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choco_froshDrafted, at least, on the Downeaster. Allegedly we have WiFi, but I’ve gotten disillusioned by the Commuter Rail, where the trains have it...but it doesn’t work with any reliability. Probably Amtrak is better at that, but we’ll have to see.
I’m writing this on the train because while at least part of this post should have been written, ooo, last Friday, it kept being put on various mental to-do lists, which I would then procrastinate on, and so only get the most critical items done. Blogging, of course, is NOT mission-critical. But now I’m on a train; I’m going to be here for (if I’m lucky) the next 2 1/2 hours; so I have no more excuses!
( Well, except for stupid, Welsh-speaking owls.)
Thursday was the birthday party of Bellsfriend C.P. (well, and that of her partner A, but since I don’t do competitive square dancing, I don’t know the latter except from these sorts of occasions.) They’d rented out the top floor of Christopher’s, and I wound up sitting withsorcyress and one of their fellow anglophile/geek friends and other bellsfriend/fellow Arisian G, and…well, probably a bunch of other people, but it was nice to be sitting with people I knew. Anyway, that was lovely, except that I should probably have ordered something smaller than my usual burger+cole slaw.
THEn we went candlepin bowling, where we were joined by a few people who couldn’t make it to dinner for one reason or another (more bellsfriends, cute molecular biologist, probably assorted others, but again, they’d rented like a ridiculous amount of space, so there were undoubtedly some I didn’t meet.) Anyway, takeaways were (1) CP has awesome friends, (2) CP rules a lot (and apparently either really likes splurging on said awesome friends on their birthday?), (3) Candlepin bowling is really fun even if you’re bad at it, and I should organize another trip if no one else does.
Friday was just work. Well, and cooking salmon for dinner, and I think laundry. Work for me has been slow this past week (though not for the rest of my department), giving my lots of time to (a) slack off, and (b) worry about whether my slacking off is going to get me reprimanded at my performance review, which was supposed to happen this week since it HASN’T been a slow couple of weeks for my supervisor.
Salmon is delicious.
Saturday was bells, bell-related activities, and more bells!lauradi had suggested that we show up for Old North’s annual (yes, you heard that right) brass-polishing party, so I got up earlier than I would have liked, caught the @$$ o’clock train into North Station,* and…wound up polishing brass for a couple of hours.
Helped on by a mimosa or two, and a troup of brownies**
(This last account was interrupted by me getting bored, attempting to take a nap, having my seatmate spill beer on my seat (he was quite mortified), speculating about Commuter Rail extension into New Hampshire, trying to look up the distance from Constance to Zurich, and confirming that yes, the WiFi on this train blows. Or maybe it’s kinda okay but people persist in using it to stream stuff even when they’re asked not to. Who knows.)
So that was how we wound up spending the beginning of practice doing a demo. for a troop of brownies.
Practice, then lunch, and then we walked over to CotA, because we’d got permission to do an afternoon of quarter peals! I was ringing Cambridge Major (= complicated, though not as bad as all the other Surprise Major methods) for the first time. And, well… I got totally lost twice, though fortunately (a) not at the times when anybody else got confused, (b) I was never so confused as to be unable to be put right, and (c) other people WERE able to put me right, and so we got it!
Sunday was … pretty normal. For my value of normal. Which isn’t, really…
And then it was work, work, procrastinate at work, work, procrastinate at home, repeat once or twice… and that takes us (more or less) to Now, somewhere to the west of Great Bay, smelling somewhat of frat party, waiting for the southbound Downeaster to go past.
ETA: Apparently my ancient laptop works better with the wifi than my (newer) phone. Or else the wifi has stopped sucking quite as much.
* Note for future readers and non-Bostonians: The commuter rail does not run as often as it bloody ought to, especially on weekends, so it was a choice of the @$$ AM train or the train where I’d be early for practice and late for bells. In other circumstances, I’d get around this by taking a bus+subway combo, but even at the best of times that’s a roundabout (and slow) route to the North End, and just at the moment they’re doing work on the Red Line, so it’s suburban bus (unpredictable on weekends) -> subway (“Every 12 to 15 minutes!”) -> bus replacing subway (will get stuck in traffic) -> different subway line (probably late.)
** Note for any Brits who aren’t tree_and_leaf: = junior girl scouts.
I’m writing this on the train because while at least part of this post should have been written, ooo, last Friday, it kept being put on various mental to-do lists, which I would then procrastinate on, and so only get the most critical items done. Blogging, of course, is NOT mission-critical. But now I’m on a train; I’m going to be here for (if I’m lucky) the next 2 1/2 hours; so I have no more excuses!
( Well, except for stupid, Welsh-speaking owls.)
Thursday was the birthday party of Bellsfriend C.P. (well, and that of her partner A, but since I don’t do competitive square dancing, I don’t know the latter except from these sorts of occasions.) They’d rented out the top floor of Christopher’s, and I wound up sitting with
sorcyress and one of their fellow anglophile/geek friends and other bellsfriend/fellow Arisian G, and…well, probably a bunch of other people, but it was nice to be sitting with people I knew. Anyway, that was lovely, except that I should probably have ordered something smaller than my usual burger+cole slaw.THEn we went candlepin bowling, where we were joined by a few people who couldn’t make it to dinner for one reason or another (more bellsfriends, cute molecular biologist, probably assorted others, but again, they’d rented like a ridiculous amount of space, so there were undoubtedly some I didn’t meet.) Anyway, takeaways were (1) CP has awesome friends, (2) CP rules a lot (and apparently either really likes splurging on said awesome friends on their birthday?), (3) Candlepin bowling is really fun even if you’re bad at it, and I should organize another trip if no one else does.
Friday was just work. Well, and cooking salmon for dinner, and I think laundry. Work for me has been slow this past week (though not for the rest of my department), giving my lots of time to (a) slack off, and (b) worry about whether my slacking off is going to get me reprimanded at my performance review, which was supposed to happen this week since it HASN’T been a slow couple of weeks for my supervisor.
Salmon is delicious.
Saturday was bells, bell-related activities, and more bells!
lauradi had suggested that we show up for Old North’s annual (yes, you heard that right) brass-polishing party, so I got up earlier than I would have liked, caught the @$$ o’clock train into North Station,* and…wound up polishing brass for a couple of hours.Helped on by a mimosa or two, and a troup of brownies**
(This last account was interrupted by me getting bored, attempting to take a nap, having my seatmate spill beer on my seat (he was quite mortified), speculating about Commuter Rail extension into New Hampshire, trying to look up the distance from Constance to Zurich, and confirming that yes, the WiFi on this train blows. Or maybe it’s kinda okay but people persist in using it to stream stuff even when they’re asked not to. Who knows.)
So that was how we wound up spending the beginning of practice doing a demo. for a troop of brownies.
Practice, then lunch, and then we walked over to CotA, because we’d got permission to do an afternoon of quarter peals! I was ringing Cambridge Major (= complicated, though not as bad as all the other Surprise Major methods) for the first time. And, well… I got totally lost twice, though fortunately (a) not at the times when anybody else got confused, (b) I was never so confused as to be unable to be put right, and (c) other people WERE able to put me right, and so we got it!
Sunday was … pretty normal. For my value of normal. Which isn’t, really…
And then it was work, work, procrastinate at work, work, procrastinate at home, repeat once or twice… and that takes us (more or less) to Now, somewhere to the west of Great Bay, smelling somewhat of frat party, waiting for the southbound Downeaster to go past.
ETA: Apparently my ancient laptop works better with the wifi than my (newer) phone. Or else the wifi has stopped sucking quite as much.
* Note for future readers and non-Bostonians: The commuter rail does not run as often as it bloody ought to, especially on weekends, so it was a choice of the @$$ AM train or the train where I’d be early for practice and late for bells. In other circumstances, I’d get around this by taking a bus+subway combo, but even at the best of times that’s a roundabout (and slow) route to the North End, and just at the moment they’re doing work on the Red Line, so it’s suburban bus (unpredictable on weekends) -> subway (“Every 12 to 15 minutes!”) -> bus replacing subway (will get stuck in traffic) -> different subway line (probably late.)
** Note for any Brits who aren’t tree_and_leaf: = junior girl scouts.
