Wanderlust Heaven!

Went skiing with Dad and a few friends of his on Friday.  Typical morning with Dad – got up at 4:30 a.m., packed the car, and off we went.  He usually gets up before dawn to exercise, so this was nothing for him – generally I’m a wreck at that hour, but I still had a touch of jet lag so I was up before my alarm went off.  Up, but not thrilled about it…

We went to Okemo, in Vermont.  Very solid day of skiing – the only hitch was that my skiis and boots didn’t fit, so had to get my ski bindings adjusted.  Minor issue.  I skied fairly well, it had been a couple years but I’m at a level where my skills don’t degrade much.  I could say the same about my golf game, but that’s at a far far lower level…

Got back to Boston, washed up and then went out for dinner with Dad, Ellen, and a friend of theirs.  Went to Tremont 647 in the South End – quite good.  Nice change of pace from Filipino fare…

Started tackling my backlog of magazines – usually I get these sent every 6 weeks or so to wherever I’m traveling, but I was in some random places last summer (e.g. Mongolia), and sending packages there isn’t cheap, so I asked Dad and Ellen to hold onto a few months’ worth of New Yorkers, etc.  Now these were staring me in the face and I felt compelled to work through ‘em, dated as they were.

Have been following the political news from D.C.  The stimulus bill seems to have fallen prey to the usual partisan bullshit – but it still passed.  I admit to being a bit confused as to why they keep choosing levers like tax cuts and modest amounts of cash-back to prod spending…wouldn’t a greater focus on employing out-of-work people to fix the infrastructure be a more efficient, and perhaps effective, way to tackle this??

Got to work on my usual tactical projects while in Boston.  Brought my Weil watch to get cleaned and fixed up – it’s been sitting in storage for 3 years and if I return to work I’ll probably want a real watch and not my current cheapo Timex.  Also managed to track down and order a replacement waterproof camera case for my Sony camera – I no longer trust the case I’ve got, I’m 90% sure there’s a leak.  Sony no longer makes my camera and the waterproof case for it, but on 42ndStPhoto.com I found one in stock.  eBay didn’t have one, and the other major sites didn’t either – Sonystyle.com had one in stock, but it was ‘refurbished’ and that didn’t sound appealing.  In a year’s time I’ll probably upgrade my camera and then get a case for the newbie, but for now I’d like to squeeze another year out of this one and getting the replacement waterproof case was the least painful solution…

My 20^th university reunion is this May.  Friends Bryan, Dri and Mitch in NYC and I talked about this over beers last week, and I was designated ‘the rallyer.’  I sent out a couple emails to old friends imploring them to come to the reunion…so far, the feedback has been pretty positive.

Had dinner with Dad, Ellen and her parents the other night – went to an upscale place in Newton Highlands called 51 Lincoln.  Terrific place – Dad had the grilled skate and it was better than it sounds.  Newton’s a wealthy town, but I haven’t been blown away by its restos – this place was sorely needed.

Tried to check out the Robert Crumb (cartoonist) exhibit at the Mass College of Art, but it was a Sunday and thus closed.  Ambled over to the Museum of Fine Art, and spent 90 minutes wandering the exhibits.  Hadn’t been there in at least a couple years – it’s a fantastic museum, with an unmatched (in America) collection of Asian art.  Get off your ass and head down there.

When I left the museum I wandered around the Fenway area for a while.  Walked by Boston House of Shawarma.  Had no desire to eat Middle Eastern food, I’d had my fill of that recently…but I did smile when a car pulled up in front, a guy came out, and he and the driver exchanged ‘salaams.’  Nice one.

My sister and her family came to Newton for dinner that night.  Good times, and nothing got broken.  I’m a big fan of new niece Natalie, and my 5-year-old nephew Jacob – who by all appearances is a little troublemaker just like I was.

Took my Dad to dimsum in Chinatown on Monday morning.  It was President’s Day, so the place (China Pearl) was a bit crowded, but we got there before 11 a.m. and got a table, and got to work.  We probably polished off 10 plates between us.  I don’t think my father does stuff like this very often – heading into downtown Boston can be a hassle and they tend to stay local.  I understand that, but find myself almost unable to control my gastronomical whimsies – I NEED to have dimsum/yum cha if its within 50 miles…

After the chowfest we drove up north, to Burlington, so that Dad could get a shingles vaccine.  I can’t hear the word ‘shingles’ without thinking of roofing, but apparently it’s a nasty disease to get when you’re older, and thus wise to vaccinate yourself against it.  The efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system was on full display – it took 45 minutes for Dad to fill out all the paperwork and shuttle between administrative stations, even though he has excellent insurance.  Yet another thing to fix, America…

My stepsister Amanda got into Stanford’s psychology grad program, so we’ve been discussing where she should live, her financial aid situation, etc.  Reminds me of the old days…kind of exciting, but a bit overwhelming too.  I have lots of contacts out in San Francisco/Palo Alto, and I imagine they can help her out.

Had lunch a couple days ago with brer-in-law Dave.  Good chat over Caribbean food.  Then I again tried to see the Crumb exhibit at the MCA and this time it was open.  Crumb’s one of my favorite cartoonists, I’ve got a bunch of his stuff.  The exhibit was small but quite good.  You’re probably familiar with his work, if not his name:

Saw my accountant that afternoon – taxes this year should be a snap, I earned nothing and only had capital losses.  Let’s not make this a recurring story…

Had dinner at Smith & Wollensky that night with Charles, John, Steve, and Neil from my Tufts days.  Everyone’s doing OK, keeping their heads above water.  Whenever I’m home we all tend to get together and have a blowout dinner.  The T-bone steak I had was one of the best steaks I can remember.  The place was nearly empty, though – a bit depressing.

Yesterday I went into Boston and walked around.  Had some chicken wings at Crossroads Pub.  Walked by 301 Marlborough Street, my old place, they’ve finally redone the façade (and perhaps the interior, too) – no longer looks like a crack house.  Noticed that my old neighbor Jonathan Alpert, a graphic designer, is still listed on the resident’s board – may try to track him down.  Noticed that Despina’s, the pizza/grinder place on Mass Ave, is gone and a coffee house is coming in soon – kind of sad, Despina’s was there forever and I was in there not infrequently.

Read a copy of Tufts Magazine – saw a Class Notes blurb about a classmate, I don’t recall him, who apparently was listed as one of ‘Washington’s Top 800 Attorneys.’  Yeesh.  Even if there are 100,000 attorneys in Washington, and there may well be, that’s a pretty weak claim – IMHO, ‘top lists’ should stop at 10.

Still waiting for some meetings to determine my next steps.  I have a couple things scheduled for next week, and hope I have some clarity afterwards.  This is the first time in memory that I have endless runway in front of me – I don’t mind, but will feel compelled to strap the backpack on and get going again in a couple weeks if nothing concrete comes in.  Is this the end of my round-the-world journey, at least for the time being?  We’ll see, old friends…

In the meantime, I’m fighting to clear out my emails – there always seems to be 4-5 that are hard to get rid of.  Tonight I hope to nail those.

Short post this week.  I imagine you appreciate the almost unparalleled brevity…

As for this slog, well, I expect to keep it going no matter what.  If I return to work, it’ll likely be relatively short and sweet each week – which may represent progress over my usual lengthy missives.  And if that happens, I’ll probably hit you with a list of top memories from my travels.  If I instead continue my travels, well, you know what to expect.  So stay tuned and feel free to drop me a line or make a comment on this website – the journey really never ends.  Over and out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.