The intercession begins

And I'm tired as well. Fortunately it's a good kind of tired, as the lion's share of the week has gone towards performing my duties as Best Man for yesterday's wedding, which went off without a hitch. Although it was a small ceremony - just the immediate families of the bride and groom, a Best Man (me), and a Maid of Honor at Cambridge City Hall, officiated by a Justice of the Peace - it was a nice one. The vows were exchanged in the City Council's chambers, which is quite photogenic, and the happy couple (who were positively beaming) were whisked away with the rest of us to the North End of Boston, where we sat down to what appeared to be a delicious Italian meal at Massimino's. I say appeared because without her afternoon nap our daughter wasn't too keen on a sit-down restaurant experience, so she, the wife, and I were obliged to leave early. I can still almost taste the bruschetta I didn't get a chance to eat!

But Andriana had been a trooper for the whole day, as she accompanied me from early morning as I made the obligatory rounds as Best Men are wont to do, picking up relatives from the airport, shuttling people back and forth, and keeping morale high and the troops entertained. She spent more hours in the car than any thirteen-month-old should reasonably be expected to, and therefore was owed a little meltdown time when it inevitably came. And she was wonderful with my friend's father and brother - the latter, a father of four himself, really made a connection with her, which was handy when it came time for us all to take turns getting into our Sunday finest.

The night before had been a fairly low-key but satisfying Bachelor Party, consisting of myself, the groom, and his father (whom I had met once before, at the conclusion of a cross-country driving trip from Western Pennsylvania to Washington State). We drank and talked the night away at a couple of our old watering holes. First was the Cambridge Brewing Company, the grande dame of the micropub phenomenon here in the Boston area. I can't tell you how many hours and dollars I've spent at that place over the years, especially when I was living in East Cambridge. Unfortunately the years have not been kind to the CBC, whose beer, decor, and overall atmosphere is tending more and more towards the mediocre, so my buddy and I have been avoiding the place entirely of late, but we thought one last trip was in order, given the time we'd spent there.

(We were rewarded for our final nod, as one of the hallmark features of the original establishment - a giant folk-art mural of famous historical personae sitting down with one another and drinking beer that had been taken down years ago to make way for a large and bland company logo - was temporarily on display in celebration of the brewpub's 15th anniversary. The beer, alas, was not as good as it was when the mural was still up!)

The second and final stop on our tour down memory lane was the Thirsty Ear Pub at MIT. One of the two locales for graduate students and superannuated undergrads to enjoy a pint without leaving campus - the other being the Muddy Charles - my friend and I had both visited the Thirsty Ear many times, though oddly enough never together. We'd discovered the place independently at different points in our lives, but both found the place to have a certain kind of vibe that was just right for an Institute hangout. Too bad then that the Thirsty Ear will be no more in a week, shut down by the MIT Corporation in order to drum up business at the new pub which will be opening at the Stata Center, the Frank Gehry-designed monstrocity that replaced historic Building 20, the birthplace of radar.

We stayed at the Thirsty Ear until midnight, drinking pitchers of Sam Adams Summer Ale, which was cheaper and better-tasting than its microbrewed cousin over at the CBC, and soaking up the local culture (which, once inebriated, became progressively loud and shriek-y) when it occurred to me that I would be a graduate student myself in a few short weeks - I was almost going to say "again", but I don't count my two years in the BA/MA program at Boston University, since I was still an ungraduate then; now it's official, however.

So weird to observe so many signs that life is an ever-changing thing all at once: my friend's wedding, my return to school, my daughter getting Baptized (in two weeks)! I guess Heraclitus was right when he said ΠΑΝΤ&Alpha ΡΕΙ, or "everything flows". You may not be able to step into the same river twice, as that old Greek also pointed out, but you can at least let it take you downstream for one hell of a ride...