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a day wandering around boston–mostly in the park and copley square :) it was 100 degrees out, wicked hot, in the vernacular :P and i was reminded how nothing in boston is half-hearted: the winters are cold, the summers are hot, and the sports fans are die-hard.
i’m back in boston–in cambridge, to be precise–and i couldn’t be happier. i love love love this town. i have to keep reminding myself that it morphs into a completely different place in the winter, that i don’t get along with that place, and that i left that place a year ago.* but it’s so hard to think of that because i love this place.
i love that the first thing i smelled when i walked through the airport (at 5 am; took a red-eye) was dunkin donuts + coffee. i love that the houses here make me think i went back in time. i love that its 92 degrees here in the summer, and the sun blinks back from the charles river with all kinds of fake innocence. i love that there are a million ice cream shops. and that there is no sales tax on clothes. i love that i feel inspired just being here. that i know where things here are. that i am simultaneously never and always lost.
i had a delicious and charming dinner with two friends tonight, and we discussed my (our?) lack of motivation and ability (see “weaksauce”), and i wonder if some of that has to do with geography. i feel more inspired here. just being here. although that could be because i am on vacation. but i do feel like i had more creative energy when i lived her–and i think i did manage to produce more work here–i wrote a few short stories, one long story, painted a ridiculous amount, finished the rubik’s cube (had to go to austin for that), and had all kinds of adventures.
im also running on less than 5 hours of sleep in the past 30 hours, so you know. this magic could really be delirium. or the nefarious work of a gorgeous summer. if i were visiting in january, would i feel the same?
*remind me to blog about this more fully. i didn’t leave only because the winter was tough.
i’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that one of the major reasons i am so sick all the time is that i can’t for the life of me get a full night’s sleep out here. why hello, midnight 1 am 2 am 3 am, we meet again.
it snowed last night (not in cambridge, technically, but in a suburb not far), and with that, the last remnants of autumn and my sanity are gone. at 9:30 this morning, as i walked to work (i have a late start on some fridays), it was 36 degrees out. i’m sure some of you are romanticizing winter as you read this, but let me tell you – it’s not what you think. winter is nice when you have a good heating system, and house that’s effectively heated. i wear gloves in my bedroom. and winter is nice when you live near everywhere you have to be – my roommates and i have to walk at least 10-15 minutes to the nearest T stations, grocery stores, coffee shops, and farther to anything else. and winter might be nice after a long, hot summer, or even a short, hot summer — or any summer at all for that matter.but we had the darkest, coldest june since 1904, and summer didn’t feel like it started until august. autumn started predictably in september; so you can imagine my despair to find winter this morning, mid-october. i wore my peacoat or down coat through april and a light jacket through june; i started wearing a light jacket again in september, and donned my peacoat early october. if you think autumn is at least beautiful, you’re wrong there too. for some reason, there’s not that much foliage this year. whether or not this will hold true in the long run, as it stands today, i hate this place.
june 2009 was the dimmest month (least amount of sunshine) boston has had since 1903. no lie. and so far, it’s looking like july is going to follow june’s lead. i hate groupies.
this might not be as bad as it sounds — some people relish in the greyshine, i know. but we also had a ridiculously gray winter, and i’m really starting to feel it. and with good cause. sunshine is all kinds of healthy.
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