9.1.02 – later

i spent today trying to make friends with boston. the results were on the whole pretty good: public transit didn’t let me down or strand me in any weird places, even when i got on the wrong bus, and the cat, brownie, let me scratch his chin for a while before he remembered that he’s still trying to be aloof to the interloper. the weather is cool and grey, which is well suited to my disposition – which isn’t to say that i’m miserable, i’m just in a slow, quiet sort of mood, such that i might find bright sunshine offensive. i spent part of the afternoon sitting on a bench beneath a huge willow tree in the public gardens, and i found the green gloom very charming – the perfect atmosphere if one were, say, reading Tolkien.

the house, a turn-of-the-century farm house on a quiet street lined with big, leafy trees, is full of eccentricities as one might expect from an older place: turning on the light switch in my room while connecting with a screw on the wall fixture will result in a mild shock; i wonder how many times i’ll have to zap myself before i remember this fact. steam from the shower excites the smoke detector; i learned this one the hard way this morning. this place is more crammed with stuff than any place i’ve ever been. it’s not dirty, it’s just full of clutter. being a packrat myself, i have no problem with clutter, it makes me feel comfortable and less fearful of making a mess myself, but this house has one of the most impressive collections of clutter that i’ve ever seen. the people i’m staying with are both incredibly nice, absent-minded professor types. when my brother was recommending them to me, he described them as “weird.” “scary-weird?” i asked. “no, more like smart-weird,” chris assured me, and his description was dead-on. having spent a fair amount of my time with scary-smart people in the past, i feel at home here amongst the piles of books and papers and academic paraphernalia. the selection of books on the shelf in my room include: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0, The Illiad, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Understanding Biology, A Brief History of Time, and Pride and Prejudice.

the neighborhood seriously lacks cheap take-out restaurants, however. my ideal neighborhood is one, like the lower haight in sf, or sunnyside in nyc, where i can eat my fill of japanese or indian take-out for under $10. i may have to venture further in the city for dinner more often, because i’m not terribly impressed with my own pasta-making skills. take-out is the perfect answer for the single – being alone in this city, i don’t really expect to spend much time eating by myself in restaurants, but there’s a lot to be said for eating chinese food out of a steaming cardboard box in front of a rerun of the simpsons.