Back from Beantown

This weekend, Brittany and I visited the Boston branch of our service program for a couple days.  Even though we both went to our respective homes for a week or so, a weekend outside the City seemed quite welcome as we sat on our Chinatown bus Friday afternoon.  Both Christine and Rachel, the LSA volunteers living and working in Dorchester, the East Harlem of Boston, went to school in(ish) Boston, so they were wonderful cruise directors. 

We got a nice mix of local and touristy culture, including a walk down the Freedom Trail (a red brick line in the sidewalk downtown that goes past important historical sites like the first Church of England site in the New World, the cemetery were Samual Adams, Crispus Attucks, and John Hancock are buried, the church where the 'two if by sea' lanterns were hung, etc), DIY ice skating in Boston Commons (as in, no actual skates were involved), a walk through a surprisingly impressive Holocaust memorial, a stroll down a main shopping thoroughfare, a peak in Hahvahd Yahd (we didn't really hear anyone talk like that, but we didn't really talk to many blue-collar locals, so there you go), and visits to various local establishments for food and refreshments.  Also, all four of us will be at a retreat next weekend for volunteers from a few different service groups.  As we hadn't had between the two houses since the last retreat for our own service program, it was nice to reconnect again before whatever next weekend turns out to be.  Overall, Boston seemed like a pretty cool place, although I'm pretty sure the average IQ in the greater Boston area is significantly higher than most other places in the country, which was a bit intimidating.

The morning before we left I spent working in Development, as I do every other Friday morning.  My actual work there is a little dull sometimes, mostly just compiling data on major donors and prospective major donors, but sometimes researching New York philanthropists can be interesting.  Every once in a while I'll hit one that has written an article for some online paper, or attends parties that get photographed for social columns, or is the pride of his or her respective alma mater and I end up with lots of useless but interesting information on someone I'll never ever meet.  Plus my desk is kitty corner from the executive director and just generally near activity sometimes.  I usually keep one ear open at the Agency just to hear what's going on and who's doing it, so the fact that I have a job on every floor and in a decent majority of the departments gives me pretty good access to information.

It's a month out from Christmas Eve (probably a month out from Christmas by the time anyone reads this) and it kind of feels like an age and a half ago.  Hope it's been good for you!