Sledding Adventure

Happy New Year! I hope your 2014 has started out perfectly.

On Thursday, just as I was getting ready to go back to work after two days off, Boston got hit with a snowstorm and I got a bonus snow day. Who knew those existed when you were a grownup?

  

It was too cold to leave the house on Friday, so by the time Saturday rolled around, everyone was feeling a little bit of cabin fever. It took minimal convincing to get Elizabeth and Chris to agree to go sledding. We borrowed sleds from my mom's basement, trekked over to Danehy Park in Cambridge, and tried really hard not to end up in the weeds at the bottom of the hill. We failed, but it was still so much fun.

 

And then, at the end, I dragged Elizabeth home like a sled dog.

Not really.

A Day to Celebrate the Red Sox

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Red Sox play well, the whole Greater Boston area is in a good mood. It was not surprising, then, that the whole city seemed to be smiling on Saturday, when the Red Sox celebrated their World Series win with a parade on land and water. The weather was warm and the leaves looked their October best- basically the perfect day in my most favorite city.

The Fisherman's Feast

Festivals in the North End are one of the highlights of summer in Boston. This past weekend was the Fisherman's Feast, so when Manoli emailed to say that he would be in town, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to see some of my favorites and eat Italian food from a street cart.

There were a gajillion people there, which just added to the festive atmosphere. The temptation at any of these festivals is to buy the first food item that looks delicious, but we knew that the tastiest arancini and sausages would be somewhere in the middle of the crowd, so we pressed forward, looking at all of the stands before we made our decision. At the edge of the celebration, we found a stand that made absolutely the most delicious sausage with peppers and onions that I have ever had. We all got them, and we at them while admiring the Madonna statue at the center of the feast and being a little jostled by the crowd and dancing to middle-aged Italian-American singers, and they tasted like summer in a sub roll.

Fenway!

Last night my friend Elizabeth and I went to a baseball game. It was SO much fun. 

I've written before about how I think that a trip to Fenway is one of the most quintessential "Boston" experiences, and last night's experience reminded me just how true that is.

Even those of us Bostonians who don't really follow baseball really really love the Red Sox, so a trip to watch them play, drink a beer, and be in the presence of thousands of other Boston fans (including Natalie!) is pretty great stuff.

Elizabeth and I left before the Indians started to really beat the Sox (the final score was 12-3!), but we did see Papi hit a home run. That was pretty much the best.

Things that are good after a week like last:

french fries at Mead Hall



Trees in bloom at MIT



a breakfast picnic on the back porch



photography lessons and time in nature

Slowly but surely, life is returning back to almost-normal, though as I mentioned on instagram, I walk by the memorial to Officer Collier most days and am reminded that that's definitely not the case for everyone. For those of us who are lucky enough to get to keep going, though, it's nice to have life quiet down a little.

Yesterday

Well. Yesterday didn't exactly go as planned.

The plan was to have people over for waffles and mimosas, then go to Copley Square to cheer for our our friends who were running the marathon.

The conditions were perfect, so my friend Nat actually finished minutes before we got there. He ran the marathon in 2 hours and 40 minutes. He is a beast. We saw Emma turn onto Hereford, and she looked amazing.

Once Emma passed, we left our spot for a walkabout. My brunch friends all went back to Somerville while I walked around the Back Bay and went to my friend Christine's house to say hi. I was four blocks away from the finish line on my way to meet up with froworkers when I heard two booms. They weren't crazy loud, and my first thought was that they must have been a truck going over a bump or something. Then I saw a sea of people running towards me, and smoke rising in the air.

I spent the afternoon holed up at Christine's house on Beacon Street, watching the news and checking in with friends and family to make sure everyone was okay. All my people were fine. As I said on twitter, I'm so thankful for that, while also so sad that the same is not true of everyone's people.

I'm going to go for a nice long run along the Charles River today. It seems like the appropriate thing to do. Favorite running path in my favorite city? I think so.

I got home from work extra early tonight, so my roommate Mary and I went on a little adventure to the Tufts library roof to look at Boston and see the sun go down.

It was chilly and the sunset wasn't particularly amazing, but it's still amazing to me that you can get a perfect view of Boston from pretty far away. That, and the roof garden itself is pretty magical. 

Lunch at Sportello

In college, I had a professor who said that when he was in college, he used to get ice cream after every exam. Treating himself after something stressful, he said, made the stressful thing not so bad.

Yesterday, I took the GRE. I was pretty nervous about it, so when it was all over, I decided to treat myself to lunch at Sportello, the fanciest lunch counter you'll ever see.

When I told my waitress why I was there, she brought me a glass of prosecco. When she brought me my fancy-pants latte, she also brought me a cupcake to take home. Her enthusiasm made the meal seem even more special, and now I'm pretty sure that I'm going there for all lunchtime celebrations from here on out.

Should you ever find yourself in North Cambridge, not too far from Davis Square and the Arlington border, I strongly recommend a trip to Verna's.



They're a little hole-in-the-wall, but they make the best donuts around. I've been going since I was tiny. My dad would take Dewey and me out for a chocolate honey dipped and an orange juice most Saturday mornings when we were little.


(the chocolate honey-dipped are still my favorite)

Anyway, I recommend that you get a dozen. Include a couple of coffee rolls, even if they're not your favorite. Someone will like them.



Then, find a couple of friends and a good place to sit. (You may need to drive. Or you could walk to Davis.)
Coffee's a pretty good thing, too.



Then you should eat the donuts and be happy.

Devereux Beach

Work has been crazy busy this summer. It's mostly a good thing; I have the best coworkers ever, and I also get to work with many adorable children every day. It does, however, mean that I somehow made it to the middle of August with only one beach trip under my belt. This past Sunday, my mom and Dewey picked me up from work and we drove to Devereax Beach in Marblehead. It was a little too cold to swim, but we got plenty of sun and I went up to the water to my knees. It was the perfect thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

(BPL courtyard)

Sometimes I love this city so much it hurts.

Happy Friday, friends.

Oysters with Cait

Recently I have been forced to accept the fact that one of my dearest Boston and Dartmouth friends, Cait, is leaving our city to go to graduate school in Denver.

That means that before she leaves, we have to have as many adventures as possible. A couple of saturdays ago, we met up after work for a trip to Mare in the North End for oysters. It was the perfect summer afternoon- white wine, briny oysters, and one of my favorite people.

She hasn't left yet, and I miss her already.

Tea at the Taj

Last weekend, I went to tea at the Taj with my mom and some of our dearest family friends. It was a lovely and relaxing way to spend a cold Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to go back.