Last weekend was fun, we got to hang with Hatrack/Sake/Geek/Friends in Boston. We’ve discovered that of the group that went, none of us likes to plan things out. Or for those who do like to plan things out, they don’t like to take the lead when they do so. I mean, we all (aside from JT) arranged to meet at South Station around 9:45 in the morning.

We, um, didn’t specify where in South Station. And for those of you who haven’t been to South Station in Boston, it’s not exactly a small station. It’s not even all in one central hub, there’s an outdoor walkway that connects the train station hub to the bus station hub.

So Nathan and I waited at the bus station hub. Unbeknownst to us, everyone else waited at the train station hub. For awhile, it seemed that never the twain shall meet because Kris (Myr) doesn’t have a cell phone (for the same reasons Nathan doesn’t have one), we knew Matthew (Laitment) was joining us, but had no idea if 1. he had a cell or 2. if he did, what the number would be. Only Kris had really spoken with him. As for JT, he was at Berkeley until noon-ish and therefore wouldn’t know (though we did have his cell phone number) and Sarah O. (sarahdipity) would be arriving late morning/noonish from Amherst (and yes, we had her cell number as well).

Mark, the smartest of us all, had his cell phone on him and waited at the train station hub. So we all connected after all. Then commenced the wandering around Harvard Square before we finally hit up Bartley’s for the Best Burgers Ever once we hooked up with JT and Sarah. JT ended up lugging his entire backpack (and by backpack, I mean the sort that you’d have when you’re thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail), a bag o’ books, and his guitar in its case.

After lunch, we hoofed it to the Museum of Science to see the Bodyworlds 2 exhibit. It really is an amazing, fascinating exhibit and I recommend it to anyone who has any sort of curiosity about the human body. However, there was a downside to the exhibit—there were just too many people in there at once. They did control the entrances, but they still allowed too many people at a time. It was hard to really, really see everything and get through the crowds…and THEN…the MOS has these stupid little audio things you can rent and take along with you that tell you about each little part of the exhibit. Neat on one end of it, one the other, highly problematic. See, each display has a typed up and posted explanation with it. Audio people would just…stop in front of the display and not give a shit who was around them trying to see. It got the most obnoxious when they would stop directly in front of the printed explanation that non-audio people were trying to read. I got rather frustrated and I was already annoyed because you aren’t allowed to take in any sort of drink whatsoever, including a small bottle of water.

Have I mentioned that the medications I take give me wicked dry mouth? One to two hours without something to drink is really…not good for me. I was very, very thirsty and that made me more grumpy.

But the exhibit itself…amazing. Truly amazing. If you can…go.

Just bring a stick to hit people with when they get annoying. Actually, that’s a pretty good general rule for daily life.

So afterward, we followed Sarah the leader to Boston Common, where she ditched us for beer.

That’s right. Sarah ditched us for beer. Here’s how we felt about it:

Kris is even sick to her stomach! See that!?

Anyway, after we recovered from being ditched, we went to the Pru and JT serenaded us and whoever walked by at the time, while I shot a bunch o’ photos of him as he played. He was a good subject.

After our jaunt in the Pru, we ventured out for food.

We had some problems finding said food. I mean, there are plenty of places to eat, but nothing any of us seemed to really want. Eventually, we ended up at Faneuil Hall and ran the guantlet o’ food before booking it back to South Station.

Whee!

Categories: photography