My road trip continued north after a brief respit with a friend in Laurel, Maryland (briefer than expected as I thought my plane left at 5 p.m. and instead it left at 6 a.m!). After a quick plane trip that would have taken another 8 hours to drive, I landed in Boston and spent a few hours with my sister before she drove me north to our parents' home in Maine where I will remain for several weeks. 
We only had about 3 more hours to drive to get to where Linda and I parted ways. My friend Lou Anne picked me up in White Oaks, MD and I went to spend the rest of the day and night with her. Linda went on to the Eastern Shore to meet her husband. Before the sun set, she had finished and defended her Master's Degree in Nursing! Congratulations to her!
I treated myself to a lecture today. No, not the scolding kind. Not the boring fall-asleep-in-your-seat kind. The fascinating kind. The thought-provoking kind. The kind I haven't been subject to for a number of years, since the last time I took a literature class. Lately the only kind of classes and seminars I've been taking have to do with administra- tion and are, on the whole, not all that exciting. There have been the occasional leadership workshops or writing seminars which have fed my creative or spiritual side, but not very often, and not often enough.
It snowed over night. Not enough to get excited about. Not even enough to cover the ground. Just enough to tease you, to let you know winter is on its way. Another sign that winter is on its way is the proliferation of Christmas concerts, both amateur and professional. I enjoyed one of Boston's oldest traditions: the Handel and Haydn Society's annual weekend of Messiah performances. I went on Saturday afternoon with my high school piano teacher who came to town just for that.
The concert took place in Boston's Symphony Hall, one of the finest concert halls in the world. It was, as you might expect, wonderful. This was the full Messiah, all 2 hours and 45 minutes of it. Truly inspiring. The soloists were quite good. We liked the men especially. The conductor, a guest from England, was beyond interesting to watch. He literally shaped the sound we heard, using every part of his body to do so. It was a riveting performance in every way.
My sister (our art teacher) and I took her art class and my honors English class to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts yesterday specifically to visit the Impressionist galleries of the European wing. This is my favorite gallery in the museum, one I've visited many times, with kids, friends, and on my own. There are many, breath-taking works of art there, and I always enjoy sharing it with students. Here are some of the beautiful pieces we saw:
Happy Earth Day! I just heard Tom Brokaw talk about the history of Earth Day. Turns out, I celebrated the very first one...and I do remember it. I was in 9th grade. Our whole school spent the day cleaning up the campus. We worked in small groups within our classes. Part of the fun of the day was a challenge for each group to come up with a rhyme/chant about their class. At the end of the day, a vote was taken on the best rhyme for each class. That made the work fun, and kept us working together. Guess whose chant won for my class? Yup! To this day, I remember the chant my group came up with: "We're tremendous, stupendous, yes sirree! Nineteen hundred and [ends with three...]"
This year, I'm celebrating the day by getting a new bathtub and shower. Hopefully this will help conserve water (and also improve the cosmetic value of my condo). Meanwhile, yesterday was one of those great days that happens only in New England. At least I like to think so. It was bright, beautiful, clear, and perfect conditions for running the 112th Boston Marathon (the world's oldest marathon) as well as playing (or watching) baseball (Red Sox vs. Rangers at 11 a.m.).
I was home working (cleaning) while watching the Marathon and the Sox game, but other years, I've been part of the thousands who start the day at Fenway Park and who end up out on the Marathon sidelines cheering the runners on. If you're lucky, the way I have been several times, the Sox play a quick game and you get out in time to see the leaders cross the finish line.
One year, I went from the Sox to the Marathon to the Bruins play-off game, all within a 7 hour shot. Now, that was a marathon!!!
During my walk around Boston on Tuesday, I stopped in at two famous cemeteries. The first was the burial ground at King's Chapel. Several famous colonists and citizens are buried here, including John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, and William Dawes, the other rider who warned colonists that "the British are coming!" Perhaps the most famous fictional character buried here is Hester Prynne, of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, set in 17th century Boston.
A few minutes walk away is the Old Granary Burying Ground. John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and Benjamin Franklin's parents are among the notables buried here. I didn't have time to ramble leisurely through this tranquil spot in the midst of a busy city, but was able to linger long enough to think about the importance of each person, not just those who made the history books.
Tonight, there is a full moon, or very nearly so. I always know, without looking in the sky, if the moon is full because things get crazy at school. I love this shot the Red Sox camera man took of the moon over the Sox at Yankee Stadium. The best part, of course, is the score =)
I took the afternoon off to meet a friend in Boston. She is in town with National Honor Society students from her school in Maryland. They were walking the Freedom Trail today and I set out to try to catch up with them. It was a fruitless effort to find them as we were both walking, and there was virtually no way for me to catch up. I finally gave up for the time being and just enjoyed the sights.
It was a beautiful day, not too cool to revel in the hour's walk through the historic Government Center, Theatre District, and Boston Common. Many times when I wander through Boston, I like people watching. This time, the architecture interested me. I found myself being drawn to the tops of the buildings, several of which I'm sharing here.
I finally caught up with my friend a few miles south of Boston at the Kennedy Library. While her students (and other adults) went through the library/museum, we sat outside and talked. It was an all too brief reunion, but worth the minor frustration of not finding her for nearly two hours...
In spite of my happiness at seeing my friend, the day was tinged with sadness. The daughter of our maintenance man was killed yesterday in a freak accident in San Francisco. She had been walking her dog and was putting it in her car when a huge branch from a redwood tree fell down on her, taking her life instantly. It's a devastating loss. I went to high school with her, but haven't seen her since then. Still, I feel overwhelmed with sadness for her parents.
"`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
It was a crazy busy week last week, not leaving me much time for anything but work. I was supposed to go to Tennessee Thursday morning for interviews for new staff positions, but just as I was leaving for the airport, I got a call saying my flight was canceled because of bad weather in Chicago, but that I had been rescheduled to leave at 6:50 a.m. on Friday instead.
That meant that I was up at 4:30 Friday in order to make my plane. It also meant that I had to cancel one interview and reschedule the other. The trip was mostly smooth, but we got out of Dallas (instead of Chicago) late, so I was late to my rescheduled appointment. Brother!
Tennessee is far ahead of us as far as spring goes. Redbud, magnolias, Bedford pear trees were all in full bloom. The grass was nice and green. Birds are already nesting, and I saw some baby ducklings crossing the road with their mother. It rained quite a bit, too.
But I got in on an orchestra rehearsal of my niece's (my meetings were all at her university) and heard the orchestra play the next day. I saw a lot of old friends, former students, and former classmates, and made a presentation at the inaugural meeting of a new alumni chapter for our school. Unfortunately, I also got sick during my presentation and had to step away for several minutes to recover. My niece and her friend ended up taking me back to my hotel where I promptly went to sleep for the next 5 hours.
I had to get up at 4 this morning to catch my flight back home. I left so early that I saw the sun rise...from above the clouds...I was on the western wing, so the other side was more vivid. Still, it was beautiful. I also saw lake Michigan, full of ice patches, and, at long last, Boston, my favorite US city =)
It was good to get home. I enjoyed spending time with my niece and friends, but it wasn't long enough to really relish it. I would love to have had the time to go up to Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, for example. But the glimpse of spring reminded me that good things are soon to come our way, too.
Photos: Teddy all packed and ready to travel; flowering tree and weeping willows; Bedford Pears line the street in Collegedale; a duck (no idea what kind) crosses the street in the rain; my friend Laurie conducts the Southern orchestra, my niece is playing the cello to her right; sunrise above the clouds; an icy Lake Michigan; Boston from the air
