Some friends came to visit last weekend, so I got to do things that I forget about until guests are in town: go the Public Garden, Beacon Hill, etc. On Friday, we ate delicious pizza in Beacon Hill and sat next to a family from Houston who told us about the school system in Texas and how much their son admires Einstein. Then we saw the Ether Monument at the Garden ("To Commemorate the Discovery that the Inhaling of Ether Causes Insensibility to Pain - First Proved to the World at the Mass. General Hospital in Boston - October A.D. MDCCCXLVI"), which I'd never noticed before, being too transfixed by the Swan Boats. We also celebrated our friend's birthday with coconut cupcakes, and watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees on Saturday (on TV, not at Fenway). We visited a little board game shop in Harvard Square, where Stephen and I collaborated on solving a 2' x 2' Rush Hour puzzle. We all played 1000 Blank White Cards. It was an amazing weekend.
I remember when I first moved here and someone told me that there wasn't much to do around Boston. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had just come from a town of less than 5,000 people, and there was plenty to do even there. Surely Boston had something more to offer.
But now I understand what she meant. It's not Boston--there's lots going on in the city. But when you're a resident for a while, you stop seeing a place with visitor's eyes. There are inevitably some places that you never get around to visiting, and those drift to your peripheral vision and eventually leave the realm of possibilities altogether. All you see is that one coffee shop you go to, and your grocery store, your pharmacy, etc.
Case in point: I'm overdue for a visit to the dentist, so yesterday I went to my insurance company's website to locate providers. Turns out there are dozens of dentists within a mile of my apartment. Dozens. Within one mile. As I read through the list, I realized that I had seen some of the names before. Some of those offices are on the route that I walk to work five days a week.
So maybe I need to look up more often.
