![]() ![]() Apparently these are mostly or entirely students blowing off steam, and apparently the campus cops patrol regularly. Every night there are loud screams in the streets outside, on and off from about midnight through about 2 am. I've remembered, staying with Fran and Ed near Northeastern U, what I don't like about living in cities: the noise. ![]() Good food, good conversation, good movie. Had a fun but brief chat with them, then drove back (which took twice as long, due to alternate route to avoid rush hour) and hopped on the T to meet Mark for dinner (at the Kendall Square Cafe) and a movie (at the Kendall Square Cinema). Thursday I T'd back to Somerville to pick up my car, then drove to Reading to see Steph & Harlan. In the evening we watched a couple of movies, the first I'd seen in over two weeks. Wednesday I hung around Fran & Ed's place and finally sent in my SWAPA 'zine. Tuesday was another very enjoyable lunch with Beth and Mark (this time at Calla Lily near Harvard Square), followed by poker in the evening. I guess that means I'm too goal-oriented. Despite Le Guin's comments about the journey itself being valuable, I'm afraid I still find destinations more interesting than traveling to them. People I've talked to at various points have said I'm lucky to have the opportunity and leisure to do this trip while that's certainly true, I think I'm more lucky to have such great friends to visit that the trip is worth making. When friends request my company, invite me to stay with them, feed me and welcome me into their homes, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I feel very lucky to be so welcomed in my travels. But when I finally did arrive, we had one of Fran's good home-cooked meals, and talked about the usual sorts of things. Which meant instead of 45 minutes, it took about an hour and a quarter for me to get to F&E's, so (after the delays recounted above) despite having told them I would try to be there by 3, I didn't arrive 'til 7:45. I decided not to take my car the difficulty of carrying several medium-sized bags on foot won out over the horror of trying to navigate Boston city streets on my own in a car. So I packed up a subset of my stuff, feeling like a refugee from a George Carlin routine. Monday midafternoon I intended to go to Fran & Ed's to stay with them for a week, only of course I needed to do laundry before I could go, and that took all afternoon (counting waiting for the machines to be free), and then there was packing to be done, and the season premiere of Babylon 5 to be watched, and Michael to chat with (he having returned from a weekend trip out of town). ![]() Started a new journal, which I'd bought a couple weeks back, as I mentioned at the time. Monday I finally filled up my first travel journal (having started in early August, a couple weeks before leaving on the trip). I think it was a good memorial, even though unintended. Somehow it didn't occur to me on Sunday how appropriate the cemetery visit was Monday was the anniversary of my mother's death. Auburn Cemetery Mary Baker Eddy monument at Mt. I accidentally left my camera, book, and unneeded umbrella in Beth's car. Beth took me to meet Karin, then back to Bhadrika & Steve's. We went to Christopher's, a bar/restaurant on Mass Ave, for a late lunch or early dinner quite good food, slow service but only because one of the waitfolk had failed to show for a shift. Oh, and of course the company made the afternoon even more enjoyable. I took nine or ten photos (would've taken several more but was low on film). The view from the tower in the center of the place was superb, miles in all directions, a canopy of red and yellow and green (the cemetery) fading into city to the southeast, less-populated areas in other directions. We followed the automotive audio tour (you rent a cassette at the gate and play it in your car as you drive around the gigantic grounds, getting out here and there to ramble on foot) and highly recommend it. We saw several hawks (one of which had just killed a squirrel), a dozen ravens (or perhaps crows), a flock of Canadian geese eating grass, a few finch-sized birds, and a jay. The gravestones were frequently lovely and often fascinating there were stories to be read in the groupings, the patterns of names and dates, and most of all the descriptions (on some of them). The sun was out all day (despite predictions of snow for that night, which never came true) the colors of the leaves were brilliant in the sunlight, exactly what I came to New England in the fall to see. It was marvelous, if one's allowed to say that about a cemetery. ![]()
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