In which I read three books in two days and pretend to be Tom Hanks.
As you may remember from my travel schedule for 2006, I spent the long weekend in Boston. But first, I spent 22 hours at Chicago's O'Hare airport. I don't recommend it. I told myself that if Tom Hanks could live in an airport for a year, I could do it for one night. This did necessitate my buying another book (I'd finished both of the ones I brought along). Luckily I made it onto the last flight to Boston on Friday night and so didn't have to spend a second night there. Yes, I slept in the airport itself. Yes, it was uncomfortable. No, I did not sleep well. Toothpaste at the airport was $4.99, so I bought an apple instead.
I was calm about it up until I called my mother to let her know I hadn't arrived yet. At that point, I fell apart. Imagine the scene: 6:30 am. An open bank of pay phones in the middle of a gate area. A whole bunch of people hoping to get to Boston. And me, crying, as I tell my mother that I'm trapped there and the airline won't do anything for me because it's a weather delay. I was calm after that, too, but I must have sounded completely freaked out on the phone because my mom talked to the hotel people to make sure they wouldn't charge me for the night I couldn't get there, my dad gave me some money ("I always used to think it was strange when your grandfather [my mom's dad] would just give us money because we didn't have much when I was growing up."), and then my mom paid for my hotel room.
The weekend got better once I arrived. I was able to take a shower, for example.
I spent Saturday afternoon wandering about Boston with ruby_fruit, which was lovely. We saw but did not go into Grendel's Den and Leo's, which are both Ben Affleck recommendations.
Saturday evening was family dinner, which was cool. I hadn't seen many of the people there in well over a decade, and some of them were young enough that I'd never met them. My mom and her cousins had quite the time trading family stories. Someone needs to turn the stories into a novel. It's quite the American story full of immigrants, murder, and so many people in a small apartment that my mother and her cousin Eddie each slept in a drawer.
Sunday was the bat mitzvah. (Such things are generally held on Saturday, but this Sunday was Rosh Chodesh, which is generally considered a woman's holiday.) Liora did a lovely job, but being in a congregation that advertises that they offer both traditional and egalitarian services (the egalitarian ones being where women are actually allowed to participate) makes me a bit uneasy. The reception was at the MIT Faculty Club, which had fantastic food and needed the music to be turned down. This is the second family life cycle event in a row where the music at the reception has been loud enough to both obscure conversation and be actually physically painful.
On Monday I wandered about Boston some more and then walked all over Newton before I realized that I had no idea where I was and I needed to turn around and go back to the train station where there was a cab company. (I was actually on the right street, but the number I remembered seeing was 600 and not, as I thought, 900.)
Today's flight was thankfully uneventful, and I've read my email, caught up with LJ, and gone to the grocery store.
I was calm about it up until I called my mother to let her know I hadn't arrived yet. At that point, I fell apart. Imagine the scene: 6:30 am. An open bank of pay phones in the middle of a gate area. A whole bunch of people hoping to get to Boston. And me, crying, as I tell my mother that I'm trapped there and the airline won't do anything for me because it's a weather delay. I was calm after that, too, but I must have sounded completely freaked out on the phone because my mom talked to the hotel people to make sure they wouldn't charge me for the night I couldn't get there, my dad gave me some money ("I always used to think it was strange when your grandfather [my mom's dad] would just give us money because we didn't have much when I was growing up."), and then my mom paid for my hotel room.
The weekend got better once I arrived. I was able to take a shower, for example.
I spent Saturday afternoon wandering about Boston with ruby_fruit, which was lovely. We saw but did not go into Grendel's Den and Leo's, which are both Ben Affleck recommendations.
Saturday evening was family dinner, which was cool. I hadn't seen many of the people there in well over a decade, and some of them were young enough that I'd never met them. My mom and her cousins had quite the time trading family stories. Someone needs to turn the stories into a novel. It's quite the American story full of immigrants, murder, and so many people in a small apartment that my mother and her cousin Eddie each slept in a drawer.
Sunday was the bat mitzvah. (Such things are generally held on Saturday, but this Sunday was Rosh Chodesh, which is generally considered a woman's holiday.) Liora did a lovely job, but being in a congregation that advertises that they offer both traditional and egalitarian services (the egalitarian ones being where women are actually allowed to participate) makes me a bit uneasy. The reception was at the MIT Faculty Club, which had fantastic food and needed the music to be turned down. This is the second family life cycle event in a row where the music at the reception has been loud enough to both obscure conversation and be actually physically painful.
On Monday I wandered about Boston some more and then walked all over Newton before I realized that I had no idea where I was and I needed to turn around and go back to the train station where there was a cab company. (I was actually on the right street, but the number I remembered seeing was 600 and not, as I thought, 900.)
Today's flight was thankfully uneventful, and I've read my email, caught up with LJ, and gone to the grocery store.