![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Boston->Vermont->Amherst
Jan. 3rd, 2002 08:25 pmBack on a computer after like 2 days off. Yay.
After leaving Laurel and Jason's, we went to Eli's uncles' house in Jamaica Plain, which is a weird semi-suburby-but-really-in-the-city area. They have this oldish house built in 1880 or something. They have real fireplaces and wood stoves and stuff, and it was neat to use them. They also have two cats, one of which has 6 claws on its front paws, and the sixth finger looks like an opposable thumb. Hopefully some of my pictures of him came out.
They made us lentil chili for dinner, which was a lot better than it sounded, and then we just hung out and stuff. The next day Peter drove us into town to Harvard Square, and we stopped by the poetry store that had been closed last time. Sadly, I didn't find anything I wanted there. We also walked around Harvard a little bit and I got Eli to take a picture of me in front of the statue of John Harvard. (Last year I got him to take a picture of me in front of the MIT dome.) I read a book that said John Harvard is not actually the founder of Harvard, but was just the beneficiary - it was established first, and he happened to die in 1638 and leave half his estate to "the new college being formed in Cambridge". He also didn't have any kids and never sat for his portrait when he graduated from Cambridge, so the guy who did the statue apparently went and found Harvard's collateral relatives and sketched them to form a composite for the face on the statue.
Anyway, we left the city, our car was still at Alewife, and we went up to Vermont. Grammy lives in Springfield, which is very pretty but pretty boring. She took us out to dinner and offered us a lot of her books. She has a ton of books, and pictures. I got to hear lots of stories about Eli's family while we were there. Her house is also huge - it's on what used to be a big farm, so in addition to a big house she has a big barn and an outhouse and a cottage across the street... though I don't think she really uses much of it. It was snowing though, and pretty out. A lot of her house is decorated like something straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, or something like that. Very antiquey and very pretty. Peter and John's house is also very nicely decorated, but it looks more like the sort of stuff you'd see in an Ikea catalog spread (although only their kitchen is actually Ikea stuff). Someday I hope to live in a place that doesn't look like a college student's apartment (although I think our current place is one step up from that, at least).
Unfortunately, either something I ate at dinner last night didn't agree with me or I'm getting sick again, because when I was trying to sleep I was kept up for half the night with stomach pains, so I didn't really get to sleep until sunrise or so, and slept in until noon (and then napped for the two hour drive back here to Amherst). Ugh. I should call my doctor.
Still, I guess it was a fun few days, hopping all over New England to visit people. And reading friends entries for the past few days has also been a bit of a chore. I have read them all now, but probly won't reply to much...
After leaving Laurel and Jason's, we went to Eli's uncles' house in Jamaica Plain, which is a weird semi-suburby-but-really-in-the-city area. They have this oldish house built in 1880 or something. They have real fireplaces and wood stoves and stuff, and it was neat to use them. They also have two cats, one of which has 6 claws on its front paws, and the sixth finger looks like an opposable thumb. Hopefully some of my pictures of him came out.
They made us lentil chili for dinner, which was a lot better than it sounded, and then we just hung out and stuff. The next day Peter drove us into town to Harvard Square, and we stopped by the poetry store that had been closed last time. Sadly, I didn't find anything I wanted there. We also walked around Harvard a little bit and I got Eli to take a picture of me in front of the statue of John Harvard. (Last year I got him to take a picture of me in front of the MIT dome.) I read a book that said John Harvard is not actually the founder of Harvard, but was just the beneficiary - it was established first, and he happened to die in 1638 and leave half his estate to "the new college being formed in Cambridge". He also didn't have any kids and never sat for his portrait when he graduated from Cambridge, so the guy who did the statue apparently went and found Harvard's collateral relatives and sketched them to form a composite for the face on the statue.
Anyway, we left the city, our car was still at Alewife, and we went up to Vermont. Grammy lives in Springfield, which is very pretty but pretty boring. She took us out to dinner and offered us a lot of her books. She has a ton of books, and pictures. I got to hear lots of stories about Eli's family while we were there. Her house is also huge - it's on what used to be a big farm, so in addition to a big house she has a big barn and an outhouse and a cottage across the street... though I don't think she really uses much of it. It was snowing though, and pretty out. A lot of her house is decorated like something straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, or something like that. Very antiquey and very pretty. Peter and John's house is also very nicely decorated, but it looks more like the sort of stuff you'd see in an Ikea catalog spread (although only their kitchen is actually Ikea stuff). Someday I hope to live in a place that doesn't look like a college student's apartment (although I think our current place is one step up from that, at least).
Unfortunately, either something I ate at dinner last night didn't agree with me or I'm getting sick again, because when I was trying to sleep I was kept up for half the night with stomach pains, so I didn't really get to sleep until sunrise or so, and slept in until noon (and then napped for the two hour drive back here to Amherst). Ugh. I should call my doctor.
Still, I guess it was a fun few days, hopping all over New England to visit people. And reading friends entries for the past few days has also been a bit of a chore. I have read them all now, but probly won't reply to much...
