galleryblog @ tufts

“What is cosmic energy and where does it come from?”

Maybe the MIT police department! My colleague and I ventured into Cambridge on Friday to visit the fabled MIT Equipment and Furniture Exchange. Since we temporarily had at our disposal a large, black vehicle (Rodeo Drive, anyone?) it was a good time to go. We hopped into the car and began what we thought would be a fun jaunt and turned out to be an odyssey. Before leaving, our co-worker gave us two things: iffy directions and the advice to “bring a gun.”

Harvard Square was packed with pedestrians behaving badly, and lots of construction. After nearly getting run over while trying to not run over some jaywalkers, we turned up Mass. Ave. and found ourselves in the MIT wasteland. I don’t know what they’re building over there, but there’s a lot of it and it’s confusing, and dirty. We couldn’t find the place we were looking for (Building WW15, if you’re interested) but we did find a lot of wrong turns! Finally, we, ahem, copped to it and pulled over at the MIT police station.

We were in the middle of receiving some directions from a very nice police officer when an even nicer one offered to take us there. He was in full getup: the boots, the pants, the motorcycle helmet, you name it, he wore it. While we were a little baffled at his kind gesture, we couldn’t resist the escort and quickly hopped back in the car. He sped off, (key word being sped) and got us around the corner, up Memorial Drive, and past the BU Bridge in record time. He then pulled into the parking lot, and gestured at one of the 45 million open spots. Thanks, officer!

As he sped away and all we were left with was the faint sound of Elton John on his radio, we turned and looked at the Equipment Exchange…with the big, black, CLOSED sign on the door. So much for planning and execution. Undeterred by such inconveniences, we again hopped in the car and headed to plan B: lunch!

We’re trying again today…I’ll keep you posted on our success.

Our friendly officer did not have this hat on. But he did have a very fast motorcycle.