This weekend, winter came
or, My Fantastically Freezing Weekend in Boston.
Fall snuck up on me this year, in a way. The leaves have been changing for weeks, and it's certainly been cooling down, but wow. It's almost November already! It really shouldn't have been a huge surprise when I found that I hadn't packed enough layers for my visit to Beantown but geez -- Saturday morning was a rude awakening. The day before, when I had a two-hour layover between buses in Hartford, it had certainly started to get chilly. But on Saturday, although the sun shone brightly and I wore long sleeves under a sweatshirt under a jacket, I seriously envied Erica's hat and gloves, and wished that I'd packed thicker socks.
Of course, I also spent 80% of my day on Saturday outdoors, and was walking around a windy city for about 75% of that time. I got to wander through Cambridge, trek across part of the Harvard campus, and hike all the way across Boston Common, and all the way up Newbury Street to Massachusetts Ave.
Saturday was a very packed day -- especially after an intense Friday that included waiting an extra two hours for my bus, and being hit on by a slightly sketchy dude on a different bus ("When I saw you, I said to myself, 'Here is a beautiful girl who can do something for you...'" Ack.). Erica and I met up with a friend of hers from class on the Common, the site of the annual (?) Pumpkin Festival where volunteers carve pumpkins and try to break the world record for Most Jack o' Lanterns Lit at One Time. It's a big corporate-sponsored thingy where proceeds go to support a children's camp in Maine, so hurray for good causes. We admired everyone else's work, and carved pumpkins of our own, and then there was hot cider and it was all very good. (The two in the upper left corner were carved by Friend's Husband and Erica.)
After carving, we decided to wander up Newbury Street and look for the Life is Good store. So we walked, and walked, and walked. Once there, Friend's Husband and I stood around, vaguely bored, while the other two exclaimed at the cuteness of everything in the store. Yes, the designs are cute and witty; no, I'm not really interested in spending any money on them. After shopping, we grabbed some ice cream -- oreo 'n' coffee might be my new favorite flavor -- and parted ways. I went off to meet Sarah G. for dinner and a show, and the others went...off.
Sarah and I met up to see "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour," one of Stoppard's lesser-performed plays -- reason being that it requires a full orchestra. The production wasn't excellent, but it was good enough. More importantly, it was a chance to actually hear the music; although I'd read the play at some point in the thesis research, there are several passages with stage directions to the effect of "[ORCHESTRA plays as ACTORS do things silently]." These passages don't translate well to the page, and
the music really did add a lot.
However, the lead actors delivered most of their lines in a tone that was too sluggish and drawn-out to work with Stoppard's dialogue. I couldn't decide if it was an acting or a directing choice, but it bothered me the entire time. Stoppard is supposed to be snappy, even when he's writing about political prisoners on hunger strikes. But hey, it's one more production to add to the list, and that's always good.
Side note: The typing of this post was significantly hindered by Dad's cat Elliot, who misses him when he's on business trips, and who is apprently quite jealous of the laptop. In fact, the second half was written with a purring kitty sitting on my chest and blocking my view of most of the screen, so I blame him for any and all wonky typos.
Fall snuck up on me this year, in a way. The leaves have been changing for weeks, and it's certainly been cooling down, but wow. It's almost November already! It really shouldn't have been a huge surprise when I found that I hadn't packed enough layers for my visit to Beantown but geez -- Saturday morning was a rude awakening. The day before, when I had a two-hour layover between buses in Hartford, it had certainly started to get chilly. But on Saturday, although the sun shone brightly and I wore long sleeves under a sweatshirt under a jacket, I seriously envied Erica's hat and gloves, and wished that I'd packed thicker socks.
Of course, I also spent 80% of my day on Saturday outdoors, and was walking around a windy city for about 75% of that time. I got to wander through Cambridge, trek across part of the Harvard campus, and hike all the way across Boston Common, and all the way up Newbury Street to Massachusetts Ave.
Saturday was a very packed day -- especially after an intense Friday that included waiting an extra two hours for my bus, and being hit on by a slightly sketchy dude on a different bus ("When I saw you, I said to myself, 'Here is a beautiful girl who can do something for you...'" Ack.). Erica and I met up with a friend of hers from class on the Common, the site of the annual (?) Pumpkin Festival where volunteers carve pumpkins and try to break the world record for Most Jack o' Lanterns Lit at One Time. It's a big corporate-sponsored thingy where proceeds go to support a children's camp in Maine, so hurray for good causes. We admired everyone else's work, and carved pumpkins of our own, and then there was hot cider and it was all very good. (The two in the upper left corner were carved by Friend's Husband and Erica.)
After carving, we decided to wander up Newbury Street and look for the Life is Good store. So we walked, and walked, and walked. Once there, Friend's Husband and I stood around, vaguely bored, while the other two exclaimed at the cuteness of everything in the store. Yes, the designs are cute and witty; no, I'm not really interested in spending any money on them. After shopping, we grabbed some ice cream -- oreo 'n' coffee might be my new favorite flavor -- and parted ways. I went off to meet Sarah G. for dinner and a show, and the others went...off.
Sarah and I met up to see "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour," one of Stoppard's lesser-performed plays -- reason being that it requires a full orchestra. The production wasn't excellent, but it was good enough. More importantly, it was a chance to actually hear the music; although I'd read the play at some point in the thesis research, there are several passages with stage directions to the effect of "[ORCHESTRA plays as ACTORS do things silently]." These passages don't translate well to the page, and
the music really did add a lot.
However, the lead actors delivered most of their lines in a tone that was too sluggish and drawn-out to work with Stoppard's dialogue. I couldn't decide if it was an acting or a directing choice, but it bothered me the entire time. Stoppard is supposed to be snappy, even when he's writing about political prisoners on hunger strikes. But hey, it's one more production to add to the list, and that's always good.
Side note: The typing of this post was significantly hindered by Dad's cat Elliot, who misses him when he's on business trips, and who is apprently quite jealous of the laptop. In fact, the second half was written with a purring kitty sitting on my chest and blocking my view of most of the screen, so I blame him for any and all wonky typos.