Everyone Loves a Boston Girl

Why, oh why did Coolidge Corner decide that it needed yet another Mexican restaurant? And when I say restaurant, I mean cheap, take-out food Mexican. They closed down McDonald’s (more than fine with me) and are putting in a Qdoba. I’m sure Qdoba is quite delicious, but last time I checked, there were 5 Mexican take-out places I could walk to in less than 8 minutes.

Not only are there 2 Anna’s Taquerias within a 5 minute walk of eachother (one at the corner of Beacon and Summit and one on Harvard), but there is also a Boca Grande at one end of Coolidge Corner on Beacon St. and there is a Baja Betty’s a short walk away in Brookline Village. In addition to this, there’s a newly built Taqueria Mexico on Beacon St. right across from the Anna’s location. So, tell me again why we need a Qdoba. No really, tell me, because I do not understand.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a BIG fan of Mexican food, but a) enough with the chains; give us some real, traditional, sit down and be served Mexican food, and b) Mexican or Asian? I’m sick of having basically 2 cuisine choices living in Coolidge Corner. Anna’s is good, but I don’t think it’s “omg the best Mexican food ever.” And Boca Grande and Baja Betty’s are similar enough. I’ve never been to Taqueria Mexico for one main reason: my friend strongly warned me not to ever step foot inside the establishment. She said it’s small, dirty, and that they nuke their nachos in the microwave and use nasty cheese. She ate one chip and threw the plate in the trash. If you can’t make good nachos, then tell me, what kind of Mexican place are you?

Anyway, I’m still awaiting the day when Coolidge Corner opens casual dining restaurants that serve more than Mexican food or Asian food (besides the 2 token Indian restaurants). And if they really must open more Mexican restaurants, make them somewhere I can sit down and relax and get served authentic cuisine. I yearn for something like Oscar’s Piñata of Tewksbury…yum. Until then, Ole! Bring on the guacamole.

While debating whether to take a cab or walk home from my friend’s apartment in Brighton this evening, I determined how my mother would feel. I hate taking cabs and I love walking, but I’m well aware that a 5’3, 100 lb. girl walking 20 minutes down Beacon St. at 2:30 a.m. is probably a recipe for danger. And my mother would most certainly not approve. I think it sucks that I can’t feel safe going on a pleasant stroll home, and instead have to pay money for transportation and sitting in a car when I am perfectly capable of walking 20 minutes. But evil lurks all around; people are just waiting to kidnap me, steal my purse, and do other crazy things that most normal people wouldn’t think about doing. Sometimes the world just sucks, eh?

So, after my friend told me she would absolutely NOT let me walk home (even threatening to tell my mother), I called a cab and went outside to wait. Immediately upon stepping out of the lobby of the Brighton apt. I walked practically directly into the path of a rather large black cat hissing loudly at a fluffy and irate skunk. The skunk saw me and his tail automatically shot up in the air. I gasped, turned right back around, and ran back into the apt. lobby, slamming the door behind me. Somehow, pure luck maybe, the skunk did not seem to have sprayed. The cat grew bored and the skunk eventually ran into the bushes. I watched behind the glass doors.

Lesson of the night: Maybe muggers and rapists are the least of my worries when considering walking home at night. I should be more aware of the potential wildlife that lurks around the city’s suburbs. After all, Brighton sure isn’t Boston. Do you think you’d find any skunks walking around Faneuil Hall?

P.S. Has anyone else noticed the plethora of cats that seem to roam freely around Brighton? Kinda creepy…

“…it is not news that we live in a world
Where beauty is unexplainable
And suddenly ruined
And has its own routines. We are often far
from home in a dark town, and our griefs
Are difficult to translate into a language
Understood by others.
-Charlie Smith “The Meaning of Birds” from Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America.

One of the most joyful and also most painful things about being a writer is reading other writers who are able to say things a million times better than you ever think you will be able to. To me, there’s nothing better than reading something that makes you feel like the writer completely knows and understands you. But it can also be somewhat disheartening when I try to put my own thoughts into writing and don’t get the same effect these other writers do.

I fell in love with Julian Barnes about two years ago and I’m pretty sure he knows me better than I know myself. I had to do a class presentation on Flaubert’s Parrot and was miserable trying to figure the book out. And then all of the sudden, I got it; and I realized the man is a literary genius. And I continued to read everything he wrote and I loved it all. If he weren’t just 2 years younger than my dad, I might find him and try to marry him. His views on life and love are absolutely congruent with mine; and he molds them in ways I didn’t know were possible.

”The world divides into two categories: those who believe that the purpose, the function, the bass pedal and principal melody of life is love, and that everything else — everything else — is merely an etc.; and those, those unhappy many, who believe primarily in the etc. of life, for whom love, however agreeable, is but a passing flurry of youth, the pattering prelude to nappy-duty, but not something as solid, steadfast and reliable as, say, home decoration.”
-Julian Barnes Talking it Over.

Don DeLillo and Lorrie Moore are also fantastic at acting like they know me. And more than anything, I want to be able to write like they do. Someday. Someday. But for now, I will continue to read beautiful prose and make sense of the world around me.

“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only problem is that the lives they make sense of are other people’s lives, never your own.”
-Julian Barnes Flaubert’s Parrot.

Yes, it’s true…but with writers like Barnes, these other people’s lives have the power to help us to make sense of our own.

right.

Can someone please explain to me how the MBTA is so deep in debt?? Because as far as I’m concerned, I’m paying $59/month to sit on a nasty, dirty, overly crowded train with rude employees and less than dependable service. Sooo how can that be costing so much money for them?

And lucky us, now we can plan on having the T’s debt come out of our tax money. Yay! Thank goodness there’s at least one very bright woman working for the MBTA: “’It’s gotten to the point where the T can’t raise fares any higher without substantially losing customers,’ said Carrie Russell, staff attorney at the Conservation Law Center.” You think?? Because I was willing to pay much higher fairs. Genius.

Personally, I’d rather the MBTA try to pay of some of the debt on their own before installing misting systems at outdoor T stops. I have zero desire to have dirty T water anywhere near my body and prefer to shower in my own home and not while waiting for a ride to work. And if they’re in such horrible debt, why are they even considering such an option?? Ohhh Boston.

Did anyone else notice that the Awesome Ten Salon & Spa on Beacon St. in Brookline all of the sudden turned into Awesome Tan, Salon, & Spa? I drove by the other day, noticed the new attractive sign and then went, “huh?” How did the “e” turn into an “a”??? Or have I been wrong all along?

So, today I decided to stop in and see what was going on. “We get new owner,” the woman at the front desk told me before I even asked her a single question. “Oh yeah,” I said, “didn’t you used to be ‘Awesome Ten’??” She vigorously nodded her head up and down while saying, “No, no, no. We tan. T-A-N…T-A-N” A-ha, I was right. I looked around and realized the place looked a lot better than it used to. Really clean, bright, and modern. There’s even a big flat screen TV. “You like better??” she asked me. I told her I did.

She continued. “We get lots of regulations. So many rules. They check on us a lot.” I’m well aware…in case you didn’t know, there are a ridiculous amount of regulations salons must follow to stay open. And state investigators come out and check and are not afraid to fine or even shut salons down. I remember the time I looked Awesome Ten Salon & Spa up on the licensing database to see if it was safe to get a manicure at and I saw all of the state violations against them. But now that they are Awesome Tan, Salon, & Spa, they should have a clear name in the database. I sure hope that one letter makes all of the difference.