the parsley.blog.landscape.life

originally posted November 21, 2008
I seem to have given the impression that I travel a lot. actually, over the last few years I’ve been working and going to school, and have had almost no time off to speak of.  the one week in the whole year that I could really get away (not counting Christmas, which was always a family obligation) was in September, the break between academic quarters.

so, the year I went to Boston, I wanted to see a lot.  I grew up in the suburbs of Boston from ages 8-17, important years, but no one in my family lives there any more.  Going back on my own, I had a lot of reminiscing to do, including marveling at the results of the Big Dig, and seeing that you can now just walk straight across from City Hall to the North End – the way the city must once have worked.  amazing.

I trudged all over Boston Common, the Public Garden, Downtown Crossing; bought boxes of candy to bring back to the office at the original Filene’s Basement, while overhead the actual Filene’s was having its going-out-of-business sale.

One day I went to MIT to look at architecture:

then walked all the way along the river back to Harvard, which is several miles, and since it happened to be the fall equinox, I ran across a sunset celebration that involved a choir singing on the Weeks Bridge, illuminated dragon boats, and giant puppets.

I lost my cell phone on the riverbank in the course of all this; after an unsuccessful search, called my own number and had a nice chat with the person who had found my phone, who had already had nice chats with my mom and my sister via my speed dial. I met the phone-finder at Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square, the very same place I used to hang out with my friends in high school, and got my phone back.  (When I read “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” in college, I could only ever picture sitting outside on the plaza at that Au Bon Pain, under the lights in the trees on a summer night.)

just to complete the sentimental journey, I did go back to my home town.  the people now living in our old house have painted it a very strange color, and done something even odder with the garden. I didn’t knock on the door and ask them whether the yellow tulips I planted when I was sixteen were still coming up every spring.

I went out to the nearby reservoir:

where we used to sled when we were kids; later on, it was a great place to kiss boys.  I remember that pretty well…

then, off to Logan Airport, where I sat waiting for my flight and wincing at the particularly broad Boston accents of the security announcers (there are some things I don’t miss too much) and thinking about the one kid I knew from high school who flew out of that airport for the last time on 9/11.

back home in Los angeles, I broke out the candy I had bought for the office and put it on the back table. in trying for local character, I got some kind of cranberry chocolates, and  just for fun, gummi lighthouses.  but I didn’t realize just how much fun. I soon heard uncontrollable giggling coming from the back of the office, and had to go back and look at the effect my gift was having.

these, by the way, are the gummi lighthouses.  I had to take a picture for posterity. I just can’t emphasize strongly enough that these are LIGHTHOUSES.  shut UP.