up to Boston

I arrive in Boston around 6:30, having taken the Bolt Bus.  Jean picks me up and we meet M and our friend V (that is the name she actually goes by) for dinner.  Neptune Oyster is the place we’ve chosen, a tiny restaurant in the North End.  Lucky for us the place has cleared out.  There’s a Bruin’s game starting at the Boston Garden, across the street.

The menu is small but complete for our tastes.  We order the mussels to start, but they are drowning in a sauce that is too spicy.  The hot lobster roll is filled with plenty of lobster, and the roll is large and perfectly grilled.  But the lobster itself is tasteless, though I still eat it all, along with the fries that aren’t tasteless. The prosecco and conversation are great.  After dinner we head over to Modern Pastry for coffee.

I like being in Boston; it’s my second home.  While living there, I found it too provincial.  I am not sure I’d still think that if I were ever to move back.  The city is truly beautiful, and the Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge is breathtaking.  I believe one day it will be to Boston what the Golden Gate Bridge is to San Francisco.

As much as I enjoy visiting the place I once called home, I can’t imagine ever leaving New York, a city I truly love, and where I feel most comfortable.

travel check list

Am leaving tomorrow for a few days in Boston.  Do the usual get-ready things.  

Have hair colored.  
Get a manicure (short and squarish with Smokin’ Hot, my new favorite color). 
Organize/clean apartment.  
Throw out anything in the fridge that is remotely near expiring.  
Make to-do list for my return. 
Wash and blow-dry hair. 
Pack light.  
Remember all electronics and associated charges for iPhone, iPad, and Kindle — in case the Bolt Bus breaks down, I'll be covered.

lucky day

I am pretty good about remembering birthdays.  I always have been — even before electronic calendars with programmed alerts where in vogue.  But sometimes I forget the card.  Yesterday was Lisa’s birthday and I forgot to mail her a card.  Lisa is Eric’s sister.  Eric is Alexander’s absent father.  Lisa also is one of my favorite people.  She is kind, thoughtful, and intrinsically cool.  If I wanted to know the newest, hippest place to go in NYC, she would know.  Oh, and did I mention, Lisa lives in LA. 

To avoid being card-less again, I go to my favorite card store, Papyrus.  In the back I see a table with a big sign, $1 CARDS.  How nice, especially since most of the cards here are over $4.

I begin sorting through the table of cards.  I hope I have a need one day for the gorgeous IT’S A GIRL and IT’S A BOY cards I select.   I also find some birthday, get-well, and anniversary cards I like.

Two women walk in as I am making my picks. They say to the very-chirpy, smiley sales guy, “Do you carry sympathy cards?”  So pleased to be able to respond in the affirmative, the sales guy says, “We sure do.”  But then he quickly realizes the meaning of the request, and throws in a somber, “I’m sorry for your loss.”  It is almost comical.

As he is leading the women to the appropriate card section, I hear him say, “Is your loss a person or a creature?”  The two women are confused.  “You mean like a bird or a dog or something?”  “Yes,” he replies.

I go to pay and the sales guy has now returned to his chirpy demeanor.  “Today’s your lucky day.  We just got word from corporate that all the $1 cards are 50 cents.”  I thank him and he responds, “You are quite welcome my friend.”

Wow; he’s right.  Cards for fifty cents and a new friend.  I’m having my hair colored later today.  Maybe it’ll be half off there too!  Why not?  I'm having a lucky day.

buy it; use it...mostly

If I buy something (which I have been good about not doing lately), I feel guilty not using it.

And I sure have plenty to be guilty of —

I look in my closet and see gorgeous dresses and skirts from last year’s 70% off sale that are still unworn:  a black pencil skirt and a black woolen dress, both from Jil Sander, along with a taupe jersey skirt and a black jersey dress, both from Donna Karan.  I need a job just to wear my clothes.

I open my freezer and it’s overflowing with chicken breasts that Alexander was going to make and eat while he was home.  I hope they last until summer.

And then there’s that never-used container of Stainless Steel Magic I will use today.  I have no idea when that was purchased but the disintegrating price tag says it cost $5.99 and was purchased at Gracious Home.  And what about the Cadie Dry Cleaning Pad that promises to “erase dirt like magic?”  I should try that too.

Oh, and don’t get me started on make-up.  I have an unopened, never used, had- to-have-at-the -time jar of Shiseido White Lucent Brightening Moisturizing Cream, as well as a $15 “sugar smoothie body cream,” and a Fresh “eye color trio” that remain unopened.  I wonder if face and body products expire?  

When Alexander was home, I spent $104 for an unlimited monthly Metrocard that we shared.  Single rides are $2.25.  The card expires today and for the past week I have barely used it.  So today I feel compelled to go somewhere just because I can go somewhere for free.  So what if it’s a miserable gloomy rainy day!

I really have no errands to run.  The museums are closed (as if that’s where I’d be going).  I have too many movies at home to justify seeing one in a theater.  So I decide to go to Blooomingdales to exchange a face make-up I bought a few weeks ago (still unused) for a darker shade.  Except that’s not exactly what happens.  After testing different colors, the make-up expert at the Chanel counter concludes that the one I have is the best one for my complexion.  I leave exchanging nothing, but end up buying new Dior lipsticks.

I know I will use the new lipsticks, but using my unlimited  Metrocard on its last day ends up costing me money.  Perhaps some things are better left unused.

read this book!

Just finished reading Maria Semple’s novel, Where’d You Go Bernadette.  It’s highly readable, relatable, satirical, contemporary, humorous, warm, engaging and clever.  Where it not for peeing outside and not showering, it makes me almost want to live in Antarctica.  All that ice and cold and solitude — I think I might like that… for a few days, anyway.