The View From Saturday

Did anyone else love that book? Since starting work at a middle school, my reading tastes have shifted accordingly. I mean, I was already into The Hunger Games (looking at you Eric) but I have now reread Stargirl, which may be my all time favorite book. Have you read it? You should. I'll keep the recs coming because, face it, you don't know what's cool until I tell you to do it.

Back to Saturday. Saturdays are so valuable now. The whole weekend is. At WashU I forgot that people even function on Fridays and I chose to use the day for sleeping, TV, and eating. A simpler time. Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock to realize that Friday is part of the work week after all. So when I found out we got Columbus Day off, I said to myself, "Will I really celebrate the man who smallpoxed all the Native Americans and then stole their land?" And then I said to myself, "Yes, and I will do it in the most profoundly American way possible."

Sam Adams brewery tour. Because our America is better than the Native Americans' ever was.

But that, as you government employees (HI MOM) will note, is Monday. So back to Saturday.

If you read this blog carefully, and you do, you remember that the weather of Boston is similar to that of my 6th graders - unpredictable and bizarre. But when it was 85 degrees on Saturday after being 50 degrees on Wednesday, I rolled with it. I rolled right down to Beacon Hill, a super old neighborhood in the heart of Boston. It was once a bigger hill before they took the land to fill in the water, blah blah more historical facts. The point is that it's mad expensive* and all your famous historical Bostonians have cribs in Beacon Hill.

*I use "mad" as an adverb now because I'm on the east coast and I spend my days with preteens.

Louisa May Alcott's house. She seems like the haunting type so I like to think she's just chillin on the top floor. John Kerry lives on this street too.

After walking the cobblestone streets, I meandered across the street to Boston Common, where I began Profiles in Courage because what is more Bostonian than JFK? Then I realized I have little to no brain power left to decode words above the 8th grade reading level, so I listened to music and people-watched instead.



I read in a guidebook that Boston is at its best in October. After further review, this is a true statement. My goals for the rest of October include a "Haunted Footsteps" tour of Salem and the Head of the Charles Regatta. And of course, the third best holiday of the year, Halloween*.

I love fall. I love New England fall even more.

Although I want you to believe I am constantly thinking deep thoughts and going to cool places, that is far from the full picture. Often you can find me lying on our dirty couch in my KU snuggie watching the Kardashians and eating cheese. Boston can't change who I am at my core.

And it can't change the things I love and miss most about Kansas.


*Thanksgiving & St. Patrick's Day, duh.