#30 Boston - A Bit Mushy - December 31, 2004

Hello my friends!

I was welcomed back by the lovely city of Boston with heaps of snow (figures, the minute I leave town the snow comes down in piles) and with the warmer weather today those wonderful accumulations of mush and slush that line the streets. Try to manage that in high heels! The celebrations for First Night are well under way - my only worry being the ice sculptures that could possibly melt before I will be able to admire them. Linda and Roger have picked out for a program for tonight and my new friend Arlene might join us as well. I look forward to a nice celebration tonight and a relaxing weekend to follow.
The elevator company still has not retrieved my keys, and in the next segment of this series of somewhat unfortunate events, the caahh, my beloved Ella, is not showing any signs of life. She will have to be resuscitated on Monday and taken to the car doc in Arlington.
On the good news front, my brother has a new computer keyboard and his comma-less life is over!
I returned last night from Germany, after an absolutely exhausting trip, which involved a 9-hour flight from Zurich to Washington, DC, a delay and a serious jogging experience across Dulles Airport in order to catch the connecting flight to Boston. Nine hours in a plane with movies that I either had seen already last week or that were not even worthy of B movie status was arduous and a serious test of patience.
I had a wonderful Christmas holiday in Germany - for some reason I experience the holiday in my hometown community as gentler and softer - not to say that it is not equally commercialized in Germany. It was wonderful to spend time with my brother, his girlfriend and her family. Being back in Neuenburg is always as if I have stepped into a parallel universe - everything is familiar, memories are everywhere despite the changes in our little town, and despite the fact that I live thousands of miles away. En route to my aunt's place I walk by the house where I was born, I see the cobbler's place, an old, bedraggled hovel of a house that is no longer inhabitable. I remember going in there as a kid, walking up the tiny gnarly staircase, shoes everywhere, and picking up shoes (I still don't know how he ever found them in the mess in there) from the cobbler, who rarely spoke more than a few words.
On Monday this week, we had yet another meeting of the Schoki Club - a group of friends of mine that I have known since kindergarten. (For my English-speaking friends, Schoki is hot chocolate - makes a lot of sense doesn't it?). At some point during the evening we decided to head for the restaurant Salmen, which had recently been remodeled and is now a fairly decent place to eat and have a good conversation. That is true, however you still find some of the more serious addiction dipsomaniacs who stagger past you on their way out. One lesson learned this evening is that those business plans that you start hatching after a drink or two with some friends who are in equally good spirits, might be just a tad more unrealistic once daylight hits. Nevertheless we did have a blast of a time, and I still think about our "novel" idea of having bookstore/coffeshop/eatery (Spaghetti once a week!!).
Another activity I enjoy when I visit home is to watch winter sports on TV. German and Swiss television channels constantly feature ski and winter sport events, and you have seen nothing until you have witnessed a stadium full of 52,000 spectators (flags and all) cheering on a biathlon event! Unbelievable! I myself am totally partial to ski jumping which has been my favorite since I was a kid.

Of course, this past week has been overshadowed by the tragic events in Asia, and we were just beyond belief and beyond comprehension of what has taken place. A family who lived across the street from my dad lost their house in Sri Lanka, but fortunately everyone was safe and they have the comfort of being able to return to a home in Germany. Many people did not have that chance.

My friends, I wanted wish you a great start into this new year! May it bring you lots of adventure and fun, laughter, friendship and most of all, lots of love. Think good thoughts, and let's hope that all this suffering will be followed by many acts of kindness and a small miracle here and there.

Wishing you all the best,

pet:)

#29 Boston - Christmas in Germany without Commas - December 25 2004

Froehliche Weihnachten! Merry Christmas!

I am sitting here in my home town in Gemany on my brother's somewhat disfunctional computer - the comma is not working so look forward to some interesting ways for me to structure this week's oration. I also could just pretend to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez and write without any punctuation whatsoever. Some folks consider that great literature. Ha!
I arrived here in a pretty languid state - due to my late booking of my flight I had a very interesting itinerary and the pleasure of a six hour layover in Washington DC. I spent this time sprawled out on a few seats in my boarding area reading through three issues of Newsweek and half a book. After an overnight flight and landing in Zurich my brother and I zipped back to Germany (I forgot how fast you can drive here - always a bit scary at first) and after speed-wrapping six dozen gifts I jumped in a car to get my hair colored and cut (at a fraction of the extortionate Boston rates of course). Then it was off to dinner #1 at my aunt's house (Ham and potato salad) to be followed by festivities at my brother's pad a little later. It was quite the culinary feast - and Marion's sister Andrea (who lived up to her role as the best amateur chef of the region) once again delighted us with a "Gourmet Magazine" worthy creation of lemon ice cream tartlets that were just to die for. A germane amount of lovely gifts were traded to the delight of everyone involved - and a good time was had by all. Once I started seriously fading out and threaten to fall asleep sitting up at the table - I was sent to bed and went downstairs for some serious shut eye. Christmas eve is the important evening tradition in German Christmas celebrations - we all enjoyed a harmonious evening and each other's company.

Today is a nice and relaxing day with a pretty disconsolate sky and the promise of really cold weather tomorrow. I was able to get some jogging in though this morning - and of course some more of that healthy Christmas diet involving loads of cookies and such.

Before I left to come here things got busy as you can imagine. The toil and moil at work did get intense - a deadline and Christmas do not seem to make a great combination. Friday last I headed to Copley Place and the Old South Church where a concert of the Chorus Pro Musica took place (http://www.choruspromusica.org/). Considered one of the premier choruses of New England they performed a magnificent selection of French and American Christmas songs titled "Joyeux Noel". The Old South Church (http://www.oldsouth.org/) was established in 1872 in the style of Northern Italian gothic architecture and "is distinguished by its tall bell tower; brown, pink and grey stonework; walls of Roxbury puddingstone; decorative carvings; a roof striped with tiles of red and black slate; and a cupola or lantern of green and russet-colored copper. " A beautiful place to have a concert indeed.

Saturday I spend the day with my friends Linda and Roger - we started off by heading to Deer Island - one of the Boston Harbor Islands. Not the prettiest of them by any means - in particular as it features the very futuristically designed Sewage Treatment Plant for the city of Boston (as my Roger noted "This is where it all ends!"). However it has one of the best views of the city of Boston and the surrounding Massachusetts Bay and its islands. Of course once you take the walk you are exposed to the risk that once in a while the wind shifts unfavorably in your diretion and you get a whiff of something terribly malodorous. In addition a sign alerts you that the irrigation system might go off at any time - with no previous warning! We eventually headed back to the city and after a dinner at my favorite Italian neighborhood restaurant (Antonio's on Cambridge Street) headed over to the Boston Common and watched folks ice skating (more or less skilled) - and then I gave a tour to Linda and Roger of my highlights of Beacon Hill (had to stop by John Kerry's house as usual).
On Sunday I met my friend Christiaan who was in town from Washington DC and had his first visit to the hub. With two of his colleagues we (again - this is becoming a habit) moseyed over to the Boston Common and Frog Pond and did some ice skating. It was Chris' first experience on the ice and he did pretty good. All this physical activity called for some serious sustenance - so we ambled over to the "21st Amendment" for some good sandwiches and beer. All in all a great weekend (maybe except the part where I threw my keys down the elevator shaft....).

It has been chilly over the past week - with the real low point of the week (literally) the night we had minus 5 Fahrenheit with the wind chill. Unfortunately for me I had to go to the drug store - all bundled up I pretty much looked like the Michelin Man trying to rob a bank. It snowed a bit on Monday - aside from that it was just cold! Boston is amazing with its weather patterns - I am now totally obsessed with weather.com and love the fact that there actually is a weather...... I remember during our first snow in November - jogging along the Charles River Esplanade trying to avoid ice and slush when next to me someone was cross country skiing. At the same time sailboats were on the river - how cool is that!

In a somewhat weather-related event - the fifth annual Santa Speedo Run took place in Boston last weekend with men and women in speedos jogging down Newbury Street (enough said - right?) [http://www.santaspeedorun.com/]. It's December for cryin' out loud!!

That's it for today folks - be merry and happy and kind to your friends and family and strangers!

pet:)

My final quote for the day - "Everything is within walking distance - if you have the time" by Steven Wright.

#28 Boston - Jacob Wirth Rules! - December 17, 2004

Who is this Jacob Wirth you may ask? Well my friends, he is a good man - actually our friend Jacob here, he came from a family of wine growers in Prussia and settled in the good old US of A quite some time ago. In 1868 he opened his restaurant across the street from the current locale. The place consists of a typical old style dining hall, but the highlight are Friday nights at Jake's - Mel Stiller on the piano next to the bar plays his heart out, and guess what, everyone sings along. Every table has song books, and in between the tunes, which most people sing decidedly off key, everyone screams page numbers with their ballad of choice at poor Mel. Mel has the final veto though, and if he thinks it is too early to sing "Obladi Oblada" there ain't nothin' you can do. [http://www.jacobwirth.com/]

My favorite bit of the evening was the MBTA Song, which features the tragic saga of "Charlie", an ill-fated chap who was condemned forever to ride the Boston transit system because he did not have the required exit fare (a nickel). It was performed by the Kingston trio in 1959, but was originally written for the 1948 Boston mayoral race to protest a candidate who wanted to charge an extra nickel to exit the system. [Interestingly enough, the MBTA is currently advocating an automated fare collection system called "The Charlie Card". ]

People, I was singing like you would not believe (really, you would not), and I ended up returning home at 1 AM with almost no voice left! Saturday started out slow, on account of the long night, and it was just great to loll around in my PJ's and read, have a good cupa tea, that kind of stuff.

In the afternoon I headed to volunteer as an usher at the Boston Center for the Arts, which is located in yet another (can you stand it?) quaint part of this wonderful town, the South End [http://www.cityofboston.gov/neighborhoods/neighborhoods.asp?id=18]. Cute brick houses, lanterns, neat stores, lotsa culture..... My "work" assignment took place at the beautiful Calderwood Pavillion (http://www.bcaonline.or) - the performance was "Johnny Guitar" a musical spoof based on the 1954 not-so-spoofy and unamusing movie with Joan Crawford. All I had to do is show a few folks to their seat, make sure they did not fall down the steps or over the railing and I was home free. The performance was fabu, very entertaining, and the audience loved it!

Sunday did not start off so well, my old chronic stomach problem decided to come back to haunt me, and so most of the day was spent on the couch watching movies, reading, and taking a nap here or there. I had signed on for the Jingle Bell Run that evening, and I actually scraped myself off the couch and headed toward Back Bay, where a pretty dappled hoi polloi had congregated - most folks were dressed in Santa Claus outfits, and whatever else inspired them. All runners got little bells for their sneakers, and off we went, jingling and such. Running down Comm Ave with a bunch of Santas was so much fun! I met up with some friends from my running group, who won first price in the costume contest. The Hash House Harriers ("A Drinking Group with a Running Problem") actually pulled a sled!

The week has been pretty busy, and mostly filled with work-related responsibilities. Tuesday night the book group met at my new favorite Japanese place, Ma Soba on Cambridge Street, where we stuffed ourselves with tasty sushi dishes. I then ran home (literally, because it was 15 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) out there, make that 4 with the wind chill), the homeowners' association in my building had a Christmas feast that I wanted to attend.

Right now I will be heading off to the office Christmas Party, where some chocolate-covered strawberries are waiting for yours truly. Tonight I will be heading over to the Old South Church at Copley Square, where the Chorus Pro Musica will perform a "Joyeux Noel" concert (http://www.choruspromusica.org/) - I believe there is a sing-along component as well, which is right up my alley. Tomorrow I am going for a hike with my friends Linda and Roger, Sunday I will meet up with my friend Christiaan, who is in town from DC, and we are planning on a little ice skating at Frog Pond followed by some good grub in Beacon Hill.

Next week is Christmas, wow, I can't believe it! We had the occasional little dusting with snow here, and it has been freezing this week, temperatures were semi-glacial - those nights, where even when you run out of essentials, you keep thinking of ways to wing it, because you really do not want to go outside. I will be back in town for New Year's where I will be participating in First Night - another great Boston experience - you buy a button for $15 and with this button you can attend events all over town, music, art, comedy, there are also ice sculptures, a parade and fireworks at midnight. I tell you folks, this town is definitely happening!

I want to wish you all a very happy holiday - be safe, and hopefully you will be able to spend some time with family and good friends. I will be in touch next week from Germany.

For a finish today, I am enclosing a little write up from Boston Magazine, under the heading of "Hot Dates" by Andrew Rimas

Merry, merry......

pet:)


Hot Dates:

What is happening this month:

12/1 - The Cheers Pub 35th Birthday. Where nobody knows your name. Because you're a tourist.
12/2-5 - Bay Colony Cluster Dog Show: In the pit bull gallery, Ann Coulter disqualifies herself by foaming at the mouth. Meanwhile governor Mitt Romney edges Barney (Frank) to grab the blue ribbon in the White House lap dog division.
12/5 - Vienna Boy's Choir: Voices of Angels, costumes of Austro-Hungarian sailors
12/7-19 - Tea at Five at the Shubert: Actress Kate Mulgrew portrays Kathryn Hepburn at the beginning and end of her career in this one-woman play. Word is that Imhotep, accursed mummy of the underworlds, was pursued to play Hepburn during her "On Golden Pond" period, but declined, citing conflicts with the filming of "The Mummy 3".
12/21 - Winter begins. Dammit.
12/21-22 - The film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera opens. "The Phaaaantom of the Op-e-ra is theeeere inside your mind." That is, if you left your brain in 1986.
12/31 New Year's Eve. Red Sox Won. World did not end. All in all, things worked out ok.

#27 Boston - Under a Stygian Sky - Dec 10 2004

Made you look up that word, did I?

Well, compadres, it seems like we have not seen the sky all week, and the rain has been merciless most of the time. The weather forecast alternates between rain, haze, partially cloudy and snow showers, once in a while the sun does make a perfunctory appearance. It gets dark at 4:30 PM, everyone forgets how to drive and we're out of produce!! What kind of a place is this? Kidding, I really love it here! Last Saturday was my 6-month anniversary here in the hub - can you believe it? Despite some of the transition pains, and the one or other unexpected snafu, I am happy, I do enjoy getting to know the area and I have met some wonderful and brilliant people here in Boston.

Notwithstanding the cheerless outdoors my social calendar has continued to run at a thousand miles a minute, with some moments of repose and stillness in between. Last Friday I headed to the very romantically and winterily illuminated Boston Common for a little ice-skating at Frog Pond. Initially I was hesitant to go in - at the exact moment of my arrival a horde of school children ambushed the place - but I decided to suck it up and just do it. Friday night might have not been the best choice of time to go, as there was a bunch of bratty teenagers who thought that they absolutely had to show off their skating skills by narrowly zipping in between folks, but I really did have a good time and the Common looked just magical that evening.

My ski trip to Maine did not happen, as you know - so I decided to go for some retail therapy relating to Christmas with my friend Elaine. We did finish our excursion fairly quickly which enabled us to go for a nice meal at my favorite Mexican place, Fajitas and Ritas! Sunday ended up being just a very, very beautiful day - and I decided to head for the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plains (http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/index.html). The Arboretum was established in 1872, when James Arnold, a whaling merchant from New Bedford, Mass, willed some of his estate to Harvard College. It occupies 265 acres (107 hectares) of land and features an impressive collection of more than 7000 plant species, and a herbarium collection in excess of 5 million specimens. Most of all, it is a great place for a long and relaxing walk.

Fed up with being outside, I headed for the Museum of Fine Arts (http://www.mfa.org/) to finally see the Art Deco exhibit. I had missed it in San Francisco, so here was my chance. Art Deco was such a fun and witty design style - very sleek. The exhibit featured some of the glam master artists of this time period (1910-1939) like Chanel, Lalique and Cartier. It embraced an amazing array of influences, from Greek mythology, Egyptian and Asian art, and it had its most visible manifestation in the 1930s-era skyscrapers such as New York's Empire State Building and Chrysler Building.

I ended this very nice weekend with an early evening stroll around Beacon Hill to admire the Christmas decorations that were put up that day.

This week has been packed with work and social events galore - work has been relentlessly busy, and I realized today that I had not even seen my emails since yesterday morning. I have been cruising from one meeting to another, most of it back and forth across town. Monday night, I attended a free movie showing at the main Boston Public Library at Copley Plaza, which featured Werner Herzog's "Invincible". A quite well done story about a Jewish blacksmith in Poland who has immense physical prowess and who gets discovered for variety shows in Berlin, where he has to perform in front of a mostly Nazi-friendly audience. Introduced originally as "Iron Man Siegfried" he realizes what it is he really wants to do in life. I enjoyed it very much, in particular as one of the producers/actors was around and was able to answer questions about the movie.
Tuesday night was girls night with my friend Stephanie, and we just had to go to the Red Hat for the "Tuesday Night 10 Cents Buffalo Wings" deal. Yesterday night after class, I met my friends Barbara and Anita for a nice beer and pizza at a converted firehouse at Harvard Square called "Cambridge 1". Excellent chow and great ambiance!

No rest for the weary, my friends! I worked hard this week and I will be rewarded. I am now heading for a quick beer tasting at Charles Street Liquors and then meet up with some friends from the Boston Ski and Sports Club at Jacob Wirth, the German restaurant with Karaoke. Tomorrow afternoon I will volunteer as an usher (through Boston Cares) at the Huntington Theater to see "Johnny Guitar", an award winning musical based on the 1954 movie with Joan Crawford. Sunday evening is the Jingle Bell Run (a road race) and in between I have a few movies to watch courtesy of Netflix.

I will chat with you next week, Christmas is approaching quickly and I will be heading for Germany for a week on December 23rd.

Be safe! Happy Holidays!

pet:)

#26 Boston - Whisky A Go-Go - December 3, 2004

Greetings Fellow Earthlings!

I have returned safe and somewhat sound from my Thanksgiving vacation in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Following the cluster of activities around Turkey Day, the weekend took on a much more relaxed note, however it did not start out that way. On Saturday morning, my friend Ulli introduced me to the wonders of Wall's Bargain Center, which is the ultimate Adrenaline shopping experience! Wall's, my friends, is located in a semi-abandoned shopping mall on the outskirts of Stillwater, and I believe the only open store there. Going to Wall's is a bit like mining, probably 60% of the things they have are what I would label junk, and the other 40% are good, and I mean, gooooood stuff! You would not believe the gems you can find there! A pair of brand-new Bandolino leather boots for $35, Ralph Lauren and Hilfiger Tops, Cashmere sweaters for $20, Art books, you name it. I still get seizures just thinking about it, and my heart skips a beat when I walk past my closets. We made out like Oklahoma bandits and my friend Ulli had to get me out of there quickly before things got really bad. Ulli's daughters have now labeled us as "the crazy shopping ladies", which is probably not too far from the truth. Wall's will do that to you.

Saturday afternoon was spent in the company of a slightly motley crue when Ulli and Gerald hosted an Advent Coffee and Cake event, with German friends, a British opera singer, a cantor from New Jersey (go figure) and an engineer from San Jose. It was quite a lively group and we stuffed ourselves with all kinds of German Christmas specialties, which we had to wash down with some Pizza a tad later. Sunday was the quintessential lazy day, we set up the Christmas tree, my friend Gerald recorded about 50 CDs for me, nothing major! Travel back on Monday to Boston was amazingly smooth, albeit it was a very tough day as we had to get up at 3 AM in Stillwater in order to get the 6 AM flight.

Upon my return I have been dedicating myself to a new vice - yes, my friends, I too have been swallowed by the Netflix wormhole. Movies appear mysteriously in my mailbox to my extreme delight! When I signed on, I just browsed and checked a few movies here and there, and immediately had 50 movies in my queue!
Work has been insane, insane, insane - huge deadline looming, things being put on the back burner that should not be there, and everyone is stressed. My boss has vowed to strangle all of those characters who give me trouble - that helps a bit. He is a saint and surprised Renee and myself this week with specially made Christmas wreaths from Vermont!

On the social front, I attended a whisky tasting this week at the Ritz Hotel. The event was organized through my friends at the Boston Ski and Sports Club. We first piled up in a room where we were served cocktails (Chivas on the rocks, Chivas with Ginger Ale and Chivas Smoked Apple Martinis). After we were sufficiently tanked up, we were moved to a different area where the actual tasting began, hosted by a very entertaining, kilt-wearing Scotsman (www.maninaskirt.com), who was just unbelievable! Side-splittingly funny, keen, quick-witted and we learned something (now if we could only remember it!). I was amazed at the nuances in the taste and I actually favored the peaty malts. We all left with a bottle of Chivas in our hands and in a particularly splendid mood!
I met up at the whisky fest with a group of some BSSC folks that I knew from other events, and we have organized a get-together at a German restaurant here in Boston next Friday (http://www.jacobwirth.com/). Apparently there might be a Karaoke component to the evening, which is not something inherently German, but some of us might be able to carry a tune (it's not gonna be me though, and the minute I start hollering Barry Manilow tunes, I am sure someone will pay for another beer just to shut me up).

Under the headline of "This would not happen in California" I had a rather interesting grocery shopping experience this week. As I made my way into the produce section at Shaws, it looked as if the place had been robbed. A few measly piles of mushrooms, scanty amounts of peppers, nothing - the place was cleaned out. When I asked the clerk on what happened, he said that there was a produce shortage!!! I thought he was pulling my leg, that was a first for me! Enjoy the Berkeley Bowl, people!

The weekend is upon us, and unfortunately my ski trip got canceled, so the ski slopes up in Maine will be safe for now! This leaves me with some time for a hike with my friend Elaine, possibly some tennis with my Swiss friend Sam (if the weather holds up that is) and some Christmas shopping in anticipation of my upcoming trip to Germany later this month. Tonight I will be heading to Frog Pond in the Boston Common for a little ice skating followed by a good dose of sleep.

Happy Weekend everyone, I leave you with another little dollop of Boston humor, this time about the cuisine.

So long.

pet:)



Boston Cuisine

*Boston cream pie is a cake.
*Frappes have ice cream; milk shakes don't.
*Chowdah does not come with tomatoes.
*Soda is club soda. Pop is Dad. If it's fizzy and flavored, it's tonic. When we mean tonic water, we say tonic water.
*Scrod is whatever they tell you it is, usually fish. If you paid more than $6 a pound, you got scrod.
*They're hot dogs. Franks were people who lived in France in the ninth century.