24 hours in Cambridge

During our trip to Boston, the hubby had some work to do in Cambridge. I went along, figuring I’d tour Harvard Square while he was busy. I was sort of apprehensive to do so, because I figured rich kids with neatly parted hair, Mid-Atlantic accents, and sweaters tied around their shoulders dominated the area, and they’d spot an outsider easily. I went to a state school, on a full-scholarship, and up until now I never realized that I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about it.

Plus, for reasons both varied and funny to me now, I’ve never seen Good Will Hunting. If I had seen it when the opportunity presented itself, I likely wouldn’t have met my husband. So now I kind of refuse to see it.

So in Cambridge, I felt a bit out of place. But after walking for a while, it wasn’t so bad. I did see rich kids with neatly parted hair, but also rich kids with dreadlocks. It all evens out.

While Rand met with important folks, I spent my time trying to talk like a Kennedy with varying levels of success (hint: aiming for Mayor Quimby is the best way to go). I also walked around campus …

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And, of course, there’s the famous statue of John Harvard, who was apparently not responsible for founding the school:

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The statue has slender little legs (a nod to his TB). Visitors tend to rub his foot for good luck, though apparently some spoiled douches who go there like to pee on the statue. Lovely:

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At this point, Rand managed to escape from his captors to come hang out with me! We toured Harvard Square together and walked up and down Brattle Street, which was particularly cute. Not unlike other college towns …

And since I hadn’t eaten in about 2 hours, I was obviously hungry again. We ended up at Sweet Cupcakes on Brattle. And while I am uber-picky about my cakes, theirs were awesome. Gourmet and highly adventurous, it’s definitely worth a visit.

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We ordered a Boston Cream Cupcake, which seemed fitting (I was pleased to find that Boston Cream Pies are actually from Boston. Unlike German chocolate cake, which isn’t German):

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We then stumbled upon a shop called Black Ink, also on Brattle, which may have been a bit too clever for its own good.

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The kids who work there stamp out witty little signs for all their products …

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I highly recommend stopping in if you are looking for a gift, or just want to experience some of that famous coastal elitism we hear so many bad things about from Fox News. Speaking of uber-conservatism, while we were in Cambridge, we also had the opportunity to visit the extreme-right-wing head of HubSpot, Dharmesh Shah!

Here he is with my husband, laughing about the plight of poor people:

Okay, fine. So Dharmesh isn’t an uber-right-wing Neocon. I just needed a good transition, because this post has taken me WAAAAAY too long to write (I know, I know – it certainly doesn’t seem like I spent a lot of time on it). He’s just plain awesome, and in a lot of ways, he reminds me of Rand: he’s engaging and clever and hopeful and so darn optimistic about the world and mankind. It makes you want to hug a bunny.

We visited Dharmesh at the Hubspot offices, which were brightly colored and fun in a way that only successful startups can be.

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And here I am thinking about something important, I’m sure …

Sadly, I have no photos of Dharmesh’s wife, Kirsten, but she’s hot. Like, super hot. And smart. I know, I know – it sounds like I made her up. And considering there’s no photo, that might be true. Perhaps her awesomeness transcends reality, and she exists only in my mind. Whoa.

Dharmesh took us to dinner at Oleana, a Turkish restaurant in Cambridge that offers a vegetarian tasting menu he wanted us to try. Now, keep in mind, before I tell you about this place, that I love meat. LOVE it. I carry salami in my purse. I’ve eaten chocolate with bacon in it (and vice versa). I’ve eaten tripe, ear, tongue, foot, kidney, liver, heart, and a variety of other things from a variety of animals. I respect vegetarians in the same way I respect people who get up at 6:30 in the morning to go jogging: I wish you all the best, but there’s no way in hell I’m doing that, because I might poop my pants.

That being said (and I can’t even believe I’m typing this, but it’s true): our dinner at Oleana was one of the best meals of my life. No, seriously. Top five at least. And I realize by telling you that, I’m setting you up for disappointment should you ever go there, but tough – I want to relive the memory in all its glory.

With the tasting menu, we each ended up with different courses (I’m pretty sure I told our waiter to tell the chef that we were a table full of hot, gamine women, in hopes we’d get even better food. LIKE THAT WAS EVEN POSSIBLE).

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There are more photos, but I’m tired (and I ran out of adjectives, like, four posts ago … AWESOME!). So let’s just get to dessert. Which was so delicious that I think Dharmesh may have tried to shut me up because he didn’t want me TALKING OVER the flavor of the food. I might be paranoid. But I think it happened, so it did.

And, as payment for trying to shut me up, here is a photo of “Cranky Dharmesh” which I found hysterical, because he’s really not cranky at all in person. Maybe he was hungry. HEY DHARMESH, MAYBE IF YOU ATE MEAT YOU WOULDN’T BE SO TEMPERAMENTAL. HA HA HA HA.

Seriously, he and Kirsten were great. I’m just really bad at saying thank you. They made Cambridge a place I want to go back to, and soon.

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