Friday night I rode the red line to Harvard to go to Outstitute. In contrast to Institute, which is a Mormon church-sponsored education program where college-age students take classes on scriptures and church doctrine, "Outstitute" is a small, informal discussion group created by a couple of friends who wanted another venue to talk about church history, Mormon scholarship, and Mormon culture. Usually discussions are topical based on readings assigned for each meeting. This past week we read the introduction to an unpublished book about Mormon theology written by particle physicists. In very loose terms we talked about spirit as matter and the Mormon belief that God has a physical body. The conversation de-railed a little bit into psychology (a discussion of Robert Kegan's developmental stages and what means to be self-authoring), but it was all interesting.
After Outstitute I walked with Lisa to Ivaloo St. and watched an episode of Bored to Death, an HBO comedy about a writer who becomes a private detective. In the episode I watched Jason Schwartzman, the writer, is hired to help a middle-aged man who is being blackmailed. The whole show is pretty quirky, but Ted Danzen is fantastic. It would be worth watching just to see Ted Danzen's character.
I came home around 11pm and got a phone call from my friend Chaunte. She planned to come this weekend, but for some reason I thought she was coming on Saturday night. Anyway, I got her phone call and realized she was just getting on a bus in Manhattan and would be in Boston around 4am. In a classic act of social posturing, I went into whirlwind cleaning mode. I cleaned the stove, the bathroom, the living room, and our bedroom. I changed the sheets, I changed the towels, I put away the piles of winter clothes that were staked out on our coffee table ... I basically built the illusion that we are neat people.
Chaunte called at 4 and said that two friends from New York were going camping in Maine, and wondered if they could sleep over until their friends picked them up later that morning. I never mind having people, so a little after four three very tired New Yorkers showed up on my doorstep, and I put them all to bed.
Saturday morning the two boys in my living room left to go camping, Chaunte slept in, and I went over to Bonnie's house to help her paint her ceiling. I stayed until noon and ran back home to meet up with Chaunte. We went to brunch at Sweet Touch and put together an elaborate scheme to make birthday T-shirts for Max's surprise party. Max was under the false impression that we were going to meet him to see the movie Bridesmaids, but instead Betty lured him to a park where a bunch of friends gathered to surprise him. I talked to Max about it later, and he said his first thought was, "Why are all of our friends here? It's so weird that they were getting together so close to our house and they didn't even invite us."
On Sunday I walked Chaunte to the T and went to church. I was a little late, but I'll never tell how late. Our friends Marina and Christian are moving to California tomorrow, so I was happy I got to say goodbye to them. Marina got a residency outside of Los Angeles and they head west to the warmer coast. I'm sorry to see them go. You couldn't ask for better company.
After church I came home and played my guitar. I've been too lazy to feed myself with Quinn gone so i ate watermelon and later chips. I have a slide for my guitar that I never use so I learned a song with slide in it. Interestingly enough, it was weird using the slide (maybe I'm not comfortable with it) so I just did the slide with my fingers and it worked out fine. Max, Elizabeth and Chaunte came over in the late afternoon. We talked for a minute before Chaunte caught her bus home. Max and Elizabeth were interested in the controversy over Philip Roth winning the Man Booker prize. Elizabeth couldn't believe he'd won because he wasn't British. Max said, but an Indian man won, and Elizabeth said, but India was a British colony, to which Max said.... so was America. I couldn't stop laughing. Max has been so funny these past few weeks. And also very sweet. He told Chaunte and I how great he thought his wife was.
I went upstairs to another potluck for dinner and read stories to Soren in an armchair. I once wrote about the years spreading my alliances and that continues to hold true. Your friends are your family, the one built and not born into.
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