It’s crazy how hard it is for me to focus during the day, but how simple that same focus becomes after the rest of the world has gone to bed.

I had the opportunity to spend the evening hanging out with a “buddy I’ve known since high school”:http://www.whathefilm.com/Pages/cast.html (scroll down to Scott Morabito), enjoying a fairly inexpensive bottle of Shiraz (you know, the kind with the screw-top, but certainly not the stuff they used to serve at parties in the woods back in college) and some Italian food, watching a movie about a retarded fisherman in Minnesota and the people who try to fleece him out of his tournament winnings.

My housemate, however, said to J. that it’s not a real Boys’ Night Out without strippers and beer. So I guess it was more like a Boys’ Night In.

I walked back from his place into Harvard Square at a quarter of one in the morning; I’m not sure how to describe how much I love the peace and calm of the city after it’s settled down for the evening.

Cambridge and Boston still have the sense of being vibrant, but all the bustle and noise of the day fades away after midnight, leaving in its stead the buildings and the lights and the empty streets.

The faint halo of mist around the streetlights, the branches (just beginning to bloom) glistening with the dampness of earlier rain, the faint din of muffled voices in a thousand dorm rooms — still diligently studying for tomorrow’s test now that the distractions of day have ceased — all fill me with a sense of peace and contentment.

It’s crazy how hard it is for me to focus during the day & how simple that same focus becomes after the rest of the world has gone to bed.

When I share my life with others, it’s not so easy to be the night owl I used to be.

I felt so tempted to stroll through Harvard Yard last night before I caught a cab home. Every time I’m on the campus I’m reminded of how much I miss the atmosphere of learning and exploration that good colleges foster – and for that matter, just how much I missed the incredible strong connection to history – my history – that I feel in Cambridge and especially on that campus.