Category: Boston

Five hours of rain in 50-degree weather later, I’m done. Dinner at Terramia, dessert from Modern Pastry, late evening party with our friends. It doesn’t get any better.

Oh well. The day started out ok, weather-wise, but quickly started misting, then raining, then blowing. Our first stop was to be the Boston Tea Party ship; had we checked ahead, we would have learned that a fire in the ticket booth closed the ship down some time ago.

We were luckier at the Museum of Fine Arts. I had never seen much of the museum’s exhibits of furniture, musical instruments, or china; now that I’m going to be a homeowner the furniture, especially, is fascinating. And lunch was good at Vox Populi. Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather clears up for tomorrow.

A good day for museums here. I’m taking my parents around Boston—my dad’s never been up to see us since we got here. Should be fun.

Busy day in Boston. Had to pick up my cap and gown this morning, and this afternooon all kinds of stuff broke loose on the house front, from scheduling movers here and in the state where our other belongings are living to finding time for the secondary inspectors to come out and look at the property.

You know, when I imagined what I would be doing the week before graduation, I pictured a lot of sleeping on the sofa and general goofing off. Heh. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.

Since I was in Seattle last summer, I missed most of the festas here in the North End. Today, though, the parade for the Madonna di Anzano passed right under our window. Marching bands are good for many reasons; one of them is reminding you that it’s almost 2:30 and you haven’t left the apartment yet, despite the fact that it’s a beautiful day. See you later.
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Quiet day so far here in the North End. Lots of errands. I think that all the errands I used to do have expanded to fill the extra time I have now that classes are over.

But it’s been a productive day—returned some DVDs and the rental car we got yesterday to get Lisa to her endodontist appointment; emptied my locker at Sloan; and finally remembered to get my hair cut. Small victories as I check each item off in my organizer.

Sitting in the barber’s chair, I watched the workmen from NStar disappear beneath the road surface. “Quite a show you’ve got out there,” I said. The barber said that this was another gas leak—the second this year in more or less the same spot, right under our window. Later I passed one of the workmen holding a length of corroded pipe. “Normally they last longer than 40 years, but this one…” Heap of soft gray sub-street dirt, 200-year old fill and former river bottom, on the sidewalk beside him as the schoolkids walk by on the Freedom Trail en route to Paul Revere’s house.

…but no, my fun is just beginning. I’ve been faxing stuff to our mortgage consultant for over an hour now. It’s 8:30 at night and I still have to return our rental car to Logan tonight. I’m definitely getting a better picture of what I’m in for with this househunting stuff.

After a weekend spent in the cold rain of Bar Harbor, I’m back in Boston this morning relaxing and trying to get myself used to my new free time. It’s not really free; I have to do a fair amount of work to get ready for our house-hunting trip in Seattle this coming weekend. But I have no cases to read, no classes to attend, and no papers to write. I feel better already.

I was in Calais, Maine this weekend—and in St. Stephen in New Brunswick Province of Canada. They’re separated by a few hundred yards of river and a time zone. We stayed with Lisa’s childhood friend Kelley in a former hunting cabin that’s undergoing extensive reconstruction. It was a really good time… albeit a bit cold.

It’s amazing experiencing currency exchange shock so close to home (disclaimer—this was the first time I ever visited Canada). Our hosts told me that it’s pretty common to tell jokes about the exchange rate (sample: “The lottery is up to $35 million Canadian! That’s, what, about $300 US?”).

I was in Newport, Rhode Island over the weekend with a crowd from Sloan. There’s an annual gala there each spring for the b-school, and it was so well done it was almost possible to forget how much the tickets cost. I almost managed not to feel bad about not blogging or checking email. But it’s nice to be back in Boston and back on line.

Lisa is home from a business trip. We’re about to check out Mamma Maria, a restaurant that we’ve lived up the street from for a year now and have never been to. Tomorrow I’m going to see Midnight Oil and Garbage, among others, for free. That’s about it for me. Hopefully I’ll have more blogging soon.

Good morning! I had an interesting awakening, almost, this morning. The New England area had a 5.1 magnitude earthquake this morning. And of course, being me, I pretty much slept through it. I woke up and thought, “Oh that’s interesting. Lisa must be sleeping poorly,” and promptly went back to sleep.

Heaven help us if we ever slide into the sea one day. I’ll wake up and think, “Gee, the humidity is high tonight. Blub.” and promptly go back to sleep.

I’m starting to appreciate the Boston spring. It’s about sixty-something degrees, not a cloud in the sky. I’m sitting on the patio outside the Marriott, which is lit up with MIT’s wireless network, blogging and checking email and generally having fun. Unfortunately it’s a bit windy and my fingers are also freezing, so I might have to go inside after all, but it’s nice to get a bit of sunshine.

Starting from 42° F, climbing to 82°. This isn’t the April I know and love.

Having been a little flip yesterday about the Patriots Day holiday, I decided to do a little more research. Here’s what I found (courtesy this page): Patriots Day is a holiday in Massachusetts and Maine, celebrated on or around April 19. It commemorates the battles at Lexington and Concord that were the opening skirmishes in the war for independence. The holiday touches down in my neighborhood too: April 18 was the night that the light was set in Old North Church warning that the British were marching to Concord.

Given all the publicity over the Marathon over the last week or so, I’m disappointed that there wasn’t much in the way of reminders to those non-native New Englanders like myself what the holiday is really about.
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I have no idea why Massachusetts has a random holiday called Patriots Day (no, it’s not about the football team), unless it’s to let everyone attend the Boston Marathon.

I have even less idea why MIT gives us two days off for that holiday.

But I’m not really complaining. 🙂