You all know that there are days when I want to throw it all in the car and get out of the city. It’s too crowded, I miss grass, I miss family. There are those moments, as you know, when life seems like an episode of Friends, that make it worthwhile.
Nicole and I have recruited another friend to our morning swim club, and today was our first day meeting out in JP for some laps. We were to meet on the steps of the community center at 6:30, so I hopped on the bike around 5:45 and pedaled over. After braving the traffic of Newmarket and Egleston Sq, I arrived to find that the pool was closed until 10. I was right on time, but L & N weren’t there.
I’m enough of a Luddite to leave my phone at home occasionally to make sure the world will keep spinning. Without a phone I had no way of knowing where the rest of the team had gone, so I went the half a block to N’s house and knocked on the screen door. Her boyfriend answered the door, and I used N’s phone to figure out where the rest of our party was located.
L had just gotten to the pool, late. It was quickly decided that we should not abandon our plan to have breakfast. N and her bf decided they would come along as well, suggesting Haley House Café in Roxbury.
Two of us got on our bikes while the other two showered and drove, and we got our social justice on at the café. Drinking Thousand Hills Coffee was anti-climactic, since that’s what I drink at home too, but the breakfast was leisurely and laugh-filled.
On the way home I impersonated the Magi and went home by another route. If you can’t explore Roxbury on a bike in the morning, when can you? All this, and home before 9:00 am. Life is good, friends are good, the city is good.
Fantastic.