BOSTON 2007

What a clean, quiet, quaint little city in comparison to New York! So much smaller; trees down the streets; streets emptying out and quiet at night (except in a few choice areas). The town seems more like a collection of small towns than one big city, though there are the requisite tall buildings in the downtown area. But you'd hardly know it if you enter Boston Commons and walk down to the river, past stately brownstones and down nicely manicured paths.

Though I haven't seen Dara for two years - since leaving New York - it hardly seemed that long, and I got to spend some quality time with her cute doggy Tails, too. She passed her first year qualifying exams so she can get funding for the next year in her Economics doctoral program at BU. The first night there, I played Taboo into the wee hours of the morning with Dara, Louis, Jess, and Vivian. Possibly my favorite group game -- what a way to get to know the intricate workings of someone's mind when he or she is trying to get you to say "Stuart Little."

Then on Saturday Acovio took me out and about. I know this city hardly at all outside of Boston Commons, whereas I'm completely at home in New York. We walked through a blooming rose garden over to the Museum of Fine Arts to view the Edward Hopper exhibition, and I feel like I saw pretty much everything Hopper ever painted, water-colored, etched and sketched. It was very thorough. (Susannah, eat your heart out!) I spotted from across the room a painting that hangs in "Susannah's Museum" -- the U of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson -- that Susannah had explicated for my creative writing students just the month before. Felt a little deja vu -- like paintings are following me around the country. Also saw paintings I've seen in the MET and in the London Tate Museum and the Louvre. Makes the world seem smaller.

Acovio, Dara, Jess - miss you guys already!

Dara and I also saw the recent Edith Piaf biographical film, La Vie En Rose. I knew relatively little about the '40s French cabaret singer, so the movie was enlightening for me. I loved it for its acting and singing alone, through Dara wasn't a fan -- she objected to the editing and the cliched biographical technique of "starting at the end of the person's life and flashing back and forth to give perspective." It's true, it did get heavy-handed, but it's an affecting movie and I hope the actress wins the Oscar, even if she is a Frenchy. :)