(no subject)
So, I'm still here so far this morning. The weather is foul, and noticeably more so in the hour since I got up and shut my bedroom window and made my morning cup of tea. Happily, however, the banging of my window frames in the wind, which I think started around six, didn't keep me awake like I was fearing, after a truly insufficient night of sleep on Friday night. The worst of the storm is supposed to hit around five this afternoon, and current predictions are calling for sustained winds of 90km/h or 55m/h for a couple of hours around then, with gusts as high as 120km/h or 75m/h. If those predictions come true, it will be... interesting, probably. In preparation so far, roommate J and I have frozen a number of bottles of water, and undertaken significant amounts of cooking, and put the dishwasher through. I also made a large jar of chai-spiced tea to ensure that I have suitable amounts of caffeine available if we lose power. The only thing I didn't manage was batteries for my flashlight. Apparently every flashlight in Boston takes size D batteries, and thus there were none to be found. I guess I'll load the flashlight app onto my phone...
Anyway, yesterday was mostly good, although it didn't go completely to plan, owing to deluging pre-hurricane rain, and my reluctance to drag myself away from ladybird97's ice cream court at Davis Square to return to my side of the Charles in it. I ended up skipping fellow medievalist CT's end-of-summer moved-indoors barbeque in favor of staying home, staying dry, avoiding spending another hour on the T, and cooking supper with bonus leftovers that I can eat today or tomorrow, hot or cold, depending on the situation. I feel kind of bad, since that was my last chance to see a number of people before I leave, plus I even made cookies to take, but the weather and the T definitely won that round.
Yesterday morning I went out to Arlington for brunch/lunch with AB and FNB, who are now married (twice! Once in a Catholic ceremony in South Carolina for her and her family, once in a Hindu ceremony in Calcutta for him and his!). Adventure! I'd never been on the 77 bus or to Arlington before! Plus, AB and FNB cooked me a delicious lunch of curried okra and daal and lassi and coconut macaroons. I wasn't expecting anything that fancy when they invited me! But I really enjoyed it, and I had a nice farewell visit with them. I also finally got to give them their wedding present, which was a bright blue, green, and yellow serving bowl made by a potter from South Slocan, BC. I got it at the art gallery in Vernon while I was home in July, and carried it all the way back to Boston. Then I dropped it yesterday as I was waiting for the bus to Harvard Square, but luckily, I'd left it in the bubble wrap they wrapped it in at the art gallery, and it wasn't damaged. In any case, they really liked it! Even better, it turns out that they're short of serving dishes and will really be able to use it! As they were getting ready to serve lunch, they were going through their cupboards looking for dishes to serve it in, and mostly coming up with pyrex baking/storage containers, and I was all like YES, WIN!! I'm glad it worked out so well!
From Arlington, AB gave me a ride to Alewife station, and I took the train to Davis Square, where ladybird97 was holding her ice cream court at JP Lick's. It was also the first time I've been to Davis Square since my first couple of weeks in Boston, when then-roommate EC and I went over there to go to Macintyre and Moore, purveyors of used academic books. It made for a sort of tidy symbolic bookend of the past five years, I thought. Becky's court was also wonderfully nerdy fun, with dramatic rain and flash-flood warnings, that we monitored both with my iPhone and in the varying expanse of ankle-to-shin deep puddle in the square outside. I wasn't necessarily planning to stay the whole time, but between the deluge and the company, I didn't end up wanting to leave - which made me late for the barbeque and led to me skipping it, but oh well.
Today is for staying inside and packing - all the packing, since JK is supposed to be taking all my stuff home with him tomorrow. There have definitely been some increasingly fierce wind gusts since I started posting, but hopefully it won't end up being packing in the internetless dark. On that note, I've saved some boxes from my move here in the basement, and I should really go and retrieve them before the gloom makes it too dark to see anything down there, or before it fills up with water.
Anyway, yesterday was mostly good, although it didn't go completely to plan, owing to deluging pre-hurricane rain, and my reluctance to drag myself away from ladybird97's ice cream court at Davis Square to return to my side of the Charles in it. I ended up skipping fellow medievalist CT's end-of-summer moved-indoors barbeque in favor of staying home, staying dry, avoiding spending another hour on the T, and cooking supper with bonus leftovers that I can eat today or tomorrow, hot or cold, depending on the situation. I feel kind of bad, since that was my last chance to see a number of people before I leave, plus I even made cookies to take, but the weather and the T definitely won that round.
Yesterday morning I went out to Arlington for brunch/lunch with AB and FNB, who are now married (twice! Once in a Catholic ceremony in South Carolina for her and her family, once in a Hindu ceremony in Calcutta for him and his!). Adventure! I'd never been on the 77 bus or to Arlington before! Plus, AB and FNB cooked me a delicious lunch of curried okra and daal and lassi and coconut macaroons. I wasn't expecting anything that fancy when they invited me! But I really enjoyed it, and I had a nice farewell visit with them. I also finally got to give them their wedding present, which was a bright blue, green, and yellow serving bowl made by a potter from South Slocan, BC. I got it at the art gallery in Vernon while I was home in July, and carried it all the way back to Boston. Then I dropped it yesterday as I was waiting for the bus to Harvard Square, but luckily, I'd left it in the bubble wrap they wrapped it in at the art gallery, and it wasn't damaged. In any case, they really liked it! Even better, it turns out that they're short of serving dishes and will really be able to use it! As they were getting ready to serve lunch, they were going through their cupboards looking for dishes to serve it in, and mostly coming up with pyrex baking/storage containers, and I was all like YES, WIN!! I'm glad it worked out so well!
From Arlington, AB gave me a ride to Alewife station, and I took the train to Davis Square, where ladybird97 was holding her ice cream court at JP Lick's. It was also the first time I've been to Davis Square since my first couple of weeks in Boston, when then-roommate EC and I went over there to go to Macintyre and Moore, purveyors of used academic books. It made for a sort of tidy symbolic bookend of the past five years, I thought. Becky's court was also wonderfully nerdy fun, with dramatic rain and flash-flood warnings, that we monitored both with my iPhone and in the varying expanse of ankle-to-shin deep puddle in the square outside. I wasn't necessarily planning to stay the whole time, but between the deluge and the company, I didn't end up wanting to leave - which made me late for the barbeque and led to me skipping it, but oh well.
Today is for staying inside and packing - all the packing, since JK is supposed to be taking all my stuff home with him tomorrow. There have definitely been some increasingly fierce wind gusts since I started posting, but hopefully it won't end up being packing in the internetless dark. On that note, I've saved some boxes from my move here in the basement, and I should really go and retrieve them before the gloom makes it too dark to see anything down there, or before it fills up with water.