#38 Boston - Just Another Ordinary Week - February 24, 2005

Thursday - February 17th:

Hectic at work.

Attend Mass High Tech (an industry publication) "Women to Watch" award at the Ritz Hotel near the Public Garden. Enjoy event, leave with massive inferiority complex. Exit hotel screaming "What have I done with my life??? Nothing!!). Meet some nice folks though - plans for a slumber party with the "cooltime gang" (don't ask) are being hatched.

Remembered to tell you about Commonwealth Avenue, the stateliest (is that a word?) street in Boston. During the winter season the trees are decorated with lights, and you can walk down the grassy middle part to admire various sculpture gardens including the Boston Women's Memorial (http://www.bwht.org/ladieswalk_stop1.html), which honors Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone and Phillis Wheatley. Also impressive is the Vendome Memorial which honors nine firefighters who lost their lives in June of 1972 at the Hotel Vendome, when the fire-damaged hotel's floor unexpectedly collapsed. (http://www.nabbonline.com/statues.htm).

Wondered about email regarding patient confidentiality and celebrities at work, then learned that New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi was at MGH - had suffered a mild stroke. I encounter patients in the hallway pulling their IVs looking for him. Darn Rubberneckers!

Friday - February 18th:

Hectic at work.

Tedy Bruschi leaves hospital.

Meet Josephine at the Tavern near Central Square. Nice pub, everybody and their cousin is in there, horrendously noisy. Good food, excellent beer selection. New favorite:Spanish Peaks Honey Raspberry Ale. Muy bien! Head out in sub-arctic temperatures (0 Fahrenheit or so), return home missing several extremities, frostbite most likely.

Ruth tells me the story of the "smoot" (remember the Harvard Bridge which runs to MIT and is measured in smoots (let's see if you did pay attention!):

He was an MIT undergrad in the 1950s who was a fraternity member at Lambda Chi Alpha on Bay State Road, thus he had to cross the Harvard bridge each day to get to and from campus. Oliver Smoot happened to be the shortest brother in the fraternity at 5' ft 7". One night, his brothers decided to lay him from end-to-end and measure out the bridge in Smoots-lengths. LCA still maintains the Smoot-markings on the bridge, forcing their pledges to re-paint them twice a year....The length of the bridge is officially 364.4 smoots plus one ear.
http://aether.lbl.gov/www/personnel/smoot/smoot-measure.html

Another little tidbit about Harvard Bridge - there is a sign on the Bridge from the Society for American Magicians honoring Harry Houdini, who in late April of 1908 performed one of his famed manacled jumps from Harvard Bridge, followed by an underwater escape in the Charles River. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vshchrn.html)

Success: Found cheap and good hairdresser, in Boston! (Actually in the hospital salon!)

Saturday - February 19th:

No hectic, no work.

Mid-morning jog along the Charles River Esplanade - what was I thinking?? I can't breathe, too cold, lungs are constricting, fear of having a blood vessel burst in my brain. Make it home without any aneurisms, feeling much better.

Leave Boston proper to head for Stony Brook State Reservation for hike with AMC. I am leaving worried, talked to the trip leader the day before who sounded like he was 200 years old. Could not understand a single word of his directions. To get to Stony Brook you get to drive pretty much through every "so-so" and "not-so" neighborhood in Boston. Upon arriving discovered that trip leader is indeed 200 years old. He wimps out on us after 1 1/2 hours of the 3-hour planned hike. On the way home get lost in Uphams Corner.....

Meet Ruth for late night drinks at the Hill Tavern on Cambridge Street. Good times making fun of the diaper bag ladies (aka the quilt bag brigades).

Sunday - February 20th:

No hectic, no work.

Spend the morning knitting a scarf (no, I am not done yet). Yet another hike with the AMC, this time with very competent trip leader (not 200 years old). Hike is near Concord, MA at the Great Meadows - just 20 miles or so outside of Boston. http://greatmeadows.fws.gov/ - phenomenal place - abundant flora and fauna. Large hiking group with some familiar faces. Trails require fancy footwork on account of ice, in addition it is friggin' cold!! Put on face mask to avoid losing more extremities.

Sunday Night - Netflix Night - Recommendation: "Lonestar"

It is starting to snow.


Monday - February 21st:

Presidents Day Holiday - No hectic.

Laundry. Then off to successful retail therapy at Downtown Crossing. Meet Ruth for Mexican hot cocoa. Still snowing.
Stop by at my neighbor Claire's for Chocolate Martini. Forget about laundry.
Walk across the Longfellow Bridge (also known as the Salt and Pepper Bridge, as its towers look like salt and pepper shakers (http://massroads.com/image.php?subject=longfellow_bridge_charles_3_20040519). Meet Linda (#3) at Kendall Theater to see "The Merchant of Venice" with Al Pacino. Absolutely brilliant movie! Made me believe that Al Pacino is Jewish. Now that's acting! A must-see!

Tuesday - February 22nd:

Work. Slightly hectic.
Snow stopped.
Discovered that my name is mentioned in the Improper Bostonian. Picture did not make it. That good, eh?
Dinner at Antonio's on Cambridge Street.
Snow started.

Wednesday - February 23rd:

Work. Alright.
Snow stopped.

Hosting Running Partners, the running group of the hospital. Again, fancy footwork on account of ice. Start packing for trip to Europe.

THE END

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#37 Boston - Bob and Jerry - February 17, 2005

No, it is not a new ice cream flava, but rather another installment of "odd couples you meet on the bus". This one was a rather unusual and to a certain extent, very unpleasant combination, in particular as Bob (who was the main annoyance here) communicated over my head with Jerry, the victim of his palaverous assaults, and thoughts of inflicting pain and torture started forming in my mind. Good thing this happened only on the way back from Sunday River, Maine, and other good thing, we had a movie to play, which put and end to Mr Blabbermouth behind me. Now Jerry, said bus driver, was a nice guy- if we were in the 60s you would have described him as a "cool cat"- and he was not amused either by all that meddling, in particular, because Bob started really getting into it, and threw a few insults into the mix. "Hey Jerry, got White Line Fever?" (Let's have Bob try to steer a bus like that in snowy weather, shall we?)

Aside from this episode of Bob's Bus Lectures, the trip to Sunday River, Maine was simply wonderful and of stunning beauty. Winter as it should be! It snowed there the week prior, and the pine tree state presented itself as the queen of New England, with luscious forests, covered in picture perfect snow and a bright blue sky. Ski enthusiasts were out in force, and Sunday River with its eight peaks certainly had the might to handle them. Ruth and I had signed up for the Boston Ski and Sports Club's "Winterfest", which included a whole array of activities that promised to exhaust us by the late afternoon. The morning was spent to cross country ski (away from the thousands of down hill skiers and crazy snow boarders up on the mountain) - perfectly manicured tracks and almost no one around, trees forming an arch over the trails through which the blue sky and the sun occasionally peaked through. We went along some interesting trails such as the Fire Pit, Stone Wall and Turkey Run, but ended up heading down the Wanigan trail, which led us to one of New England's most famous wooden covered bridges (http://www.maine.gov/mdot-stage/covered-bridges/artists.php). Only nine of Maine's originally 120 covered wooden bridges remain. They were originally built to make traversing rivers safe during the harsh and icy winters in the Northeast.

Lunch happened at White Cap, one of the centers of Sunday River, and after some decent carbo-loading we went on to our next adventure, tubing! Basically you zip down the mountain on your stomach on these giant inflated tires, hold on to two handles, and pray to the high heavens that the speed won't take you up over the walls and into the path of some unsuspecting snow boarders. The first couple of times you really get dinged around quite a bit, and might suffer from a slight bout of nausea, but once you figure out how to steer the damn thing, there is no going back. This is as close as I will ever come to experiencing the luge and I was loving it! My hiking boots have not yet forgiven me for the abuse they suffered, as they were seriously required to slow down on the course, but it is a small sacrifice for so much fun. The rest of the day was spent in front of a cozy fire place in the lodge, and some of my bus mates spent maybe a bit too much quality time up at the "Foggy Goggle", the local bar and hangout.


This past Friday, I again volunteered with Boston Cares, this time at Faneuil Hall (http://www.faneuilhall.com/) for a performance of the Boston Classical Orchestra. Certainly an interesting event - the overture to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro", followed by "Incidental Music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Mendelssohn, narrated by local WCRB radio host Ray Brown and topped of by a world premiere of Stephen Halloran's "Concerto for New Orleans". In this last piece the BCO joined a jazz sextet called "Made in the Shade" who brought a unique blend of New Orleans jazz, swing, ethnic and folk music to the table. A very enjoyable evening (only slightly interrupted by some fainting patrons who had to be shipped off by ambulance).

The week has been busy as usual, work is dynamic and interesting. The past few days have featured a good amount of social events, including a book club meeting at my new favorite place to go to (and it is only three blocks from my house): Boston Beer Works (http://www.beerworks.net/) on Canal Street. This definitely is a good hangout for me - great food, really great food, and some stellar brews! My choices for the evening were "You Handsome Devil", a Belgian style ale and the "Bunker Hill Blueberry Ale" which had actual blueberries in it. Yumm, Yumm and Yumm! Yesterday was MGH Running Group, and a social with one of my neighbors who just returned from Germany. Tonight I am heading to the Ritz Carlton for a little affair on "Mass High Tech Women to Watch" - hoping to be one of them one day, I will attend and do some serious networking.

It has been a very nice week here, with a couple of teasers where the weather warmed up to a very balmy 50 degrees, but as of today we are back to cold, cold and cold. The holiday weekend is upon us, and boy, do we need it! I will stay in town for some nice local hikes, lots of reading and some initial packing for my trip next Friday to Europe. Because of my upcoming travels, I will miss the opening reception for the art exhibit here at the hospital where my photograph is displayed, so all my Boston friends can come, look at it, and say whatever they want behind my back!

I have not done this in a while, so here are some final tidbits for you:

*The state bird of Maine is the chickadee! (It is also the state bird for Massachusetts.)
*Aside from Stephen King, other famous Mainers (no, it is not Mainees!) are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (the poet) and film director John Ford.

* Some more Boston stuff from my friends at redsoxdiehard.com that you should absolutely know:

*There are two State Houses, two City Halls, two courthouses, two Hancock buildings. There's also a Boston Latin School and a Boston Latin Academy.
* Route 128 is also I-95. It is also I-93.
*The Harvard Bridge goes to MIT. It's measured in 'smoots.'
*Johnson never should have hit for Willoughby.
*The subway doesn't run all night. This isn't Noo Yawk.

pet:)

#36 Boston - "Hemlock Willy and the Bristly Locust" - February 10, 2005

Today, class - we are conducting a lesson in botany - we will discuss New England shrubs and trees until they come out of your ears! "Hemlock Willy" is actually the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, a pest haunting local hemlock trees here (so I don't feel too bad about mutilating its name), and wouldn't you know it, the little sucker has its own website! http://www.fs.fed.us/na/morgantown/fhp/hwa/hwasite.html.

The bristly locust is another one of my new friends that I acquainted with this past weekend. It all started quite innocently with a "local walk" by the Appalachian Mountain Club at the Middlesex Fells, a beautiful nature reserve just a few miles outside of Boston. The weekend weather was picture perfect, snow on the ground and sunshine all around, cross country skiers were out in force. I was a little weary at first, expecting a very touchy-feely new age-y "let's-communicate with-the-plants" kinda walk, which in some ways it was, but I have to tell you - this was one of the best outings I have ever had. A good omen for the walk that our trip leader's first name - I am not making this up - was "Boot"! Following his lead, we trampled into the woods, and it was just amazing to me how often we walk through the woods without noticing much of what is on display there.

We learned the difference between white oaks and red oaks (smooth lobes versus pointy ones) and looked at six million pine trees (did you know that their needles grow in bunches and depending on how many are in a bunch, you can tell what pine tree it is?). Under the motto "If in doubt - smell it" we discovered that you can tell many trees by rubbing off a little bit or bark and take a whiff - black birch for example smells like wintergreen gum! You can distill its leaves and its bark to extract the flavoring. Beer can also be made from black birch, I might have to inquire some more about this. Cherry trees smell like either stale cigars or almond oil, Sassafras smells like lemon verbena - there was no end to it!
All varieties of maple trees were investigated by yours truly, the snake-y looking hickory trees and no marcescent tree was safe from our inquisitive minds. Boot was absolutely phenomenal, he brought goodies with him that were made from some of the plants (Cherry cough drops, Clark's teaberry gum [ttp://home.swipnet.se/roland/teaberry.html], Sassafras candy and he had a story on him for pretty much everything and everyone we saw that day. The group ended up singing the 1959 Lonnie Donegan song "Does the Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight" (If your mother says don't chew it, do you swallow it in spite? Can you catch it on your tonsils, can you heave it left & right?). Sassafras has also some interesting stories associated with it - apparently it has not only carcinogenic but also hallucinogenic capabilities, but you have to eat enough of it to kill a horse, so don't get too excited yet my friends. When the British discovered that the Native Americans used it for medicinal purposes, they brought it with them to Europe in hope it would cure syphilis and other contemporary ailments, alas, it did not cure anything for that matter. I found one Web site stating that "a teaspoonful of the oil produced vomiting, dilated pupils, stupor and collapse in a young man". In Louisiana, the leaves are used as a condiment in sauces and for thickening soups; while the young shoots are used in Virginia for making a kind of beer. Mixed with milk and sugar, Sassafras Tea, under the name of 'Saloop,' could, until a few years ago, be bought at London streetcorners in the early mornings. The award of the day and my personal favorite though went to catbriar, a shrub with thorns and tendrils, that seemed to have provided inspiration for the invention of barbed wire!

Boot, the naturalist, also red poems to us - fitting to each occasion. My favorite from Ogden Nash quoted in front of a juniper tree (The berries are used for the production a volatile oil which is a prime ingredient in Geneva or Hollands Gin) called "A Drink with Something in it".

"There is something about a Martini, A tingle remarkably pleasant; A yellow, a mellow Martini; I wish I had one at present. There is something about a Martini, Ere the dining and dancing begin, And to tell you the truth, It is not the vermouth -I think that perhaps it's the gin. "

In other events this past week, on Friday night my bad conscience drove me to quickly sign up with Boston Cares and volunteer at the 2nd Annual Helping Hearts Masquerade Ball organized by Bread and Jams, an organization that provides services to the homeless. All decked out in my black ball gown, long opera gloves and a Venetian mask, I headed over to Cambridge to Morss Hall at MIT. The event was rather interesting, and we could actually enjoy it fully, as they had way too many volunteers - we wined, dined, I actually played along with the Silent Auction, acquired a nice lamp and generally had a great time. I even got my picture taken for the Improper Bostonian!

On Sunday it was time for some exercise, some jogging along the Charles River, which has begun to defrost a wee bit, and some ice skating at Frog Pond with my friend Ruth. I had to get out as I knew that I would be sitting in front of a TV all night watching the SuperBowl! There was a superb event held at my neighbor Claire's with several courses of the most exquisite home-cooked food. While the game was not the prettiest, who cares! WE WON, WE WON, WE WON, WE WON, WE WON, WE WON!!!! Can you spell D-Y-N-A-S-T-Y??? Three SuperBowls in 4 years, not too shabby my friends! Tuesday featured a parade here in downtown Boston, where one million folks crammed into our tiny streets (apparently lots of these folks were at home "with the flu" - right?).

The week has gone by in a jiffy, and a gazillion activities are on my list of things to do. Last night I attended another MIT Euroclub dinner, this time in Cambridge at Jasmine, a Thai restaurant at One Kendall Square. Tomorrow night I am volunteering (through Boston Cares) at the Boston Classical Orchestra in Faneuil Hall (http://www.bostonclassicalorchestra.org/index.html) and on Saturday I am heading (for the first time) to the beautiful state of Maine (http://www.visitmaine.com/home.php). The Boston Ski and Sports Club is having a Winterfest, where we can cross country ski, snow shoe, go skating or tubing up at the Sunday River Resort.

For now, this is it (bet you glad it's over after that botanical assault, eh?).

Lots of love to all of you!

pet:)

#35 Boston - Lymphotropic Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles - Feb 3, 2005

Aaaahh, the grant is in, and I can again attend scientific lectures and meetings where I do hear about exciting stuff like the lymphotropic superparamagnetic nanoparticles (they are involved in staging techniques for prostate cancer, you know...). Everyone has been recuperating, decompressing, hiding under the biggest rock in the neighborhood, drinking heavily - who knows. Some people have stopped answering their phones, and still get tremors upon hearing the "G" word. My work responsibilities have definitely taken a more interesting turn as the grant has stopped to dominate my every waking minute, some very exciting projects have come off the back burner and work life is exciting, albeit very busy. At some point I will have to face reality and the fact that the NCI (who hands out the grant money) will come in June for a site visit, and that there are loads to prepare for that, but I will live in grant-free la-la land for a while.

My work will take me to Europe again at the end of this month, where I will be attending a conference in Amsterdam (of course with the obligatory detour to Germany to visit the folks); another trip to Orlando, Florida in May is also planned. I am working with a doctor here who is organizing a conference in San Petersburg, Russia, and while I might not get to go, it is a very interesting program to work on.

After finally calming down a bit from the high the snow-related euphoria evoked, I am sad to see the snow melt away little by little - initially we were promised some more snow, but the forecast is austere, with a "wintery mix" and some flurries promised for tonight and tomorrow. Today was an absolute dogged day - with rain, dirty skies and nothing merry to it. We had some sunny days over the past week, cold, but some day light is good, I was told.

As promised, last weekend turned into the quintessential winter sport weekend, and with the blue-sky-powder-snow conditions all around, it was phenomenal. Saturday morning I headed out of town to Weston, about a 15-minute-drive on the pike, to do some snowshoeing with the Boston Ski and Sports Club. Phenomenal, the snow was exceptional and we waltzed all over the place. I headed home in the early afternoon, and then met up with my friends Josephine (hi Jo!) and Nan (Happy Birthday, Nan) at Frog Pond for some ice skating. We ended the day with some good Thai food at "The King and I" on Charles Street.

Then it was off to bed, as Sunday was a day to get up veeeeeeery early, 4 AM to be exact. Ruth and I joined the BSSC on their day trip to Stowe, Vermont. By many considered the best of the ski resorts here in New England, Stowe lived up to its reputation big time (http://www.stowe.com/). Great snow, azure blue skies with not a single cloud in sight - a magnificent day. Stunning Mountainside, too! We arrived there around 9 AM, which in itself was a small miracle as our bus driver, Calamity Joel, experienced some left-right dyslexia and seemed to have other plans than the 45 folks in the bus.

As I am new to this skiing stuff, I first headed up the bunny slope (also known as the "idiot hill" in certain circles) just to get myself warmed up. Now, friends, the part about skiing that I have the most trouble with are the chair lifts. As a seasoned acrophobic I initially thought that it might be better to have some company going up the lift. I made the discovery though (and I could have certainly figured this one out ahead of time), that on the beginner's slope the people sitting next to you are equally challenged when getting off the lift, and might grab onto you in ways that you did not authorize. From then on it was every woman on her own, and off I went. I did try my skills a bit on a green trail in the Spruce area, but somehow did not do too well, and decided to head for lunch.
Ruth and I had agreed to meet up on top of Mt. Mansfield at the Cliff House, a restaurant only accessible by gondola. A bit of a challenge, but the view up top is spectacular and certainly makes up for it. Despite some encouragement from my gondola mates on the way up (who were all black diamond skiers) to ski down the mountain, I did take the gondola back down. Ruth, who is a much more experienced skier, had promised to do some green trails with me and so we headed up one of the lifts to start at the Toll Road trail. The Toll Road was completed in 1870 to accommodate horses and buggies on the mountain. It is an absolutely beautiful trail with very nice wide turns, and ideal for a beginner like myself. We then crossed over via Chapel Lane to the Lullaby Trail and on to Crossover Lane, according to the Stowe Interactive Trail Map on the web the "mack-daddy" of all crossover trails. I did much better, thanks to Ruth's patience and instruction, and really started to get the hang of it a bit better. I am still going down the hill in wedge formation, but my next ski trip will definitely be more lessons where I can hopefully graduate to parallel skiing. All in all, it was a really fun day. Only one of our skiers, Jack, got injured during a pretty good spill and he dislocated his shoulder, but the rest of us all did well. Our trip back was slightly delayed as the rear tires of the bus were frozen solid, and thanks to the innovative efforts of our trip leader Josh, who climbed into a dumpster to hunt for a 2 by 4, we did make it out at a decent time. There was of course the issue of the directionally challenged bus driver, but we all managed to watch him closely, and warn him of upcoming exits a couple of miles ahead.

I was so bloody tired on Monday that I could hardly see straight. Went to bed at an insanely early time and felt like I could sleep for the next hundred years. The week has been quite busy at work, but I did manage to get to the gym on Tuesday for my first ever Power Yoga class. Kind of a strength-based yoga that gets taught in a heated room (http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/styles-of-yoga/power-yoga.asp). Loved it!

I am looking at a somewhat more low-key weekend (well, you know me, but at least no big bus trips) - Tomorrow night I am volunteering through Boston Cares at an event in Cambridge - the 2nd Annual Helping Hearts Masquerade Ball at MIT's renowned Morss Hall at Walker Memorial (http://www.breadandjams.org/ball2.html), a fundraiser for homeless and people in crisis. I have to somehow come up with a mask by tomorrow, which might provide an interesting challenge. Saturday I have signed on with the Appalachian Mountain Club for a local walk in Winchester and the Middlesex Fells, a 2000 acre natural reserve just miles outside of Boston (http://www.fells.org/fells.html). There might be some ice skating on Sunday at MIT, and of course Sunday evening it is Superbowl time! Not to be repetitive, but Go Pats!

Until next time!

pet:)