Happy Unbirthday, Aral

8/4/2002

Saturday night, I went out for my last night on the town. It was Aral's 31st unbirthday, so we decided to dress up. Sarah-from-Seattle was in a pair of plaid wool shorts she had made from an old men's suit, a button up short sleave dress shirt, tie, and pullover vest. Her hair was dyed punk rock dark red, short and curly beautiful. I was made bold by her outfit, and put on the new Wonder Woman tee I made from the cover of WW #175, a blue and green plaid skirt, with bobby socks and navy blue mary janes. I streaked my hair blue with gel and wore glitter over my eyes. Aral went with her customary sort black skirt ensemble, but in concession to the dressyness of the evening it was sheer and she had on a red bra underneath.

And we rode the T down to Hynes, and I ate for the last time at India Samraat, the place where I fell in love with Indian food. Aral had a huge beer, and there were 6 different kinds of nan, and we all had vegetarian dishes and swapped around the food. Sarah had a Mango Lahssi and we all ate and talked until late in the evening.

And then we stepped back out into the summer night.

The air was warm but breezy and it was so nice that we walked all the way home, down Commonwealth Avenue where the trees were full and green and the houses cost more than any of us could comprehend.

We walked through Kenmore Square and past B. U. and the Howard Johnson's that's now a dormitory.

Sarah admired the MLK statue at the BU Central stop that I used to use almost every day, and we walked past the suspension bridge and the theater and we were surrounded by hundreds of other people out in this most wonderful night, and I kept staring at the green line T as it passed us, lights on and beautiful (do people understand how beautiful street cars are? no, just me).

I kept looking at our feet, combat boots and mary janes and thrift store finds and out in this perfect night I was doing exactly what I had always wanted to do, dressing up in glitter and running through the warm night with friends and it was perfect. Perfect.

I said goodbye to Indian food and the B line. Boston at night, how have I loved thee, I cannot count the ways…