Day: October 21, 2016

Today found me up early and hard at work learning all sorts of new things about medicine, such as ……………………. well more about that later.

I told Patrice that I wanted to relax tonight and watch the baseball playoffs on TV to which she said “Yo Mama!”    Immediately my blood began to boil. My days at Dorsey High came back instantly.   At Dorsey, people went to the hospital after saying things like that.  You can say anything you want about any topic but don’t you ever say anything about anyone’s mama.  So needless to say I was very angry and said, “What are you saying about my loving mama?”.  To which she said, “No, not yo mama, Yo-Yo Ma!  Don’t you know who he is?”  “OOOOOhhhhh, yes, sure, of course, yes, oh yea, sure, yes, of course you mean Yo-Y0 Ma, The Chinese American cellist born in Paris, France October 7, 1955.  Graduated from the Julliard School of Music and Harvard University and has enjoyed a prolific career as both a soloist performing with orchestras around the world and a recording artist. He has recorded more than 90 albums and has received 18 Grammy Awards.  That Yo-Yo Ma?” (thank you Google for saving me).

Patrice bought tickets to see and hear Yo-Yo Ma perform with the Boston Symphony. How could I deny Patrice this pleasure when she has been such a great sport and indulged me with my quest to visit all 30 MLB baseball stadiums.  So it was off to the symphony for us.  Boston’s Symphony Hall is a beautiful structure that was built in 1900. The architecture and decor are magnificent.  The building is lovely but it would have been nice if the seats were a little more comfortable.  After the orchestra played a brief overture out came the main star to a tremendous ovation.  Mr. Ma (that just doesn’t sound right) performed Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, Opus 85 (I am sure you are all very familiar with that piece).  I enjoyed listening but it looked like the star was in incredible pain while playing.  Is it possible that he too wanted to be watching the baseball playoffs but his wife said no?

We are now back in the room talking about our day.  I did break one of my Cardinal Rules today and was duly punished.  I make it a rule to never eat a food that is typically the specialty of another type of restaurant.  For example, no steaks at a fish house, no fish at a steak house, pasta only at an Italian restaurant and of course curry only at an Indian restaurant.  Last night we had a wonderful meal at Neptune Oyster and we decided to return today because the Thursday special is Shrimp and Grits.  Our friends, Steve and Becky introduced us to that Southern delicacy in 2014 in Charleston, South Carolina.  That was on our trip from Washington D.C. to New Orleans and I had that wonderful concoction two more times during the week following my first experience.  I liked it so much and it has been so long since I got to enjoy that heavenly dish I decided to take a chance.  I won’t say tonight’s serving was bad but it just didn’t measure up to the Southern version.  I guess we just need to plan another trip south of the Mason Dixon line for some more S&G.

Enough about music and food, let’s talk about the conference, after all that is the reason we came to Boston.  So today I learned about ……………………………. oh well let’s talk about that tomorrow.