bear

What belongs on a Boston bucket list? Like, despite having lived here for nearly two decades, I have still never walked the Freedom Trail, even though living in Boston is what’s turned me into a walker, and a biker. But I’ve walked out to Castle Island, around Jamaica Pond, through the Middlesex Fells and the Blue Hills, down Comm Ave and up the Greenway, Mass Ave nearly end to end, through the Harvard campus more times than I can count (though I can still get lost at MIT), from downtown to Fenway Park on multiple game nights where I didn't feel like cramming myself into the sardine can known as the Green Line. I’ve navigated Somerville by specific Bathtub Marys, and greater Boston by specific Dunks. I've biked on Storrow Drive and out to Bedford on the Minuteman and pretty much most places in between; kayaked along the Charles, and swum in Walden Pond and the Mystic Lakes and the Res; ice skated on Frog Pond and under the lights of Kendall Square. And, well, fallen on my ass multiple times because black ice and long New England winters. Heh.

( a love letter to Boston because I'm a creature of nostalgia )

I've made my home in triple-decker Victorians, Federalist brick and brownstone, the top floor of a Queen Anne where H and I learned to dub birds "those CHIRP CHIRP MOTHERFUCKERS" because they would wake us up at 3 am in the summer, a duplex close enough to the Minuteman I could constantly watch our neighbors stream by on bikes, even on the couch of the Cambridgeport Commune for a couple of months. And now, after two decades in Boston, two dozen years in New England, and too many cubic yards of snow shoveled, our time here is drawing to a close; in August, we are moving to the Bay Area.



We'll still be (long) walking distance to the train; I'll still bike to local farmers' markets. I'll add more swimming to the mix; H will add more hills to his half-marathon training, but still be able to run on a bike path near our new place. I already have a spreadsheet entitled "Bay Area Farmers Markets and Independent Bookstores," and we have a plan to identify the best pizza places nearby so we can find our go-to as quickly as possible. We will miss all you locals dearly, but we will be back. Just not in, say, January. ;)

Bay Area friends, I'm sure I'll have questions for you about the practicalities of this new life we're trying out. For now, I'm looking forward to seeing more of you all starting in August!

And yep, we're driving across. 90 most of the way, then detouring a bit to avoid the worst heat of Nevada in summer the best we can. (Neither of us are Burning Man candidates, I'm afraid. :) ) Highlights we hope to hit: Cedar Point, the Dane County Farmers' Market, Yellowstone; other things TBD, hopefully many of them kitschy, delicious, and/or beautiful. Any recs from those of you who've done this before? We'll have most of two weeks to do this.

People, it is 87F outside right now. 87F. 87F!

I spent the weekend playing outside, first going on a ramble all over Camberville Saturday with hyounpark, picking up sandwiches at Hi-Rise, then picnicking and reading (Candide for me, in my quest to read the classics I haven't) in the sun at the park; Sunday, playing catch with noghri for almost an hour and a half and heading to dinner somewhat pinker from the sun than before.

Then dinner at John Harvard's with a vast and varied assortment of Amherstfolk, and the Sox game in the background, and Yankee fans may scoff about the validity of three games in April versus five games in August, and generally, I try to avoid bars with TVs and crowds when there's a game on, but hearing that first cheer, and then minutes later the second, more excited, and then by the hat trick half the bar is roaring, on their feet, and number four is just In. Freakin. Credible. Because three was already pretty unlikely, right? Add to that that all three games were pretty close, that in all three the Sox had to come from behind (where you don't dare to hope, you're just digging your heels in and praying it happens), Others may love pitchers' duels, shooting down the hopes of batters, but the sight of your batters smacking that ball, sending it sailing into the blue or streaming across the green into that hole between fielders, time after time after time, in your quirky little overpriced overstuffed history-laden home park? Makes my heart explode into confetti with the sheer hope and magic of spring.

Sure, there's fifteen more of those matchups remaining, and another 130 with other teams besides those. Sure, we were only playing .500 ball for the first half of April, if that. Sure, the Yankees weren't putting up their best against us this weekend (and I guess I could feel a little insulted or worried if I were minded to, but with the current weather I am IGNORING ALL STRIFE). But with taking two of three from Toronto, and sweeping the Yankees, the last week has been pret-ty fantastic.

Also, Orbitz Mint Mojito gum actually tastes more like lime than anything else.

Talk me out of buying a kiddie pool for the backyard. With a floating drink holder.

happy belated birthday, chrisg! (and at the rate i'm posting these days, might as well say happy early birthday, noghri!)

it's finally gotten warm enough again here that i'm not minding walking. it's downright gorgeous out tonight, and i'm half-debating walking to choir, except i dislike the construction zone of lower mass ave. maybe i'll compromise; walk down to central and take the 1 across the river instead, then walk to choir from hynes. i forgot to get my t-pass this month, so for the most part, i've been trying to walk places where normally i would've been trying to figure out some complex route to maximize the use of my t-pass and minimize the freezing of my ears and fingers.

i keep forgetting that yes, davis and central squares really are within normal walking distance once the temperature's reasonably above freezing. so i end up at someday cafe with my laptop and live the cliche my way - nestled into a cozy corner, laptop open to IRC, peoplewatching the hipsters with my accomplice the mint italian soda. i cut corners and realize that the harvard bookstore is a 15-minute walk from my front door when there's no ice to slip on. i stroll down to the new branch of petsi pies to meet up with nolrak and alissa as they meander up mass ave.

my choir friend polina and i rarely see each other outside of choir, despite living mere blocks away from each other. (this happens with elements and berkman, too, and should change!) but in the past week, i've run into her three separate times just walking down the street. i like this community feel.

i'm counting down to the farmers' markets opening again in the last week of may. i'm looking at weekends to host that first summer barbecue to sort-of celebrate my half birthday (june 4 i have a concert; june 11 i'll either be singing in fenway park or driving up the california coast; june 18 is a little too close to hyounpark's birthday and our anniversary. so i'm debating either moving it back to memorial day weekend or forward to the fourth of july.)

*

( baseball! )