--{ my weekend in boston }------
Friday, in stereo
Taking a half-day off from work, I flew into Boston on Friday afternoon. Boston! I miss the place, the narrow car-unfriendly streets, the mix of townies and gownies. A third of it is nostalgia, I'm sure, and a third of it is that I still have a lot of good friends there, but another third of it is just that it's a fab fab place. For my preferences, of course.
So I get in, and decide to wander around the MIT campus (after first buying some birthday presents for Ed and Ilana in Harvard Square). I miss the campus, with its geeky fliers (like for Star Wars: The Musical. Really!) and sleep-deprived students. I helped some families take pictures of their graduating kids (it was commencement day there, after all), and was greeted with "And when are you finishing college?" Uh, ten years ago?
Walking to my first reunion event (beer and food at the Cambridge Brewing Company), I met some random guy who went to Tufts for college and is now at the MIT Sloan School. Boy was he schmoozy! He coerced a business card out of me, and later (after this weekend) emailed me to see if I could give him a tour of the Department of Justice. Sorry, not a tour guide, at least not for relative strangers. Man, I'm not even a good tour guide for my parents.
But I digress out of peevishness. The Brewing Company event was eh, and a sign of reunion events to come. MIT, see, has really low reunion attendance. I think it's because we bond by living groups, rather than graduating class, given that we don't have freshman dorms or anything. So. So I didn't see too many people I knew. But I did see Derrick, and Barry, and Marc, and some girl that I vaguely recognized from freshman year, and only vaguely recognized because I think back then I thought she was really cute (and had the husky but girly voice that I so love, probably because it sounds like R, who was my First Big Crush but whom I've since lost touch with.)
Again, I digress. Seeing and talking to these people was pretty pleasant, because for once I'm not talking about Washington schmoozy stuff. Instead, we're talking about hackery things and tech developments, which I never ever ever get a chance to talk about down here. A random aside: one person I didn't know talked to me about how he's raising chickens. And Barry, after leaving our table to talk to this girl, came back annoyed and said, "You'd think she'd remember me. Certainly *I* remember everyone I've slept with."
I left at around 10pm, headed over to meet Fonda (who I was staying with) at the Brattle. We got coffee at Diesel before going home, met up with Peebles, who was in town for the weekend to look for an apartment. Chatty chat chat. Good but a little weird, because Fonda and P don't know each other. But hey.
Watched Iron Chef with Fonda when we got home.
(Also: Too many things happening during the weekend! Couldn't make it to the dyke march. Or to the Middle East to hear the Preston School of Industry. Bummer!)
Saturday
Overslept, missed the morning reunion events. Not really reunion events, I guess. MIT "Technology Day" events, which are all too formal and lecture-ey, and which normally I'd skip but they were on science and policy this year! And how could I miss that! (Answer: by not being a morning person.)
There was a nice gap in the schedule, though, so I got a chance to drop by the Boston Pride Parade. It seemed smaller than last year's, but maybe that was just because this year I was wandering around trying to find Peebles, rather than firmly planted with Anders and Matthew and crew. I got tossed some candy from the queer Asian youth group, harrumph. (I'm harrumphing at the implications of looking young, by the way. The group--A Slice of Rice--totally warms my heart.)
Time was up, I went back to MIT to listen to a lecture after first getting the most perfect apple ginger seltzer ever from Trident, and drinking it while reading Cortazar, who is also perfect perfect perfect. ("Louis [Armstrong], Super Cronopio.") The lecture was on "Science and the Spin Doctors," and, while very basic, was terribly fun to listen to. Bill Leach, Dan Hastings, George Daley, Henry Jacoby and Jeff Schiller were the roundtable people. I tried to ask a question (about how to encourage scientists to participate more in regulatory decisionmaking, a forum better structured, in my opinion, for weeding out spin), but didn't get a chance. Though I later did, to Professor Hastings, though I had to wait for this one woman to stop talking to him. Not a satisfactory answer ("Yes, we do cover that in the Science, Technology and Society Program"), because it kind of dodged my how- to- reach- the- greater- scientific- community question but anyways.
Sped off to the East Campus courtyard to meet up with Len, Marc, Derrick, Jack, Katie, and the new edition to the 4E Slug family, Anya. Because each of us arrived at different times, each of us got the chance to barrage Jack and Katie with the question, "Anya...from Buffy?" "No, we just liked the name." (Both Marc and Len also got in an even-more-geeky "Anya...from that early Mac commercial?") Dinner at La Groceria, and talk about how we've grown up. Kinda. Pictures pictures pictures. All of us had PDAs and digital cameras. Ran into some random Assassin's Guild people on the way back to the MIT campus.
Drinks with Anders and Matthew and Danny and Towkai and a bunch of newer QAPA guys I've now sadly forgotten the names of. Chris, I think, and someone someone someone. Mellow and lazy. We sat outside drinking sangria and talked about getting off our asses and going dancing. Not that we managed to. Even had a plan for me and Anders to grab Fonda to go to this new dyke club in Chinatown and meet up with Quinn and Emily and peeps, but Fonda didn't want to drive in. So. Back to Fonda's to watch more Iron Chef. (Note to self: find more friends who like to go dancing.) Made Fonda read "Louis, Super Cronopio."
Sunday
Breakfast with Fonda, where I rediscovered that sausage and eggs go pretty well together. Barbeque back at the MIT ranch, finding no one I knew but Derrick, with whom I had a long conversation about getting older, jobs in science v. information tech, and the marrieds v. the unmarrieds. The barbeque was surprisingly good, by the way. Oh, and people read off Star Wars haikus, as part of a contest from the morning. Oh yes, MIT.
(Another too-much-stuff-going-on note: Missed the dragonboats! Damn!)
Then I went to The Other Side to meet A! [...]
Tried to meet up with Fonda and Anders and Peebles again, but my coordination sucked, so I ended up at the Aquarium, where I met some MBTA security officers and saw some harbor seals. Which was not a bad way to spend my remaining two hours in Boston.
And then back home, to DC.
Did I miss anything?
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