Forray into the Fall

First off, even though this is redundant, i would like to reiterate how much more i am enjoying both teaching and doing yoga now that i've decided to make it an "on the side" thing.

Second off, i can't wait to have a regular job again. I am waiting to hear back from the job at Harvard, and i'm also working with staffing agents who do temping and temp-perm hiring for Harvard directly. Both seem to be going well enough... still nothing yet, though. I am tired of my weekends and my weekdays smushing together, and continue to find myself hungering for people. Today i did get up the gumption to clean the bathroom and wash the kitchen and bathroom floors while i've got laundry going. It's amazing how being home more often actually makes me more resistant to housework. I don't get it. I sort of realized that after daN launched into dishes and vacuuming yesterday. I felt like a lump. I have been home all this time and have practically done squat! (not totally true -- i've been doing the dishes a lot and i rearranged the books on the bookshelves, but still...)

Third: had a great weekend! It was warmer out than i would have liked it to have been, but that's pretty much been true of every day lately. I got spoiled by those few really cool weeks where I actually required a couple more layers to keep warm. It was splendid!

Friday night, i went to LLBean in Burlington. Weeeee! As part of their Grand Opening weekend extravaganza, they were open 24 hours in the spirit of the flagship store in Freeport. It's not nearly as large, but it doesn't really have to be. I missed having all the selection in the world at my disposal, but i managed to come out of there with a few great things: a cashmere cotton blend cable-knit turtleneck (brown), a dusty-plum colored lambswool button-up cardigan (also cableknit), and a teal pima cotton crewneck with longsleeves. I recently also ordered an extra-thick and fuzzy and warm and long pink fuzzy bathrobe from LLBean. Last winter, i was very cold, layering up in an old bathrobe that served me well for nearly 10 years, but it was so worn so as not to be effective. I also, you may recall, went on a cashmere-buying binge (well, if you could consider buying three cashmere sweaters that usually retail for over $100 on ebay for $25 a binge) for the purposes of getting myself some clothing that is actually warm. Not layering up six or seven times (literally) to keep warm enough in our uninsulated old apartment, but having instead maybe, two REALLY warm layers. I'm working on it. Thank you, LLBean.

Saturday, i went a little crazy. That's OK.

Sunday, i went to the O2 yoga studio down the street, which it turns out i love. I always feel GREAT when i get out of yoga there. Then, daN and i ate, and threw ourselves onto the trails of the Fellsway, where, apparently, there is lots of illicit gay sex going on. We didn't realize that. But apparently, this is a well-known thing of the area. We had just been conversing about the oddities of it when we came across a couple of signs telling people which trails went where. On the signs were also little bits about "NO BIKING." Someone, in a very prepared and pre-meditated fashion, spray painted over the "BIKING" so the background matched the rest of the painted background, and had painted over it in white paint to match the rest of the text "GAY SEX." Therefore, the signs read "SKYLINE TRAIL. NO GAY SEX."

huh???

Does anyone have any light to shed? Is this a new thing, or a hold-over from the not-to-distant past where gay men were not allowed out of the closet and some sought love in public spaces? Anyone?


At any rate, the weekend ended wonderfully with a delightful dinner at the India Pavillion to celebrate Ana, her presence, and congratulate her on her upcoming journey to London for further schooling in archaeology, art restoration and conservation, and the like. We had a great time -- the usual Boston suspects were there -- myself, daN, Q, Razz, Ana, and Jenny Woodman. It was lovely. Aria and Kal-El were unable to make it, but we had a great time at our six person table, taking as long as we wanted.

Good luck, Ana. We'll miss you a lot.