Walden Pond, Lexington, & Concord

Admittedly, it's slightly past foliage "peak," but Walden Pond was still gorgeous. I went leaf peeping again with a friend from work. We saw Lexington and Concord, in addition to Walden Pond. What a beautiful day.

I Saw Al Gore!

Al Gore is a Harvard alumnus. This afternoon, he spoke in the Harvard University quad. A work friend and I left work early and took the shuttle from the medical school to Cambridge, met up with my friend Cynthia, and (along with thousands of others) heard him speak. It was so great. He talked about global warming; Harvard is launching a new initiative to reduce our carbon emissions by 30% by 2016. We already compost our plates and utensils from the cafeterias, which I think is very cool. The Veep was funny, engaging, and passionate (what did you expect?). It was so cool to see him. Don't forget to VOTE.

My Apartment Hisses / Go Sox!

The other morning, around 6am, I woke up to the sound of hissing. (I don't think Billy knows how to hiss yet, so I knew it wasn't him.) I got out of bed and realized it was coming from the radiator in my living/bedroom. I know it's a radiator only because I asked. There are pipes running from ceiling to floor in my kitchen and bathroom, and the radiator with its tall metal coils in a corner of the bedroom. There was a hissing noise coming from all three places. At 6am in Boston and 3am in San Diego, anyone who could help assuage my fears of gas poisoning were asleep. Sleepiness got the best of me as well, and I went back to bed, hoping that the hissing was normal radiator behavior.

Turns out, it is normal radiator behavior. The thing has kicked on twice now, hissing for awhile, then going quiet again. I've learned that steam is pumped through the pipes to heat the whole building. Since I'm on the top floor (thank you, no upstairs neighbors), my apartment should get the warmest in the winter. This will either be a relief to my thin Southern California blood, or I'll spend the winter with the windows slightly open.

The temperature in Boston hasn't gotten that cold yet. It's been ranging between the 50s and the 70s during the day, and sometimes into the 40s at night. I bought new sweaters, tights, and scarves, then we had a warm week. I enjoy seeing the struggle as one season tries to wrest control from another. I always have an umbrella and a warm top layer with me.

As an aside, I often look up words when I'm writing, just to make sure I'm using them correctly. I just looked up the word "wrest," and here's what I got from dictionary.com:

1. to twist or turn; pull, jerk, or force by a violent twist.
2. to take away by force: to wrest a knife from a child.

I'm sorry, but does it seem like a good idea to wrest a knife from a child? You could slice his little fingers off.

Since I now live in a baseball-loving city and can hear the games from my apartment, I've been following the Red Sox. I don't watch the games, but I listen to the news and people chat about it. Coming home the other night, I got off the T (subway) right as tens of thousands of fans were emptying the stadium heading home. It's amazing to see so many people at once, and almost all of them wearing Red Sox gear.

(Billy just woke up and sleepily came over to curl up in my lap. He's so sweet.)

If I understand correctly, there are three tiers to the playoffs. The Red Sox beat LA in the first round, so now they're in the second round with Tampa Bay. Game 6 is tonight. To make it to the World Series, they have to win tonight and tomorrow. Last Thursday, the roar from the stadium was pretty loud at 10:30pm. The game hadn't started until 8pm, so I knew it would be on for awhile longer. I shut the bedroom windows and went to sleep. At 12:30am, I woke up to the song, "Everybody's Working for the Weekend," and I knew the Sox had won and that the contest would finish up this weekend. At the same time, Sunshine texted to ask if it was loud here, since the Sox had just won. Yup, sure was. I'll be bummed out when the post-season finishes, as I gotten a little connected to Red Sox Nation.

Leaf Peeping

There are lots of places in the world where the leaves change color in the autumn. As a San Diegan through and through, this is something I haven't had much personal experience with. But even in places where the leaves do turn, not everyone goes leaf peeping. 'Leaf peeping' is driving out to the country for the express purpose of seeing the leaves. I did this yesterday, and wow. I had been watching the Foliage Network, which puts out a report twice a week during leaf season. This report came out two days before we went out.
Hotels and B&Bs sell out during leaf season. It's a big deal. In addition to Massachusetts, we went through Vermont, New Hampshire, and briefly into New York.

Of course, I took far more than twelve photos. I hope you like these ones that I culled out from the bunch. I'm hoping to go leaf peeping again this weekend. It should be a shorter, more local trip, but you don't have to go far in New England to see stunning fall colors.

Trees in the City

I had new employee orientation in Cambridge last week. When I missed the shuttle back to Boston, I had a chance to walk over to these terrific changing trees. They were in a wide median on a busy street. They didn't seem to notice all of the cars.

I love that even in the city, there are big trees everywhere.

Settling into my new apartment and autumn

The leaves started to change, at first just a few...


I thought of putting my dresser in this corner, but the floor is really slanted. See how the bottom is against the wall, but the top is so far away from it? The right side of my bed is slightly higher than the left side, but it hasn't affected my sleep. The kitchen is wonky, too. The space between the cabinets and the ceiling is greater on one side of the kitchen than the other, by five inches.

Thanks so much, Cynthia, for the air mattress. It wasn't so bad sleeping on it all summer, but I'm really glad I have a bed now. And even though the bag of screws and such to put the bed together weighed about ten pounds (there are drawers underneath), I put it together all by myself. I didn't even need to call Sunshine or Susan, or either of my dads, for help.
Autumn is upon us.

These are just some of the turning leaves I see on my one-mile walk to work. I'm hoping to go leaf-peeping soon. To leaf-peep, you drive out into the country to see the turning leaves. There are even websites that indicate when the season is at its peak.

Gordon Hall and the Harvard Medical School Quad in the rain.

Provincetown

This is not a photo of Provincetown. This is Boston.

Getting closer to P-Town.

Mike the Bike, on the two-hour ferry.
For those of you unfamiliar with the shape of Massachusetts, it's a rectangle with an arm hanging off the lower right corner. That arm curls back up, and Cape Cod is inside. (Just look at a map, okay?) On the very tip of the arm is Provincetown, Mass. What a cool town. You can drive there, but from Boston, it's a long way and there's traffic if it's a nice weekend. You can fly there, too, or take a ferry. Being out on the water again felt great. I don't wish I were back living on cruise ships, but I often long for the feeling of being on the water.

P-Town is known for its gay population and is a popular destination for gay vacationers. It's a very pretty place, with the ocean or marshes all around and wood shingle houses with flowers in the gardens. Apparently in the summer it has more of a party feel, but in September it was calm.

This beach is, what would you say, 20 feet wide? And there's a lifeguard on duty! Maybe they have rip currents, but there weren't very many people in the water. Perhaps it's a volunteer lifeguard, just keeping an eye on things while he hangs onto his tan for a few more weeks.

I know I regularly request that you click on these photos to see the larger view, but if you do so with this one (above), you'll see herons in the grass, and a lighthouse in the distance.

It's great to get away from the city for a bit. I love Boston, but I also like that you don't have to travel far for a change of pace and scenery.