No more shenanigans, no more tomfoolery, no more ballyhoo

I just got back from a trip to Boston for work. I love that city. It’s amazing. Every time I go I always think of how I can see myself living there (I’m not a huge fan of the east coast or big cities – I’m more of a desert/mountains/ left coast kind of girl). But all the people and the brownstone buildings and the rich history, culture, and cannolis from Mike’s Bakery make it hard to resist.

This trip was a little different than the other times I’ve been there. It was cold and rainy outside and so I didn’t spend a lot of time downtown like I usually do. It rained all day on Thursday, and the temperature hovered around 35 degrees most of the week. Because of the cold weather, I got to do a few things I haven’t done before. I went to the fine arts museum on Wednesday night for free (a bank sponsored all ticket prices). Half of the museum was closed for renovation, so that was a little disappointing, but the collection of ancient artifacts, statues and art from Egypt, Rome, Persia and Greece was pretty impressive. We saw a few original Renoir’s and Monet’s, but most of the paintings were really dark 17^th century portraits and disturbing religious images (one painting showed Herod’s wife gleefully holding John the Baptist's head in her lap). There were a lot of Vermeer type paintings, which I actually find a bit depressing due to the dark, dreary backgrounds. After we wandered through the narrow galleries upstairs, I started to feel claustrophobic, so we left after about two hours and went to the Cheesecake factory (normally I am all against eating at chain restaurants when I travel, but I was weak and the tuxedo cheesecake was so worth it).

The Red Sox also had their season opener that week. They won their first game on Tuesday, but then lost to the Mariners 0-3 on Wednesday (the night I had wicked good clam chowdah. And I don’t even like clam chowder). I was really disappointed that the night we left they were playing the Angels at Fenway (they won 10-0!). The cheapest tickets were $80. The whole town was packed with fans. I love that they love their sports teams. It’s obvious by the way they dress. Everywhere we went, people were proudly wearing Red Sox hats, jackets, beanies, t-shirts, and pins. I wonder if it’s a rule in Boston that if you are local, you must display some type of Red Sox apparel at all times.

Another first was taking a cab to the airport instead of a city shuttle. It turned out to be one of my favorite parts about the trip. Our cab driver was a local guy of Greek descent. He talked non-stop about Kurt Vonnegut novels he was reading and he seemed to know about the history and architecture of each building we passed. You could tell he loved showing off his hometown. A few times I was uncomfortably reminded of the scene in Dumb and Dumber where Lloyd turns around to talk to Mary while driving the limo through a red light. It would have been funnier if I hadn’t been distracted by thoughts of dying in a fiery car crash. We were downtown in heavy traffic when a Honda CRV cut us off at an intersection and he said, “Normally I would swear up and down the ladder at that lady. Who does she think she is? But I’ve discovered the cure to road rage. You just chant Hare Krishna. Hare Hare, Krishna Krishna. It works, come on, do it with me!” His teeth were atrocious – black gums and yellowed teeth from years of smoking and he smelled even worse. He told us he took dance lessons at a very famous ballet studio in Boston. And he that he was just driving a cab until he saved enough to open his own modern dance studio. You’ve got to love the big city cab drivers.

As much as I like to think I could move to Boston, I am always glad to come back to Utah. I have thought about moving to a different state many times in the past few years – but I love it here, Utah is home.