Philip

Spent the weekend here for the Alabama Libertarian Party convention. I had no idea what to expect, but had heard nice things about Mobile. It is generally an attractive city, although I found Tillman’s Corner where the convention hotel was to be pretty bland strip-mall-land.

I was fortunate to hang out with some friends who’d discovered a very character-ful coffee house near the U of South AL named Satori. Then we went out on Saturday night to the Dead Blind Mule, a bar downtown where everyone seems to be pretty social and full of life. Hard to assess how welcoming it would have been if i hadn’t had friends who’d already been there, but both seemed like fun places.

I didn’t make it to any of the tourist destinations, but downtown appeared to be picturesque and pretty well-lit. It’s not exactly New Orleans, but it’s got enough of that sort of charm to be worth visiting.

I lived in Boston and the surrounding towns for 8 years. I loved it and really miss it. I moved for a short-term “internship” thing and never moved back because the cost of living was prohibitive. It’s expensive and certainly has its share of hassles like other Northeastern US cities, but it’s such an amazing place.

It’s hard to put into words why I miss it so—partially it’s just urban life in general, but there are also so many things specific to there that i’ll miss:

- Walking from Back Bay to the Common to Beacon Hill
- Riding the Red Line over the Longfellow Bridge
- Buying pizza for the people hanging out in Harvard Square
- My church in Central Square Cambridge
- Patriots Day and the wall-to-wall Marathon coverage even though I know and care nothing about that sport
- The mini-Speaker’s Corner outside of Park Street
- Preacherfest! (perhaps this requires more explanation)
- The Garage
- WERS
- WMBR
- Driving 65 or 70 through the tunnels of the Mass Pike
- The insanely irritating B and C Green Line trolleys, moderated by the invigoration of all the BU and BC kids.

Well, those are just a few of the things i miss. (sigh)

but the result meant Vanderbilt’s season ended all too soon. :(

Still, getting to sit in the bleachers was an absolute blast, and we started a few traditions of our own. I geuss new traditions befit a stadium that’s less than five years old at a school that’s been terrible at the sport until that time.

Black/Gold echoing off Memorial Gym’s external walls…. heckling the right-fielder…. joining in the calesthenics. It’s just too bad it had to end so soon.

Good luck to Michigan in the super regional.

The only soccer match I’ve been to in Europe was visiting here for a UEFA Cup tie in 1992. Fernando Hierro scored like three goals or something for el Madrid. I admit, I had to look up the result to recall if Torpedo scored 2 or 3.

I still claim RMCF as my favorite European club even though their status as the club with all the resources and prestige means they’re exactly the kind of sports team I generally can’t stand.

I miss Spain. :(

I studied in Madrid at the Complu for four months in 1992. While there are a few things that bugged about Spanish society (primarily, their sense of superiority over everything Latin American, since Latin America is also very dear to me), I very much loved the people - their zest for life, I dunno, just their way of being - and very much long to go back.

Heh…. i had to add it so i could give up on going. Sorry i missed my chance. :(