#38 Boston - From Lime Green to Solid Green, Ready for Blue - Feb 24, 2007

Yes, you have guessed right, the colors indicate the substantial improvement in my skiing career, which received a major boost during yesterday’s outing in Waterville, NH (http://www.waterville.com/winter/index.asp ) - we can finally say that winter has arrived, better late than never, and the ski resorts dazzled in white and were ready for the onslaught by everyone and everything that could strap on a pair of skis. I myself had joined a large group of friends, and based in Franconia at Rick’s house, we all had different ideas on what to do with the white stuff. Stephanie, Dan, Boot, Genevieve, Rick, Karen and Denise (and I also believe several member of the Simmons clan) headed down to Waterville Valley for the cross country trails. Ginna and her son Sean decided to play in the snow, Elaine dropped her off her son, Kevin, for a solid round of knuckle-dragging (= snowboarding) and I headed off by my lonely self to engage in the suicidal activity of downhill skiing.

The weather was holding up aside from a pretty ferocious wind (which had made the drive up to Franconia an adventure in itself), but the beginner’s package I had did not let me go up to the top of the mountain, so I ended up in a fairly wind-friendly zone. Of course, I can be pretty much anywhere these days (out in the woods, swimming in a lake, hiding under a rock) and have someone call my name, which is of course what happened at the ski rental outfit, where my colleague and running buddy Katie popped up, also ready to hit the slopes in a novice capacity. We zipped over to our lessons (with about 30 seconds to spare) – I actually stumbled more than I zipped – see I was running a tad late, and was afraid that the class would start without me, so I arrived a bit disheveled, and a very nice ski instructor offered his help in adjusting my ski boots (since I had no time to do even that). We were assigned to Harold, a very nice instructor from El Paso, Texas, where skiing is a way of life as we all know, and off we went. I was a little rusty at first, this had been my first time on skis since last March, but pretty soon it all came back and I was up to my old shenanigans. I managed to sneak onto the Quadzilla lift once and was able to fly down the Valley Trail, but the second time they caught me (just when I was ready to hit a blue trail for the first time) and so it was back to the beginner’s slopes. I discovered a little side trail though, that looked blue-ish in nature, and kept barreling down that thing as often as I could, and almost got up to warp speed.

Immediately upon returning to the Simmons Condo in Waterville, where Rick’s sister Kathy and her husband Al were cooking enough chili for feed the military force of a small country, I was snatched up by Rick, Denise and Karen to go sledding, and we found a pretty evil hillside that allowed our plastic sleds to reach previously unknown velocities. Only problem was that once you were in the landing zone, the spray from the snow hit your eyes, and you were pretty much unable to see where you were going. We all came home with our bodies intact, which was a miracle, ready for the Simmons Saturday night shindig, which not only included tons of delicious food, a comfy fireplace, and some very happy children, but also a sing along, led by Rick and his dad, with some old favorites such as “Last Saturday Night” and “Grandma’s Lye Soap”. Boot also played a couple of cheeky tunes on his guitar, and the rest of us did some pretty bad singing.

Today was kind of similar, after breakfast up in Franconia everyone pretty much disbursed in different directions, Jo went down hill skiing in Waterville; Rick, Karen and Denise headed for the cross country trails; Elaine, Kevin, Dan and Steph headed home to the Bay State for miscellaneous reasons; and Boot, Genevieve, Phoebe and myself did some snowshoeing up the Lonesome Lake Trail in Franconia Notch. It was a perfect day, the ski was blue, there was not much wind (nice) and the trail was steep, but mercifully short. Phoebe blasted down the trail, snow flying everywhere, and we pretty much did the same thing. As usual life was good. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Lonesome%20Lake&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi )

Finishing up on last weekend’s story – which brings us back to the Constitution State (did you know that Yankee Doodle is the state song of Connecticut??? Just wondering…) – During my visit there, my friend Joanne and I decided to be adventurous and check out Paugussett State Forest - http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/paugussett.html . It looked like a sizable piece of forested land on the map – should be easy to find right? Not quite – you could not find this state forest with an asteroid-size magnifying glass, there were no signs whatsoever indicating how to find it, and once you do discover the sign you are pretty much in the parking lot. Not before taking a little detour though into a neighbor’s front yard, since, again, one finds oneself at a critical junction with no information on what is state and what is private property. Now the parking lot does not reveal much more either, there is a display case with a very poor copy of a topo map, no “you are here” X, nothing of value, maybe except a very long information sheet about hunting, and what to wear during hunting season, which seems to be most of the year. There were of course also no trail indicators either, and we were walking along some old logging road for the longest time, no idea where we were or where we were heading. We were told by a couple we met at some point that there were some spectacular cliffs overlooking the Housatonic River and that on a good day one might discover bald eagles in the area. Bottom line though, as far as state forests go, this one certainly was not the crème de la crème, but it got us out of the house at least.

Another thing that happened in Connecticut was the BEST EVER pedicure and manicure. For real!!! Joanne and I just stumbled into the next best nail salon on Federal Road, which turned out to be better than next best. OHMYGOD, they massaged my feet and legs for 15 minutes, and while we were waiting for the finger nails to dry, they gave us a back rub!! Let me know if you are ever in the Brookfield area, I’ll give you directions.
On the food front, all three of us fell in love with Bailey’s Backyard American Bistro, also in Brookfield, and not just because the waiter promised us hugs (friendly people down there in CT) – hi Danny!

Boston welcomed with piles of dirty snow, and ice galore, I discovered that two of my hubcaps had cracks in them, and the weather has alternated between cold and occasional snow. It is supposed to snow a bit again today and tomorrow. The week was insanely busy, and the social calendar had no gaps in it whatsoever. Tuesday dinner with my friend Lidia from Barcelona at Paramount on Charles Street (http://www.paramountboston.com/pages/home.html ), Wednesday night hospital running group followed by dinner at the Hill Tavern, and then there was Thursday.

Thursday night was ushering duty at the Lyric State Company, and let me tell you, this was sooooo worth it. “Souvenir” a play about Florence Foster Jenkins, a rich socialite in the 1940s who honestly thought she could sing. What she heard in her head was not what others did when she sang, and it is safe to say that she brought off-key singing to new heights. No pitch or rhythm whatsoever. Undeterred and because it made her happy, she started to give recitals, made a record and eventually performed at Carnegie Hall. The who’s who of Manhattan Society came to watch this car wreck, and most of them had to stuff handkerchiefs in their mouths in order to keep from laughing. My Boston friends, you must, must, must watch this!! It is so funny, tears will run down your face; it is so touching, tears will run down your face. Leigh Barrett, who played Mrs Jenkins, was spectacularly outstanding, accompanied by the melancholy, sweet, yet acerbic and sarcastic Will McGarrahan as Cosme Mc Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins). WOW!

I am signing off now my friends, tired, and in the throws of preparing for my trip to Europe this Wednesday. In between I have to meet the tax accountant, go to running practice, work three full days and live to tell about it. I am pretty sure I will sleep all the way to Zurich.

PetJ