It’s midnight. Driving to work, I looked up into the sky to see the moon slowly being gobbled up into a full lunar eclipse, as police helicopters with their spotlights hovered ominously. Meanwhile, cars packed the streets, blasting their horns in triumph; strangers from neighboring cars giving each other high-fives in celebration. Even now, the experience remains surreal, watching Boston celebrate the Red Sox breaking an 86-year-old curse, taking the World Series Championship title after an astounding comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees and shutting out the St. Louis Cardinals on their own grounds. It’s a night of champagne and fireworks; a night of tear gas and police lines. But in the end, it’ll still be a night for Boston to smile. We got you, Babe. 😉

Portland, OR marks the third destination for this month of travel. Melody had barely recovered from her 2-day exam, when we took off early Wednesday morning to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Since Portland was more or less lacking in big tourist attractions, we were able to take things slowly. We spent our first day bumming around the neighborhood and local shopping mall, taking note of all the other lazy bums who weren’t at work on a weekday. With little knowledge of the area, we just hit some nearby places for lunch and dinner. On Thursday, we decided to bond with nature, starting with a meditative stroll through the Japanese Garden, followed by a photography spree amidst the award-winning roses in the Rose Test Garden, and finishing with a visit to the Classical Chinsese Garden. We had hoped to grab lunch at the upscale Pearl District, but distracted by frequent stops at the various kitchen and home furnishing stores along the way and with most of the restaurants closing between lunch and dinner, we ended up driving to good ol’ Chinatown for some chow. Unfortunately, Portland’s Chinatown turned out far differently from what we expected, populated mainly by Chinese-American imitation cuisine and seedy shops with names like “Hung Far Low” which prompted us to quickly depart the area. Along the drive back for dinner, we witnessed the politically-active atmosphere of this city as we passed by what looked like a protesting fish. Friday, we drove to the town of Newport to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Aside from the captivating view of the shark tank, however, the exhibits were pretty mediocre, with a sorry excuse for a new bat exhibit which featured tons of models, drawings, and videos, but only 4 live bats. A stop at the food court was equally disheartening, with sub-Progresso-quality chowder that left something to be desired. Unsatisfied, we drove into town afterwards to redeem ourselves with some real chowder and fresh, deep-fried seafood at the local favorite, Mo’s Original, before embarking on the drive home. With Emmeline and Eugene, our evening concluded with some outstanding Pacific Northwest cuisine at Wildwood with take-home treats from Papa Haydn for dessert. On our last day, I took the last opportunity to indulge in my first conveyor-belt sushi experience at the aptly-named Sushi Land before our red-eye flight back home. Overall, I found Portland to be easy on the eyes, but with the dirth of some authentic Chinese dining venues, it may prove to be a bit tough on the palate.

We spent a quiet weekend up in New Hampshire for the annual MD-PhD retreat at Waterville Valley this past weekend. Despite the rain and fog that engulfed us on the drive up, the weather improved by Saturday, providing us with some fresh air and a beautiful view of the fall foliage. This year, I was fortunate enough to enjoy Melody’s company, though she had to spend much of her time studying for her Step 3. Beside the usual: our miserable attempt at golf, the overpriced indoor tennis game, and the all-you-can-eat lobster mania that always left us uncomfortably full, we also decided to spare some time for the talks and poster session this year. History did not repeat itself, fortunately, and both the golf cart and I remained healthy after the trip. Meanwhile, with so many distractions from work, I’m gonna have to make the most of my time in lab in the next few days. Of course, now that the Sox have miraculously stayed alive to force a Game 5, I’m afraid productivity will be difficult to keep up.

I just got home last night and found this huge pile of mail overflowing from my mailbox. Apparently, the post office had not been delivering the mail due to some problem with our mailbox. I think I was suspicious enough to notice something was wrong, but too lazy to find out why until now. How many copies of the New England Journal of Medicine can you spot in this photograph? Today also marked the last day of work for my labmate Rajeev, who will soon be starting his cushy job at Novartis. There he will direct his countless minions to pursue great scientific endeavors while being pampered with a high salary and stock options, that poor guy. Btw, it’s amazing the kind of geeky factoids one learns from a mealtime conversation with a group of scientists. Over some yummy Indian food, I found out how asparagine was named (Was it that obvious?). And guess which political figure used to be an X-ray crystallographer? (Answer to follow…)

It was an action-packed weekend as Melody and I attempted to revisit her alma mater, attend her friend’s wedding, and provide me with a crash tour of the Windy City, all in a matter of less than 48 hours. Our adventure began Friday night, after our flight arrived at O’Hare. From the airport, we rented a rather ugly-looking Chevy Classic which looked totally old school, but to my surprise was a 2004 edition (LOL). After checking into our hotel in Evanston, we quickly headed out for a snack at Pete Miller’s Steakhouse with a parmesan-crusted New York strip for me and a lobster bisque for her, and finished off with a chocolate shake at Kafein. On Saturday morning, Melody gave me an extended tour of the Northwestern campus, followed by lunch at her beloved J.K.Sweets, a candy & ice-cream parlor which interestingly, was better known for the cheap bi bim bap sold in the back. Here, the plot thickens as we returned to our car and found that the car keys were missing! Over a frantic phone call to Hertz roadside assistance, I told them about the car which was registered in Texas, rented in Chicago, but now parked in Evanston, and then gave them my New York state license info, Boston mailing address, and Melody’s cell phone number from LA (my cell was locked inside). Fortunately, after some help from AAA to jimmy the car door, Melody was at least able to quickly change in the car and catch the exchange of vows at her friend’s wedding. Though we didn’t know anyone at the afternoon reception, we were nevertheless content with the delicious meal. After a bit of dancing, we met up with some of Melody’s college friends at their old hangout before crashing for the night at her friend Madhavi’s upscale apartment in downtown Chicago. Sunday was every bit as hectic as the day before, beginning with a contemporary-styled brunch at Orange serving up a Michael Jackson-themed pancake platter for her and a fat mushroom-asparagus omelette for me. We spent the afternoon touring the abstract metallic sculptures at Millenium Park, walking along the Lake Michigan harbor in Grant Park, playing with the beluga whales at the Shedd, and quickly scanning the Impressionist, armor, and photography collections at the Art Institute of Chicago. Perhaps we could’ve seen and done more if we had more time, but alas our busy lives awaited us back in Boston.