"Down by the river, Down by the banks of the River Charles"*

Newbury and Berkeley streets

From 1996 until 2012, I lived in Boston, Massachusetts, and I still have a lot of friends who live and work in town and its neighborhoods. So today's news of the explosions at the Boston Marathon was very personal to me. This morning, my Facebook newsfeed was full of friends and friends of friends running in the marathon or just going to watch the running of the marathon. (When my alarm went off this morning, I thought to myself that this is the first time in a dozen years that I had to work on Marathon Monday. Blerg.) Marathon Monday is a day for barbeques, beers, and cheering on crazy people who run 26.2 miles like they are there to help Paul Revere spread the word about the Redcoats coming. They run for causes and for themselves, and it is a happy, springtime thing that unites the people of Greater Boston.

Shortly before 3pm, I was in a meeting with someone about something rather routine when we were interrupted by a colleague who walked in to tell us that two explosions had just happened at the race. My response was: "Are you sure it wasn't a manhole cover?" because that happens, not infrequently, in Boston. But when he said that wasn't what CNN was reporting, I walked out of the meeting as quickly as I could without drawing attention to myself to get on a computer and find out what happened.

For a while, it was 9/11 all over again - the desperate search for information, the need to know what had happened - except this time, I had people I cared about personally who could have been hurt. Thank goodness for cell phones and Facebook. By 4:15pm, the last of my friends who were at the race checked in, no one was injured, and the nauseous feeling in my stomach started to settle down.

Of course, I am in no way calm about this, and part of me wishes I could be there to help, doing what, I don't know, but being there for my old city. It is saddening and frightening. And it makes me mad too. What do those runners ever do to anyone? They were celebrating the accomplishment of a difficult test of physical and mental endurance; they didn't deserve this and neither did the people there to cheer them on. All I can do is pray and hope. I pray for the police (especially PH, thinking of him), who put their lives on the line all the time to protect Bostonians; hopefully they can stop any further destruction and arrest the people responsible. And I also pray for all the medical personnel at the hospitals who are treating the people hurt in the explosions; they are among the very best in this country and I hope they can save the rest of the badly injured. I pray for the people of Boston, that they don't let this stop them from being "wicked awesome". (I don't think it will. Bostonians have been fighting back against their oppressors for nearly 240 years. They know how to handle this kind of stuff. Just ask those Redcoats...)

Oh, Boston, you're still my home and hopefully always will be.


*lyrics from Dirty Water by the Standells

Have a Happy Hipster Christmas

CB2 is Crate & Barrel's modern furniture and decor line for the hip, urban, apartment-living kind of person I never really was even when I was urban and apartment-living. (I am much more an eclectic traditionalist.) I think that I ended up on their mailing list by accident. (I do love regular Crate & Barrel.)
Flipping casually through the latest CB2 catalog the other day (it usually goes straight into recycling,) I had to pause and laugh when I saw these guys. These are supposedly "Modern Worker" Christmas ornaments. To me, they are people from my old neighborhood in Allston. The only character missing is the band member with his guitar case.

"Turn and face the strain"*

The first Friday of this month was my last day in my office of the past 11.5 years, and I moved out of my home of 12.5 years a week later. It was a pretty emotional time, truth be told, and I wasn't sleeping well and coudn't really eat that much either. I thought it would be easier to leave as I wasn't very happy, but there were still a lot of goodbye tears shed that last week. Fortunately, I was able to leave on a fairly "up" note at work. And even though those last two weeks had a frantic feeling to them, I was happy that I had "ripped the Band Aid off" and wasn't drawing things out over an extended period of time. I had really great movers who packed me up and moved me out, leaving me to do a final broom sweep before leaving "home" for the last time. There was something eerie about how empty the place was. The only other time it had ever been that empty was the day that I moved in. (I made sure that I left the unit a lot cleaner than I found it that first day!)

I took this final photo and said goodbye to my condo, thanking it for all the fun times I had there and wishing it luck with its new owners, and walked out the door. Now I am on vacation and trying to find some "inner bliss" before starting the next chapter in my life. So far, so good: I have started sleeping better, eating healthier, and even getting some much needed exercise! (I have also gotten back my ability to stay focused on one thing a time, gotten two books read, and started taking photographs again.)


* lyrics from "Changes" by David Bowie

"Vivir con miedo es como vivir en medias." ("A life lived in fear is a life half lived.")*

So there has been a bit of radio silence on this blog for the last few weeks. That's because my life has been a bit more hectic than normal... because I am selling my condo and leaving the Boston area. This means leaving my job of 11.5 years and my home of the last 12.5 years to move on to the great unknown...of Connecticut. (Yes, I am moving closer to my family, but I am also moving to a smaller community where I can afford a house with a little yard and the potential for growing a fabulous garden. Oh my God, how I would LOVE to have a garden. And a front porch. I'm thinking of a little Cape or 1920s bungalow. Pintrest has been a deadly time suck full of decorating ideas.)

I have been in a serious (and overly comfortable) rut for the last few years, and, as Je Glide recently told me, sometimes you need your life to be flipped on its head in order for things to fall into place. (Yoga has made her very Zen. I am SO taking up yoga.) So a week from tomorrow is my last day at work; a week from that, I sell my condo and move my stuff into storage.  Then I head out on a vacation/break before solidifying my next step. It is a long overdue/much needed break before starting out fresh. (Charleston, here I come!!)

I am sad about leaving Boston, especially about leaving my friends behind. (Who are probably going to forget me/have loads of fun without me... ::sobsob::)  However, I am trying to be more focused on being excited about starting something new. (It isn't like my friends aren't a phone call/text message/email away or that Boston isn't that far a drive away - and the road goes both ways!) I am trying to think of this as my life expanding rather than part of life ending. As new and scary and unknown as the future is, I am moving towards what I know is the right decision for me. (I hope!)


*from Strictly Ballroom

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

On Friday, I went to my first Red Sox game at Fenway Park in 12 years. (As RECK pointed out several times during the course of the evening, I need to get out more.) I knew that there is more going on than just the game when you see it live. I had no idea just how much more was going on at the ball park. For example, they don't just walk around selling hot dogs and Cracker Jack, but beers and CLAM CHOWDAH in the stands!?! Who knew? Clearly not this girl.

There was so much going on around me that I had to remind myself to pay attention to the game. When a pop up fly cracked on the pavement 2 feet away from me, RECK looked right at me and said, "See why you need to be watching the game?" I was practically in her lap, trying to avoid getting clocked in the head! We laughed; we cheered; we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Sweet Caroline". When "Shipping Up to Boston" started to play, signifying that Papelbon was coming out to close the game, RECK started jumping up and down in super fandom mode, and we were featured on the Jumbotron!

Thanks to JeGlide we had A-MAZING seats (you can tell how close we were from the photo - no zoom involved), and I had THE BEST time at the game. Definitely will be going to more games at Fenway in the future, although I cannot guarantee that I won't still curse the commute traffic as I head home from work on home game days.

Remembering 9/11

Normally, I try not to dwell on things like this because I can get mired down thinking about them, but I wanted to jot down a couple of things as we mark this ten year anniversary of 9/11.

September 11, 2001 was a beautiful, sunny Tuesday, early in the fall semester, and I was busy getting ready for my first meeting event of the year, which was scheduled for later that week. I was the first one in the office, getting in around 8:30am.  I had been drinking coffee and checking email while messaging with JR when she said a colleague of hers just told her someone had flown a plane into the World Trade Center in New York.

Immediately, I opened up to Boston.com to see what was going on, and they had a headline with breaking news, but nothing else. That day was perhaps my frustrated day ever with the internet. No amount of "refreshing" would give me any more information. The same was true of CNN.com and the other news sites. And then the second plane hit the South Tower. It was evident that this wasn't someone flying their Cessna into the building (which I recalled had happened a couple years prior).  This was some BIG.TIME.WRONG.

By the time PunkRockMom got into the office around 9:15am, my frustration about the lack of information had reached a pinnacle.  We tried out the office radio, but couldn't pick up an AM/news channel. Just before 10am, she and I decided to go down to the lobby where there was a television to see what was on the news (the days before streaming on-line news.) We got there just in time to see the first tower fall.

After that, the day becomes a blur, trying to process what was happening in our country, including the crash into the Pentagon and in PA, while dealing with how the events of that morning impacted my job (all the back and forth communication resulted in the cancellation of the event, even before the planes were grounded.)  I vaguely remember going home after work and turning on the news and leaving the TV on for the rest of the night. There was so much to absorb, and there was an unreality to it all. The fact that the first plane had flown out of Boston was particularly disturbing.

The biggest thing I remember affecting me after 9/11 was the planes. We were used to hearing planes and helicopters from our spot here along the Charles, sort of ambient noise from the world, but the silence of the following week was eerie. When the military jets would fly by from Hanscom Air Force base, I would immediately tense up. Even after commercial flights were allowed back into US airspace, I would look up every time I heard a plane, just to make sure it wasn't aimed at a building. It took a good year or so before I stopped looking up. I didn't have to fly anywhere for the next six months, and, when I finally did fly out of Logan, I nearly broke down in tears at the check-in desk. I still go to the airport with a bit of trepidation, but I won't let it stop my from flying (especially to LHR).

9/11 is certainly a watershed in my life, in terms of the way that I think about the world, but it isn't the only watershed.  There are others; some more personal and some less. What I hope that what we take out of that day in September ten years ago is something positive rather than negative: a love of country, freedom, and each other, because what we were reminded of that day is that we are all in this together.

Peace of mind is:

• Having outstanding questions answered, even if the answer wasn't the one you were hoping for

• All the dinner pots and dishes cleaned up and put away before going to bed

• Listening to the pattering of rain on the air conditioner as you are falling asleep

"You were under the impression that when you were walking forward you'd end up further onward, but things ain't quite that simple."*

I was just reading over at Britscene about plans for The Who (Townsend and Daltrey) to tour with Quadrophenia next year. Coincidentally, I was telling some friends last night about how I went to see The Who on their Quadrophenia tour in Worcester, MA back in 1996, shortly after I had moved to Boston. (At this point in time I had started to be involved with the Mod/ska music scene in Allston, culminating in my near weekly attendance at "Mod Night" at the Common Ground, despite the fact it was mid week and I had to work the next day.)

This was the second leg of the North American tour. Then governor William Weld was sitting three rows in front of us. I couldn't believe I was actually seeing The Who - well 3/4s of The Who anyhow - play live, as well as getting the added bonus of seeing Billy Idol play "Ace Face" (dressed as the consummate Mod). (Gary Glitter was the Godfather, but I wasn't impressed at the time, and now I am completely unimpressed by him.)

I was on the edge of my seat all night even though I didn't really know the music all that well at that point (my friend Jim is a huge huge Who fan and was filling me in). That didn't really matter because the show ROCKED! It was definitely one of the coolest concert moments of my life, and I am so glad that I went. I kind of wish now that I had bought a program or a tee shirt, but at that point, in my first job right out of college, I was lucky that I could afford the concert ticket!

Seeing The Who play live is one of those things I am so glad is on my life list, although it certainly wasn't planned that way. It might be cool to see them again with Quadrophenia (now that I know the music and before poor Pete Townsend loses any more of his hearing.) Maybe in London!?! (It is funny how easily music brings me back to that point in my life. So much has changed since then.)

Here is a clip of the finale "Love Reign O'er Me" from the start of that 1996 tour playing in Hyde Park (Roger is wearing an eye patch because Glitter had clocked him in the eye with a microphone). This is rock and roll at its best.




* Lyrics from "I've Had Enough" by The Who

"Miss Post" Recently Said that I am the Gothiest Prep She's Ever Met

On Saturday morning, which just so happened to be the first time in a week that Bostonians had seen the sun, JR and I met up with a few of her friends and visited the Boston Athenaeum to see Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey. It was a fantastic exhibit of Gorey's work, including: illustrations from his books, set and costume designs from theater productions, and a series of watercoloured envelopes from letters he had sent to his mother that looked like something out of Monty Python. I have loved Edward Gorey's artwork since Mrs. Fay, our elementary school librarian, introduced my class to The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide, illustrated by Edward Gorey. The story was funny, but the drawings were what I'd remember most.

Over the years, I have collected a lot of Gorey's books, and I have collected or been given a quite a bit of Gorey memorabilia over the years: calendars, magnets, and even a Dracula toy theater (thanks, PunkRockMom!). I even have a signed copy of one of his books that I bought in Chatham the summer after he died. It wasn't until seeing this exhibit, however, that I realized how much the images reproduced in some of the books (the Amphigoreys in particular) are lacking in quality in comparison to the originals. They are so delicate and meticulous; it was like looking at some images I have known forever for the very first time. This was a wonderful way to spend a morning.

JR and I then took a walk through the Common, and after we went our separate ways, I walked over to the King's Chapel Burying Ground. I had never actually been IN that particular cemetery, and, as it is the oldest one in Boston, with graves dating back to the mid-17th century, I wanted to check it out. It didn't disappoint; there were some really interesting and unique stones, some of which have held up remarkably well despite the New England weather.





Cool Anglo historical thing I learned while I was there: King's Chapel was built in 1688 on land next to the already established burial ground because the Puritan city fathers didn't want to sell the Anglicans any land to build a church. During the War of American Independence, the Chapel was called the "Stone Chapel".

It was a great day for walking around in town. Sometimes I forget how much fun it is to live in Boston! (Although, if I had lived during the 17th century, the Puritans would SO have kicked me out of Boston. Probably would have ended up in Connecticut!)

Spring is Here!!!

This has been a beautiful spring week here in Boston, and one of the places where that is most visible is the Boston Public Garden. Walking around the park this weekend prompted some unexpected photography. (I just couldn't pass up capturing some of the vibrant spring colors.)

"Curiouser and curiouser"*

On Sunday, RJ and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the new Dale Chihuly exhibit, entitled Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass. I have been a fan of Chihuly's work since the 1990s when I saw an exhibit of his sea forms, but this was RJ's first exposure to his work. The intense colors of the glass is the big draw for me, but I also love the fluidity in his studio's work. As RJ noted, some of it really looks like it could be alive... and slithering.

The exhibit is a collection of really different kinds of pieces (baskets, mille fiore, chandeliers, sea forms) from the last 30+ years. I loved the flow of the exhibit; the MFA did a great job putting it together. And I was so pleased for the museum because there was a really great turnout for this on a sunny-ish Sunday afternoon with the Sox playing at home.

Now, normally, I would not have taken photos of an exhibit at a museum, but there were TONS of people with cameras openly taking pictures, so I threw my cares to the wind and started snapping away. (No, I didn't - I took these photos very surreptitiously because I thought I was going to get snagged by a vigilant docent.)



Gorgeous, don't you think? (And you don't have to pay extra to see it; it is part of the general admission!)

We also made our inaugural visit to the new Art of the Americas wing of the museum. We both loved it. In particular, I loved the room full of paintings of the early American presidents, but there is also a Winslow Homer room and a room full of Hudson River school painters. While plenty of old favorites were back up on the wall, like Childe Hassam's Boston Common at Twilight, there were a lot of new things to see, despite my frequent visits over the last 15 years. I definitely will be going back soon to spend more time there.


*quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The Good Earth

A recent episode of "CBS Sunday Morning" featured a piece on terrariums. They looked really cool, and I thought to myself, "I can do that."

And so I did...



The plants are from Winston's Flowers on Route 9 in Chestnut Hill (a little more expensive, but the plants looked really healthy and I was spoiled for choice). The fishbowl, gravel, and charcoal came from PetSmart. (I had the other two containers already; one of them is a trifle bowl I never use.)

I got my directions from an article in Yankee Magazine (written by the woman featured on "CBS Sunday Morning"), but I modified them by using bright light loving succulents instead of shade loving dwarf plants. (My living room gets a lot of sunlight.) In my experience, a cool thing about putting succulents in a glass container is that you can easily monitor the moisture level of the soil, making over-watering less likely.

ETA: If you are going to do this, DON'T put river stones in your succulent terrarium. They prevented the soil from drying out (which the plants like), and the succulents started to rot! I had to pull all of the stones out and pulled out a bunch of dying pieces along with them. Hopefully I did this soon enough to stop anything else from dying, but talk about learning a lesson the hard way. Yeesh!

"All I wanna do is to thank you even though I don't know who you are You let me change lanes while I was driving in my car"*

Driving to work this morning after last night's snow storm, I briefly got stuck in a snow bank at the end of the alley leading out from the lot where I park. I put the car in reverse a couple times and then would try to move forward with no success. Then I remembered the tried and true rule that I learned in high school- when driving up a hill in snow, put the car in 1st and constantly accelerate- which did the trick. Soon I was on the road with the rest of the people driving to work.

I learned how to drive in a 1980-something Buick Electra Estate station wagon (very similar to the one pictured here.) My friends in high school referred to this car as "the boat". This moniker was accurate; the car was huge. We could fit two parents, four kids, luggage for six, and a collie pretty comfortably in it on family trips.

The great thing about the car, in retrospect, was that I learned how to drive in a car that was bigger than any car my friends had or I had subsequently. My dad made sure I could parallel park that car in downtown traffic and do a three-point (K) turn in it too. I drove it on the highway and in snow and ice. Having learned on that car, really made doing any of that stuff in a smaller car a piece of cake. One time in high school, a friend's little Honda Civic was blocked in on three sides in the student parking lot, and she asked me if there was anyway to get it out. With a little manipulation, I was able to extract it for her; it was easy for me because I was used to dealing with a monster car.

Driving in a big city like Boston has its challenges (traffic, construction, one-way streets), especially in bad weather, but the skills my dad taught me in that tank masquerading as a station wagon have held up over the years, and I am glad that I learned them when I did. (Doesn't make driving in the snow any less stressful, but certainly can help in bad moments.)

*lyrics from "Whoever You Are" by Geggy Tah

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful"*

Walking over the Mass Ave bridge this morning was something akin to Rhett Butler walking into foggy nothing at the end of Gone with the Wind.


(It's like the Nothing from The Neverending Story ate MIT.)
I looked a gift horse in the mouth this morning and have been regretting it ever since. I took the T into work because of the snow storm, and, after being in an overheated B line train for longer than I could handle, I made the decision that I would walk from Hynes to work. As I was leaving the station, having "refilled" my Charlie Card, I found in front of me a nearly empty #1 bus, just sitting at the corner of Mass Ave. and Newbury St. Instead of getting on it, I popped my headphones in my ears and trudged over the Mass Ave bridge to Cambridge.

Walking through the city during a snowstorm is one thing. When you are crossing an open bridge with nothing to block the wind, that is a whole other kettle of fish. Snow pelted me in the face, and my glasses completely fogged up. By the time I got to work, my exposed hair was soaked and frozen; it took me two and a half hours before I warmed up properly again.

I have learned my lesson. Tonight, I am taking the bus back into Boston.

*I wish that I had a delightful fire right about now.

Snowpocalypse 2011

Sometimes there is nothing more beautiful than a sunny day after a snow storm. I took this photo yesterday morning shortly after I woke up.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

The weather looked like this outside today. (We definitely got over a foot here in Allston.)


Due to the storm, work was canceled. So my day looked liked this.

Rrrribbitt! Rrrribbitt!

The Boston Common Frog Pond opens for the season on Sunday November 21 at 5:30pm. I can't believe it is time to lace up the skates again!

People were working today to get the ice ready for tomorrow's opening ceremony.

Momento Mori

Most of my day today was spent downtown, which is something I don't do often enough. I live in Boston; I should take more advantage of going downtown (especially when you can park in the Common Garage all day for $11 on the weekend, as I learned today.) This morning I met my friend "Miss Post" at the movie theater at the Boston Common; we saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. It was no surprise after having a complete meltdown on several occasions while reading the book that this was a four hankie (well, Kleenex, in my case) film for me. After the film, we had some lunch and rehashed the film (and possibly cried some more, but I am not telling.) Then we split up as Miss Post went off to run errands, and I went to the Granary Burial Ground on Tremont Street.


The Granary Burying Ground is the third oldest cemetery in Boston, and it is the burial place of a lot of notable Revolutionary War figures. The men killed in the Boston Massacre are buried there, as are Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams. A lot of prominent colonial Bostonians are there too: the first mayor and the first governor as well as Peter Faneuil (of Faneuil Hall fame) and Benjamin Franklin's family (although that great man is buried in Philadelphia.) To walk through the graveyard is to walk through history.


I have been by this old cemetery many times, but this was the first time that I actually walked into it, poking around to look at the 17th and 18th century gravestones. Some of them are in marvelously good condition while others showed the wear and tear of exposure to centuries of New England weather. Sometimes I feel really self-conscious taking photos in Boston, but today I felt quite at home among the tourists as I took out my little camera and tried to capture the quiet beauty of the place on this sunny (but chilly) day at the end of autumn.


I know a lot of people don't like graveyards, but I find them beautiful. They are such restful places, as well as interesting. I find myself looking at the stones wondering who these people were and imagining what their lives were like. I wonder what people will think when they, years from now, look at mine.

Proudly Embracing the Nineteenth Amendment

First a "shout out" to all of the people working at my polling location: Jackson-Mann School in Allston. Your efforts at making the process easy were greatly appreciated!!

Next, on my way driving back to work after voting on my lunch break, I heard a DJ say "Happy Election Day, if you are into that sort of thing...", and that made me go "huh?". Really? "If you are into that sort of thing"? The bigger question is "why wouldn't you be into that sort of thing?"

Of course people get disillusioned with the government, especially in hard times, and the negative campaign ads haven't helped either. (I think that they are the worst things around.) However, it is important to remember that, for the last 235 years, Americans have made sacrifices, sometimes with their very lives, to allow American citizens to have the freedom to vote for our leaders. Less than 100 years ago, women didn't have that right; even 50 years ago, people of color didn't have that right (not across the country).

So, yes, I think that everyone in America should be "into that sort of thing". Even if you don't like any of the candidates, that shouldn't stop you from voting; you can write in someone. This is our one opportunity every year to actively participate in the running of our national, our state and our local governments. I urge people to take advantage of the opportunity and remember that this is both a responsibility and privilege of being a citizen of the U.S.A.

"Living in Allston, Mass; Broken Dreams Strewn Among the Broken Glass"*

As an Allstonian for the last ten+ years, I like to read the blog, Allston City Limits, to keep up to speed on what is going on in the 'hood. (It is MUCH better than reading the police blotter.) ANYHOW, a recent post joked that Ben Affleck's next movie set in Boston would be called Allston. I passed the story on to a few of my fellow Allstonians for a bit of a laugh, and my friend AD (who recently decamped to the 'burbs) wrote back asking if the plot of the "film" would be people driving around for two hours looking for a parking space. I am still laughing at that one.

In all seriousness, this actually wouldn't be a half bad idea. There could be three sets of people in three cars: preppy college students going "out on the town" (ie. Brighton Ave.), some hipsters with their band gear on their way to a gig, and some young yuppy types carpooling home from a networking event. As they drive around, they could be having conversations about life, work, music, etc. (As you do, when you have to drive around for an hour looking for a parking spot.) We would naturally need to get a rockin' soundtrack to tie the whole thing together. I am thinking a cross between Garden State and Reality Bites.

While driving around and around Allston, the characters can encounter people riding bikes the wrong way down a one way street (dressed in black with no light), people jaywalking in the road, delivery trucks illegally double parked, and, of course, the Green Line trains. The climax of the movie would be all three cars having a stand-off for one empty parking space. Who will get the spot?!? Oh, the humanity!!

So Ben Affleck, what do you think? Have we got a story here? I am thinking that this would be perfect on the independent film circuit.



* lyrics from "Allston, MA" by the Allstonians; graphic from Allston Village Main Streets