Entry tags:
- bakeries: butternut bakeshop,
- bakeries: nine winters,
- bibliophilic bliss,
- bookstores: beacon hill books and cafe,
- cafes: mr. crepe,
- cuisine: french: crepes,
- cuisine: korean,
- cuisine: new england,
- cuisine: seafood,
- cuisine: spanish: tapas,
- cuisine: turkish,
- farmers markets: union square somerville,
- food: desserts: sticky buns,
- friends: bc,
- ice cream: gracie's,
- ice cream: jp licks,
- ice cream: scoop and scootery,
- ice cream: the ice creamsmith,
- neighborhood: cantabrigiensis,
- neighborhood: slummaville,
- neighborhood: the arlington a-list,
- nostalgia: boston you're my home,
- parks: magnolia park,
- parties: jewmas,
- recipes: chocolate baklava,
- recipes: cookies: chocolate toffee,
- recipes: cookies: minty baby yoda,
- recipes: cookies: raspberry chocolate,
- recipes: meringues: passionfruit swirls,
- restaurants: alive and kicking,
- restaurants: oleana,
- restaurants: summer shack,
- travel: boston,
- urbanism: bike life
navigating nostalgia: hi honey, how's Boston?
It took a lot longer to return to Boston for another visit than planned.
When we last hugged everyone "until next time," it was a chilly, slushy late December week in 2019; we stayed with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bitty and arfur and baked up a storm, prepping for Jewmas on our last night in town. Made it to Burdicks and Harvard Books; managed to grab bellinis and tapas with Ingrid the night we flew in and the night before she flew out; admired ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
danamae's adorable and fast-growing kids; checked out the fancy new French joint with mrieser. Bemused the BC crowd walking into chez noghri and Cris with a bewildering amount of home-baked cookies (chocolate toffee classics, (passionfruit) meringue swirls, (fivespice) chocolate hazelnut baklava, (raspberry) chocolate chip cookies, and Baby Yodas based on BA's black-and-white-and-green cookies), safely maintaining my reputation of being ~juuust~ a bit extra. Hugged Bitty and Arthur goodbye Christmas morning as it began to snow, blithely declaring that of course we'd be back soon and could paint our hands on their closet then. Missed jpallan and crschmidt due to illness, but weren't too concerned; we'd catch them next time, right?
This time, after three years away - obviously not by choice - greedily drinking it in even as we know we didn't catch as many people and places as we would have liked;hyounpark's time even more truncated than mine due to conference scheduling. I borrowed an e-bike from crschmidt, having been forewarned that truly, the T was showing its age, and promptly put a good 40 mostly-Cambervillain miles on it, checking out a bunch of the other new bike infra that's opened up in the last few years (yay Inman, WTF Powderhouse), and kvetching and exulting briefly about it with Carice at Bicycle Belle. Despite the slow zones, I also got to ride the new Green Line train extension and the Mattapan trolley. I paid visits to two old book haunts (Harvard Book Store, where I still have one credit remaining, and Porter Square Books) and one new one (Beacon Hill Books and Cafe is my new bookstore crush, YOU MUST GO). I lucked into the patio at Oleana one night (deviled eggs, hummus, borek, and the quail kebabs, with the seasonal strawberry bici bici for dessert even though I know the baked Alaska is classic); had lobster sandwiches with Jane at Alive and Kicking after wandering Wellesley that morning; tried the latest incarnation of the lamb sandwich at Flour; and of course managed to squeeze in three scoops of ice cream (the Ice Creamsmith, JP Licks, Scoop and Scootery; it would've been four if Gracie's opened earlier on farmers' market day). And I got the gochujang sticky bun from Nine Winters, the brownie crown (a brownie embedded in a kouign amann) from Butternut Bakeshop, my chocolate macaroons from Cookie Time, the latter two on a quick ride up the Minuteman.
But even more restorative? The time I got to spend with my people. Tea withjpallan pressing books on us which I eventually biked to the post office to ship home; good talks with Ali and Star. bitty and arfur put us up again, this time with fancy new HVAC, and roaming the city by day and coming back home to them at night, those casual intimacies we used to take for granted when we lived across the park from each other; she posted a picture of us baking with Neffie, now taller than me, and after 3.5 years, "the universe feels better." noghri and Cris threw us a welcome back party Saturday, to which we brought many of the aforementioned fresh-baked cookies, and which garnered massive compliments for Neffie; we got to hug so many of our BC friends, and A even serenaded us with her violin. I claimed extra time with Steve for lunch one day, indulging in crepes and ice cream in Davis by the people statues and then meandering Camberville by foot as we have so many times over the decades. I even managed to sneak in a quick porch chat with danamae between meetings after tea with Jess because neighbors. My last night in town, one last round of lobster rolls for me and Steve and Cris (and a burger for Miss A), followed by joining Bitty and Arthur for gargantuan ice cream sundaes, and a commemorative picture of 2/3 of our Zoom crew in person now residing on my homescreen, our Friday evening weekly wind-downs keeping me sane throughout these pandemoniac years despite the distances involved. Promises to come back sooner rather than later made with more meaningful intent, 1200-plus days of connecting with each other solely online, the visceral awareness of how easily it can all be snatched away a thread lining every elongated embrace.
When we last hugged everyone "until next time," it was a chilly, slushy late December week in 2019; we stayed with
bitty and arfur and baked up a storm, prepping for Jewmas on our last night in town. Made it to Burdicks and Harvard Books; managed to grab bellinis and tapas with Ingrid the night we flew in and the night before she flew out; admired danamae's adorable and fast-growing kids; checked out the fancy new French joint with mrieser. Bemused the BC crowd walking into chez noghri and Cris with a bewildering amount of home-baked cookies (chocolate toffee classics, (passionfruit) meringue swirls, (fivespice) chocolate hazelnut baklava, (raspberry) chocolate chip cookies, and Baby Yodas based on BA's black-and-white-and-green cookies), safely maintaining my reputation of being ~juuust~ a bit extra. Hugged Bitty and Arthur goodbye Christmas morning as it began to snow, blithely declaring that of course we'd be back soon and could paint our hands on their closet then. Missed jpallan and crschmidt due to illness, but weren't too concerned; we'd catch them next time, right? This time, after three years away - obviously not by choice - greedily drinking it in even as we know we didn't catch as many people and places as we would have liked;
hyounpark's time even more truncated than mine due to conference scheduling. I borrowed an e-bike from crschmidt, having been forewarned that truly, the T was showing its age, and promptly put a good 40 mostly-Cambervillain miles on it, checking out a bunch of the other new bike infra that's opened up in the last few years (yay Inman, WTF Powderhouse), and kvetching and exulting briefly about it with Carice at Bicycle Belle. Despite the slow zones, I also got to ride the new Green Line train extension and the Mattapan trolley. I paid visits to two old book haunts (Harvard Book Store, where I still have one credit remaining, and Porter Square Books) and one new one (Beacon Hill Books and Cafe is my new bookstore crush, YOU MUST GO). I lucked into the patio at Oleana one night (deviled eggs, hummus, borek, and the quail kebabs, with the seasonal strawberry bici bici for dessert even though I know the baked Alaska is classic); had lobster sandwiches with Jane at Alive and Kicking after wandering Wellesley that morning; tried the latest incarnation of the lamb sandwich at Flour; and of course managed to squeeze in three scoops of ice cream (the Ice Creamsmith, JP Licks, Scoop and Scootery; it would've been four if Gracie's opened earlier on farmers' market day). And I got the gochujang sticky bun from Nine Winters, the brownie crown (a brownie embedded in a kouign amann) from Butternut Bakeshop, my chocolate macaroons from Cookie Time, the latter two on a quick ride up the Minuteman.But even more restorative? The time I got to spend with my people. Tea with
jpallan pressing books on us which I eventually biked to the post office to ship home; good talks with Ali and Star. bitty and arfur put us up again, this time with fancy new HVAC, and roaming the city by day and coming back home to them at night, those casual intimacies we used to take for granted when we lived across the park from each other; she posted a picture of us baking with Neffie, now taller than me, and after 3.5 years, "the universe feels better." noghri and Cris threw us a welcome back party Saturday, to which we brought many of the aforementioned fresh-baked cookies, and which garnered massive compliments for Neffie; we got to hug so many of our BC friends, and A even serenaded us with her violin. I claimed extra time with Steve for lunch one day, indulging in crepes and ice cream in Davis by the people statues and then meandering Camberville by foot as we have so many times over the decades. I even managed to sneak in a quick porch chat with danamae between meetings after tea with Jess because neighbors. My last night in town, one last round of lobster rolls for me and Steve and Cris (and a burger for Miss A), followed by joining Bitty and Arthur for gargantuan ice cream sundaes, and a commemorative picture of 2/3 of our Zoom crew in person now residing on my homescreen, our Friday evening weekly wind-downs keeping me sane throughout these pandemoniac years despite the distances involved. Promises to come back sooner rather than later made with more meaningful intent, 1200-plus days of connecting with each other solely online, the visceral awareness of how easily it can all be snatched away a thread lining every elongated embrace.
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