Hello! I have been a bit MIA due to doctor visits, friend visits, and life in general!
The ankle update:
I have finally been cleared to put some weight on my ankle. I am cleared for 25% weight (putting the other % on my crutches still), and will progress to 100% over the next few weeks. I start physical therapy tomorrow. I will be allowed to go back to work on November 2. Until then... I am keeping myself occupied. Photos, movies, shadow puppets... you know the drill.
In other fun news, I finally had a visitor! Alison came out to visit. We went EVERYWHERE and I am absolutely exhausted, but had so much fun! Our trip started with picking Alison up at the airport and heading to the North End for dinner at
Daily Catch and dessert from
Mike's pastry. We both ordered the squid ink pasta and it was AMAZING. The dish was served to us in their pans, and I ate every single garlicy, fishy, chewy bite. MMMMMmmmmmmm. (wipes drool from mouth).
From the North end, we headed to
Fenway Park for a very exciting game! Alison routed for her angels, and the red sox fans were very respectful. :) I ended up getting a hot chocolate instead of a beer after witnessing a hilarious/disgusting vomit incident from a drunken fan. I was thinking towards the end of the game, while I enjoy baseball, I can't imagine the stress FANS must feel during a close game... I nearly had a panic attack towards the end. Oh my word. The weather was cool and crisp, the stadium was full of excitement, and I was not stuck on the couch. Perfect evening. :)
The following morning, we hopped out of bed early to catch the commuter rail out to Cambridge. We took a slow/short "tour" of
Harvard. I wish she could have seen more, but the crutches were pretty limiting! As always, the campus was beautiful and a bit overwhelming. I was entertained to hear how much an undergrad thought his having to take art history "totally sucked", and it made me smile to think that many of the students are just normal people... but then also was sorry his parents spend however much they do and he is not into his courses. Come on man... you're at Harvard! Suck it up! :)
We DID find out a funny piece of information when passing a tour guide. Apparently, nobody knows what John Harvard looked like, so when they made his statue, they simply made up what he looked like. Kinda like us westerners and Jesus? Right? :)
After leaving Harvard, we wandered around Cambridge for a bit. Peeked into some shops, had lunch at
Wagamama (yum), then visited the Old Harvard Bookstore. Love that place, but I find it painful to be there when I can't spend money.
We left Cambridge and headed out to Sommerville to try
Kick Ass Cupcakes. Alison and I love getting cupcakes back home, so it only seemed fitting to try my first Boston cupcake with her! I will say, this place had interesting flavors, but they were small, and not that good overall. I will have to continue in my hunt for the best cupcake in New England. However, I will say, ours was creative. The Green Monster: Chocolate cupcake with a chocolate beer ganache center and Sam Adams Cream Stout frosting.
At this point, it was only 3pm, and we were heading back to Waltham to meet James and go to the Sam Adams brewery. We had an innnteresting moment on the train back. The train came to a sudden stop, all of the lights went out, and the entire train went silent. While attempting to get the engine running again, the train car would occassionally shake, bringing visions of clear water cups and disappearing goats (hoping you all get the reference). Luckily, it only took 5 minutes to get back on our route again. We picked up James, drove to the brewery... and discovered it closed early on week days! So Alison threw out the idea of trying to catch the last
duck tour. We swiftly rerouted our drive (thank you tomtom), "ran"/clacked to the ticket area, and I left Alison & James to buy our tickets as I took off early to meet the tour (1.5 blocks away). I reached the duck just before they did (man Im slow), and we boarded & took off! The tour is a brief overview, but definitely worth it. Our guide had loads of random facts, and our ride in the charles river was beautiful! The sun was starting to set, and it the light was perfect.
After the tour, we decided the day had been long enough, and headed home to eat falafel's and watch The Office!
Friday morning, Alison headed off for a tour of Fenway Park. I sadly could not go, it was too much crutching after the day we had. They were filming a new film at the park when she was there, and she saw Ben Affleck! Lucky duck. :) We all met up at the
Sam Adams Brewery and finally had our tour! Our guide was a bit silly, and everyone was pretty jealous of his job. We tasted 3 beers in the tasting room. Boston Lager, Octoberfest, and Coastal Wheat (which wont be released to the public until Thanksgiving at the earliest). It was lemony and refreshing. Yum! We were quite silly afterwards. There might have been some singing on the ride home. Could have been video taped.
Maybe. :)
After the tour, we dropped off James and headed NW to Brattleboro, VT. A weird little town, that we later found out is the only town in the country where public nudity is legal. We did not witness that in person. Half relieve, half bummed. ha! We had a delicious dinner and then took in a movie. Normally I would not watch a movie while traveling, but we were staying at the
Latchis Hotel & Theater, and the ticket was included in the room price! We decided to watch
In the Loop, and it was located in a...um... smaller theater, 2 flights of stairs up. The screen was not much bigger then a projector screen that most churches/schools have, and the place GHETTO. Just plain weird... there were chunks missing from some seats, the movie was slightly crooked, etc. When leading me out the "easy" way (because of my crutches), I was taken up these weird stairs in the projector room, as the employee kicked trash and buckets out of the way, and we were led into a hallway on the 2nd floor of the hotel. All we could do was laugh. The next morning we enjoyed a tasty breakfast down by the river (bordering VT & NH), complete with Vermont Maple Syrup, and headed out of the state, breathing a sigh of relief! ha
Our drive through New Hampshire to Maine was GORGEOUS. The leaves are just beginning to turn and there was so much to see, so the 3.5 hour drive flew by. We pulled into Portland in the afternoon, promptly picked up Zoe, and headed to
Beals. Their ice cream is the best! Zoe then showed us one of her favorite shops,
Abacus. I am in love with this store, I wish I could decorate an entire home in their whimsical and unique art! We stopped at the Promenade so that Alison could put her feet in the Atlantic, then headed home for a homecooked (yummmmmy) meal and movies. With that, we relaxed on our last night of a 4 state tour!
I had so much fun. and loved being out in the fresh air for once! Thank you Alison for visiting! I hope more of you make the trip soon. Just not too soon... I'm spent. ha.
