, and my mother found the food so delicious that she bought a $50 groupon coupon for $25. the coupon stipulated that it must be a party of 4 or above, and since it's $22 a head, after taxes and tips we only really save 25% at most.

i'd been to the midwest grill before, shortly after college, back in the late 90's. i came with manny, and i don't remember the food as much as the explosive diarrhea i suffered immediately afterwards. brazilian barbecue features waitstaff coming around to the various tables with different cuts of barbecued meats. as we were the only table there, it seemed a little weird, as if the whole restaurant was opened just for us. as seasoned buffet eaters, we knew not to stock up on the side dish counter, which besides salads, all featured heavily starchy dishes like rice and potatoes and plantains. i couldn't resist and picked up a few fried plantains to snack on while waiting for the meats to arrive.

* literal doggy bag