The past few days…

Sunday

At the beginning of the summer I made a to do list, and while most of the goals on there are still on-going, I finally crossed another goal off the list. I wanted to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art.  I went with MJRo who was temporarily in town and my new friend, Garrett.  I enjoyed the exhibit, even though before I didn’t really understand the hype about Fairey before.  I had seen his Obama poster before of course, but I thought he just took an AP image did some contrasting and color fill-ins to get the look of the piece.  Of course I was wrong, he actually paints his pieces and seeing the actual texture of the paint on newsprint with these meditative background patterns. Something about his visual style now appeals to me.  We checked out the other exhibits and there was one that stood out to me.  I entered a poorly lit room and saw what looked like cottony wisps spread across the floor, and thought how is this art?  As I approached, these clouds transformed into small pieces of tape rolled and carefully arranged into what reminded me of a cellular organism.  Words that came to mind were organic, cellulose, trees. 

Nebulous, 2008 by Tara Donovan
Cellulose adhesive tape

Garrett and I then headed over to the MIT Alumni Club of Boston for their annual summer bbq.  The corn was deliciously sweet mmmm.

Monday

I woke up at 6am, dropped off my stack of China travel books at the Boston Public Library, and picked up my zip car for a day of well, just about everything. Over the past few days I’ve been doing loads of laundry, packing my suitcase for China, as well as packing up my room to move out, and attempting to sell my bed.

Unfortunately, not only did I chose an extremely hot day to move the majority of my possessions out of the apartment, but I also managed to select the second Monday of the month to do so. This specific day never had any meaning attached to it, except around my apartment it means that its street cleaning day. All the cars seem to magically disappear from the streets. On one hand this was great, then it was extremely easy to find a parking space right near my apartment and I didn’t have to face my arch nemesis parallel parking, it also meant I could easily keep an eye on my car in case they tried to ticket me for parking without a permit. On the other hand, I had to be wary of the tow trucks circling the streets as I juggled running between my apartment and loading boxes and other items into my car. It was game, I would see them coming and towing cars on the street I was on, and I would jump in my car and move to another location. Sweaty and exhausted, I drove off to my grandparents house where I unloaded my stuff until I return from China and move into my new apartment. I hustled back to Cambridge, and repeated the cycle.

My family is very proud that I graduated from MIT, and I was surprised to see 5 pictures of me in my cap and gown. Most were with family, but the largest one is me in my graduation gown glancing off to the side, not smiling, and with my tassel in my face.  There must be a better pic out there.

My grandparents then treated me to a dim sum lunch, and then I drove them to Stop and Shop, and Costco. Oh Costco, how I love thee and never get tired of thee. I guess if I went all the time I would get sick of the bulk packaging, but I normally only go 3-5 times per year.