#7 Boston - And What Did You Do This Week? July 22, 2005
Well let's see - I participated in a movie, went for an 8-mile hike, went to the Boston Athenaeum, ran my first ever 5-mile (8K) race, survived lots of practice runs in rotten, hot and humid weather, watched several movies and even managed to do the dishes and the laundry before I had to go out and buy some. How's that for starters?
Let's do this chronologically, first things first: This Friday past, my colleague Ana took me to the Boston Athenaeum, one of the largest and most distinguished private libraries in the country (http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/). Founded it 1807 by members of the Anthology Society, who I guess wanted a nice place to read for themselves and also be surrounded by decent art (http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/atindex.html), the Athenaeum is the quintessential library, exactly as it should be, filled to the brim with the most unbelievable collation of reading materials including George Washington's private books; collections of Confedearate State imprints of the US, including reports of battles, newspapers, sheet music, you name it; 18th century literary works, New England state and local history, English and American literature, and "fine and decorative arts". Its Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery features ongoing exhibits, currently a photography display of "Places of the Spirit" - Sacred Sites of the Adirondacks". It is a spectacular place - book fiends like myself can loose themselves completely in it (in a good way) - just imagine yourself sitting there in a comfortable leather chair, overlooking the Granary Burying Ground, and reading a book about the "Daily Life in the Early Colonies" (where it was remarked by the way how bad the teeth of the women were at the time - there is no consensus as to why, but there you have it.). I learned some interesting tidbits about George Washington along the way, including that he apparently was so strong that he could crack a walnut between his thumb and his forefinger, he did not wear a wig, as most of us assume, and greeting the president as "Mr President" was his idea. Way to go George! I could honestly spend all my days over there, but the somewhat steep membership fees ($200/year) and limited weekend opening hours will prevent me from doing so. Next time when I win the lottery!
Movie-time!! A new experience for me took place on Saturday when on the invitation of my friend and colleague Renee, I got sucked into participating as an extra for an independent movie called "The Unhappy Medium". Medford, Mass. native Chelsea Spear directs this silent, black and white film (http://www.pixievision.com/index2.html) set in the 1920s. The two main characters are Fay Stinson, a spirit medium, who is considered a charlatan, and her straight-arrow nephew Tom and whatever interesting dynamics are going on between them. The whole story is based on the Spiritualism movement, which apparently began in the mid-19th century when Margaretta and Kate Fox stated that they could talk to dead people (yeah, we've heard that one before! I've seen "The Sixth Sense"!). The movie shoot was tons of fun, we had to dance around a maypole, participate in a fancy schmancy ladies' picnic with scones and tea, and pose for some close-ups. Even though we were adequately sugared up with donuts and buzzed on caffeine, eventually the heat got to us and we were glad to get out of our 1920s wear after four hours.
Hiking with the AMC was on the program for Sunday - the mosquitoes did us a favor and stayed away on this very hot and particularly humid day, and this enabled us to traipse through the woods at Middlesex Fells Reservation (http://www.fells.org/fells.html). I have been to the Fells many times, but mostly during the winter, and it was definitely an adventure to try to follow trip leader Mike Stadelmeier. Most of the time I was in the back of the group, and I had the feeling he was bushwhacking up front and creating new trails as we moved along, but it was hard to tell. The Fells are comprised of a little more than 2000 acres of the most amazing woodlands - rocky hills, lakes and trails invite hikers and mountain bikers in summer, cross-country skiers in winter - and it is only about ten minutes outside of Boston. The word "fells" is the Saxon word for rocky, hilly tracts of land, and our 8-mile hike definitely lived up to this description. Lunch at Spot Pond got interesting as a small band of very frisky Canadian Geese got a little too interested in our food and started hissing as we were apparently too reluctant to share our sandwiches with them.
The remainder of my spare time on the weekend and this week was spent with preparing for my first 5-mile road race, the 18th annual "Jim Kane Sugar Bowl Five Miler" in South Boston. It has been viciously hot, humid, yucky and practice runs were a challenge. Last night, temperatures had cooled down somewhat, but still hovered around 80 at race time, which did not deter a crowd of 1600 runners from seriously going at it.
My goal was to just put up a decent finish - I know that I generally do not run well in this kind of heat. I had all the best intentions at pacing myself, but something happens every time I participate in a race - there is such an excitement in the air, people cheer you on, it is so uplifting. I get so motivated and psyched up that I push myself and it did pay off this time. Not to say it was easy, but I did run the 5 miles at a pace of 9:32 per minute, and even placed 13th in my age group. I was quite elated and happy afterwards!!! (Enclosed is a picture of me (#1020) zipping by an exhausted #1425).
This was good training, as I am heading up Mount Washington this weekend, actually tomorrow. My neighbor Mike and I will hike up to the summit at 6288 feet (and hopefully down). There is the option of taking the cog railway or (dare I say it?) - the car, but that would be sooooo wrong!! I look very much forward to this adventure, and this time of the year is perfect. Mount Washington is notorious for its unstable weather conditions, and who's to say there can't be snow in the middle of summer!
I am expecting substantial soreness on Sunday, which is why I have loaded up the entertainment center at my place with movies, books and magazines. I will not have to leave the house!!
My friends, have a wonderful summer weekend, enjoy the sun!
pet:)
Let's do this chronologically, first things first: This Friday past, my colleague Ana took me to the Boston Athenaeum, one of the largest and most distinguished private libraries in the country (http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/). Founded it 1807 by members of the Anthology Society, who I guess wanted a nice place to read for themselves and also be surrounded by decent art (http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/atindex.html), the Athenaeum is the quintessential library, exactly as it should be, filled to the brim with the most unbelievable collation of reading materials including George Washington's private books; collections of Confedearate State imprints of the US, including reports of battles, newspapers, sheet music, you name it; 18th century literary works, New England state and local history, English and American literature, and "fine and decorative arts". Its Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery features ongoing exhibits, currently a photography display of "Places of the Spirit" - Sacred Sites of the Adirondacks". It is a spectacular place - book fiends like myself can loose themselves completely in it (in a good way) - just imagine yourself sitting there in a comfortable leather chair, overlooking the Granary Burying Ground, and reading a book about the "Daily Life in the Early Colonies" (where it was remarked by the way how bad the teeth of the women were at the time - there is no consensus as to why, but there you have it.). I learned some interesting tidbits about George Washington along the way, including that he apparently was so strong that he could crack a walnut between his thumb and his forefinger, he did not wear a wig, as most of us assume, and greeting the president as "Mr President" was his idea. Way to go George! I could honestly spend all my days over there, but the somewhat steep membership fees ($200/year) and limited weekend opening hours will prevent me from doing so. Next time when I win the lottery!
Movie-time!! A new experience for me took place on Saturday when on the invitation of my friend and colleague Renee, I got sucked into participating as an extra for an independent movie called "The Unhappy Medium". Medford, Mass. native Chelsea Spear directs this silent, black and white film (http://www.pixievision.com/index2.html) set in the 1920s. The two main characters are Fay Stinson, a spirit medium, who is considered a charlatan, and her straight-arrow nephew Tom and whatever interesting dynamics are going on between them. The whole story is based on the Spiritualism movement, which apparently began in the mid-19th century when Margaretta and Kate Fox stated that they could talk to dead people (yeah, we've heard that one before! I've seen "The Sixth Sense"!). The movie shoot was tons of fun, we had to dance around a maypole, participate in a fancy schmancy ladies' picnic with scones and tea, and pose for some close-ups. Even though we were adequately sugared up with donuts and buzzed on caffeine, eventually the heat got to us and we were glad to get out of our 1920s wear after four hours.
Hiking with the AMC was on the program for Sunday - the mosquitoes did us a favor and stayed away on this very hot and particularly humid day, and this enabled us to traipse through the woods at Middlesex Fells Reservation (http://www.fells.org/fells.html). I have been to the Fells many times, but mostly during the winter, and it was definitely an adventure to try to follow trip leader Mike Stadelmeier. Most of the time I was in the back of the group, and I had the feeling he was bushwhacking up front and creating new trails as we moved along, but it was hard to tell. The Fells are comprised of a little more than 2000 acres of the most amazing woodlands - rocky hills, lakes and trails invite hikers and mountain bikers in summer, cross-country skiers in winter - and it is only about ten minutes outside of Boston. The word "fells" is the Saxon word for rocky, hilly tracts of land, and our 8-mile hike definitely lived up to this description. Lunch at Spot Pond got interesting as a small band of very frisky Canadian Geese got a little too interested in our food and started hissing as we were apparently too reluctant to share our sandwiches with them.
The remainder of my spare time on the weekend and this week was spent with preparing for my first 5-mile road race, the 18th annual "Jim Kane Sugar Bowl Five Miler" in South Boston. It has been viciously hot, humid, yucky and practice runs were a challenge. Last night, temperatures had cooled down somewhat, but still hovered around 80 at race time, which did not deter a crowd of 1600 runners from seriously going at it.
My goal was to just put up a decent finish - I know that I generally do not run well in this kind of heat. I had all the best intentions at pacing myself, but something happens every time I participate in a race - there is such an excitement in the air, people cheer you on, it is so uplifting. I get so motivated and psyched up that I push myself and it did pay off this time. Not to say it was easy, but I did run the 5 miles at a pace of 9:32 per minute, and even placed 13th in my age group. I was quite elated and happy afterwards!!! (Enclosed is a picture of me (#1020) zipping by an exhausted #1425).This was good training, as I am heading up Mount Washington this weekend, actually tomorrow. My neighbor Mike and I will hike up to the summit at 6288 feet (and hopefully down). There is the option of taking the cog railway or (dare I say it?) - the car, but that would be sooooo wrong!! I look very much forward to this adventure, and this time of the year is perfect. Mount Washington is notorious for its unstable weather conditions, and who's to say there can't be snow in the middle of summer!
I am expecting substantial soreness on Sunday, which is why I have loaded up the entertainment center at my place with movies, books and magazines. I will not have to leave the house!!
My friends, have a wonderful summer weekend, enjoy the sun!
pet:)
posted by My Boston at
1:35 PM
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