Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mission Accomplished

I pulled back into my own garage shortly before 5:00 pm last night. I knew I'd be returning to one child who stayed home from school puking. I was in the door 30 seconds before I was accosted by another one trying to convince me that $250 on an Airsoft riffle so he can shoot other kids and be shot by them for fun was a good idea. When I disagreed I watched tears roll down his cheeks for the rest of the evening (this has been an ongoing matter of debate for weeks now). When I sat down to get photos off my camera the third child decided that after weeks of me nagging her it was finally time for her to submit some of her financial aid information, online of course. Then the husband came home in a generally disgruntled mood. If it weren't a 5 hour drive I may have turned around and headed back to Boston. Oh, right...Boston....that's what I am supposed to be posting about. Well, I have some fiddling with picture file sizes to do and to decide which of the 150 or so pictures I took to share. but in the meantime let me give a bit of a summary.

I took off Friday morning and stopped in New York to have lunch with a blog pal who no longer blogs. We pretty began reading each other nearly from the beginning of my blog and although he no longer blogs we've kept in touch via email. It was terrific to meet after all this time and enjoy a plate of appetizers together. Since he was on his lunch hour from work and I was in the beginning leg of the trek north I forgot to pull out the camera and document the meeting. You'll just have to take my word that my lunch wasn't with Harvey the rabbit. Thanks for lunch, A.


My cousin Lisa is a chiropractor. I pulled into Boston about an hour before her office closed for the day. She welcomed me with a hug then an adjustment. Finally, she plunked me into a massage chair which I dubbed "Sven" last year when I visited. Ahhh, Sven, your embrace is a welcome respite from the road and demanding people. Run away with me, Sven. We headed home and chilled out with a quick dinner, a couple glasses of wine, and a kid movie with Lisa's son, Jacob. We scrapped plans to go dancing once again. Jacob smiled up at me with his hopeful eyes and big dimples as he asked me to read his bedtime stories. I was helpless against such charms so we crawled in Lisa's bed (since Jacob sweetly gave up his for me) and he took full advantage of my willingness to read story after story.


The dear boy let his mother and me sleep until 10 the next morning. We moved slowly through what remained of the morning before Lisa and Jacob left for an appointment and I headed out on the train to meet Suldog and his wife at the Pleasant Cafe. Lisa and Jacob met us at the restaurant and a good time was had by all. I have a few pictures and more commentary from that particular event, some displaying my derangement in fairly blatant manner. I will share those in another post. For now, let me just say it was an absolutely fantastic time. Suldog and his wife are gracious hosts and funny, funny people. Funny haha, not funny smelling or funny as in barking mad. Once I show you some of the other pictures you may be inclined to regard me as the one who is barking mad though. After lunch Lisa, Jacob and I went to Castle Island so they could show me one of their favorite spots to walk and play. Between the Pleasant Cafe and Castle Island, Saturday was an example of how I love to visit a place and see it through the eyes of people who live there.





Sunday was the food show for Lisa and me. Once again no cameras allowed. Fancy bread bowls, high tech convection ovens, a wall of free booze, wheels of aged Parmesan, and swag bags of ball point pens clearly pose a threat to national security. It was interesting to note the difference between last year and this year. I guess everyone is taking hits because there was far less variety in the food to be sampled this year. There was a lot less meat, a lot more bread, portions were much tinier, and there was much more hoop jumping required. I began to feel a bit like a dolphin performing for fish...but hey, the smoked trout and salmon were worth a trick or two. No complaint s really because my admission to this even was free. It was just interesting to note the differences. Since I don't have any food show pictures here's a shot of Jacob in his new tie dye I took for him.





After the food show Jacob had a birthday party to attend so Lisa dropped me off at Boston Common and I meandered along the Freedom Trail up to the Charles River until it was nearly dark before hopping on the train to head back to their house. The last time I walked the Freedom Trail I was pregnant with Diana. I must say the lack of available public restrooms at that time made it somewhat less relaxing. This time it was a a nice contemplative walk with lovely doses of history breaking into my thoughts as I arrived at each site along the trail. Walking back to Lisa's house from the T station I was struck by the sight of the houses in her neighborhood silhouetted against the sky with their windows glowing welcomingly. It was a nice punctuation for the end of the weekend.

20 comments:

Bijoux said...

How cool to visit with some fellow bloggers.......looking foward to more trip stories and pics!

Jeni said...

I am now totally jealous of your trip. A visit to the city of Boston -a place I've never been (OK, there are many, many of those places just in PA where I've never visited, but Boston -WOW!) And lunch with Suldog and his lovely wife -that is awesome!

Desmond Jones said...

Wow, sounds like a great trip! And lunching with two fellow-bloggers is making me jealous (of course, if you ever have the occasion to be up our way, we hope you'll stop in to say hello).

Don't run off w/ Sven, tho - your family needs you. . . ;)

Jazz said...

Sounds like a great time. And you got to meet Suldog!!

S said...

I guess I expected to see snow out there on the sidewalk! Hurray no snow!

Looking forward to seeing more pictures and glad you had a fun time with your Cousin and son!
:)

@ <---I have decided to give you some chocolates in this form. Pretend its one of those chocolates with a swirl on top! :P

furiousBall said...

that's awesome, i need to see my chiro in a big way...

Jinksy said...

Goodness alone knows how I've not aleady added a 252 yr old blogger to my reading list! Hi! thanks to Suldog...

Suldog said...

A lovely time it was, indeed, and you know I mean that. By the way, for those interested, that is MY WIFE in the lower right hand corner of the "Pleasant Cafe" sign. She's shy.

Hi to Lisa and Jacob! We enjoyed your company tremendously!

Ed & Jeanne said...

Of course to this I must now say:



Michelle Lyrics
Artist(Band):The Beatles Review The Song (46) Print the Lyrics




Send "Michelle" Ringtones to Cell


Michelle, ma belle.
These are words that go together well,
My Michelle.

Michelle, ma belle.
Sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble,
Très bien ensemble.

Bwahahahahaha... you can see where this will be going for months now!

Ed & Jeanne said...

ps - Just wait for my endless parodies...

g-man said...

OOOOH, Too bad VE doesn't know you HATE that song!! hehehe
Myself, I enjoy it...
Your brief respite seemed wonderful, too bad vacations have to end....G

Anonymous said...

What a bummer that you came home to such chaos, but how wonderful to get away for the weekend and really relax! :)

I can't wait to see the rest of the pics! :)

Hilary said...

Sounds like a great weekend. I love Boston and I'm so glad you got to meet Suldog.. looking forward to reading more about that. :)

Kat said...

Ahh. What a great weekend. I don't blame you for wanting to turn around and head back. :)

Anonymous said...

How great that you met up with your friends and that you met the one and only Suldog.

Maddy said...

How wonderful to escape for a break, however vicariously. Thank you.

(M)ary said...

Awesome. Sounds like a wonderful way to spend the first weekend of spring.

The Zombieslayer said...

Forget Sven. I want to meet Lisa.

I got a great chiropractor now after going through several chiropractors to find one that actually accomplished something. Chiropractors to me are very hit or miss. The one I have now is great, and I'm finally getting to maintenance mode (almost there).

As for the airsoft, I wrote a long email. It really is a tough call. I don't let my son play Grand Theft Auto and I'm that one father that everyone talks about now apparently.

Commander Zaius said...

Just from looking at the window sign I really dig the Pleasant Cafe. Places like that have a real atmosphere.
The weekend trip sounds fantastic and I've been on trips that when I return I find all hell broke loose.
Had a similar debate over an airsoft gun a while back as well.

misticblu said...

first of all the computer story is sooooooooo familiar..it actually lead to minime's laptop and our now-useless WIFI.
Second, how freakin lucky can someone be to have a chiro in the family!?
I would settle for a yearly visit such as that, since 09 ins change took away my paid priveleges.
Can't wait to see Boston.