#27 Boston - I Smell Goulash - November 8 2007

I Smell Goulash

Yes, I did smell Goulash and wouldn’t you believe it, it was at the Ritz Carlton in Boston. The Ritz is now called the Taj, but it will always stay the Ritz for us; and here we were - Hannah, Holly and I, hanging out at The Bar or the Café or whatever the place was called, and I swear to you I kept smelling goulash, beef stew or something like it. Granted we came from a wine tasting and had moved on to cocktails and bubbley, but it was all within limits and my sense of smell should have not been affected in any way; bottom line – I have no idea what’s going on in that place and why they are cooking Hungarian dishes at 11 PM at night.

The evening started out innocently enough with a Holiday Wine Affair at the College Club of Boston, a snazzy little place on Commonwealth Ave that I would just love to call my own (I think several million greenbacks would have to be involved). It is the oldest women’s college club in the US of A, and is housed in a lovely Victorian Brownstone (http://www.thecollegeclubofboston.com/). The wine event was hosted by a group called Boston Uncorked (http://www.bostonuncorked.com/) and this was our little wine group’s first foray into the uncorked zone. Two tables were loaded with wines from Portugal, California, New Zealand, and a third station was featuring ports and tawnies. It was quite the happening crowd, a bit on the yuppie-ish side, but the wine loosened everyone up sufficiently and we did have a good time. The food served was fabulous, the ambience great, and some of the wines decent enough. I am not a big friend of the ports so that effort was pretty much lost on me.

Well, once we were done with the uncorked people, the girls and I, as mentioned, headed to the Taj/Ritz, which means the evening got even better. Partly this was Holly’s fault who regaled us with stories about her recent trip to Arizona, which involved these creatures called javelinas (http://fireflyforest.net/images/firefly/2005/September/javelinas.jpg ), apparently some kind of crazy looking pig located just a step below the boar on the evolutionary ladder. Actually, I was just reading up on them and they are not really pigs, some kind of collared peccary (you following?), and they have razor-sharp tusks. Apparently they smell quite strongly (musky if you must know), breed all year like bunnies, and are quite unpredictable. You are not supposed to feed them or they will return as a posse and as one website stated “they will get into your garbage cans, dig holes in your yard, knock over your potted plants eating the entire plant AND eat your vegetable, flower and cactus gardens.” Hannah, having several moments of clarity that night, was mesmerized by this topic – “What do you mean? You can’t be trapped in your house by pigs!” “You mean, people just chill in their living room until the pigs go away?” The discussion then moved on to the topic of health spas in Arizona (makes sense), and we were particularly enticed by Holly’s story about being wrapped in wax paper during one of the beauty sessions. Hannah, to use one of her own expressions, is too freakin hahaha , one of the funniest people I have ever met. She just makes me smile – it may not always be politically correct, but hey, if it’s funny, it’s funny (“Wine in Ethiopia? They don’t even have food there….”). Hats off to you, my most spirited and exquisitely funny friend!!

It is now the pre-Christmas social crunch time, and there is pretty much an event every night. Monday night I had dinner with my friend Linda at a Greek restaurant in my neighborhood (http://www.desfina.com/), and despite the fact that it came highly recommended it was not a culinary experience I would like to repeat. Wednesday was the uncorked thingy, and Thursday I joined the Community Running gang for our first social dinner outing. Close to 20 of us squeezed into the Delux Café, right on the edge of Boston’s South End – it had a bit of the feel of a student pub to it, but it was quite cozy, filled to the brim with people and the food was pretty decent (except for the homemade cheesecake – not like any other cheesecake I have ever tasted, and I don’t mean that in a nice way). Last night, accompanied by my lab colleague and friend Susan and her sister Anne, I did engage in some retail therapy around Faneuil Hall, trying not to take any spills on the quite icy slippery streets of Boston.

This past week has been cold, chilly; we had snow, ice, sleet, you name it. This would usually not be something I would gripe about (oh, well, maybe I would), but after a visit to the sports medicine clinic to see what can be done about my continued issue with the plantar fasciitis on my right heel, I left sporting a surgical boot on my right foot (http://www.buyaircast.com/sp-walker.htm ). This, my friends, is the Hummer of boots; I think it would be possible to navigate up sand dunes with that baby. I did reasonably well limping through the icy and cobble-stoned neighborhoods here in the hub and will have to continue to do so for about the next month or so. At night I am wearing a night splint also, which seems to help quite a bit, and hopefully with some more effort there we will be able to get Petra back into fighting shape (at least walking shape is all I am asking now).

It is 1 PM now and I am sitting here in my PJs, but I am due to usher at the Lyric Stage Company this afternoon for a rendition of “This Wonderful Life” – a one-man show based on the classic holiday tear jerker “It’s a Wonderful Life”, so I think taking a shower and getting dressed would be in order. Off I go!

Pet:)