#25 From Boston to Oklahoma and a Thanksgiving with UFOs - November 27, 2004
Howdy Partners!
Greetings from the Sooner State! I have come here to spend Thanksgiving with my friends Ulli and Gerald, and their two lovely daughters Louise and Siri. This is my annual visit here to the state where the wind blows and so on and the state motto is "Oklahoma is OK", which I have to admit is not terribly exciting. But then again not every state motto can be as dramatic as New Hampshire's which says "Live Free or Die" or as poetic as Massachusetts' "The Spirit of America".
[http://www.ok.gov/]
Still in Boston, last weekend, I went for the first time to the IMAX dome theater at the Boston Museum of Science (http://www.mos.org/) and saw a film called "Forces of Nature" featuring such lovely events as tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. I left there with a slight bout of nausea, but recuperated fairly well and quickly - next time a little Dramamine might be in order.
Saturday I actually got back into one of my old habits, and did some baking, before heading out to a housewarming party in Sharon, Massachusetts (http://www.townofsharon.net/) where my friend Glenn and his kids Madison and Noah (aka Mamba Boy as featured in a recent short documentary) celebrated their new digs. It took me a while to get there as I was stuck on 93 South (also known as the distressway), which looked more like a parking lot that day. The party was a lot of fun with tons of nice people and about 20 crock-pots.
Sunday I once again headed for the MA countryside, this time to Ashland, Mass. The town's claim to fame is Henry Warren who invented the synchronous self-starting motor and Telechron Clock - hence the town's football team is named "The Clockers", a name not everyone is apparently happy about (maybe they got clocked one or two times too many). Our aim in Ashland was to drive to my friend Renee's house and retrieve an antique trunk that her parents decided to give to me. Driving home with a trunk sticking two thirds out of my car was interesting and a tad nerve-wracking, but we managed alright - and the trunk is wonderful in my studio and doubles as a comfy, cozy window seat.
Monday night I attend the Boston Ski and Sports Club's Monday Night Football event at a bar called "Porters" which is fortunately only three blocks from my house, and a very nice place. The Zagat Guide in 2001 called it "Upscale for a Bar, Sporty for a Grill". (http://www.portersbar.com/) It was definitely a great event, and everyone had fun watching our beloved New England Patriots (once again) drive home a win. I discovered my current new favorite beer, Harpoon's Winterwarmer Ale - fantastic! (Did I mention that I like beer? I have been to scared so far to attend any of the events from the Beeradvocate group here in Boston, however at some point it might be unavoidable!).
Tuesday night, after a couple of tight and stressful days at work, I headed to Cambridge with my friend Linda dell'Olio (aka Linda #3) to the Cambridge Antique Market, which is a wonderful house, five stories full of antiques and wonderful things to look at! (http://www.marketantique.com/cambridg.htm).
Wednesday started horrendously early - heading to the airport to fly to Oklahoma at 6 AM, unfortunately through Chicago, but I have to say it went pretty smooth this time. Only a 20-minute delay, and even though I had to transfer between terminals everything seemed to go like clockwork. It was a long day, and we unfortunately had something very sad happen on the drive back from the airport when a dog ran into our car. Apparently this is a common occurrence and frequent problem here with stray dogs, which roam the countryside. I have had a hard time with this as you can imagine. Hats off though to my friend Gerald, who handled the situation pretty well.
On Thanksgiving, as a pre-emptive strike for the food that we were to ingest later, I went for a walk and jog in the morning with Ulli and the two girls, and look at a new development in the neighborhood called Berry Creek. It is scary to see what took place there, a gated community with houses in sort of a very gaudy faux French Country Style. It's almost like watching a bad accident, just so bad you have to look. The fun part for the kids was the entrance, where someone put detergent in a little pond on a little manicured piece of lawn with an artificial waterfall, and the good Oklahoma wind blew soap clouds all over the place.
On the way home we enjoyed collecting tons of Pecan nuts fresh off the tree!
Another tradition here is to decorate the house with lights for the upcoming Christmas season, and the whole neighborhood is currently rising to the challenge (of course our house here is the prettiest, no contest!).
Thanksgiving itself was celebrated with the UFOs, the Untenured Faculty Organization of Oklahoma State University, which was loads of fun! A very mixed group of bright adults, cheerful kids and a Boston terrier named Kaelyn who was not afraid to perform dog tricks for bits of turkey and cheesecake. I had some Pumpkin Ale with the meal, all in the spirit of the season.
Today we headed to Oklahoma City to the Museum of Art to see an exhibit called "Millet to Matisse: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century French Painting from Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow" - a very nice exhibit, with some wonderful paintings by Millet, who was one of the greatest painters of peasant scenes, Jules Breton, who depicted the hardship of the Urban Poor and a new discovery for me, Bastien Lepage. There were of course Monets, Renoirs, Van Goghs, and Seurats! The museum is wonderful (http://www.okcmoa.com/); it has the largest most comprehensive collection of Dale Chihuly's glasswork in the world, in particular his glass tower at the main entrance, which is three stories high. Quite a sight and most amazing!
Afterward it was kid's time and we headed for the Oklahoma Zoo, which was actually a lot of fun, in particular the hippos were my favorite! Driving home and enjoying a beautiful vast Oklahoma sky dipped in reds, yellows and purple was a great end to a very nice day.
I have been enjoying my time here very much, we have been reminiscing of course, back to our student days in Freiburg, watching German comedy on television (for my German friends: Loriot "Ja wo laufen sie denn?, Ja wo laufen sie denn?") and we are enjoying each other's company. Playing a lot of games with the girls (kids' version of Cranium and some treasure hunting.) Tomorrow is a party here in the house, early Christmas type of event, and Sunday we are possibly heading up north to the Woolaroc Native American museum in Bartlesville.
Time to go, hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, see you back in Boston.
Petra
Greetings from the Sooner State! I have come here to spend Thanksgiving with my friends Ulli and Gerald, and their two lovely daughters Louise and Siri. This is my annual visit here to the state where the wind blows and so on and the state motto is "Oklahoma is OK", which I have to admit is not terribly exciting. But then again not every state motto can be as dramatic as New Hampshire's which says "Live Free or Die" or as poetic as Massachusetts' "The Spirit of America".
[http://www.ok.gov/]
Still in Boston, last weekend, I went for the first time to the IMAX dome theater at the Boston Museum of Science (http://www.mos.org/) and saw a film called "Forces of Nature" featuring such lovely events as tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. I left there with a slight bout of nausea, but recuperated fairly well and quickly - next time a little Dramamine might be in order.
Saturday I actually got back into one of my old habits, and did some baking, before heading out to a housewarming party in Sharon, Massachusetts (http://www.townofsharon.net/) where my friend Glenn and his kids Madison and Noah (aka Mamba Boy as featured in a recent short documentary) celebrated their new digs. It took me a while to get there as I was stuck on 93 South (also known as the distressway), which looked more like a parking lot that day. The party was a lot of fun with tons of nice people and about 20 crock-pots.
Sunday I once again headed for the MA countryside, this time to Ashland, Mass. The town's claim to fame is Henry Warren who invented the synchronous self-starting motor and Telechron Clock - hence the town's football team is named "The Clockers", a name not everyone is apparently happy about (maybe they got clocked one or two times too many). Our aim in Ashland was to drive to my friend Renee's house and retrieve an antique trunk that her parents decided to give to me. Driving home with a trunk sticking two thirds out of my car was interesting and a tad nerve-wracking, but we managed alright - and the trunk is wonderful in my studio and doubles as a comfy, cozy window seat.
Monday night I attend the Boston Ski and Sports Club's Monday Night Football event at a bar called "Porters" which is fortunately only three blocks from my house, and a very nice place. The Zagat Guide in 2001 called it "Upscale for a Bar, Sporty for a Grill". (http://www.portersbar.com/) It was definitely a great event, and everyone had fun watching our beloved New England Patriots (once again) drive home a win. I discovered my current new favorite beer, Harpoon's Winterwarmer Ale - fantastic! (Did I mention that I like beer? I have been to scared so far to attend any of the events from the Beeradvocate group here in Boston, however at some point it might be unavoidable!).
Tuesday night, after a couple of tight and stressful days at work, I headed to Cambridge with my friend Linda dell'Olio (aka Linda #3) to the Cambridge Antique Market, which is a wonderful house, five stories full of antiques and wonderful things to look at! (http://www.marketantique.com/cambridg.htm).
Wednesday started horrendously early - heading to the airport to fly to Oklahoma at 6 AM, unfortunately through Chicago, but I have to say it went pretty smooth this time. Only a 20-minute delay, and even though I had to transfer between terminals everything seemed to go like clockwork. It was a long day, and we unfortunately had something very sad happen on the drive back from the airport when a dog ran into our car. Apparently this is a common occurrence and frequent problem here with stray dogs, which roam the countryside. I have had a hard time with this as you can imagine. Hats off though to my friend Gerald, who handled the situation pretty well.
On Thanksgiving, as a pre-emptive strike for the food that we were to ingest later, I went for a walk and jog in the morning with Ulli and the two girls, and look at a new development in the neighborhood called Berry Creek. It is scary to see what took place there, a gated community with houses in sort of a very gaudy faux French Country Style. It's almost like watching a bad accident, just so bad you have to look. The fun part for the kids was the entrance, where someone put detergent in a little pond on a little manicured piece of lawn with an artificial waterfall, and the good Oklahoma wind blew soap clouds all over the place.
On the way home we enjoyed collecting tons of Pecan nuts fresh off the tree!
Another tradition here is to decorate the house with lights for the upcoming Christmas season, and the whole neighborhood is currently rising to the challenge (of course our house here is the prettiest, no contest!).
Thanksgiving itself was celebrated with the UFOs, the Untenured Faculty Organization of Oklahoma State University, which was loads of fun! A very mixed group of bright adults, cheerful kids and a Boston terrier named Kaelyn who was not afraid to perform dog tricks for bits of turkey and cheesecake. I had some Pumpkin Ale with the meal, all in the spirit of the season.
Today we headed to Oklahoma City to the Museum of Art to see an exhibit called "Millet to Matisse: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century French Painting from Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow" - a very nice exhibit, with some wonderful paintings by Millet, who was one of the greatest painters of peasant scenes, Jules Breton, who depicted the hardship of the Urban Poor and a new discovery for me, Bastien Lepage. There were of course Monets, Renoirs, Van Goghs, and Seurats! The museum is wonderful (http://www.okcmoa.com/); it has the largest most comprehensive collection of Dale Chihuly's glasswork in the world, in particular his glass tower at the main entrance, which is three stories high. Quite a sight and most amazing!
Afterward it was kid's time and we headed for the Oklahoma Zoo, which was actually a lot of fun, in particular the hippos were my favorite! Driving home and enjoying a beautiful vast Oklahoma sky dipped in reds, yellows and purple was a great end to a very nice day.
I have been enjoying my time here very much, we have been reminiscing of course, back to our student days in Freiburg, watching German comedy on television (for my German friends: Loriot "Ja wo laufen sie denn?, Ja wo laufen sie denn?") and we are enjoying each other's company. Playing a lot of games with the girls (kids' version of Cranium and some treasure hunting.) Tomorrow is a party here in the house, early Christmas type of event, and Sunday we are possibly heading up north to the Woolaroc Native American museum in Bartlesville.
Time to go, hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, see you back in Boston.
Petra
posted by My Boston at
6:29 AM
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