Boston blogging

I just got home from four days in Waltham, a suburb of Boston, where I was working to install WiFi in a very swanky hotel. It kind of sucked being away from CT Joyce all week, but the hotel (which was quite swanky) was nice.

While in the Boston area, I arranged to meet up with my favorite ex-pat blogger, Caffeinated Geek Girl, for dinner. She currently works for ActBlue as an online coordinator and general rabble-rouser. Her office is in Cambridge (photo above), a stone's throw from Harvard.

At least, I think it's a stone's throw from there. I didn't actually throw a stone, although after trying to find parking for my full-sized van in that maze of 17th century one-way streets, permit-only parking, and smug pedestrians who blatantly disregard the fact that a two-ton van would easily mash them into guacamole if the driver of said vehicle was sufficiently crazed from urban-driving stress, I was READY to throw one!

Plus, they got these weird buses that run on wires. It's good to avoid them if possible. I don't think the brakes work on those things.

Finally, I found the little one-way street where CGG's office was located, so I lurched the van over into a no-parking zone, and phoned her to meet me down on the street. A few minutes later she appeared way back up the block, with a few 20-something co-workers. She was looking back towards traffic for me, so finally I jumped out of the van and yelled her name.

Her co-workers apparently thought I was there to kidnap her, because when they saw me leap out onto the sidewalk and scream her name, they advised her to run for her life.

We had a fun dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, where CGG drank an entire large purple margarita. Driving her home was an adventure. Because, as she only takes the train everywhere, she doesn't know the lay of the land yet. And it was night; I only had my crummy Microsoft Streets & Trips program for a map; and it was starting to snow. So that made it quite challenging to find Southie from Cambridge.

It took us about an hour to navigate the roughly 5 miles. Yeah, I think it's time to get a GPS for the van. It was good to see Melissa.

Anyway, I've been blogging all week from the road. I just got home in time to spend Feb. 14th with CT Joyce.

It's nice to be home.