hermionesviolin: young black woman(?) with curly hair and pink sunglasses, facing away from the viewer (every week is ibarw)
 I wanted to see "Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity(and "Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico" -- mostly the "El baño de Frida (Frida’s Bathroom)" part; I audited "Frida Kahlo's Mexico: Women, Arts, and Revolution" last Fall) before it closed tomorrow, so since I was basically awake at 8 this morning I biked over there after breakfast (yay, weather!) and enjoyed the respite from everything that's been stressing me out (next year I have got to proactively hand off more Pride Interfaith stuff).
 
I was bummed to learn this exhibit was only one room, but it was very cool.  (I did also go to all of the Iturbide exhibit -- which was multiple rooms -- including the Frida Kahlo portion, which was on a different floor, with the other Frida Kahlo stuff.)
 
Zanele Muholi has a portrait series of LGBTQIA+ persons in South Africa (Faces and Phases -- which Google informs me is available as a 2010 book).  Example from the MFA's selections: "Nhlanhla Mofokeng, Katlehong, Johannesburg" (2012).
 
She also had a cool "Ethnographic Postcards" series -- self-portraits somewhat in the style of European photographs of anonymous Africans but with a subversive twist (the series is titled "Somnyama Ngonyama," which means "All Hail the Dark Lioness").  One of my favorites from the MFA's selections was "Bhekezakhe, Parktown" (2016) -- text from the MFA exhibit: "Throughout this series, Muholi makes portraits of herself using found objects to create deeper meaning. Here, her face is framed by delicate white strands draped around her shoulder and falling from her head like a veil. What at first seems to be a designer ensemble is composed of cheap white zip ties, which have been used by South African police as handcuffs. With this knowledge, the sharp white lines of the composition shift and seem to confine the figure."
 
Sethembile Msezane has more explicitly political stuff -- like "Chapungu: The Day Rhodes Fell" (2015).
 
The big purple painting that's used to advertise this exhibit is from Mary Sibande's series called "The Purple Shall Govern" -- after an anti-Apartheid slogan (police sprayed protesters with purple water to facilitate their identification and arrest).  This series also available as a 2013 exhibition book, Google informs me.
 
There was also a series of red cotton dresses that Senzeni Marasela had worn during a 5-year performance art -- from the exhibit text: "The promises to deliver education, healthcare, and greater job opportunity after the end of Apartheid have fallen short for many of the women embodied in renowned artist and lecturer Senzeni Marasela's performance art. Every day for the last five years Marasela has worn a red dress made of ijeremani cloth, a material first worn in Lesotho and now popular throughout South Africa. Wearing this dress to art openings, on international flights, and in other elite spaces, Marasela has been treated as hired help---asked for directions to the toilet, or to bring tea. Her project both reveals and fights against the lingering racism and dismissal of rural black women in South Africa."
hermionesviolin: Boston skyline at sunset with the word "Boston" at the top (Boston)
Yeah, I have literally not had the energy to keep up with basic updating stuff (I've been keeping a running draft, but as you'll see, even that was incomplete). I am update-dumping before I leave for a long weekend in Maine.

***

gym: July 20-24 )

***

[MFA] Saturday, July 25

I went to the MFA with WalthamWoman, who wanted to see as much as possible in the time we had before closing, so that was interesting. I think we "saw" like 80% of the museum in under 2 hours. Good thing I've been there a ton and never feel invested in seeing anything particular when I'm with friends.

The Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs was all up (it was only partially installed last time I went through), though unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.

I want to look at a lot more of the Asian art next time I'm there.

I really enjoyed A New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene

***

gym: July 27-29 )

***

gym: Aug. 4-7 )

***

[giving blood] Thursday, Aug. 6

I was hesitant about going to SCBC agan, despite the serious convenience factor, given how inefficient it was last time.

This time: I had a 5:30 appointment and got there at like 5:24. I was handed a #29 and had barely sat down before I got taken over to get my iron checked etc. She asked if I had read the material, and I said yes ('cause I have given blood umpteen times this year and read all the material every time and it never changes, at least not in any ways relevant to me).

(BP 98/60, pulse 64, oral temp 98.4, Hb: 12.8)

In the past I have actually hit their maximum mark of how long you can be blood-drained before they make you stop because of clotting concerns, but this time I was done in like 7 minutes. I was like, "We're done? Really?" The woman said everyone that day had been really quick.
It was like 6:00. I then dutifully sat for 10 minutes, ate two packets of cookies (one pack of Oreos and one of oatmeal raisin) and drank a bottle of water and then left.

***

gym: Aug. 10-14 )

***

Tues. Aug. 11

I had dinner at Andala with OtherElizabeth. We ate outside because blessedly it was nice enough out to be able to do that. (By the time we parted ways, it was actually cool enough out that I would have wanted a sweater were I to remain not moving.)

I got the Avocado Press Sandwich, because I could. It came with a little like potato salad on the side, which was a nice bonus, except that there was something in the seasoning or something that I didn't like -- even though in theory I should have liked it since it was basically cold potato chunks with some oil. (I also got a banana smoothie, I think.)

***

gym: Aug. 17-21 )

***

Tues. Aug. 18

Cailin invited me to go out for dinner with her and Katie 'cause it was her last night in Boston or something. I assumed she would wanna do Restaurant Week, but she said actually she'd been planning on Legal. I said I wasn't very excited about Legal 'cause there's almost nothing I can eat. She said she was sorry but she really wanted to get seafood. I said that was fine.

She said she'd be fine getting salads at Cheesecake, but I said Legal was fine.
On our way to Legal (we were driving to the one in Kendall), she mentioned that we could go to Bertucci's. I strongly supported this.
I got the Spaghetti Primavera, which had lots of vegetables. I wilingly ate asparagus with no problem -- go me (asparagus always strikes me as the kind of thing I don't particularly like).

At one point Cailin asked if we thought there was pressure (at HBS, for faculty) to get married, saying yeah academia's a little different than other places but there's probably still "pressure to conform to social norms, as Elizabeth would say." Apparently I am still really obviously a Smith College grad? :)

After we got out at Davis, Katie said: "I'm going to take the bike path. Shorter and cooler. Don't die. Call me if you're going to die." (Because she has a vehicle, so she could come and rescue me.)

***

Fri. Aug. 21

I had dinner at Taepei Tokyo in Davis Square. I don't know if it's the same franchise as the one in Northampton. I ate at the one in Northampton once, but I wasn't feeling well then, so I have no real verdict on it (and we were going to a Dar Williams concert at the Iron Horse afterward, so I couldn't really get my meal wrapped up to go), and I'd never been to the one in Davis Square though it opened a while ago.
I got hot and sour soup, which I'd never had before, and yeah, not really my thing.
I got a peanut avocado sushi roll, which was tasty.
We got vegetable tempura for starters -- which lighter than I'd expected (which was good).

***

gym: Aug. 24-27 )

***

Mon. Aug. 24

I had dinner at The Elephant Walk in Cambridge.
I got the vegetarian spring rolls for starters, which were okay.
I got the Tofu Amrita as an entree, and the tofu was fine, but I didn't eat much else, in part because of anxious stomach.

***

Thurs. Aug. 27

Make-Your-Own-Sundae in the Dean's House Garden.

I got vanilla ice cream and loaded up as many toppings as possible -- crushed Oreos (sans filling), M&M's, chocolate sauce, sliced strawberries, cherries. Yeah, when the faculty I came over with were getting seconds I was about halfway through my bowl.

A couple of our Unit's RA's came over at one point and we chatted and then headed back. I feel sort of bad that I only socialized with people I see all the time, but I'd been out for about 45 minutes and wasn't really feeling like seeking out more socialization. So it goes.

[Saturday]

Jun. 27th, 2009 08:50 pm
hermionesviolin: (older Cordelia)
Cate and I went to "Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice" at the MFA.  We read almost every single word of wall text, and Cate critiqued some of the exhibition display choices, and I tried to identify the Bible stories before reading the blurbs (apparently the Susannah story in the Book of Daniel is considered apocryphal by Protestants, which explains why she was only vaguely familiar to me).

Cate actually formed opinions on each of the painters, but I couldn't keep them distinct in my head sufficent to have opinions.  I do prefer Tintoretto's Baptism of Christ over Veronese's in many ways, though.  In Veronese's, the figures are weirdly positioned, whereas Tintoretto's are much more organic.  There's also neat stuff like the water running down steps next to John the Baptist.  But really it's that above the dove above Jesus is, not a whole handful of angel faces (which is just weird to my Protestant sensibilities) but rather three -- which I can read as echoing the Trinity (even though if I think about it too hard that's weird, since Christ and the Spirit are already depicted).

I dorked out on the Venice stuff in the gift shop :)

We got lunch (outside) at the Pizzeria Uno at Symphony and then did some clothes shopping at the Pru, which was remarkably painless (considering how quickly I usually burn out on any sort of clothes shopping), though there may be some returns in my future as Ann Taylor is espensive.  (I also got a top -- on sale -- at Chico's.)

I came home and washed dishes and did laundry and ate a bit of food and called L. (I had a missed call from her this afternoon) and decided to lie down for a bit ... and that turned into a nap.  I called Ari to check in and am going to try bed for real now.

I think I won't be able to go to LizL's installation tomorrow as any T trek takes 1.5-2hrs and it's at 3pm and I have CWM at 5pm.
hermionesviolin: Boston skyline at sunset with the word "Boston" at the top (Boston)
When we were planning this outing, [livejournal.com profile] traces said, "Anyway, this sounds divine!  I'd love to celebrate spring w/swan boats & art shows!!"

I met her at South Station around 11am and we walked to Boston Common and the Public Gardens, wandering around and chatting up a storm and taking pictures (I hadn't actually expected the Public Gardens to be all beautiful yet, which is silly).  When we ended up at the entrance to the Swan Boats, we got in line and this guy came up to me and said, "Elizabeth, right?"  I recognized him but really couldn't place him.  He mentioned he had just recently had lunch with a student in Northampton and I realized he was Peter, the pastor at the church I went to for three years in college.  He and his wife (Jenny! I couldn't remember her name and just now as I was typing this up I remembered) were bringing their grandkid to the Swan Boats.  They were significantly ahead of us in line, so I only spoke briefly with Peter.

Afterward we walked to Copley -- I had a brief moment of, "I do remember how to do this, right?" but we exited right at Newbury Street so that was easy.  We cut over at Trinity Church and I hadn't noticed before the Boston Marathon map thing in the sidewalk.  A unicorn?
We were gonna just get food somewhere on the way to the MFA, but I was getting hungry so I suggested we just to the California Pizza Kitchen at the Pru ... and then I decided that since I couldn't remember really where that was in the Pru that we could just stop at the Chicago Uno we were walking past (on Boylston).  Tracy got a sangria which I had a sip of.

We only had time to spend about an hour at the MFA (since Tracy had to get a 4:30 train back, and it didn't go by Ruggles) but we saw a fair amount of Art in Bloom.  We mostly walked through stuff I'd seen before, but we also saw some of the Antonio López García exhibit.

[You can read her brief writeup of the day here.]

After I dropped Tracy at her train I had an unsuccessful quest for summer shoes at the Downtown Crossing Payless and then headed out to meet Katie for dinner at Brown Sugar Cafe (Thai food) on Comm. Ave. (Babcock St. stop), which I'd heard good things about but had never been to (as I'm so rarely out in that area, especially with time to eat dinner).  I got the Vegetable Pad Thai and was unimpressed, but I ordered fried banana with coconut ice cream for dessert and that was very tasty.

She walked with me to Marsh Chapel (BU Central stop) where I was going to see Carolyn in Handel's "Solomon."  I was too tired to enjoy it properly, but they definitely did a good job.

I hadn't realized BU is on the water until we were walking back to Theology House after the concert.  I was like, "Water!  And the Hyatt I see from the Red Line."  I also hadn't realized just how close so much of the different Green Lines are to each other (apparently having looked at the MBTA GoogleHack before hadn't really stuck) -- even though on Friday Nicki was talking about taking the 66 and I was realizing that it takes you from Harvard Square (Red Line) to literally each of the four Green Lines.

Afterward was STH bar night at Beacon Street Tavern (St. Mary's St. stop on the C line), which for a variety of factors ended up just being Carolyn, her mom, me, and Carolyn's friend Rhoda.
I got an 'Effen' Roy Rogers.  Yeah, I should not get Coke-based drinks, as I'm not a big fan of the taste; I want straight up fruity (or occasionally not fruity, like a martini or something).

Rhoda, who lives in Malden, drove us home, which I appreciated, since we ended up staying at the bar until almost 1am (I'd resigned myself to taking a cab home fairly early on).
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Advent meditation: Matthew 6:13-16 (from Scripture Readings: Advent to Pentecost, copyright 1989, by the Carmelites of Indianapolis)
     Salam did the meditation.  She said, "God wants us to be useful to others and to people around us and to be doers, not talkers.  He wants our love for others to be useful the way salt is useful to the soil and helps things grow.  He wants us to spread the light around us, like the light from a lighthouse that shines around and guides people at night."

+

joy sadhana for Advent (14)

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy." -[livejournal.com profile] mylittleredgirl [more info]

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before our God to prepare the ways, to give knowledge of salvation to God's people by the forgiveness of sins.  By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
-Luke 1:76-79


Five good things about today:
1. Hanging out with [livejournal.com profile] traces.
+ I was running late (woke up shortly before I had intended to leave the house to meet her train at South Station), and she didn't mind.
+ She said I looked "gorgeous."
+ I got a breakfast sandwich croissant at the ABP at South Station and the croissant was really tasty.
+ We walked from South Station to Boston Common and then through Boston Garden (we need to go on the Swan Boats this spring/summer) and down to Copley, where I consulted a map at the bus stop to find Huntington Ave. and we walked the rest of the way to the MFA.
+ I told her stories about Terry and about Ian.  (I have photos of Terry on my camera and she said he's cute and asked if he's Italian and I said no, Portuguese.  Later I played my most recent voicemail for her and she was like, "You didn't tell me he had a Portuguese accent *fans self* ")
+ We were much more engaged in our conversation than in the artwork, so were kind of Those People, which I felt a little bad about, but we did see Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft. Selections from the Wornick Collection and Symbols of Power: Napoleon And The Art of The Empire Style, 1800 - 1815 and the Impressionist room, and in our wanderings saw pieces of the Walk This Way exhibit.
+ We walked back to South Station from the MFA, too.
2. Hanging out with Hannah, her boyfriend Daniel, her coworker Nina, and our mutual friend Cate.
+ Scoring two imaginary gold stars against Daniel.
+ Playing Guillotine for the first time (and incorporating Les Mis songs -- e.g., "Master of the House," "At the End of the Day," "One Day More").  People then played Settlers of Catan, and I'm not that interested in games like that, but I wasn't very bored watching them play, so that was good.
edit:
+ I forget how we got to talking about crime dramas and missing persons and stuff, but Daniel said he wanted to develop a supplement to social networking sites where you could get notified when someone hadn't updated in a certain amount of time and have the local police information connected there as well so you can report them missing.
+ We talked about The Golden Compass series, and Daniel mentioned how they've been referred to as the anti-C. S. Lewis and said he wants to reread the Narnia books because he totally missed all the allegory when he first read them.  I said The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Last Battle (I forgot The Magician's Nephew) were the most obvious, that I'd heard some about Christian allegory in the other books but apparently I'm not sufficiently rooted in the Christian tradition 'cause I didn't see it at all.  Cate boggled at the idea that I wasn't sufficiently rooted in Christian tradition given all my churching :)
/edit
3. When I got home tonight, the house thermostat was set at 63F.
4. Ellen Page picspam (via [livejournal.com profile] alixtii).
5. IM-ing with Jonah (who watched the first five episodes of Angel).

Three things I did well today:
1. Recalling all the slush where sidewalks meet roads from these past couple days, I wore my black rain boots today so I wouldn't have to worry about changing into dry socks during the day.  (Cate complimented me on them, commenting that they were neither pink nor covered in jelly beans.  We agreed that it would be hugely out of character for me to have such boots.)
2. I did laundry.  (Sunday is usually my laundry day, but hi, messy storm a'coming.)
3. I also remembered to buy milk.

Two things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
1. Going to church.
2. Writing my Secret Slasha fic.
hermionesviolin: (Ravenpuff)
Both Thursday and Friday, I had a good workout.

Thursday: Elliptical, interval program time )

Friday: weight room
I'm pushing myself to do a steady 3 sets (of 8, 10, or 12 reps) of whatever machine I'm using.

***

Thursday I chatted with one of the people at the National Coming Out Day table at the Grille.  I fail at cognitive processing (if someone is going to their 5-year college reunion, that does not make them younger than me -- I've had a 2-year college reunion, and a 5-year high school reunion), and walking back to the office I literally walked into Eric (not his fault) and spilled all my french fries; but dude, I talked to strangers.

***

Friday: I skipped ALCS Game 1 with CAUMC people for this [IMDb] because I thought it would be dark and fucked-up and hot.  It is dark and fucked-up, with a heaping helping of crazy, and not really erotic at all.  What is up with my MFA film selections recently?

I had already bought tickets for Lemmings Parts 1 [Arcades] and 2 [Injuries] for Saturday or I would have declared myself done with Haneke.  Lemmings was less bad, though still hardly uplifting.  [And what is up with Haneke and hysterical women?]  There was one great line in Part 2, though.  Eva says it's like they're children in front of a pile of "precious and complicated" toys, but the problem is that no one ever taught them how to play with them, so either they walk away from the pile of toys, "or we break them and call it a game."

Eva also talks about how they don't seem to be able to connect or communicate with each other except by hurting each other.  I kept thinking of that line from Crash: "I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something" -- even though none of the characters in Lemmings actually had much of "why" for their behavior.

*

What's up with the reddish-pink lighting outside the MFA?  I don't think it's related to the Napoleon: Symbols of Power exhibit, though maybe it is.  I should have just asked someone who actually works at the museum.

*

I picked up a brochure for the Boston Jewish Film Festival: November 1-11.  I am wowed at how international it is -- UK, Israel, Mexico, France, USA, Canada, Ethiopia, Russia, Poland, Uzbekistan, China, Germany, Brazil -- plus multilingual as well: English, Hebrew, Spanish, Yiddish, Russian, French, Arabic, Tigrinya, Tunisian Arabic, Chinese, German, Portuguese.

I can only make the Wednesday and Saturday night showings, but that still leaves me with double-bookings. Help me decide which ones to go to? )

Sidenote: I hear there is Noodle Kugel Ice Cream and Manischewitz [spelled right on the first try!] Sorbet at JP Licks.  The website lists October flavors, and these are not on there, so I don't know they still have them, but still.

***

Friday, OriginalRoomie told me she's moving out in 6 months (May-ish).  There's family stuff back in Wisconsin, plus in Michigan her friend-of-ten-years was leaving her abusive-husband-of-six-years the next day (Saturday).  Roomie said growing up in Wisconsin never felt like home, but Boston does, so she really doesn't wanna move somewhere else, but . . . .

Gillian: When I mentioned the possibility of your moving to Boston after your program ends, Cate literally jumped up and down.

***

I went to [livejournal.com profile] collegecate's "house-warming"/"burning-down-the-house" party on Saturday night.  Turns out she lives on the same street that I lived on when I was born.  I came via Cambridge St. and found myself walking with another partygoer -- we were both looking at the number on each house we passed.  We actually passed Cate's house (its number is on an exterior porch post, which in the dark is often in shadow), so I got to say hi to my old house.

We arrived c. 7pm (a half-hour after the start time I had been told), and there was still lots of food yet unmade.  It was like a Layna or Nicole party.  I was definitely not expecting that much food.

At least two people asked me, "Do you hug?"  Nice.

And lots of people asked about my dogtag.  All liberals, though, so it's boring, as I haven't gotten the "but queers should oppose the military anyway" responses.

I actually talked to people other than Cate.  Mostly her friend Hannah, but still.  I mentioned how I took a massage class and getting people to actually commit to coming over so you can get practice hours is a challenge (despite people's theoretical enthusiasm), and she boggled and basically volunteered herself and her friends.  This actually makes me consider taking the class again this summer.

I was leching on Cate, and Jason said this raised the question blahdy blah "on a scale of, say, zero to six," and I laughed and said "three" before he even finished the sentence.

Around quarter to 12, Hannah was making leaving noises (she too lives in Davis Square).  Mark has a condo in Arlington and drove us to Davis (I suspect he would have been willing to do door-to-door service, but Hannah said Davis T would be fine).  We actually spent like 10-20 minutes standing chatting after he dropped us off.  (Cate, Hannah and I agreed that we should exchange contact info via you.)

I decided rather than calling/texting Layna to see if her party was still going on, I would go home and go to bed.

I checked the baseball score online before going to bed at 1:30am -- 10-6 Cleveland at the top of the 11th (with Cleveland having scored 4 runs in the 11th, the first runs since they tied it up in the 6th).  Found out the next day that ultimately the Indians won 13-6.  Given that Saturday morning I heard people commenting on Friday night's game (10-3, Sox) saying at a certain point they felt like "Red Sox: could you just stop hitting the ball?" I felt kind of like it was fair.  (Though my initial reaction to the comment on the 10-3 game was to recall that the Red Sox are great at ripping defeat from the jaws of victory, so . . . )
hermionesviolin: 3 saguaro cacti silhouetted against an orange sunset, with the yellow sun setting behind one of them (summer)
After I showered this morning I didn't really wanna put clothes on, so I did my errands after my day with Kate rather than before it.  (I saw a flyer for Porn Debate, which I will be missing due to being in Europe -- August 10th.  Sadness.  I picked up the July/August MFA film calendar but probably shouldn't even look at it since I'll be away for basically all of it.)

We went in the front entrance, so we wandered the European art (paying less attention to the Christian art and more attention to the Impressionists -- I'd never noticed the near-neon light in the Monet haystack).  We also looked at the Egyptian stuff (Kate pointed out that yeah it's great that we have the stuff and can see and learn, but if someone dug up your grandma for the sake of history, you'd be a bit huffy, no?) and the Chinese rooms (i.e., the exhibit that's set up like various actual rooms; I love it).

We saw the Edward Hopper exhibit.  I had looked at the online slideshow earlier in the week, and it caused me to appreciate Hopper's work more.  Most of it doesn't particularly grab me, though.  My favorites are mostly from the solitary women.

Afterward we saw the War and Discontent exhibit in the Foster Gallery (which often has interesting stuff; I think my favorite was probably the Black Gold one you see upon entering) which then led into an exhibit of German Photography and contemporary Japanese art (I particularly liked the tweaked kawaii stuff).

We were tired from all that standing/walking, so we went to Qdoba and sat and ate and chatted -- and didn't get too wet heading to the T stop.  (Though people who ask the trolley driver for directions as other people stand behind them in the rain, while not as bad as people who stick their gum on antique furniture at museums . . . )

Oh, and Kate said Alex saw me at Boston Pride this year -- but didn't say hi 'cause she didn't think I'd recognize her.  Aww.  I can't swear I would have recognized her on sight, but if she'd introduced herself as Alex from Smith, I totally would have known who she was.

I also forgot to mention: elephant serial killers; also: 300-pound beavers and 6-foot penguins.  (I mean, we talked about fandom and stuff, too, but that's old hat.)

***

In other news, my Buffy/Tara fic "Desert Plants Are Strange Indeed" has been nominated at the Dangerous Type Awards.  Good karma for finally actually feedbacking some fics yesterday?

I also officially got my [livejournal.com profile] femslash_minis assignment.
hermionesviolin: Boston skyline at sunset with the word "Boston" at the top (Boston)
So, when last we left our heroine (i.e., me) was heading off to Stanhope.  I was walking through the campus to the bus stop and it was sunny and there might have been the smell of freshly cut grass and I was reminded of nothing so much as walking across Smith campus late in a spring semester.  So much love.

And then I realized I'd forgotten to take with me the mounted photos we were getting framed.  ::facepalm::

The story ends well, though, even though the details are probably only of interest to me. )

I walked back to Harvard ('cause damned if I was paying bus fare when it was that close; I know Central's walkable from Maria's place, but I only did it the once with Meg so I wasn't about to try it with no directions) and headed to South Station to meet [livejournal.com profile] sk8eeyore's bus.  Poor dear ended up delayed by about two hours :(  But she did arrive safely, and we made it back to my apartment without incident.  And she'd brought me "Divine" chocolate from the YDS store (I have not yet sampled it to confirm or deny its claims) and the Spring 2006 issue of Reflections (the YDS magazine, this issue's theme: "Sex and the Church").

Saturday

Our day started with walking around Harvard Square.*  We walked to HBS -- though I don't have after-hours access, so we couldn't actually get in anywhere, but it's still a pretty campus -- and then back to the Square and walked along Mass. Ave and Mount Auburn.

* Edit: I forgot to mention, we took the scenic route from the apartment to the T station because we walked along Powderhouse and missed the Curtis St. turn so we just walked until the road hits Broadway and then doubled back that way. So from the get-go it was a mega-walking day. /edit

Next was Copley for the 10,000 Joans exhibit at BPL.  Ten thousand seemed an overstatement, but it was a nice exhibit.  My favorites were totally two of the trading cards (yeah, I know, tobacco cards or whatever) -- one was like superhero! Jeanne d'Arc and the other one was like chibi! Jeanne d'Arc.

We learned that Trinity Church has free guided tours after Sunday service at 12:15 but otherwise you have to pay.

We also looked at the cows, of course.  I even dragged Sarah to the Pru to see Make Way for Calflings.  What happened to the calflings?  The Mommy Cow is totally not as cool without them.  My suspicion is that they got stolen, which makes me sad.  We had lunch at the Food Court and when were finally read to move again headed to the MFA for the Americans in Paris exhibit ).

I would like to see Sargent, Chase, Cassatt: Master Paintings from a Private Collection at some point, but we were both very tired, so we didn't.  We spent a solid hour in Americans in Paris and had been walking around all day.  I love Laura McPhee: River of No Return but wasn't up for showing it to someone.  So after the Islamic calligraphy we looked at some of the ancient exhibits and then just sat for a while.  We found Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral no problem.  And I got to do more of my piecing together of Boston's geography.  I sort of knew that's where Simmons was but am not sure I had ever realized how close the Gardner is to the MFA.  P.S. Everybody's going to library school at Simmons.  Yes, I totally bumped into Liz Lerner the other day.  I also bumped into Erika and Petra a few days earlier [not going to library school, just more of the Smith connection].  And yesterday on the Red Line while wearing my Celebration t-shirt a woman seated across from us leaned over and asked, "Are you a Smith student?"  She was an album (had a Smith College Family Weekend October 2000 totebag; I don't remember tote bags from when I was there).

So the Orthodox service )

We came back to new interior stairs in my apartment.  I knew a guy was gonna be coming to take off the carpet, but I hadn't realized just how different it would look.  Very nice.

Sunday

Friday night it wasn't really cuddle-together weather, but Saturday night it really cooled down -- I woke up in the morning a bit chilled. (I was sleeping on top of my sheets.)  W00t.

We went to church at College Avenue United Methodist Church.  It's off of College Ave., the first time I'd been up in that area since [livejournal.com profile] hedy and I went to "HomoCon" (tm her).  Ah, memories.  It was also nice to get a better feel for how stuff fit together geographically.

in which I find myself a Monday evening book study )

[livejournal.com profile] sk8eeyore appeared to depart without incident.  She really enjoyed Boston, and I had a really nice time with her.  She said it would be great if I had a Monday off sometime and could come attend classes with her at YDS.  Now that I'm no longer FA to a Course Head ( ::does a little dance:: ) I bet it would totally be possible for me to take a Monday off and go down for a weekend -- go to St. John's with her on Sunday, go to classes on Monday, then come home.  (And man, not having to accommodate commuter rail schedules makes out-of-towning so much easier.)
hermionesviolin: image of a broccoli floret with text "my favorite vegetable is broccoli because it has a STEM AND a BUSH" (broccoli quote from SIKOS 2002)
weather.com said "heavy rain" and it wasn't kidding. How many times did I change my socks? (Though still-damp boots mitigated the efficacy of that.) On Friday, Cailin mentioned buying rain boots over the weekend, and trekking around in boots which have deteriorated to the point where they no longer keep out water I definitely wanted some for myself.

film festival, art exhibits, and what happened after )
hermionesviolin: (hipster me)
[Advent day 14 - Saturday] Luke 2:4-7
4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Had a weird/interesting dream about being drafted as a WWE writer.

There was lack of plowed/shoveled sidewalks walking to the library at noon -- and I purposely went via Washington rather than Winslow.  I disapprove.

I'm going to Foxwoods Sun. Jan. 22.  Yeah free booze.

I went to the Ansel Adams exhibit at the MFA.  It was okay.  It was so crowded (and dude, how many tickets do they sell before they consider a time slot sold out?) that you basically had to literally wait in line to see the images -- and sometime it was unclear which direction a line was moving in, which was particularly frustrating.  One of his most famous ones is Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico which I hadn't seen before, but it's also one of the larger ones, so I would have liked to move around it a lot but I felt rude doing so since of course a slew of other people were also looking at it at any given time.

I also spent about an hour going through other parts of the museum.  One painting I saw was inspired by a line from Boccaccio's Decameron -- "Bocca bacciata non perde ventura / anzi rinnova come fa la luna." (The MFA's translation went something like "Lips once kissed lose not their freshness. It always returns, like the moon.")

Kate called me randomly, 'cause it had been "eons," "decades," over 2 months since we had last spoken.  And I called Ari.  Yay people.  Though I'm like, "I have nothing to say" when I call people, even though I do wanna talk to them.

For dinner, I got a pinto bean burrito at Qdoba and didn't hate it.  Go me.  And See's Candy was giving out free samples.

Apocalypso!
an offbeat, loving story of the holidays: parties, presents, friends, family, barflies, crippling depression and feelings of inadequacy. Plus the end of the world.
Read more... )

Queer Soup is doing Home Jan. 14-Feb. 4!  I absolutely must go. Company?

Oh, taking a late train home.  Always interesting company.  Last night's installment featured tiny drunk white girls "jammin' "

Inside the train car there was a poster for a movie (Country Boys? tagline was something about "finding out who they are and who they could become") and the main picture was a view from the back of two boys walking along a railroad track and someone had scrawled "no walking on the tracks" on the poster.  I was happified.
hermionesviolin: (anime night)
This morning I left a little later than I'd intended, and I thought, running/walking in my Smith hoodie with the cold autumn air, this is home.

And then were flecks of snow falling, which made me happy.

[livejournal.com profile] traces and I managed to successfully meet up at South Station -- in part due to the magic of cell phones :)

We walked to Downtown Crossing and had lunch at the food court and then took the Green Line to the MFA.

Crossing the street to the MFA, there were flecks of snow falling again.

Ansel Adams sold out before we got through the line, but that was okay.

We kind of ended up at the Koch exhibit, so we went through that and it was better than I had anticipated.

Then we headed to the European section.  They've rearranged the Impressionist room again.  (And the painting of Monet's wife has been moved to a neighboring room -- Japanese influence on Western aesthetics.)

[livejournal.com profile] traces loved that I've been so often I have childhood nostalgia and also that I can comment about what they've changed since I was last here.

Speaking of, the maps are no longer color-coded, but they now have You Are Here signs, which are color-coded.  I approve muchly.

We left before closing so that I could make my earlier train home, and we came out in the gift shop -- i.e., exterior windows for the first time all day -- and the world was covered in white and clumps were falling.  I was happy.

We walked from Park St. to South Station because we had plenty of time, and walking in the snow is lovely.

Walking home from the train in the falling clumping snow I was just ecstatic.
hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (you think you know...)
Saturday afternoon i headed to the bank to make a deposit before doubling back to the library to visit some people. I'm almost at the bank when a guy in a white truck waves to me. I don't recognize the guy or the truck, but he pulls over, so i go over to check it out, figuring perhaps he's from church or something. This begins a conversation which consists mainly of me vaguely agreeing to a backstory i don't remember. He was here, over the summer, visiting a friend in the hospital. I live down that way, don't i? He's gesturing kinda more perpendicular to where i live, but i'm not quibbling, especially as i'd rather not get into a discussion which would require me actually saying where i live. We met in "the store" (this got me in Puddingstone mode even though i haven't worked there in years, because, like the library, lots of people come in and chat you up) and yeah, by this time i'm fairly certain the guy is making shit up. The clincher comes when he says something about how we were gonna get together. "No, i don't remember that." "No, it didn't actually happen, I had to go meet some people, but you had said you wanted to get together" "I don't think so. Actually i'm just going to the bank and then i have to go meet some friends in Boston." I think this led to where have i been or something, 'cause i remember saying "I've been away at school." "Where do you go to school?" "Smith College, out in Northampton." "Is that far away?" "Yeah, it's a couple hours away." "So you're usually gone on weekends, then?" "Yeah." "When do you think you'll be back here again?" "I don't know. I'm usually out there a lot, i'm just back for the weekend to visit some friends in Boston." Then he asks me my name. Not even in a "your name escapes me" kinda way but the way you ask someone you just met. "Elizabeth." "I'm Eddie." And then i get to leave. This is the way you pick up girls, huh? Act like you've already met. *rolls eyes* I enjoy the fact that the few times i get hit on by guys approximately my own age are rarely shady. This man was probably 50 years old. Age had been good to him, but still, sketch much?

Saturday was National Coming Out Day. I realized in retrospect that i did even, sort of, recognize the day. I was chatting with Terry and he was asking about what i was gonna do after college (He always says, "You wanna be a teacher, right?" and i always say maybe and list off the other possibilities i'm considering.) and i mentioned gay rights activism and he asked about that and we got to talking about same-sex marriage and having intelligent conversations with him always makes me so happy and at one point i said "we" and he startled a bit and said "You said 'we' " and i said "Yeah, we've had this conversation before. That's why i was kinda surprised when you asked if i had a boyfriend, 'cause in my head i thought 'No, and i don't have a girlfriend either.' " In his defense, it's not like it matters that much or comes up that much in my interactions with him, it just amuses me that he forgot. I think people get mental blocks around stuff sometimes.

Wow, pulling up that entry, last summer? I think because i spend so little time in Norwood -- and a small fraction of that time is spent hanging out with Terry -- that sometimes it feels like we have had conversations more recently than we actually have. I know it has come up once or twice since that first time, so it's not like he promptly forgot.

Hmm, in that entry i also talk about money (amusingly the two comments are from people whom no longer have me friended) and then recently i saw this entry from Mia.



I think age is mellowing me. Lack of having-a-plan-ness which would normally make me anxious and irritated didn't bother me too much this weekend.

Previously i had only been through Harvard Yard, but i have now been in a dorm and around much of the campus including down to the river. We saw Lamont Library, named for the husband of the woman for whom my house is named.

I spent some time at the MFA, both with my people and without, which was nice. The John Currin exhibit was interesting. One of the things he said was that European movies are like 2 hour long paintings, while Americans need to have stories in their paintings, can't understand the importance of just an image. I was intrigued and would be interested in learning more about his opinions on art. In the rest of the museum i saw a good amount of stuff i hadn't seen before (as well as some familiar favorites; i don't think i had realized just how much i like John Singer Sargent. and there was some neat stuff like they had The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit back and it was framed by the two actual vases he depicts in the painting. and there were drawings which looked familiar and they were sketches of the MFA murals and i hadn't realized he was the one who did the murals.), and some of it was modern art which i actually liked. JoJo and i talked about needing background information to understand and appreciate a lot of contemporary art and the problems that raises.

This weekend i was reminded that i don't do socializing-through-shared-activity well (e.g. shopping, watching a movie). I would much rather just sit down and talk with people. I realized on the subway back to South Station to go home on Monday that one reason the whole Boston weekend had felt a bit odd was that when Jonah and i go to Boston, we talk all the time, literally almost constantly. So sitting in a subway with friends and not talking nonstop, while perfectly fine, is just foreign to me.



I did so little work this weekend, which is of course coming back to bite me in a serious way. I did get a lot of sleep, though, which is always good.

I ended up watching a lot of TV with my brother. I saw the series premiere of The X-Files at 1am and realized i had never seen it in full, only in flashbacks.

Saw the new Practice Sunday night. Do i need to spoiler cut? )



I went back to the high school Tuesday morning, which is always nice.

I enjoy when teachers show me off.
To me: "Thank you for the postcard." Turning to the class: "I got a postcard from out of the country." This prompts lots of "Where did you go?" type questions.

I had really good timing hitting teachers during study periods and so on. Ms. Fisher's class was Latin 4, with kids from the Latin 1 class i took my senior year. That means this year's graduating class is the last class wherein i know anyone. (Okay, my brother graduates next year please pause for a panic attack at the reminder that my brother and i are both graduating in a year and a half, and i know a few kids in his class.) Wow.

My parents told me that at PTA Ms. Fisher asked about "Augusta" (my name in that class) and needed a minute to remember my real name. This amuses me immensely because 3 years later i barely remember my name in that class and every time i have visited she has called me by my real name.

I told Mrs. Derrane that i'm taking a García Lorca class and she said she did "Romance sonámbulo" with her Spanish 4A. That's hardcore. We just did that last week, and that's one of the harder poems.

Ms. Pelaggi was envious that i was studying Lorca. For once she didn't have her super-excited voice that she gets when she's teaching or when she's doing SADD or Spirit Club or whatever. I hadn't realized she had any other voice, but she actually has this lower-pitch voice and she sounds like a different person.

I bumped into Jonah which was lovely because i'd been meaning to drop him a line. And Liz was nice to me, which was disconcerting, but pleasantly so.

I e-mailed Joe a couple weeks ago about the work we want to do at our old high school to make it more gay-friendly. In my e-mail i basically said "We've been trying to work together, but we both are so insanely busy, and i really want to do this, so i'm just gonna do it, help me out if you want." I don't think i came off like a bitch, but not having heard from him i worry he's mad at me. (If i had the time to spare i would call him and we would chat and i would feel better.) I also still haven't done anything with the NHS stuff, which makes me feel bad on multiple levels.

The things i need to do this week alone keep piling up, not to mention the next few weeks and things (like NHS) which have been on the back burner for far too long.

As Josh says, "You can sleep when you're dead!"



Family Weekend: There are large gaps of time in between activities my family and i will actually be attending. I am working on filling up these gaps. I know many of my housemates are excited about their parents and their friends and their friends' parents all meeting. Does anyone have any exciting plans?
hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (you think you know...)
I woke up at 7:44 Saturday morning. I could have taken a shower after all if i’d known how late we’d end up leaving, though. We were supposed to leave at 8, but we hung around in the foyer waiting for everyone to show up and then Sarah and Sara had to go to Public Safety to pick up the SGA van. 8:30 we left.

The MFA opens at 10, and it was a Saturday and rainy so it was SO crowded. I hadn’t been during busy times in so long. I feel like i’ve been to the MFA so many times (and it’s not a terribly large museum) that i’ve seen everything, so i like just going with friends and seeing what they’re interested in seeing and hearing what they think about it and all. So i tagged along with Marnie. We saw the modern art, including The Blake and Purnell Legacy and Visions and Revisions (shame the Traveling Scholars exhibit had ended a week prior), much of the Asian art, and a fair amount of the European art. We were pleased to see that there is some “modern” art in the European section -- it is no longer relegated to the “modern art” section. The museum is getting an addition put on, so various galleries are closed. This means that a lot of the art has been moved around. I kept wondering if i had just forgotten stuff because i hadn’t been in those particular galleries for so long or if these were new acquisition, because so much of the art i didn’t recognize. (Also, they have a lot of these new wood-looking platforms with furniture and stuff on them, and electronic sensors so if you lean in too close to touch the thing it beeps. I was irked that people felt the need to try this repeatedly.) It was nice, though, to see “new” stuff. It seemed like i talked nonstop for 2 hours and then in the gift shop as well, but she said she didn’t mind. Then she and a bunch of people headed out to Chinatown, and i headed down to the cafeteria to get food.

Salad, soda, and more herb mashed potatoes than i was really hungry for. One of my big sadnesses about the heavy morning rain was that it meant i couldn’t eat lunch outside. By the time i ate lunch, however, it had stopped raining, so i ate outside until i got too chill. The herb mashed potatoes were SO good. I could really taste the butter, but it was in that way that reminds me why people like the taste of butter. The cafeteria was so crowded (it was around 12:30) but i found a table with a seat. Then i saw Crystal and Jane, so they came over and sat with me. Crystal and i talked about the archives and the museum at Smith and also about the MFA. She’s big into art history and has been to a lot of art museums in California (where she’s from) so i had been worried that the MFA wouldn’t measure up, but she really liked it and thought a number of the collections were impressive. (And whee, MFA admission may be $13 for students as opposed to the Met’s suggested $5 donation, but our food is so much more reasonably priced.) I went with them after lunch. We did some of the Asian art (including Behind the Screen, which is one of my favorites) and then a lot of the European art. I forget how much famous art we have. I know we have lots of amazing Impressionist art because i love it, and i usually remember that by definition not every museum has such an impressive collection and not everyone has grown up with such easy to access to things like the MFA and i am incredibly blessed. But i learned on Saturday that we have 4 El Grecos (Domenikos Theotocopoulos) and 5 Rembrandts. (j, i also learned that we have Turner’s Slave Ship, so i got to see it in person)

My mom met me a little before closing and we took the Green Line to Arlington, walked around for a while, and then had dinner in a nice sandwich shop (hummus veggie wrap, yum).

With Crystal i had mostly listened, but with my mom i was back to talking nearly nonstop. I talked about my Women’s Studies class and wanting to understand economics better and various annoyances about The Left. I had something of an epiphany. I remember someone being absolutely horrified that she was on the same side as the Christian Right about something, and i thought that it’s really detrimental to getting work done if you refuse to work with people just because you have a lot of differences of opinion, and i figured many people would link it to working with the KKK or something, because they see it as working with really evil people and that’s not worth the potential political gains and that made me think of the ANSWER and the peace movement saga. But anyway, i was complaining about how opposing arguments are presented sometimes and thinking about how i take issue with a lot of little things but you sound petty (in that bad way) if you call people on it, but that it really troubles me that teachers have so much power and in a lot of cases it seems to me like the students just absorb it without questioning. So this is the epiphany. The first book we read in Am. Lit. class was The Bostonians, and Michael talked about how we’re wary of what people say when we know they have an agenda, but what’s most dangerous is when we don’t think someone has an agenda, because everyone does have bias and agenda, but if we’re not aware of that and on guard, that’s really dangerous. So it occurred to me that the Left thinks of the Right as having an agenda, but doesn’t think of itself as having an agenda. Big evil corporations have big evil agendas, but we just want everyone to be happy and healthy and at peace and not exploited and have equal rights and all that. We don’t have an agenda, we have humanitarian goals. So people aren’t on guard when listening to Left leaders like they are when listening to people from the Right. (Yes, i know i’m overgeneralizing. I’m also talking about experiences not involving my friends, so this is not a slam at any of my wonderful leftist friends, because i know that you all do think for yourselves and all that good stuff.). (I also talked about how i’m not quite so smash-the-state as a lot of people, largely because of my father’s influence, so the next day i found it interesting to see that on the other hand, i am so used to zine culture, that this article on freeganism seemed to me perfectly reasonable and comprehensive, while it elicited disgust dumb Jolt post/thread.)

The Ben Taylor Band opened for Dar Williams at the Orpheum (which, might i mention, is not nearly as nice-looking as i’d expected) Saturday night, 8pm. There was security, checking bags and patting people down, so lots of people were still coming in until at least 8:15. Now, normally i complain that no one ever gets to anything on time so nothing ever starts on time, but i’m willing to blame security on this one. However, i think it’s respectful to the performing group as well as the audience to not start the performance until everyone is seated (and once everyone is seated you can not allow anyone in until intermission or between songs or whatever). This concert started the promptest i’ve ever seen anything start -- possibly even a minute or two early.

Anyway, the lead singer had a good voice and moved very fluidly, but i couldn’t understand most anything he said and (i find this a problem at nearly all vocal performances and hate it) often i couldn’t even hear him because the band was too loud. (I remember when the band and the orchestra would play together with the chorus in high school, Mrs. Moen was always on our case because it’s so easy for instrumentalists to drown out the vocalists. She always said that if we couldn’t hear the singers we were playing too loud.) I didn’t particularly like him just in general as well. One of his last songs he told the audience to get up and dance in the aisles. Now, this is a fire hazard, and if you’re standing up and dancing at your seat you’re blocking other people’s view, so the ushers were telling everyone to sit back down. You might not like the rationale, but show some respect. I couldn’t help noticing this going on around me, so i imagine everyone else noticed too. But people persisted. Meh.

His set was 50 minutes long, and then the setup for Dar was 30 minutes. Grr.

I swear when i saw her at the Iron Horse her hair was pale blond and nearly to her waist. That night it was about shoulder length, more of a dirty blond, and vaguely permed. I was not particularly a fan. I liked her outfit though her legs are pencil thin so fitted jeans are a bad idea, and my quintessential Dar image is long black dress. (Also, Dar’s band is good -- "It can be a little lonely sometimes being a girl with a guitar," -- but my preference is the classic girl and her guitar -- partly because i am all about the words so, ya know, words and melody are all i need.)

She started with “Fishing in the Morning” and then a high-energy song that i thought was gonna be “Teenagers Kick Our Butts” but turned out to be “I Saw A Bird Fly Away.” (I am listening to her new album via her website. Whee.)

[The stage was set up so she was standing on a rug with a vase of flowers on a stool next to her.] “Can I share the spotlight with these flowers. Just for this song. Because it’s a spring song.” Hoots and cheers. “Not that spring song.” She played “The Beauty of the Rain.” “You can leave the spotlight on the flowers for this next song, too.” And then she did play “Spring Street.” I had forgotten that the song which contains the line this year April had a blizzard just to show she did not care later says I don't have to go to Spring Street 'cause it is spring everywhere.

She played “Road Buddy,” which she wrote for the movie Smoke Signals.

She also played a lot of songs from the new album: “Mercy of the Fallen,” “Farewell to the Old Me,” “I Have Lost My Dreams,” “The World’s Not Falling Apart” (inspired by all the tech-savvy genius women she knows -- “They rule”), and “Whispering Pines.” The one new album song i really wanted her to play was The One Who Knows, which i heard at the New York performance last summer, and she did!

I learned that she was a religion major in college and that she wrote “And A God Descended” after reading about a failed messianic cult. I also learned that because of its parallels to 9-11 she didn’t play it for a long time after that. (When she first started saying that i thought she was referring to “This Was Pompeii,” which she played at the December 2001 show i saw her at in Northampton, which she mentioned was eerily reminiscent of 9-11.)

At one point she opened it up to requests, which is a mistake in a venue as big as the Orpheum, and decided on “You’re Aging Well.”

The applause after the show went on for a really long time, and i thought about how when Catie Curtis performed at the student center here, she said that people always applaud to induce an encore, so she was gonna just play her encore songs so we could applaud as much or as little as we wanted. :) So then Dar came back on stage and who had popped up but Catie Curtis, who hung out with Julie in the keyboard section. She did “Iowa” (a sing-along which is possibly requisite for every Dar concert) and “As Cool As I Am” (during which people insisted on dancing again). Then she did “Are You Out There.” Whee old school. At this point it was about 5 of 11, and while we were minutes from Park Street and Park Street is only a couple stops from South Station, the last train of the night was leaving at 11:20. We had to leave. She began the strains of “The Babysitter’s Here.” That was the first Dar song i ever heard (and is from her first album) and reminds me of a little girl i used to baby-sit for. I went all pit-a-pat, but we still left, which was okay.

I really dislike that they show movies on the Peter Pan rides between Springfield and Boston. However, Mr. Deeds was better than i had expected. (There was already a 1936 movie? Does no one make anything original anymore?)

I am regretful that i missed Palm Sunday services.

[I learned that the We <3 you! on my door was in fact, as suspected, Ria and Sophie.]
hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
Well it started out well enough. Chatted with Mr. Carver (my former calculus teacher, who’s a great guy) on the way in (he was meeting his wife for dinner in Harvard Square). Oops, the 2:30 doesn’t stop at Ruggles. I need to learn how to read a schedule. I was fairly certain there was a bus that went from Back Bay to the MFA, but i wasn’t entirely sure, so i decided to just go the way i knew -- South Station, Red Line to Park Street, Green Line to MFA. (My mother told me tonight that there’s only one bus line that goes out of Back Bay and it does indeed stop at the MFA.) So i was only 10 minutes late. It still took us a while to find each other because he had gone in the side entrance (which is really the main entrance, it’s just the side of the building) while we had planned to meet “in front of the museum.”

We basically wandered around. African, ancient Egyptian, colonial metalwork, some European paintings. Jonah wanted to look at the Contemporary Art, but it was closed. Oddly, a number of galleries were closed. It’s rare that even one is closed, so i was confused. On our way out we learned that they are planning to add a new wing, but i’m not sure if that’s related. We stumbled here (I want to know what it takes to become cool enough to make weird paintings and tell people that they need to enter into the paintings and create their own narratives.) and then here (although we didn’t quite get to finish that as the museum was closing), though, so it was all good.

After we left the museum we debated what to do next. Jonah said there was a nice Au Bon Pain right outside Back Bay that we could have dinner at. We could take the Green Line (right across the street) to Downtown Crossing, then take the Orange Line to Back Bay. Jonah said the 39 bus went right to Back Bay. I wasn’t sure exactly where the MFA bus stop was, though, and it was raining. We saw a 39 bus, though, moving very slowly because of the horrendous traffic, and i spotted a T sign, so we decided to take the bus. We got on the very crowded bus and i wondered (silently) if this was the right direction. I have such a horrible sense of direction, though. It also occurred to me that it was 5:05 and, duh, rush hour. I’m never in the city at rush hour, though, so it didn’t occur to me to take this into account. So we’re going and we pass the familiar stops and then it starts looking unfamiliar. We pass Mission Park and i know we must be going in the wrong direction. (Yes, my friend Jonah is not exactly a public transportation pro.) This nice woman next to us says yes, this bus is going to Jamaica Plain. So we get off at the next stop (Heath St.) and wait for a bus. Approximately 15 minutes later, after 7 buses and 2 trolleys have passed us in the wrong direction, an equally crowded bus comes. Eventually we get to Back Bay, or the stop right before it, or something. We eat at Au Bon Pain Choices, this buffet place, which is fine and all, but i prefer regular Au Bon Pain with its fruit cup and cinnamon buns and such. We hang out in this bookshop and finally head to Back Bay. I know i have been in this building before, and as we exit i realize where we are. We’re right across the street from Back Bay, we just came in the opposite side from where i’m used to.

So that was Boston today. We had a good time, though, despite everything, and Jonah still maintains that he had fun on our last excursion as well.

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hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

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