My Very Busy Week with Stephanie
Aug. 10th, 2007 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earlgreytea68Finally, the baseball gods allowed us to go to Cooperstown.
It's been a while since Stephanie and I took a road trip, and I'd forgotten how much fun it is. We had so much new stuff to catch up on listening to together (everything is always better when listened to together): Snow Patrol and Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen and "The Stone Rose," polished off with some classic Shakira and Fiona Apple and "Rent." We may have listened twice to "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick," as it was the last song playing when we got to Cooperstown and I spent the whole of the time in the town singing, "It's good to be a lunatic" under my breath.
The Baseball Hall of Fame is in the middle of nowhere. I knew it was--but we were unprepared for just how in the middle of nowhere it really is. I kept thinking of that "Countrycide" episode of "Torchwood." (What has surprised me most of all about Stephanie's visit is not how often we reference "The Stone Rose," because that was quite predictable, but how often I reference "Torchwood." Who knew that show had made such an impact on me?) Once you get off the highway, you have to drive for like an hour over these winding country roads. It's very pretty, but I just kept saying, "But how do they live way out here? What do they *do*?" I am never going to be one of those people craving pastoral idylls. Give me a park surrounded by skyscrapers, and I'm a happy girl. When we got back to Boston, Stephanie said, "I feel like I can breathe, now that we are back in civilization."
But Cooperstown was a truly adorable town, right out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with those charming houses and tons of little shops. Stephanie and I wandered through the museum, savoring it after all that time wanting to go there. We had impeccable timing, as our trip coincided with Bonds's breaking of the all-time home run record, and we may have taken a picture in front of the record while pouting over it. Once done with the Hall of Fame, we walked up and down the street, perusing through shops and buying shirts that said things like, "You can't spell 'overpaid' without A-ROD." We had lunch in a diner and then ice cream. It turned out to be a beautiful day, after pouring during the car ride up that morning, but we could not have asked for more perfect weather, and, after a leisurely day, we were still back in Boston by 8:15. Cooperstown in one day from Boston is eminently doable.
Yesterday we went to the MFA, which is all being renovated, meaning that we looked at almost the entire museum in just a few hours. Then we headed down to Newbury Street, and spent the day walking up and down it. It was another perfect day, a trifle on the cool side but therefore better for walking, and we ended up splitting a piece of chocolate cake while sitting on the patio outside Tealuxe, one of those genuinely perfect Boston days.
Today Boston is not trotting out the stellar weather for us--it's cold and cloudy and threatening rain--but hey, on the whole, it was a nice week. I can't believe it's already almost over, as I was so excited for it to come. I ended up getting less done than I wanted to in terms of reading the books that keep stacking up on my shelves--having to work even though I was officially "on vacation" didn't exactly help that much--but I ended up doing more with Stephanie than I had initially thought we would get to, and it's been tons of fun. It's been a while since we spent much time together, and I'd kind of forgotten how nice it is to not feel pressure to entertain a guest but to just sit and watch A LOT of British television while we play individual Scrabble games on individual laptops and just every once in a while start a conversation, probably about something we've already discussed a million times before but that doesn't stop being funny and entertaining or interesting. Sometimes I feel scheduled to the hilt. This was just nice and leisurely and lovely.
The Baseball Hall of Fame is in the middle of nowhere. I knew it was--but we were unprepared for just how in the middle of nowhere it really is. I kept thinking of that "Countrycide" episode of "Torchwood." (What has surprised me most of all about Stephanie's visit is not how often we reference "The Stone Rose," because that was quite predictable, but how often I reference "Torchwood." Who knew that show had made such an impact on me?) Once you get off the highway, you have to drive for like an hour over these winding country roads. It's very pretty, but I just kept saying, "But how do they live way out here? What do they *do*?" I am never going to be one of those people craving pastoral idylls. Give me a park surrounded by skyscrapers, and I'm a happy girl. When we got back to Boston, Stephanie said, "I feel like I can breathe, now that we are back in civilization."
But Cooperstown was a truly adorable town, right out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with those charming houses and tons of little shops. Stephanie and I wandered through the museum, savoring it after all that time wanting to go there. We had impeccable timing, as our trip coincided with Bonds's breaking of the all-time home run record, and we may have taken a picture in front of the record while pouting over it. Once done with the Hall of Fame, we walked up and down the street, perusing through shops and buying shirts that said things like, "You can't spell 'overpaid' without A-ROD." We had lunch in a diner and then ice cream. It turned out to be a beautiful day, after pouring during the car ride up that morning, but we could not have asked for more perfect weather, and, after a leisurely day, we were still back in Boston by 8:15. Cooperstown in one day from Boston is eminently doable.
Yesterday we went to the MFA, which is all being renovated, meaning that we looked at almost the entire museum in just a few hours. Then we headed down to Newbury Street, and spent the day walking up and down it. It was another perfect day, a trifle on the cool side but therefore better for walking, and we ended up splitting a piece of chocolate cake while sitting on the patio outside Tealuxe, one of those genuinely perfect Boston days.
Today Boston is not trotting out the stellar weather for us--it's cold and cloudy and threatening rain--but hey, on the whole, it was a nice week. I can't believe it's already almost over, as I was so excited for it to come. I ended up getting less done than I wanted to in terms of reading the books that keep stacking up on my shelves--having to work even though I was officially "on vacation" didn't exactly help that much--but I ended up doing more with Stephanie than I had initially thought we would get to, and it's been tons of fun. It's been a while since we spent much time together, and I'd kind of forgotten how nice it is to not feel pressure to entertain a guest but to just sit and watch A LOT of British television while we play individual Scrabble games on individual laptops and just every once in a while start a conversation, probably about something we've already discussed a million times before but that doesn't stop being funny and entertaining or interesting. Sometimes I feel scheduled to the hilt. This was just nice and leisurely and lovely.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 07:00 pm (UTC)I don't begrudge you any of that; what I do envy is your weather. I don't suppose you could sent it a few hundred miles south? Please?
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Date: 2007-08-10 07:09 pm (UTC)