Sunday, September 26, 2010

For Market Basket

Having recently moved from Cambridge to Boston, a mere two mile change, Lawrence and I have experienced a surprisingly different day-to-day life. We have different running routes. We eat at different restaurants. And for me, perhaps what's been most different, is our new supermarket routine. With Shaw's Supermarket now a mere two blocks away, my habits have changed; we make more trips since we usually come away with just enough to cover us for 1-2 days. This has changed my cooking habits, snacking patterns, and ability to instantly satisfy my cravings, like milk at 11PM to accompany the cookie cravings that sometimes come on then. (Believe it or not, this sort of thing is not always possible to pull off in Cambridge- surprising for what calls itself a "city", I know.) And perhaps most striking, our supermarket experience is now calm, calm as compared to Market Basket.

Ahh "The Basket", aka Market Basket. Market Basket is a family-owned chain of supermarkets in New England that generally has the best prices around as well as some of the freshest produce. At the Somerville store, the only one in the Boston area really, such deals and freshness were earned by mucking through the chaos that seems to always ensue in the store, no matter what time of day. Tons of people grab for the same items, push through already crowded aisles with their carts, and, motives unclear, run over unknowing customers unaccustomed to the Market Basket pace. This phenomenon is so well known amongst its regular shoppers that it has even been written up in the Boston Globe in an article titled "When Shopping Becomes a Roller Derby". At the end of the day, though, one always feels victorious having survived the shopping ordeal with such fantastic deals on food (including $3.99/lb lobster!).

Market Basket is a common experience that Cambridge and Somerville residents bond over. Two friends who have just moved to Canada from Cambridge visited us last week and asked how The Basket was doing. And it was in fact my sister who lived in Cambridge/Somerville for 5 years and just moved to San Francisco who sent me the Globe article. And it was sent to her by her friend who lived in Somerville for 4 years who now lives in San Diego. It seems to be one of the places people who leave fondly, more or less, remember. Given that I don't shop there anymore, I can be counted as one of them.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Even on Jersey Shore Staten Island Gets Dumped On

"You should know about tragedy, bitch. You're from Staten Island."

Just thought I'd throw up a quote from the popular MTV show "Jersey Shore" to demonstrate the surprising lack of respect for Staten Island from even those whom one would think would appreciate it/call it the motherland.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

It Must Be Love

I've been attending the US Open every year since I was 7. It's always been the grand finale to my summers- the last hoorah before returning to school. This year, for one of the few times this 3rd year medical student can count on one hand (and sadly only the beginning of a lifetime of this), I haven't had a summer vacation. The one day I got to go home to NYC to spend at the US Open was the beginning, middle, and end of my summer, my sad summer.

Still, it turned out, as usual, to be everything I wanted and needed it to be. It was my 12 hours on the sidelines of glorious professional tennis. It was my time in the sun where I could forget, for a day, that I wasn't actually having a summer this year. It was time spent in my favorite city on the planet, with family I miss more and more with every year I live in Boston. It was the US Open.


It rejuvenated me. It inspired me.
And I realized in the car ride home from Flushing Meadows that lone day that for all the memories I have there, for the anticipation and excitement it creates, for never being disappointing, for being the grand finale, the US Open and I have fireworks. It must be love.