Whoa, that’s weird

So, there’s an Anusara Yoga Teacher Training I just applied to that’s going to be held in Cambridge, MA. I figured I’d apply to it because I know the area well; in fact, I might even be able to crash with people in the area, thereby making the overall experience much cheaper.

So I got the address for the place the event is going to be held and brought it up on Google Maps. Turns out it’s right next to the Porter Square station on the Red Line, which is convenient. I know many great places to eat not but a couple of stops away from there.

And then I started spelunking around.

I checked out the street view of [“the house we lived in”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=7+ericsson+st,+belmont,+ma&sll=35.928933,-78.934454&sspn=0.007706,0.013561&ie=UTF8&ll=42.376031,-71.154681&spn=0.00703,0.013561&z=17&layer=c&cbll=42.375355,-71.1547&panoid=ZGj6SAvZJSyJpd-riyAJSQ&cbp=1,40.75736174282299,,0,5]. I scrolled the street view, watching familiar places go by. I shivered.

I haven’t been back to good old St. Botolph’s Town since late 2000. There were many things I loved about the place–I could rattle off the list of things I would do if I were up there for a week, many involving food–but something about having this very visual remembrance presented to me was kind of unsettling. It was a little too much deja vu. I think it was disturbing, In part, because I feel so remote from the person I was 14 years ago when we left, or, for that matter, the person I was when I was last there almost 8 years ago. To see these things from where I am now feels a little like a pull back towards that person. Going to Tuscaloosa also feels like that.

Once place I would be amused to stop by, though, would be [“the place Anne and I got married”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cambridge+city+hall,+cambridge,+ma&sll=42.381681,-71.14921&sspn=0.056236,0.10849&layer=c&ie=UTF8&cbll=42.36669,-71.105863&panoid=N0MOZRHbakFdF_LhDjT0mg&cbp=1,11.230915647773884,,0,5&ll=42.367486,-71.105887&spn=0.007031,0.013561&z=17].

Oh, and, of course, [“Moody’s Falafel Palace”:http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Cambridge,+MA&geocode=&q=moody%27s+falafel+palace&f=l&ie=UTF8&ll=42.365964,-71.104417&spn=0.007031,0.013561&z=17&layer=c&cbll=42.365294,-71.10446&panoid=cHTFHTWzIJrEGBBh1fYk9A&cbp=1,331.1675847796579,,0,5]. Incomparable.

Published by

Michael Alan Dorman

Yogi, brigand, programmer, thief, musician, Republican, cook. I leave it to you figure out which ones are accurate.