#23 Boston - Bingo at Symphony Hall - November 11, 2004
Whasssup, people?
Greetings from Boston, where the weather keeps giving us mixed messages, but nevertheless strong signals that winter is indeed here. After a balmy 65 degree weekend, and today's high of 51, we have also experienced some evenings with temps below 30 degrees, very crisp. A first small batch of snow is due to arrive on Saturday and the weather is supposed to settle in the 30-45 degree range for the next week. It has been sunny nevertheless, and that makes up for the loss of daylight. [Is everyone else this tired? My God!]
The lovely weekend allowed for some great activities and for a good mood overall. I sailed into the weekend on Friday by attending a benefit for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. The shindig took place at the Institute for Contemporary Art (http://www.icaboston.org/Home) and was called "Chocolate for a Cause" (the title was enough to lure me there). For $25 you got two drinks (chocolate Martini among others, and one of my favorite beers, Magic Hat #9) and all the chocolate you could eat. Excellent chocolatiers from all over the area supplied their truffles, and let me tell you folks, there was some pretty decent sweet stuff there. Boston Restaurant Lumiere absolutely wowed me with their white chocolate ice cream - fab, fab and fab! (http://bostonchefs.com/clients/Lumiere/rest_page/) The ICA featured a photography exhibit by Boris and Vita Mikhailov - his photos document "the height, decline, and fall of the Soviet Union and its disturbing aftermath". According to ICA, Mikhailov became a photographer not by choice, he was an engineer. However the KGB found some nude photos he took of his wife, and that was it for his engineering career. The photography was not something I could relate to much, but it was nevertheless a very enjoyable evening.
Saturday I decided (guilt, guilt and guilt) to finally volunteer again with Boston Cares - this time I helped out at the Boston Living Center, a non-profit that serves people with HIV/AIDS. My job was to help cook and serve lunch, which was a lot of fun. [http://www.bostonlivingcenter.org/aboutus.shtml].
Later that day I went to my first activity with the MIT Euroclub here - what a group! [http://euroclub.mit.edu/] These people are insane - there is something happening constantly! You can join anything from their knitting group to bicycling, badminton, skiing, cultural events.... We all met at a very beautiful Thai restaurant called Bangkok City, had a wonderful and lively dinner with folks from Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Korea (I know, I know it is NOT in Europe, but we do let other people join us) and then all headed for the Boston Symphony Hall, where we attended a concert. The symphony hall is an absolutely stunning place [http://www.bso.org/symphonyHallHome.jhtml?sh=1&_requestid=226031]! We attended a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with famous conductor James Levine - the BSO is a great orchestra, however the night's selection was not necessarily up my alley. Classical music is tricky for me, there is no grey zone, either I feel compassionately about it or I don't. This was a "don't" kind of evening. The best part was "Symphony Bingo", a game I started to play with my new Russian friend Liz. One of the pieces was the final scene from the Opera Salome, a very difficult part to sing, I must admit, but that did not make it any prettier. It is one of those musical pieces, that If you do not really really really like classical music, you will NOT change your mind. At any moment I was expecting all the neighborhood cats to come in the door and join the auditory fracas going on (not to say that the soprano was bad, she did get a standing ovation.... hmmmh....). The opera was sung in German, and despite our best efforts we could not figure out where in the text listed in the program the performer was at any given moment. Whenever we recognized any word that she was singing, one of us said "Bingo!" Fun was had by all!
Sunday invited for a drive, so my friend Linda #3 and I headed up the Northshore to go antiquing - we centered our search around the area of Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea/ Cape Ann and it was a lovely day to explore new areas. [http://www.cape-ann.com/aboutmanchester.html]. It was definitely relaxing after the Sunday morning I had, which involved some hectic caused by chores and an incident that involved my cell phone and a crockpot. Buster Keaton would have been proud.
Work is very busy these days, we have such a huge deadline coming up and an insurmountable amount of work leading up to it. Lots of late and early meetings, challenges and good learning experiences. We might be expecting some breathing room early next year. Maybe.
Of course I do have to end with a little amusement, so here is a scrap from a website called redsoxdiehard.com:
You might be a Bostonian if...
• You think of Philadelphia as the deep south.
• You think there are only 25 letters in the alphabet (no R).
• You think three straight days of 90+ degrees is a heat wave.
• All your pets are named after Celtics Hall-of-Famers.
• You refer to 6 inches of snow as a dusting.
• Just hearing the words New York puts you in an angry frenzy.
• You know the significance of 1918.
• Your favorite adjective is wicked.
• You think 63 degree ocean water is warm.
• You still can't bear to watch highlights from game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
• You believe using your turn signal is a sign of weakness.
• You don't realize that you talk twice as fast as everyone else.
On that note, cheerio!
pet:)
Greetings from Boston, where the weather keeps giving us mixed messages, but nevertheless strong signals that winter is indeed here. After a balmy 65 degree weekend, and today's high of 51, we have also experienced some evenings with temps below 30 degrees, very crisp. A first small batch of snow is due to arrive on Saturday and the weather is supposed to settle in the 30-45 degree range for the next week. It has been sunny nevertheless, and that makes up for the loss of daylight. [Is everyone else this tired? My God!]
The lovely weekend allowed for some great activities and for a good mood overall. I sailed into the weekend on Friday by attending a benefit for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. The shindig took place at the Institute for Contemporary Art (http://www.icaboston.org/Home) and was called "Chocolate for a Cause" (the title was enough to lure me there). For $25 you got two drinks (chocolate Martini among others, and one of my favorite beers, Magic Hat #9) and all the chocolate you could eat. Excellent chocolatiers from all over the area supplied their truffles, and let me tell you folks, there was some pretty decent sweet stuff there. Boston Restaurant Lumiere absolutely wowed me with their white chocolate ice cream - fab, fab and fab! (http://bostonchefs.com/clients/Lumiere/rest_page/) The ICA featured a photography exhibit by Boris and Vita Mikhailov - his photos document "the height, decline, and fall of the Soviet Union and its disturbing aftermath". According to ICA, Mikhailov became a photographer not by choice, he was an engineer. However the KGB found some nude photos he took of his wife, and that was it for his engineering career. The photography was not something I could relate to much, but it was nevertheless a very enjoyable evening.
Saturday I decided (guilt, guilt and guilt) to finally volunteer again with Boston Cares - this time I helped out at the Boston Living Center, a non-profit that serves people with HIV/AIDS. My job was to help cook and serve lunch, which was a lot of fun. [http://www.bostonlivingcenter.org/aboutus.shtml].
Later that day I went to my first activity with the MIT Euroclub here - what a group! [http://euroclub.mit.edu/] These people are insane - there is something happening constantly! You can join anything from their knitting group to bicycling, badminton, skiing, cultural events.... We all met at a very beautiful Thai restaurant called Bangkok City, had a wonderful and lively dinner with folks from Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Korea (I know, I know it is NOT in Europe, but we do let other people join us) and then all headed for the Boston Symphony Hall, where we attended a concert. The symphony hall is an absolutely stunning place [http://www.bso.org/symphonyHallHome.jhtml?sh=1&_requestid=226031]! We attended a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with famous conductor James Levine - the BSO is a great orchestra, however the night's selection was not necessarily up my alley. Classical music is tricky for me, there is no grey zone, either I feel compassionately about it or I don't. This was a "don't" kind of evening. The best part was "Symphony Bingo", a game I started to play with my new Russian friend Liz. One of the pieces was the final scene from the Opera Salome, a very difficult part to sing, I must admit, but that did not make it any prettier. It is one of those musical pieces, that If you do not really really really like classical music, you will NOT change your mind. At any moment I was expecting all the neighborhood cats to come in the door and join the auditory fracas going on (not to say that the soprano was bad, she did get a standing ovation.... hmmmh....). The opera was sung in German, and despite our best efforts we could not figure out where in the text listed in the program the performer was at any given moment. Whenever we recognized any word that she was singing, one of us said "Bingo!" Fun was had by all!
Sunday invited for a drive, so my friend Linda #3 and I headed up the Northshore to go antiquing - we centered our search around the area of Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea/ Cape Ann and it was a lovely day to explore new areas. [http://www.cape-ann.com/aboutmanchester.html]. It was definitely relaxing after the Sunday morning I had, which involved some hectic caused by chores and an incident that involved my cell phone and a crockpot. Buster Keaton would have been proud.
Work is very busy these days, we have such a huge deadline coming up and an insurmountable amount of work leading up to it. Lots of late and early meetings, challenges and good learning experiences. We might be expecting some breathing room early next year. Maybe.
Of course I do have to end with a little amusement, so here is a scrap from a website called redsoxdiehard.com:
You might be a Bostonian if...
• You think of Philadelphia as the deep south.
• You think there are only 25 letters in the alphabet (no R).
• You think three straight days of 90+ degrees is a heat wave.
• All your pets are named after Celtics Hall-of-Famers.
• You refer to 6 inches of snow as a dusting.
• Just hearing the words New York puts you in an angry frenzy.
• You know the significance of 1918.
• Your favorite adjective is wicked.
• You think 63 degree ocean water is warm.
• You still can't bear to watch highlights from game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
• You believe using your turn signal is a sign of weakness.
• You don't realize that you talk twice as fast as everyone else.
On that note, cheerio!
pet:)
posted by My Boston at
5:08 PM
1 Comments:
I can’t believe how popular bingo has become in the last few years! It seems like everyman and his dog is playing so I decided to give it a go, I originally went to the halls but after a while of not winning I packed that in and decided to do it at home and play some online bingo instead. They were easier and there’s more variation and interesting people to chat to! The recent rise of bingo is amazing - one site has over 3 million members! Unbelievable!
By
bruce, at 8:21 AM
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