Bizarre Novelties

Three items of moment for this Thursday (my second in Boston!):

1) In between killing a small forest while printing out relevant journal articles about chronic pain and acupuncture (not to mention this fascinatingly grisly number by the New Yorker...read it, I dare you), I had my first MGH/Martinos Center MRI!  Yes, it could be argued that it's mildly masochistic of me to voluntarily lie perfectly still within the bore of a giant magnet for several hours while idly imagining large, pointed, and heavy metallic missiles whizzing towards my helpless skull.  Safety training really drove home the magnetic aspect of MRI by unleashing scissors and fire extinguishers on a watermelon located within the field...pun intended.  Right, but on the other hand, I think it's a good idea for researchers to submit themselves to what they plan on submitting their subjects to, plus I made some pseudo-friends!  The researchers were really friendly and made a start at showing me the ropes.  Plusss, MRI studies pay well.  Just sayin'.

2) After work, I went on a pilgrimage to Whole Foods (...) to look for live potted herbs.  I struck out, although they did say they were getting them in this weekend.  Also they had nice Chinese lantern flowers and dried lavender.  Exciting stuff, but that's not the point.  What is the (hugely awkward) point is that I ran into an ex-realtor, Paul, who showed us about fifteen properties and who I ended up dissing when I got the place I'm currently staying at.  ...HI PAUL!!! was my reaction, after quite literally attempting to running away.  Fun times.  He recommended I look for plants down the road.  And it looks like I'll be on the hunt for alternative grocery stores, ones that aren't so expensive and populated by ghosts of properties past.

3) I got back to the apartment and for a minute or so thought the locks had been changed, but it turns out that someone had been in and out of the place and had locked the doors weirdly.  I am thinking it was probably the dishwasher repairman, because now my dishwasher works (YAY).  I'm not 100% sure about that, actually, given that it makes a noise somewhere between tsunami and trash compacter...but the dishes don't appear broken, and there's no water on the floor...and the burning smell is gone...what else could one ask for?