#52 Boston - A Masterpiece of Organization - June 2 2007

This week, for your reading pleasure - a report from the Bolder Boulder (http://www.bolderboulder.com/) on Memorial Day 2007 – a high altitude -5300 foot- 10 K race. 50,000 people are running, jogging and walking through the streets of Boulder. This race is so perfectly organized, not a single bottleneck, not one. A masterpiece of organization, truly.

Signing up in downtown Boulder’s jam-packed Pearl Street Mall, wall to wall people, enjoying themselves, ready to face the challenge. Race t-shirts, front says Live to Run, back says Run to Live.

Not sleeping much the night before – possible reason – not pre-race jitters but two pieces of home-made rhubarb-strawberry pie with ice cream late at night - this does not help. Tossing and turning all night, not sleeping well at all. Nightmares of flying to San Francisco and missing the race altogether.

Rise and shine at 5:30, nervous and light headed, Rob (Susan’s husband) and I heading toward downtown Boulder. Parking the car, then we have to walk two miles to the starting line, joining the groups of dazed lemmings wandering through the streets of Boulder with one goal in mind. I am amazed by the level of logistical wonderment, runners and walkers are strictly organized in sections, starting with A, AA, AB, AC, AD, AE and moving all the way up to Z. 50,000 runners, walkers, joggers, all ready to go. A group of octogenarians mans hosts the water stops at the start, some of them sitting on chairs with a warm blanket wrapped around them as if ready for a Kaffeeklatsch, only the cake is missing.

The most impressive organizational detail are the FedEx trucks, start and finish are miles away from each other (6.2 to be exact) –your personal belongings are dropped off with one of the staffers at the truck stops and FedEx, doing what they do best, drive them to the University of Colorado stadium where the sweaty and exhausted runners can retrieve them. Just brilliant.

The first wave, A, starts at 7 AM. Then the organizational magic happens, so simple, so effective. Between every section are two staffers holding a rope across. It is the division between A and AA, between AA and AB, and so on. Once A takes off, the “ropers” move up with section AA to the starting line, and once they take off, AB moves up. All sections move up little by little, every section gets a specific time when they take off, and they all do take off on time. Every section gets their own start signal and a pep talk from the organizers – it is wonderful, the air is buzzing with excitement and at exactly 7:13:50 we are off through the streets of Boulder.

Running at high altitude is hard, not because I only had four hours of sleep, but the slightest hill sucks the air right out of you. I try to pace myself, but looking at my splits, I ran actually 1 minute faster the first mile than the other five. Mile 3 is worst, I am almost at marathon pace, this section did include an incline, not even close to other hills I have run up, but again, the altitude does it.

Boulder loves this race – everyone is out in their front yard, PA systems blast music, every other corner has a band playing, Elvis was there (that is where he goes when le leaves the building), families have buffet tables set up, except for the college students, who hold out beer for the thirsty runners (it is 7:30 AM!! Even too early for me). Garden hoses, so welcome (it is 70 degrees even at that early time), many many water stops, I use all of them. Miles 4 through six feel easier.

After 8K, the banners come more frequently, 8.1, 8.3, 8.7, 9.1 – very cool. We are hot, tired and we know that there is one short but painful hill ahead of us leading us into Folsom Stadium. You can see the stadium about 1 mile out, and you keep on running.

Finally the climb up the hill to the stadium, and after a second short incline, there it is - the triumphant entry into the stadium; tens of thousands of people welcome you. There is nothing like it, this is as close as you come to feeling like an Olympian, it is not just you and the finish line. What a wonderful feeling.

The masterpiece of organization continues – tags are being taken, you wander with the lemmings to the next stops, food, water, snack bags from Celestial Seasonings, the Colorado tea company, beer, American flags and finally you turn in your timing chips. You move to the stadium, become a cheerer-oner for all the other crazy folks running in this race, including the folks in costumes, the superheroes, the bunny suits. I am told that in previous years a favorite was the lawn chair brigade – a group of guys running with lawn chairs, and every so often they gave a little presentation on what can be done with lawn chairs. The crowds loved it. 2007 Kudos must go to the guy who walked the whole 6.2 miles “wheelbarrow” style on his hands.

The “Expo” awaits immediately outside the stadium (purchase of “Sea Level is for Sissies” t-shirt), but it is too packed to move, and we decide to hoof it out of there.

11 AM the professional women start their race in teams, Team Colorado, Team USA, Team Kenya, Ethiopia, Japan, Rumania – by that time Rob and I are at home watching the race on television from the comfort of home. We are fried; I am sleeping with my eyes open. Even a beer does not do the trick; I am beyond tired, headachy. Edna Kiragat from Kenya, a very soft-spoken woman with some tough legs with an impressive performance of 33 Minutes left all the other women in the dust, even though the Ethiopians place first in the team competition. The men are dominated by Moroccan Rioudane Harroufi who finishes it all out in less than 30 minutes. Impressively, the citizens’ race winners are so close to the professionals, 31 and 34 minutes respectively.

Greetings from Chicago, where I arrived Thursday on a very rainy day; but this was nothing new, as I had just returned from Colorado Tuesday night, actually make that Wednesday morning, waiting out a most impressive weather display. Tuesday morning prior to my leave, it was the loveliest weather in Boulder, and after dropping off Cara at school, Susan and I went for a killer breakfast at Lucille’s Cajun Café (http://www.luciles.com/flash/), a most exquisite breakfast place – located in what looks like a residential home with an enclosed front porch where I can just see myself on a nice and balmy day. It has scrumptious breakfasts, biscuits the size of car tires, and beignets to die for.

After a lovely walk in East Boulder (sun still shining at this point), Susan dropped me off for a couple of courtesy visits to two biotech companies I work with, and little by little the skies darkened. By the time lunch was done, we had to almost swim to the car, the water came down by the bucket-full. The ride in the SuperShuttle to Denver International Airport was most impressive – a sudden hailstorm the likes had of which I have never seen before. The landscape had turned white; it was as if it had snowed an inch or two; there was a loud crunching noise as the van drove across the sea of hail. Our driver –a transportation genius - got us to the airport 15 minutes early despite the deluge outside.

DIA with its tent structure has some amazing acoustics, and the raging thunderstorm provided quite a scary-sounding background as we made our way through security. We knew at that point that our plane would be late, and every time we looked on the information screen our departure time moved further and further away from the originally scheduled 3:35 PM. We switched gates several times (28, 47, no 43, no 47), but finally made it onto the plane. Meanwhile, back on the tarmac, the lightning started again, so we simply sat there for a while. During that “while” the pilots exceeded their maximum allowed work time, and had to leave the plane. 15 Minutes later the same thing happened to the crew, which meant WE had to leave the plane – somehow the FAA did not think they could not leave us there on our own. At that point Row 19 and 20 decided to go drinking (not that I had anything to do with that….), but thankfully United Airlines hustled and got us a new and very cheerful crew and pilot 40 minutes later. That sure made us very happy, and a plane full of bleary-eyed travelers arrived content but very late ( 1:30 AM) in Boston.

So I had one day to unpack, do laundry and re-pack and now I am in Chicago for the Annual Meeting for the American Society for Clinical Oncology – 30,000 of my closest friends. The weather did brighten today, and I was able to get in a jog alongside LSD (Lakeshore Drive) pre-conference this morning. I just arrived back at the hotel from a business dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world – Nacional 27 on West Huron – if you are ever in Chicago promise you will go there. Their cocktails are not too shabby either – my choice, a concoction of spicy ginger beer, limes and rum named something like “it was a dark and stormy night”, definitely was worth having two of, but now I must hit the hay. 6 AM will come swiftly and too soon, as usual.

Love,

Pet:)

#51 Boston - Hazed and Infused - May 27th 07

Hazed and Infused - That would be my favorite new beer - courtesy of the Corner Bar at the historic Boulderado Hotel (http://www.boulderado.com/?source=googleadname) in, yes you guessed right, Boulder, Colorado. A slightly hoppy concoction, unfiltered, very yummy, not quite as strong as an IPA, but definitely in the ballpark for a tasty experience. The Corner Bar, aptly located at a corner of Spruce and 13th Streets (http://www.boulderado.com/corner_bar), offers a quite lovely ambience, and on the way to the bathroom offers a spectacular glimpse of the Victorian architecture displayed in the Boulderado, a National Trust Historic Hotel. Of particular note is the stain glass ceiling, and more than one visitor is seen wandering dangerously directionless through the lobby with their eyes peeled upward.
Greetings from the Continental Divide! I arrived in the lovely town on Boulder, Colorado this Friday, and the Rocky Mountains welcomed with wonderful 70-degree weather, and, as expected, vividly spectacular scenery. The shuttle bus from Denver International Airport heads straight for the mountains; during the entire ride a panorama view of the Rockies leaves you staring with your mouth open. What an awe-inspiring sight it is!


I am here on a little mini vacation over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend to visit my friend and former California roommate Susan, who I had not seen in 11 years. Susan and her family - husband Rob, daughters Ellie and Cara, and Chesapeake Bay Retriever and resident canine Greta (as in Garbo) - live in the mountains above Boulder. At 7200 feet exactly, in the community of Sugarloaf in a lovely A-frame mountain home. The view from the house is just wonderful, it is nicely nestled into a mountain hillside and one can simply walk out the door for a hike of any length. Susan, Greta and I went for a hike yesterday through Roosevelt Forest and some of the trails neighboring the house, and it was stunning - the wildflowers are dazzling with an array of colors, wild roses, lupines, daisies - you name it. The landscape up here is high mountain tundra, so in between lodge pines, pinch pines and fir trees, you will be amazed to discovered desert yucca plants and cacti.














Boulder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder%2C_Colorado) itself is a town where I felt at home instantly. It has about 90,000 folks living here with a substantial amount of University of Colorado students thrown in - and strolling down the famous Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian area with a charming layout, a myriad of great restaurants and an equally striking amount of neat stores and other opportunities to spend your money, it is apparent that this is a college town. Yesterday, the Pearl Street mall was a mob scene - two reasons - the Annual Boulder Creek Festival with rides, and booths loaded with unhealthy foods of all categories, which brought out the locals in full force, and the fact that on Memorial Day Monday 50,000 people will run a little road race also known as the Bolder Boulder (Motto - "Sea Level is for Sissies"), a 10 K through the streets of Boulder which leads runners to a the University of Colorado Stadium, where the slower runners such as myself will be welcomed by a stadium full of screaming people. (http://www.bolderboulder.com/default.aspx). This folks will be as close as I will ever get to the Olympics, or at least the feel of it. I got my number yesterday and this morning ran a little around the hillside - I figured if I don't collapse at 7200 feet, I might be OK doing a 10 K in Boulder at 5300 feet. I did quite well except for the uphills, where I felt as if someone was sucking the air out of my lungs with an industrial-size vacuum cleaner. The race starts tomorrow morning at 7 AM, and I am in section DC, everyone is staggered in waves, and they put you in by your previous times for 5Ks or 10 Ks. After everyone is done including the walkers, the professional runners hit the road and of course they are going to be at the finish line probably before I have stopped sweating.
Today we are heading for the mountains a bit, as you know Boulder is where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, and the Rocky Mountains we must see. Snow covered peaks are awaiting. Just like Moab in Utah, Boulder is a community where outdoors enthusiasts, college jocks and adventure seekers flock to by the thousands - rock climbing (in nearby Eldorado Springs -a Mecca for the vertically inclined), biking, high altitude mountaineering, white water rafting - this is paradise.
Just to add a little tidbit, Boulder is also the setting for literature, in particular our scary friend, Maine's own Stephen King, who lived in Boulder for a wee bit, and wrote "The Shining" here after visiting the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. (http://www.stanleyhotel.com/). Estes Park is located at 7500 feet, and as you know is the birthplace of the American credit union movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estes_Park). Back to Stephen King - his book "The Stand" takes place here, and so did the sitcom "Morck and Mindy"; the house you see on television is on Spruce Street right in downtown Boulder.

Back to Boston for a bit and New Hampshire - while this week has actually brought a glimpse of summer with the temperatures soaring up to 93 degrees F (34 degrees Celsius), the weekend before was mostly crappy. Not that this would keep me from heading up to New Hampshire for a little hiking - our destination this time was Eagle Cliff and Red Hill, located adjacent to beautiful Squam Lake. The lake is huge, stretching for 6700 acres (27.5 square kilometers), and has a gazillion little islands which make it very picturesque. Its Native American name was Keeseenunknipee ("goose lake in the highlands"), but it since has been renamed a few times, and eventually ended up being the exciting "Asquam" (Abenaki for "water). The lake is famous a bit, since the Henry Fonda film "On Golden Pond" was filmed here in the early 80s. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Squam+Lake&gbv=2).



For some reason, good karma I guess, the rains stopped exactly for the two hours we scrambled up and down the hill, which was good, but for some other reason, bad karma I guess this time, the bugs came out, which meant that there really was no stopping. If you have ever eaten a bagel with tuna salad in three minutes, you know what I mean. It was either that or hold the bagel with one hand and furiously wave the other, and risk dropping the lunch to the delight of the mosquitoes. Eagle Cliff was great, a bit on the strenuous side, scrambling up Granite boulders and such, and I only got lost once. Once one is beyond the cliff, the hike gets considerably easier, and is quite a breeze up to Red Hill, where a nice, tall fire tower invites to great views, that is if there is one. This particular day, the clouds came in swiftly, and there was not that much of a view, but enjoyable nevertheless. Interestingly enough, with all the bad weather, by the time we got to Boston, the sun was out, and we were able to include an ice-cream stop in the day's activities.
And now, to the highlight of the week - this past Wednesday, our running group, Community Running, participated in an official 1-Mile US Track and Field Race at MIT - the first in our summer Grand Prix series, where our scheming coaches have come up with 8 races to complete over the course of the summer. 22 motivated runners did show for the 1-miler, and we did really good. I actually ran the mile in 7:42 minutes, which is the fastest I have ever run without being chased by a large animal with claws. Of course after crossing the finish line I felt as if I had lost my lungs somewhere on the last lap, and a bottle of oxygen would have been very welcome. We did not have any, but decided beer would do the trick and headed to the Crossroads Irish Pub on Beacon Street in Boston, and the Smithwick's made me feel better right away. What escaped me at that moment, but came clear later quite strikingly, was that I had to run back home after the beer-and-burger-fest, which I did, and let me just say to all of you, it is not something I can recommend whole-heartedly. Don't drink and run.
Friends, the mountains are calling, we are heading to the lovely mountain town of Nederland, Colorado for a little outdoors fun and a picnic. Here is a little blurb from Wikipedia on what happens up there (8200 ft) - "Nederland is also the site of the annual "Frozen Dead Guy Days", which occurs every year in early March. The festival commemorates a substandard attempt to practice cryonics on the grandfather of a deported resident using dry ice after several days of warm ischemia."
On that note, I am signing off - next week I will hail from Chicago, where the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology welcomes 30,000 cancer physicians and researchers, myself among them.
Enjoy the spring!
pet:)

#50 Boston - A Tour of the Squares - May 19 07

Squares we have many in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they are omnipresent, as a matter of fact every street corner in my neighborhood has one, and often there are two squares per intersection on opposite sides of the street; most of them are named after World War II veterans, and I have yet to find one that does not have this distinction. The Tour of the Squares, a Community Running event everyone was looking forward to, hosted by a certain Ms Petra Loesch at 10 6th Street in Cambridge, ignored the myriad of small squares and focused on the main landmarks – Kendall, Central, Inman, Harvard, Porter, and Davis Square. My fellow runners started out bright and early at Casa Petra and with more or less correct maps were invited to “get to know Cambridge” the athletic way. The tour of “The City of Squares” reached its farthest point at Fresh Pond, a reservoir and park area in North Cambridge with a lovely 2-mile loop for runners to enjoy. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Fresh+Pond&gbv=2) Finishers (and I do believe I accounted for all participants) were treated to a pile of bagels and other breakfast items at the yellow house on 6th Street, the mood was elevated by sufficient levels of caffeine and carbs, and Lei’s demonstration of stretching on a foam roller delighted all guests and should be counted as the highlight of the morning.

I’ll have to throw in a few tidbits about the squares of this lovely town of mine – Central Square for example is the seat of our local government, Cambridge City Hall, boasts a wonderful mix of restaurants, and a slew of music venues, including TT The Bear’s, a tiny hovel of a club which on occasion does feature class acts. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were its most famous residents, and so was John Forbes Nash, who was depicted in the movie “A Beautiful Mind” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash). Kendall Square equals MIT, and of course a whole batch of biotech companies, which seem to be sprouting there like mushrooms after a spring rain. One of my favorite movie theaters, the Kendall, is in the neighborhood, just a ten-minute walk from my house.

Inman Square, another 10 minute walk from that little house of mine, in a slightly different direction, is probably my favorite of the squares, tons of ethnic restaurants, in particular Brazilian and Portuguese, cool stores, Christina’s ice cream (and Christina’s spice shop next door), the S&S deli, Riles Jazz Club, Rosie’s Bakery….. The square (http://www.inmansquare.com/) was named after 18th century “gentleman of fortune and Boston merchant” (Wikipedia) Ralph Inman. Apparently young Ralph did quite well in business and owned himself a little mansion in Cambridge along with other well-to-do families such as the Brattles. Improv Boston, a comedy club and Boston Institution, is located right near Inman; and what is now Ole, a Mexican restaurant that does serve a killer guacamole, was once the Ding Ho restaurant, where many now famous stand-up acts such as Jimmy Tingle and Bobcat Goldthwaite earned their comedic chops.

Davis Square is in Somerville, but ranks next to Inman as one of my favorites, again, same MO – oodles of restaurants, ethnic or not, comedy clubs (Jimmy Tingle) and of course, my favorite Irish pub in Boston, The Burren – the Guinness Beef Stew there is just number one on my list of local pub grub. No contest. The Somerville Theater features concerts and offbeat movies, including Boston’s Independent Film Festival each year. As I was checking out the list of notable Somerville residents on Wikipedia, I had to giggle – not just because I did not recognize anyone, but because of the eclectic group of VIPs listed: Alex Rocco (Actor/Gangster), Archibald Query (the inventor of Marshmallow Fluff), James “Buddy” McLean (Gangster), Bobby “Boris” Picket (Composer of “Monster Mash”), Leonard Tower Jr (Software Hacker) and my favorite Thomas “Tommy Somerville” Hardy (Beer Drinker, Story Teller). Actually, I just discovered that football Hall of Famer Howie Long is from Somerville, so I do recognize someone from the list after all.

Harvard Square trumps with history, famous residents and performers such as Tracy Chapman, who was known to give street performances during her college years at Tufts University. You may have recognized parts of the square in the movie “Good Will Hunting”; a quick hop across the street gets you to Harvard Yard, the historic Harvard campus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Yard. If you like NPR’s “Car Talk” radio show with Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers, look no further, the show’s office is right here, with a plaque on the wall for Dewey, Cheatham and Howe – the not-so-real law firm often mentioned by hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi. The address given for the show’s famous “Puzzler” notes the square – Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Harvard Square, Cambridge (our fair city), MA 02138 (and that folks is the correct zip code!).

Enough Cambridge Trivia for today – what is up in Boston? Mother Nature has done a 180 turnaround and brought winter back for a while. It has been raining most of the week, miserable weather, cold with temperatures in the 40s and I swear this is true, I was wearing my winter coat yesterday. Thursday night, when I headed out for a quick 7-mile run, I was wearing a wool hat – we are heading into June and I have the heater blaring. Unbelievable!!!

What else to do but cultural activities, starting off with an advance screening of “Shrek - The Third” this past Wednesday, courtesy of my friend Chris Gibbs, who scored a couple of tickets and whose kindness of asking me along deserved some tasty Mexican food at “Fajitas and Ritas” prior to the big event.
Friday night, again food and culture – this time starting off at Jacob Wirth’s in Boston (http://www.jacobwirth.com/ ), a Bavarian-style dining hall, with good German beer, German food, and a waitress that did not understand my German pronunciation of the beer order. Jacob Wirth’s is a hoot, in particular Friday nights, when starting at 9 PM our friend Mel Stiller hits the keys on his piano, and the whole restaurant, armed with songbooks, starts a sing-along that lasts well past midnight. Renee, Jennifer and I could not wait that long (this would have led to an excessive consumption of beer as you may imagine), as the Boston Ballet awaited our attendance – Giselle, a 19th century story ballet, about a love-sick young woman, who dies after she discovers that the handsome prince she fell for was two-timing her. In the second part of the story, which plays in the woods near the grave, she re-appears to the grieve-struck young man. You see our dead little Giselle is now a Wili, which are ghosts of engaged women who die before their wedding day. They are kind of a tough gang, and their ringleader, Myrtha, wants to do away with poor prince Albrecht by making him dance until he drops. Giselle, being a tad more forgiving, drags the whole process out so that Albrecht can survive until sunrise, then the Wilis, being creatures of the night, return to their graves. Poor Albrecht now is among the living, suffering in the knowledge that even though Giselle still loves him and has forgiven him, he can never be with her. Tough luck, eh? The performance of the Boston Ballet was simply spectacular, the stage setting alternated between a Breugel-like painting dipped in fall colors in the first half, to a mysterious, ethereal setting in the second – what a simply wonderful evening!!

Time to go out for a quick run, it is not raining right now, and one has to make use of every rain-free second here. A little exercise will do me good, somehow the combo of two beers and champagne last night may have slowed me down a bit today.

Have a nice weekend my friends, stay dry!

Pet:)

#49 Boston - Earlier at the Bar - May 13 07

It was one of those weeks, where I simply decided to cut back a bit, and let tiredness get the better of me – so I canceled a few activities, mostly my running practices. I just did not want to drag my sorry butt down to the track, so simple. Monday the couch seemed much more appealing than anything else and Wednesday some questionable Chinese food did the trick and put me to bed early.

Of the events I did attend (don’t worry, there are still plenty left), the award for highlight of the week must go to my wonderfully literary cousin Rebecca, who just published her first book (“Later at the Bar”) and invited all her friends and local-based family to meet earlier at the bar for a little reading. The joint of choice was “The Public House” in Brookline (http://www.thepublickhousebrookline.com/) – a Mecca for Boston beer aficionados featuring some very delectable pub grub – and I must say their selection of beers made me quite dizzy (or it could have been the two cold ones I downed on my empty stomach). I could not make up my mind and just ordered the first beer on the menu, which was some Belgian beverage of sorts, which of course went straight to my head, so I must apologize to my friends if I talked a bit too fast or was more opinionated than usual. Anyway, quite a crowd had gathered to hear Rebecca read; it was nice to see everyone, meet family, friends, and friends of friends. You must promise me to read her book, which is a novel composed of stories, all centering around a bar in upstate New York and the lives of those who flock there for various reasons. Here is what I like about it. You have been there, we all have. The local bar at the corner, the favorite haunt, where you are known and where your life touches upon others – it offers alcohol-induced compassion from strangers just when you need it and no one else in the world would understand, provides a temporary social crutch near a new home; and to some may just be the center of their universe. Rebecca’s writing style is very accessible, with a wicked sense of humor thrown in at the appropriate places, and the book welcomes you in just as the bar would. Bottom Line for you, my friends: Extraordinary book. Buy it. Read it.

I haven’t told you about the Colin Hay concert and the day in the Berkshires yet, have I? OK, so we have to back up a bit. Sunday, Rick, Denise and I hopped in the car and drove out to the Berkshires (actually Denise and I hopped and Rick drove), a most beautiful area of foothills and mountains located in Western Massachusetts – perfect for the outdoorsy kind such as we are (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Berkshires&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2) . Some of its trails are part of the most famous Appalachian Trail; there are wilderness parks galore, one can canoe, kayak, hike and even get a little culture – The Boston Symphony Orchestra has its summer home in Tanglewood (http://www.tanglewood.org/bso), there are numerous music festivals and a series of smaller clubs. Its highest mountain is Mt Greylock at 3491 ft (1064 m) at and Bash Bish Falls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_Bish_Falls ), with 200 meters is Massachusetts’ highest waterfall. Our destination was Monument Mountain near Great Barrington (http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/monument_mountain.html) – featuring beautiful views and a couple of cool stories. Did you know that Monument Mountain is where Hermann Melville got the idea for Moby Dick? Ha! Apparently young Hermann grew up there and after a stint in the navy decided to move back to his beloved Berkshires, write books and such. From what I was told he was actually a fairly upbeat writer in his early years, but that changed quickly once he met our morose little friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. The two of them headed up the mountain one day for a picnic of sorts (don’t ask), got stuck in a thunderstorm, had to hide in a cave at a place called “Devil’s Pulpit” and apparently Nate filled Hermann’s head with all kinds of ideas about sea adventures and such. Plus Mt Greylock reminded Melville of a whale, so there you go. We even managed to actually by Melville’s house later in the day drive (it really was by accident), which is easily recognizable as it has of course a sign with a whale on it.

Story #2 has to do with American romantic poet William Cullen Bryant, who stayed in the area sometime in the 19th century and came up with the name “Monument Mountain” – it stems from a poem of his who tells the story of a love sick Mohican maiden who had the hots for her cousin, and since that was a big no-no, she leapt off a cliff. There is a monument where she is supposedly buried (her remains were never found even by grave robbers who tried quite hard), hence the name. We could not even find the monument, but we’ll trust it is somewhere around there.

We had a nice coffee break at Uncommon Grounds in Great Barrington before being chased up another hill by Rick’s uncle John, who was definitely giving us a run for our money – but the views from Lenox Mountain in Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary were definitely worth it. (http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Pleasant_Valley/index.php). I forgot my camera, so all I can give you are some written memories and Web links, so you have to do a little work yourself.

Colin Hay, former front man of the group “Men at Work” played at the Club Helsinki (http://www.clubhelsinkiweb.com/) in Great Barrington (which is a very quaint touristy little hamlet), and after an initial few disconcerting moments, during which we were not sure if there was a place to sit (“I paid 45-freaking dollars for a ticket, and you tell me there is standing room only?”) of if we would get food, we found some chairs, ate some Finnish-inspired food with plates on our laps – so it all ended well,. Colin Hay, my friends, was phenomenal, and this was one of the best club concerts I have ever seen. Armed just with a couple of acoustic guitars, his trademark voice and only occasionally supported by his wife and saucy singer Celia Noel (http://www.colinhay.com/), he was simply wonderful. In between songs he entertained the crowd with a dry-witted stand-up routine about his life and its ups and downs that had all of us rolling on the floor (“Remember the song “Who could it be now? We were so stoned when we wrote it, the original version was 4 ½ hours long”). He has been busy continuing to make music throughout the years, but his song “I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you” on the soundtrack of Zach Braff’s indie hit “Garden State” reminded us why he is such a great songwriter. My favorite song of his (and the Men at Work) is and still remains “Overkill” – just a marvelous tune.

Moving on, Thursday night, Lyric Stage Company – ushering duty to see Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” which apparently was his first commercial success. Quite a wonderful comedic story which takes place in Bulgaria, where the daughter of a wealthy family, who is engaged to a war hero, hides a Serb soldier (who is actually a Swiss guy named Bluntschli) and falls in love with him. He is her chocolate-cream solider! When her father and the “war hero” fiancée, who is more pompous than anything else (and a coward, a womanizer…. you know the type), allegiances shift, the war hero ends up with the maid, the rich girl with the Swiss solider (who turns out to be even richer) and everyone is happy. All is fair in love and war, as they say. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw)

Saturday evening – theater again, this time in the charming town of Concord with the musical “She Loves Me”, a wonderful story about love and romance staged in a perfumery in Budapest. After a busy day of exercise and outdoor activity, and the beginnings of a cold, this was perfect entertainment, and by far one of the best community theater performances I have ever seen. I had a smile on my face the whole time. The cast was spectacular, their voices trained and perfect, the acting funny, light and spirited, I can’t sing enough praise about this performance. Bravo! http://concordplayers.org/

Well, since I skipped two running practices, I felt I needed to do a little somethin’ somethin’, so I started off the latest exercise craze yesterday morning with a 8-mile run with my friends Sheila, Eliza, Peter, Stephanie, and Jim from Community Running. Not quite enough I thought and headed out to Malden to meet my friend Dana for a hike at the Middlesex Fells (pictures to follow) which was a perfect thing to do on a perfect spring day. This morning I woke up and felt like crap. The dreaded lurgy had decided to attack me and what better to try to get rid of these evil spirits that inhabited my tired body than to go to a road race. It was Mother’s Day and it was Somerville’s 5th annual Mary O’Brien Memorial 5 K for Cancer, a wonderfully organized community-based run. There were runners, walkers, dogs, Harpoon Beer and Red Bones BBQ, tons of raffle prizes and a road race of course. Considering that I had a cold and my knees had been a little unhappy yesterday, I did quite well with a finishing time of 27:11, which is a pace of 8:44 min/mile.

Now of course I am on the couch, I swear, enjoying some peace and quiet and ready to watch some movies. I hope all of you have a great Mother’s Day and get to spend with your family or your friends.

All my love to you.

Pet:)

#48 - Boston - Coincidences - May 5 07

Here is one for you – a bit of a long story, but you can take it, I am sure. You may get a beer or a cup of tea, if you like.

In what proved a very busy-body type of week, I was wheeling and dealing with six million business cards I had collected at the most recent oncology conference, when I came about a few old business cards from my personal life that I hung onto for one reason or another. Among them I found a card for Barbara Hill-Moore – soprano, distinguished music professor and voice teacher at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Now Barbara you see, I met many, many years ago, during my stint as a press spokesperson for a music festival in Germany (I just assume that you knew that, right?). During my vacation to the United States in 1988 (the one that has lasted for the past 19 years) I traveled across the country visiting family, friends – many of them musicians that I did meet during said festival (which took place in tents with lots of mud around it – I am not going to discuss this now….). So, I did stop in Dallas, and let’s just say this was definitely not the “time-of-my-life” portion of the whole trip – I stayed with some (on second sight) fairly shady characters, was stuck in an apartment somewhere in Dallas, while my hosts were up to no good and out carousing all night – not good, not good at all. Barbara, bless her, after a dinner conversation where I had a little nervous breakdown on account of the whole bad-host situation, took me under her wing, invited me to her home, showed me around and was just as kind as could be.

We had not exactly stayed in touch, so I figured, what are 15 years more or less, and decided to drop her a little email, you know the “I-am-not-sure-if-you-remember-me-I-swear-I-am-not-a-crazy-stalker” kind. After sending it off, I looked a little more at her website (http://faculty.smu.edu/bhmoore/) and discovered that not only did her daughter Leah live in Boston, but her son-in-law, Gary is a colleague of ours at Harvard School of Public Health, a very gifted young doctor who conducts studies on cancer preventions and on disparities in cancer. How cool is that? I am always amazed at such coincidences, and how life sometimes comes around in circles. What a nice story to be able to tell you. Made me smile all week!

Before I go on to the events of the week, another thought, again on the more philosophical side, and this thought comes with a thank you to my dazzling UK friend Jen Morton who told me that the Petraisms are an attest to my multi-lingual skills (not to forget superior intelligence as indicated by my math skills – see below) – which made me feel so special. In the course of that correspondence a couple of German idioms came to mind, and I just will share them now with you, if you like it or not. I really don’t care (no, I have not been drinking….). Instead of sleeping like a log, we sleep like a sand sack in the Southern German parts of the country, if you wish someone luck, you “press your thumbs” instead of keeping your fingers crossed, and if you to encourage someone in an athletic endeavor, you tell them to break their legs and their neck!

Back to the craziness that is my life – work has been a little nuts this week, but not in a bad way, just juggling too many things at the same time – which lead to a somewhat minor mental collapse yesterday afternoon where I could not for the life of me remember what 6 times 8 was, and had to pull out a calculator to figure it out. Major old-timers moment there. Sometimes you just can’t keep it together, as much as you try.

Monday – Community Running track practice – where I dragged a few of my unsuspecting friends for a “field trip” – I am not sure if they have forgiven me for the torture I exposed them to, but I think some amends were made at Ana’s Tacqueria at MIT following the workout.

Tuesday was a big day – first of all, the new bed arrived – oh it is beautiful my friends, just beautiful!! So beautiful indeed that I decided that I must, must, MUST have the dresser matching to it, drove to Jordan’s on Wednesday night after running practice at the hospital, and bought the damn expensive thing. See I had to go back on Wednesday -Jordan’s has this deal where you get free delivery if you order a second piece of furniture within a week of buying the first one. What could I do, but hoof it out there, be again mesmerized by all the shiny things they throw at you before you even have seen one piece of furniture, had a buffalo burger at Fuddruckers and made salesman Joe deliriously happy. The dresser will be arriving Tuesday and my bedroom will be snazzier than ever!!

Back to Tuesday actually – early evening led me to the Trident, one of my favorite places in Boston’s Back Bay (http://www.tridentbookscafe.com/) – combination book store and café with very decent food. Purpose of the visit was that I met with Michele Martin, who is just starting a business called Marathon Paws: she hires runners and joggers to run and walk people’s dogs for them. What a neat idea – I can get my running in, and take someone’s dog with me. Most of you know that I am a total dog nut – so this is pretty ideal for me. Two months from now, we will be ready to go and the many pooches of Cambridge will get a workout.
I then headed out to dinner with my friend Frank, who lives in my hometown in Germany, and who once in a while breezes thought Boston like a fresh breath of air. Frank wanted steak so we headed to another Back Bay haunt, Joe’s American Bar and Grill http://bbrginc.com/joes/1.html, ate tons of food, had some nice wine and even had room for desert.

Last night a whole gaggle of friends (Patrick, Ellen, Amy, Dana, Stan) and I went to Lexington to see community theater – the Lexington Players performed Stephen Sondheim’s Musical “Assassins” - http://www.sondheim.com/shows/assassins/ . Of course I had heard of Sondheim before – you know “West Side Story” “Sweeney Todd”, “A Funny Thing that Happened to the Forum”, but this show was new to me. Called by some “his most unpleasant musical” it depicts, in revue style, men and women who attempted (some of them successfully) to assassinate presidents of the United States – John Hinckley (Reagan), Leon Czolgosz (McKinley), Samuel Byck (Nixon), Charles Guiteau (Garfield), Giuseppe Zangara (FDR), Sara Jane Moore and Lynette Squeaky Fromme (Ford), Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy) and of course, last but not least, John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln). Our friend Irene, who was part of the ensemble dazzled as usual and I would have loved to see her in the role of one of the women assassins (she would have kicked butt!), and I thought Dave Leigh as Sam Byck was quite impressive. He consumingly performed two monologues as the very-off kilter Byck, who ranted about his plot to crash a plane into the White House to kill Richard Nixon in tapes he sent to Leonard Bernstein and Hank Aron (he just wanted a little attention, is all). There was a little wardrobe issue (would not call it a malfunction, maybe a misalignment) with Leigh’s costume that did delight the audience for a short bit, in particular a group of very giggly women a couple of rows behind us, but it’s all good as they say.


Today, just like most of the other days this week, Mother Nature delighted us again with a wonderful spring day, sunny, a bit on the breezy side, not too warm, but good, just good, you know. I met up with Ellen, Patrick, Amy and Dana for brunch and an introductory meeting between two dogs – you see, Ellen and Patrick recently adopted Highway Flame, a just charming greyhound, who used to earn his living at the Wonderland race track until last December, and Peanut, Amy and Dana’s new addition, a slightly portly, six-year old Chihuahua who needed a new home, and boy did he luck out with his placement at Casa Litman. The meeting went pretty well, a respectful distance was kept between the two canines with an occasional snarl by Peanut in defense of his travel bag, but we could see the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Alright, time to go to the store and get some food. My refrigerator has been officially classified as a “frat fridge” which means the only thing it contains is beer and condiments (and bird seed). Not good, gotta go.

Hope y’all have a nice weekend. We are heading to the Berkshires tomorrow for some hiking and a concert with former “Men at Work” front man Colin Hay - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Hay - tell you all about it next week.

Toodles,

PetJ

#47 Boston - My Cabin at the Cheesecake Factory

The list of Petraisms has officially received two new entries – and that in one day!! Rick, Denise, Chris and I were shown to our seats at the Cheesecake Factory yesterday and when the hostess showed us to a booth I could not help but exclaim “Oh great, we have a cabin!”. I was immediately educated by my wonderfully knowledgeable friends and Native English speakers that this kind of seating arrangement is called a booth. Only the hostess was on my side, and told me that this was indeed my cabin or whatever else I wanted it to be. Main thing I ordered lots of food and give her a big tip.

I followed this Petraism with a small twist to the classic “it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop” by making it “it was so quiet you could hear a needle drop”, so there you have it. Add them to the list of language infractions.

The second slightly off quote was in the context of my describing the evening prior, when my boss Bruce and his wife Davi took me to see a spectacular performance at the Boston Symphony – the Yale School of Music, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and the Yale Glee Club, accompanied by two children’s’ choirs (Trinity Church Boys and Girls Choirs and Elm City Girls Choir) and three fine soloists performed Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. The whole effort was in the hands of the very enthusiastic and superbly skilled Korean conductor Shinik Hahm. The War Requiem is not nessecarily the most accessible piece of music, and may prove difficult to appreciate at the first encounter. Composed by Benjamin Britten, a Brit (haha), who was a 20th century composer and who won three Grammys in 1963 for his work (all for the War Requiem) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten , it requires tremendous stamina on behalf of the choir and the soloists, which all handled the task with ease, in particular tenor James Taylor (the other one, not the one you know….), who we thought had the voice of an angel. The War Requiem itself is a combination of the Requiem Mass by Britten laced with words by English poet Wilfred Owen – the choir sings the mass in Latin, the soloists sing the poems in English. Wikipedia describes Owen’s work as “shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trench and gas warfare…..in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written earlier by war poets.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen.

I have been so busy this weekend it may make you dizzy just reading about it so hang tight. Even I was tired this morning, and pretty much comatose until after 10 AM, sleeping in - something I have not done in years. Saturday morning, Charles River Esplanade, Boston, Massachusetts: 100 exercise-hungry athletes showed up to run the 3rd Annual Back Bay 5 K. Mother Nature participated as well by giving us a wonderfully warm and sunny morning. Organized by the Chi Phi Fraternity and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, this is a very nice low-key community event. The race bibs are printed on regular paper (none of that fancy schmancy road race stuff); the markers are drawn on the pavement with chalk; the frat boys provide water, record race time and invite you to a barbeque at their place a little later if you are nice. http://backbay5k.mit.edu/. But here comes the really good news, I reached my goal of beating 8:30 min / mile in a 5 K road race. With a finishing time of 26:21 I accomplished my goal I had set at the beginning of the year (pace 8:28 min/mile). I was so excited. PR!! Now of course I need to find a new running goal for the rest of the year, and I am sure my coaches Amy and Brian will come with an achievable accomplishment I could set my sight on.

After the post-race milling about, Barbara, Chris and I headed over to Cambridge to hook up with Denise and Rick for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (http://www.cheesecakefactory.com/) – the site of the cabin incident. We opted to share a cheesecake since each one of them has enough calories that would warrant running a marathon to counterbalance the influx of fat and sugar. Zipping home after lunch, I first met up with Elaine, who was checking out the bed that she is about to inherit from me, and then headed over to Renee’s to drop off my two red IKEA sofa chairs, to the delight of her two cats, who seemed excited about new places to snooze on. Renee and I then hoofed it back to my place to get all dolled up for the Rock the Boat gala event, a fundraiser for the Mattapan Health Center, a community medical facility here in the Boston area. My boss Bruce and his charming wife Davi have been big supporters of the MHC for years, and he was one of last year’s honorees. http://www.mattapanchc.org/rtb.htm In its initial years the fundraiser took place on the cruise ship Spirit of Boston (http://www.mattapanchc.org/rtb.htm), hence the Rock the Boat theme, but the event has outgrown the ship, and I for one am glad. Many of you know how see-unworthy I am, and being green in the face just does not go well with a ball gown.

What’s all this furniture business you may ask? Hah! I have purchased a new bed – wonderful dark maple, solid wood, a bit expensive, but soooo beautiful. Now where did you buy this gem of carpentry you ask? Hah! I went to Jordan’s my friends, which for those of you who don’t know and have never experienced it, is quite something – Jordans, I am not kidding you, is Disneyland for Furniture Shoppers – this place is unbelievable. There are trapeze artists and liquid fire displays, there is Jellybean Land (entirely made from Jellybeans), there is a Fuddruckers Burger Place (where I had my first ever ostrich burger) and I had not even gotten to the furniture yet. It took Steph and me quite some time to look at all the 90-some beds on display, but the decision was a little easier once we told salesman Bob, who at that point followed us like a little puppy, that we needed a little bit of privacy and time alone. We made our decision, and sealed the deal with the help not of salesman Bob (who shot us a bit of a look and a sheepish evil eye attempt), but of salesman Jim, who was a bit more on the socially adept side and knew his furniture business inside and out. Next stop was Linens and Things, which did not feature any shiny lights or clowns, actually the place seemed devoid of sales people altogether, but Stephanie and I did find some nice bedspreads and other accoutrements for Petra’s new dazzling bedroom.


Well, you saw the pictures from last Sunday’s hike up Mount Cardigan in New Hampshire, which happened to be a very nice outing indeed. The weather was spectacular, blue skies and all, but we had ignored the fact that there might be still snow left up there, and turns out there was. Knee-deep in snow we were and at some point I got stuck and had to dig myself out again. The views were spectacular, and it was just so nice to be in the mountains again. Mt Cardigan is known as “Old Baldy” for its completely bare summit at 3121 ft – the hike covered an elevation difference of almost 2000 feet, and we definitely got our workout in.


















Spring is sort of here, with a mix of rainy and sunny days, Monday I walked down Commonwealth Avenue, enjoyed the magnolia blossoms and it was hard to believe that just the day before I was playing in snow.
























I have to go now, Elaine and I are planning to go to Kappy’s Liquor Store in Medford to fill up the wine and whiskey rack – I have never been there, but apparently the selection of alcohol they offer is dizzying. Come and visit soon, the bar is stocked.

Until then.

Pet:)

#46 Boston - Shorts and Tank Tops April 22 07

Yes, spring has officially arrived yesterday – we have had nice weather for two days in a row, and everyone in Boston is delirious with pleasure. Oscar has started a chirp fest with the birds on the other side of the window, and I am not sure yet as to who will win. Let’s just say that Banana Boy here seems to be enjoying himself nevertheless. Today, for the first time in 2007 I jogged in shorts and a tank top, exposing those pasty legs of mine to some sunshine and to some lusty-eyed old men on the corner of Beacon and Cambridge Street, most of who would certainly benefit from a little jog or at least a walk around the block once in a while.

Should we trust the first signs of spring? After all, this is New England, and considering our recent weather history, anything could happen. Snow, rain, sleet, cataclysms, avalanches – I certainly will not put the basement pump in its summer resting spot until there has been a spell of about 10 days of decent weather.
I learned the hard way. We have gone in less than two days from wearing sandals in 70 degree weather to 40 degrees and snow. New England weather - Never a dull moment.

But you know what? The dreariest weather in Boston is so much better than the nicest day in Los Angeles. I know, last week’s write-up was a bit on the enthusiastic side, but as mentioned I was way too giddy from seeing sunshine, after having lived in the dark for three months straight. Admittedly there are nice corners in the LA area, Santa Monica and Venice for example – beautiful and sunny, just as you imagine California should be. If you live there and never have to venture into any other part of Los Angles, you are fine. Downtown is a mixed bag – on my first day I was in the new and shiny financial district, clean, bright, even a few trees here and there. Move three blocks to the right, toward “historic downtown LA” and your first thought is “Oh my God, I am going to die!” Seriously. It is smelly, stinky, grimy, skuzzy and dangerous. My friend Valeria from Barcelona, who was my conference and jogging companion, started to get quite worried, and kept asking if we could head back to the nice part of town. Historic my foot! Run-down buildings, disheveled and tattered, boarded up and forgotten. What a shame.

And this is not even the worst part of town – on the way back from a business meeting in Beverly Hills our cabbie delighted us with stories from famed South Central LA and Watts, two sections of town that are so beaten down and dangerous that apparently even cop cars only go there in twos. Both areas are impoverished, ruled by gang violence and have literally no infrastructure aside from fast food places, 99 cent and liquor stores. Wikipedia reports that in the 7 years between 1998 and 2005, 200 homicides alone happened in Watts. The city of Los Angeles at some point changed the name South Central Los Angeles to South Los Angeles, hoping that the image of the area as a crime-ridden, newsworthy-for-the-wrong-reasons part of town would be a little less prominent. Again, a darn shame, since this is one of the oldest neighborhoods this Southern California urban sprawl has to offer, with some wonderful old Victorians in West Adams for example. USC, the University of Southern California is down there – scary place for a campus.

Stark contrast – Beverly Hills, where my colleagues Geoff and Tracy and I had ourselves a little business meeting – people watching included. While we were waiting to get into a decrepit old cab, Bentleys, Lexuses, Mercedeses, Beamers kept pulling up, and we stared at pretty much everyone to see if we could recognize them from TV. I swear that I saw Fred Dalton Thomson who plays a DA on Law and Order, but I could just be imagining things. Conference delirium, who knows, he could have just been some nice older man, who was taken out to dinner there by his wife.

The conference was exhausting, and I pretty much plopped into my hotel bed every night, dead tired. Running around these conference centers all day is toilsome; tons of meetings; moving around on concrete floors made my shins hurt so much that I had trouble running on the treadmill in the hotel gym. Trying to get a decent meal is another thing in LA – probably as a result of 17,000 hungry oncologists all swarming around downtown, this proved challenging – thanks to my friends at Smeraldi’s (located in the Biltmore Hotel) not only for its California Mediterranean cuisine, but for a free desert on a night when I really needed one; and a second thank you to the fabulous Seoul Jung with its very very fine Korean fare. (http://www.wilshiregrand.com/restaurants&bars/seoul_jung.htm)

Back to Boston, and straight to a day of hosting a company for a pipeline presentation – a very good and successful, but fatiguing day, and when Thursday night came around I was so happy to put my feet up for once, watch a movie and veg out on my horrendously neglected couch. (Did I mention that I had a meeting Wednesday night about an hour after I came home? Of course! Why wouldn’t I? Actually Hilary and I were planning running routes for a “fun run” I am hosting in May – more on that later).

Friday evening brought a little culture for this tired traveler, ushering duty at my cherished Faneuil Hall, the Boston Classical Orchestra celebrated strings with its Viva Vivaldi program – there was a little J.S. Bach thrown in there as well, and our good friend Francois Couperin, which rounded out the evening nicely. We learned a little more about Vivaldi that night. His nickname was “The Red Priest” because he was a priest and he had flaming red hair, duh. Legend has it, he was not a very good priest, and only read mass once – apparently he had such terrible stage fright, that his first performance in the pulpit did not go over that well at all, so he focused on his music, and one can safely say – “Good Choice.” His life was quite interesting, from his early start as a maestro in a children’s orphanage to his life at European royal courts, and his death in poverty in Vienna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi). Highlight of the evening were Ronald Crutcher (who aside from being a famous cellist is also the dean of Wheaton College) and Owen Young, two African-American cellists, who absolutely barocked the house and made the audience rise to a standing ovation (http://www.bostonclassicalorchestra.org/).

The weekend was started with a quiet morning today, a quick jog and some volunteer work at a track meet at MIT – Community Running helps out once or twice a year at such an event, and my task was to lug hurdles around, change their height and then lug some more. The weather played along nicely, even a bit too much at times, and a late afternoon breeze was welcome by all. I just returned from my dinner group at Paula and Waleed’s new Frank Lloyd Writish-looking house in Lexington – a lovely evening with spirited conversations, plans for an all-night “movies-that-are-so-bad-they-are good” slumber party are being hashed out, but first the group has promised to come to Petra’s Haus for some German deliciacies in June. Ja, ja.

So, must go to bed now, it is late and there is some hiking in the stars for tomorrow. Enjoy the sunshine!

Pet :)

#45 Boston - Married to a Tree - April 15 2007

Greetings from Los Angeles my friends - and yes, it is sunny here - a fact that made me quite giddy bordering on delirious yesterday, and I realized that I have not seen the sun in weeks in Boston. It has been consistently cold and dreary since early February, it is mid-April, winter has shown no inclination to let up any time soon. It either rains or snows, and rare are the sunny days in between. Boston is possibly expecting snow for the Marathon on Monday, I think for the first time in its 111-year history.

Easter was no different, it was cold outside, and what a good time to host a few friends, and have a warm and spirited get-together inside. Mostly due to the presence of my wonderfully charming and funny friends Mona and Rohini, we learned all about Bollywood movies and their intricate plots. For those of you who don't know, Bollywood is a genre of Hindustani films from India, most of them with elaborate dance numbers, music to tap your feet to, and of course a hefty romance between two beautiful looking people.

In the context of this positively animated discussion, we learned about "mangliks" , who (I certainly hope I am explaining this right) are folks who are born during certain astrological period. Once this happens, you are doomed my friend, it is supposed to be a bad omen for all sorts of things, in particular relationships, marriages and other living group arrangements - it could lead to divorce even, or worse, the over-early death of your significant other. Now here is the deal: if two mangliks marry each other, the bad vibes cancel each other out. That would be Plan A. Plan B, which comes into effect if you cannot find another manglik you like to the degree that you want to marry them, would be to ward off the evil spirits by having a ceremony of sorts, where the manglik bride or groom gets married to an inanimate object, such as a banana tree or a Vishnu icon or sorts. Another version of Plan B would be to marry an urn, which then gets destroyed immediately after the vows have been spoken, and the manglik is then considered a widow/er and free from the curse. You see, this whole manglik curse business only applies to your first marriage, after that you can pretty much do what you want. Check out Lago Raho Munna Bhai, if you feel so inclined, a Bollywood feature that features a Manglik subplot. Rohini has offered to host a Bollywood party at some point in the near future, where we will be introduced to the finer intricacies of this genre of cinema. I for one am looking forward to it.

The rest of Easter was pretty much spent on the couch with movies, the weather did not improve as the day went on or any day thereafter. Monday's track workout at Community Running could only be tolerated because I was promised some excellent Mexican food at the MIT burrito shop, which I have to admit has the best freakin' quesadillas I have ever had.

Alright, Los Angeles - I barely got here yesterday after an extremely bumpy flight from the East Coast. Storms were raging all over the country, Denver got dumped with snow again, Texas is being wiped clean by tornados and Los Angeles has been experiencing severe wind speeds to the point where some flights the day before could not land at LAX at all. After two failed attempts one plane had to retreat to Long Beach, some corn field nearby or God knows where. Apparently the flight was a Northwest flight, and there is no NW crew at Long Beach, so all the passengers were carted by bus to LA, whereas the plane stayed in Long Beach, and when the winds died down, flew the luggage to LAX. Not only was our flight bumpy and unpleasant, the English language channel for the in-flight movie ("Freedom Writers") never worked, only the Spanish one, and that means that after "Yo se Hillary Swank" they pretty much lost me.

I am staying in the Millennium Biltmore hotel, one the classic hotels built in the 1920s - it has a sort of "faded elegance" look, and a history to boot: in the 1930s and early 1940s it hosted the Academy Awards, and still is a frequent location for movies (Cruel Intentions, Chinatown, Beverly Hills Cop....) or even a Britney Spears video (now that's classy!). In the Biltmore's Crystal Ballroom the Oscar statuette was first introduced to the world. I was immediately captured by its beauty, and I stood there with my mouth open, staring at the ceiling, and looked fixedly at its Italian-Renaissance columns and colorful and elaborate ceiling frescos.
(http://www.millenniumhotels.com/MCIL.nsf/lu_hoteldoc/115$$hotelDescription?opendocument)

Maybe it was the nice weather yesterday, but I did not have the immediate sense of repulsion I expected to experience upon visiting Los Angeles. While it may be the West Coast poster child for urban sprawl, the city has put a lot of effort into making the "urban metropolis style of architecture" look good. In between glistening high-rises that seem to disappear in the sky, modern art sculptures, inviting spots to sit and watch water displays, and small parks give LA's working masses much-needed repose and are easy on the eyes. As far as its modern downtown financial district goes, I was pleasantly surprised.






I did get some running in yesterday, and armed with a little map provided by the hotel, headed out for a 5-mile run in search of Echo Pond - which did prove to be a little gem in a neighborhood where I would least expected it and provides a nice view of the skyline of Los Angeles in the background. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Park%2C_Los_Angeles%2C_California

I then headed onto a bus, yes my friends, I took public transportation in Los Angeles, which was actually not so bad and always beats a 60$ cab ride - I squeezed in with six million commuters on the 720 express bus and hightailed it out to Santa Monica. It always amazes me just how vast the LA area is, it took me 1 h 15 minutes to get to Santa Monica, and that was on the express bus!! After a quick stroll along Santa Monica Pier and a quickie glance at the Pacific Ocean (I did miss it a bit), I zipped over to Venice to see my childhood friend Hans, who recently sold his two restaurants to open up a new cafe and bakery. Three Squares on the corner of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and San Juan is a delightful place, with bright, simple and cheerful lines, and fantastic food based on Hans' and his business partner's Wolfgang's German and Austrian ancestry. The Spaetzle with morel mushrooms and white asparagus was phenomenal, the mac and cheese soufflé worth flying to LA for, and Wolfgang's Austrian flagship dish, the Kaiserschmarrn so good I could have eaten two risking a rupture of my already pleasantly extended stomach. We drank yummy yummy Austrian wine, and I was sent home with pretzel rolls from Hans and Wolfgang's bakery. http://www.dailycandy.com/article.jsp?ArticleId=29122&city=2 Of course, aside from the food, it was nice to catch up, I had not seen Hans in 25 years I guess, and we did compare our paths in life that both led us to live in the United States. A memorable evening for me, indeed. (And just in case if you were worried, I did take a cab back to the hotel.)

A couple other observations about LA to round out the report - it is definitely greener than I thought or remembered, and folks are friendly, very friendly. The homeless are more aggressive; this morning I had some pregnant lady not only ask me fairly energetically for some money, but I think she was planning to follow me into the Starbucks into the hope that I would buy her a muffin... tss tss!

The conference started today and as usual on the first day is always a lot of meet and greet activity and setting up meetings. Tomorrow the exhibit hall opens and the academic posters are on view, I better hope I don't get CRAFT Disease ("Can't Remember a Fucking Thing"), which always seems to befall me at some point.
Off to work I go!!

pet:)

#44 Boston - The Return of Winter - April 7 07

New England seems to be stuck in some kind of weather/time warp. If you recall, December and January had brought us the warmest winter on record, and February, March and now April have been cold as can be. There is no end in sight, weather.com tells me that it is NOT going to warm up any time soon in the next 10 days, which is just so wrong. In some regions of our little Commonwealth and its sister states, kids will have to dig out their Easter eggs from underneath snow. Temperatures have been in the 30s mostly, we had snow last week, and I went skiing today. Yes, skiing!!

I think the ski resorts are also baffled by all this, and some of them had closed down already, but my friend Jo and I had ourselves a nice little daytrip to Waterville Valley today (http://www.waterville.com/winter/index.asp) - and it was a perfect day for playing around in the white stuff. The sun came out in the afternoon and it was Winter Wonderland at its best, snow covered pine trees and azure-blue sky accompanied us on our adventures down the slopes. I of course had gone to Waterville with a purpose – redemption. I needed to get over the skiing debacle in the Alps in Switzerland and end the season on a high note. If you remember correctly I stumbled down a mountain from 9000 feet not in the most nimble of ways, altitude sick in the middle of a whiteout. Not the best conditions to show off your newfound skills as a novice skier.

Hah!! I showed them today!! My friends, I am happy to announce that for the first time in my life I skied down blue trails!! I am so proud of myself. After a little warm-up on the bunny slopes followed by ’Valley Run”, one of the main green trails, I thought “now or never” and headed to a blue trail called “Stillness” and aced it. I was so stoked and excited, I ran it several times. Since this is pretty much the end of the season and Waterville is closing down tomorrow, it was much less crowded, which made every run tremendously enjoyable. After lunch and a quick little warm-up, Jo and I headed up the quad and then the Sunny Side chairlift to the top of the mountain to attack “Oblivion”, another blue trail, a bit steeper in its upper sections, but else pretty doable as well. And aside from a fairly ungraceful dismount from the chairlift, which at least provided some amusement for the other skiers up top, I did really well and arrived at the base of the mountain with the biggest smile on my face.

As mentioned, the weather has been cold and crappy - not the best conditions for running – but as you know by now, not a good enough excuse not to go. Monday and Wednesday of this week Community Running had its track workout, and despite arctic temperatures on Monday and pouring rain on Wednesday, we did zip along the track and put up our best efforts. Did I mention that we now do all our workouts outside?? April 1st is usually the start date for the outdoor running season, when we no longer have access to the MIT indoor facilities, and our group runs, come rain, or shine, or snow, or sleet, or a tornado.

Good thing there were cultural things to do this week – Thursday night, ushering duty at the Lyric Stage Company (http://www.lyricstage.com/) for Christopher Durang’s play “Miss Witherspoon”. Interesting story, the just mentioned Miss Witherspoon, who committed suicide at some point in the 1990s, is stuck in the netherworld. Apparently the afterlife ain’t all that it’s cracked up to be, there is no rest for the weary even there, and she just refuses to be re-incarnated. Her goal is to be left alone and be put into a state of general anesthesia, but her heavenly advisors had other plans in mind. A quite spirited and funny play with maybe a few silly moments that could have been left out - but overall very entertaining.

We had to chase this one down on Friday with a musical theater play by Jason Robert Brown – “The Last Five Years” performed at the Bruce Spruce Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown. The Bruce Spruce is a so-called black box theater, a trend that became popular in the Sixties and Seventies I believe, basically a pretty square space, sparse and unadorned, flat floor, everything pretty simple and thus flexible. My colleague Stanley (who kindly enough got two comp tickets for Denise and myself) exquisitely played the violin in this piece, which describes the end of a marriage. Both Jeffrey Prescott and Alyson van de Giesen, who played the unlucky couple, described the story of their relationship – Jeffrey aka Jamie starts his recollections at the time they first met, whereas Alyson aka Cathy starts at the present time and works backwards. The performance is all song and was quite well performed by both actors, except for one scene, after which Denise and I quickly came to the unanimous decision that young Mr. Prescott should have definitely kept his shirt on.

The Arsenal Center for the Arts is a fairly new community theater on the grounds of the old Watertown arsenal, has several theaters, including a children’s theater and the New Repertory Theater, and is housed in one of the buildings of the former Army Materials Technology Lab. (http://www.arsenalarts.org/) It is a nicely converted space, there is a Panera Bread next door (yummm!), parking is free, what’s not to like? This was all new territory to me, I had never been to this part of town or the nearby Arsenal mall either, but eventually recognized the area from last year’s marathon training, where some of my long weekend runs took me all the way to this exotic destination.

Tomorrow is Easter, happy egg hunting and such!! Most of my friends have skipped town to see their folks, but I have organized a little brunch for those left behind, and a small group will gather at Petra and Oscar’s abode tomorrow late morning. Oscar has been chirping away excitedly, this is after all his favorite holiday, as you may imagine. The brunch will be followed by some serious couch time in order to get ready for the week.

This next Friday I will head to Los Angeles to join 13,000 of my closest friends at the Annual Meeting of AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) for six fun-filled days. Actually I hope that at least one of them will be - I have re-initiated contact with a German friend of mine that I have not seen in more than 25 years, he is a celebrity chef in LA and I certainly look forward to meeting him and his family, and a scrumptious meal at his restaurant.

Until then my friends, pray for spring and stay warm and dry!

Pet:)

#43 Boston - Appliance Honeymoon - April 1 07

It was a week of improvements, or pending improvements that is, at 10 6th Street in Cambridge. The biggest news of them all, I got a new washing machine!! The old one, for those of you who have memories like elephants, broke after doing two measly loads when I moved in last March. I’ll replace it soon, I figured, and use the Laundromat on the corner instead, just for a short while. Hmmmh, yeah right, that happened. Last week (and don’t ask me what was different the other 52 weeks before) I just marched into Sears and got myself one. Didn’t hurt a bit. Getting it down my extremely narrow staircase did though, and despite the delivery guys’ best efforts, it did get some dings in its shiny new armor. A $30 discount later and some touch up paint, I am a happy customer (Go Sears!), and have to prevent myself from running around the house, looking at things I could possibly wash in my brand spankin’ new appliance. It’s like appliance honeymoon in here, and if I don’t pull myself together, I might just go down to the basement right now and look at the new toy. Make sure it’s still there, just checking…. Thanks to all of my friends at whose residences I have visited this past year under the pretense of spending time with you, just to show up with a pile of dirty laundry. Pathetic, isn’t it? If your washing machines ever brake, come on over, I have enormous debts to repay.

Further on the home improvement front, Camille, who owns the upstairs part of the house, and I headed to the local carpet emporium and did us some shopping. The staircase in the common hallway has a carpet that is literally beyond description, and even Stanley Steamer would cry Uncle upon that unsightly floor cover. This coming Friday the carpet men will show and fix it all up nicely and then comes my job of making the wood floor all nice and sparkly. Pretty soon this will look like a decent house, I say. This summer it will be painted from the outside, and we’ll be the snazziest place in the hood.

The week has been a pleasant one, for once work did not overwhelm, and my friend Michelle stopped by one more night on her way back to California. I had to of course, introduce her to the fine Cambridge cuisine of the S&S Restaurant - as you know a true Cambridge institution (http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/ ). Their matzo ball soup is just too good not to go back for. Aside from that dinner outing all yours truly did this week was running, running and running.

The “Week of Athleticism” started out on Monday at Community Running with “Track Bingo”, a most vicious game concocted by our coaches Brian and Amy. Every runner in the group gets a sheet filled with thirty squares, each square containing a running time for a 200-meter lap on the indoor track. We were not allowed to consult our own watches, but had to run on our own assessment on how fast we were. Every time we crossed the finish line, the coach-certified running time was checked off in one of the squares. If your running time for a particular loop was not on there, tough shit. Try again. Winners were determined by whoever scored first “five-in-a-row”, a cross and whoever completed the whole sheet. Needless to say I did not win any of the contests, and at the end, when I had five squares to check off, but always fell a second or two short of my desired running time, started give my coach Amy the evil eye. Not that it helped. All in all we ran about 30 loops (after the warm-up) and it was time to go straight home, shower and start the post-practice couch session immediately.

Wednesday night I headed out for a run with my friend Jennifer (who also works at the MGH Cancer Center) – she just signed up for her first marathon (Chicago in October) and I will accompany her on some of the shorter runs. Jennifer is a remarkable person, who had her first kidney transplant when she was 13, her second kidney transplant and a bone marrow transplant in 2000 and is now ready to run her first marathon!! Thursday night my colleague Jeannine and I were the only brave souls of the Running Partners contingent to go out along the Charles River for a 3-mile jaunt. Saturday 8:30 AM – next running activity – Community Running had scheduled one of their fun runs to get to know Jamaica Plain, also known as JP, one of Boston’s most colorful and historic neighborhoods, Boston’s own little melting pot so to speak. For us runners, JP means good running trails, lots of green there, part of the Emerald Necklace, a string of green zones meandering its way through the Boston area. In the 19th century it was actually referred to as the “Eden of America”, Wikipedia says. The Emerald Necklace park system was designed by our old friend Frederic Olmsted, who was also responsible for the Arnold Arboretum, a wonderful botanical garden I have told you about previously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Necklace

The jewels on the necklace include the Boston Common, Boston Public Garden, Comm Ave Mall, Back Bay Fens, The Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond Park, the Jamaicaway, the Arnold Arboretum, The Arborway and Franklin Park, which is where we started our little outing on Saturday. There were different routes for every runner’s taste, and Maureen and I chose the 5K option as we both wanted to take it easy and also be first in line for the chair massages and pastries that were promised post run. It was a glorious day to run and chat, and the pastries were not too shabby either.

The running endeavors concluded today with a road race, of course, what else did you expect? I was not quite sure how I would fare in the Michael Dunleavy 5 K in Winchester, my legs felt a little tired, but you know what, I had signed up, so off I went. Let me tell you, this was a tough 5K mostly because the last mile or more was seriously uphill, my head resembled a tomato, my lungs wanted to jump out of my body and I thought there is no way I can do this. I actually walked two of the hills, and you know what, I still ran a PR (personal record for the non-runners among my friends)!! 26:55 overall running time with a pace of 8:39 min/mile (5:23 min/kilometer). I was so excited!! I am inching my way toward the 8:30 barrier that I wanted to break this year, let’s see what we can do on a flat surface, eh? Thanks to my friend Elaine who “proteined” me up with some nice roast beef after the competition and for Jennifer who ran the race with me and provided a serious incentive to keep up the pace. Michael Dunleavy, who gives the race its name, was a charming 8-year old boy who suffered from a rare brain cancer, and passed away in October of 2002. The Michael Dunleavy Foundation now raises funds for research on childhood and brain cancers. http://www.michaeldunleavy.com/index.htm

Hah, almost forgot the most important thing this week – SNOW PATROL CONCERT!! ( http://www.snowpatrol.com/ ) My boys were in town, and I was super excited. 6300 people squeezed into Boston University’s Agganis Arena to see their band of choice. Actually, it was quite some time until we saw the Patrol, as they had two opening acts (see Renee, I can do it….) – the Silversun Pickups (apparently they are known as “sspu”) – sort of a punkish Indie rock band, not my style, and OK Go – definitely more my style, a Chicago-bred band, which dazzled with their geeky outfits, fun and spunky music and according to lead singer Damian Kulash, the “best f…..ing videos ever”. http://www.okgo.net/news.aspx - check out “Do What you Want” or “Get Over it” - cool tunes. The Eskimos came on at about 9:30 PM, kinda late I must say, but they did play a decent 1 hr 45 minute set, with the most awesome light show ever! Just excellent! The sound, as one expects in an arena setting, left something to desired, and I did not leave the concert with the same over the top feeling as I did during the previous two concerts at the Avalon and the Pavilion. Lead singer Gary Lightbody (yes, that is his name) is still easy on the eyes, I remain a huge fan, love their music more and more, bought a nicely tight fitting Snow Patrol tee for an indecent amount of money, and look forward to “Signal Fire”, a single they wrote for the next Spiderman movie.

My friends, listen to some music, shut your eyes and sing to me!!!

Love,

Pet:)

#42 Boston - Petraisms - March 24 07

Most of you who have spent some time with me know them, the Petraisms – statements such as “the ball is in your courtyard” or singing the song “Secret “Asian” Man” – I think some of you are secretly keeping a list, and are ready to pull it out at an opportune moment to embarrass me, preferably in front of a large group of people. I am on to you, my friends!!! I am not complaining at all, since I have been playing my part and coming up with new ones just like today when Stephanie, Michelle and I were wandering around the very lovely town of Salem, Massachusetts and I kept looking for the House of Anne of the Green Gables. What I meant and should have said was “The House of Seven Gables (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Seven_Gables), as in 19th century American writer and Salem’s favorite son Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel, which starts with the words: “Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst.”

How I threw “Anne of Green Gables in there, a book written in 1908 by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, even experts may not be able to explain, just yet another Petraism that found its way into the world. I was not even in the right century, for crying out loud and Canada?? The book is based on Montgomery’s childhood on Prince Edward Island up in Newfoundland – oh well, I was just a bit off-base, wasn’t I?

That aside we had a wonderful day in Salem, it is just such a peachy place to visit – http://www.salemweb.com/ . The Salem witch trials for one, which took place here in the mid-17th century, provide tourists such as yours truly with tons of entertainment – the Salem Witch Museum explains a little the story behind what happened to the 19 folks who got hanged and the one poor guy who got stoned to death. It is a miracle that in the hysteria that ensued during those days only 19 “witches” were killed, as many many more were accused – the reasons behind the erratic behavior of the afflicted, who were said to be possessed by the devil, have been grounds for speculation - the two most reasonable explanations being either the “Ergot of Rye”, a plant disease caused by a fungus, who seems to contain a substance that apparently has some similarity with LSD - convulsions, states of trance and hallucinations were the result, so there you have it! Another cause may have been some sort of encephalitis possibly spread by birds. Whatever the reason, this was pretty bad, and everyone went off the deep end a bit here. Actually, looping back to our friend Nathaniel here, he actually changed his name as one of his relatives was on the witch trial judges and our gifted author did not want to be associated with such humbug!!
We visited the Witch House, the only building in Salem that can be still tied to the witch trials (one of the judges, Jonathan Corwin, lived there…..), walked by the controversial statue of Elizabeth Montgomery from the TV series “Bewitched” (some of Salem’s residents did not take too kindly to having that non-historic eyesore in their town), saw “The Friendship”, a replica of a 1797 East Indiaman (a ship) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Friendship_of_Salem_-_Salem%2C_Massachusetts.JPG in Salem Harbor, and had a most wonderful Irish brunch at “The Old Spot” with scones and clotted cream, killer omlettes and a type of Boxti, Irish potato pancakes, which were very well received indeed.



My friend Michelle Sixta had come to town, so it was time to put on the tourist guide hat and show the West Coast girl my residence of choice. We had a fabulous time, starting off Friday night at the East Side Bar and Grille a few steps away from my house, a local place, which has deservedly been doing well. Saturday saw the two of us hitting the streets of Boston, wandering along the Freedom Trail (http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/), and on this historic stroll visting some of my Boston favorites such as the Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere, John Hancock, Ben Franklin’s parents, and a slew of other historical celebs were laid to rest. The weather played along, we ended up at Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, where I discovered a new culinary gem – Dale and Thomas Popcorn – apparently the Today Show called them “The Rolls Royce of Popcorn” and after downing a whole bag of their Peanutbutter and White Cholocate popcorn I wholeheartedly agree. Here is why they are good – I don’t usually even like popcorn!!! http://www.daleandthomaspopcorn.com/ . Boston Friends, you must try this!!! I have a little bit left in my bag, which will accompany me tonight through a home showing of “The Aviator” – this is really awesome stuff!


Another little Boston discovery is Beacon Hill Chocolates on the corner of Pinkney and Charles Streets – what a gem of a store, chockful of chocolate, the cutest little keepsake gift boxes (currently with Easter motives) – just fabulous. Fortunately within a very accommodating walking distance to my office… (http://www.beaconhillchocolates.com/)

Saturday night was dinner group at Amy and Dana’s in Malden, and boy did we have fun!! The dinner spread was phenomenal (pulled pork with the most bestest sauce ever, chicken enchiladas, spicy tofu and green beens, barley and vegetable casserole, for dessert chocolate fondue and cheesecake) and once Dana got out the $130 whiskey bottle, the mood reached its high point. Michelle was delighted about the llittle snow episode we had organized in her honor late last night, which made the drive home a little adventurous, but just a bit.

I needed this most pleasant weekend so much, the last two weeks aside from a couple of nice interludes (such as running the road race, the Ras na hEireann in Somerville at a decent net time of 27:27 - 8:50 min/mile pace), were a stinker of substantial proportions. I seemed to have been emitting some kind of pheromone that said “beat me up, kick me while I am down”, everything that could go wrong did, and some of these incidents were just too cruel to believe. I don’t know even where I should start to begin telling you, and you know what, I won’t. It is all done and over with, and I want to follow the wonderful advice of my literary friend Ralph Waldo Emerson –

“Finish every day and be done with it. For manners and for wise living it is a vice to remember. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”

On that note, have a great week, start it with fresh eyes and an open mind.

Pet:)