3rd House Journal

Shut In

It's been a challenging winter here in the Boston area. The succession of weekly snowstorms that marked the first 6 weeks of the year finally ceased, replaced by intermittent melting and freezing, a couple of teaser gloriously warm days thrown sometime in mid-February (it's hard to remember now), gusty frigid winds, sleet, freezing drizzle, and generally inhospitable weather. This morning a Facebook friend commented that "boils, gnats, and flies" are next.

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago I developed a persistent allergic reaction to something in my apartment and have been miserable, with a couple of clear days thrown in randomly, like the weather. I had dreams about scrambling exhaustedly up and down staircases that went nowhere, Escher-like. I finally cried uncle and saw an allergist last Friday and today started getting allergy shots again, which I haven't had since I was in my early 20s.

I had to be off antihistamines for a couple of days before testing, so I started the weekend pretty stuffed up and wiped out. Saturday, D and I drove out to a Home Depot and bought a new HEPA air purifier for my place and one for his. It instantly made a major difference in my apartment -- which is not especially dusty (unlike, ehem, D's), so it's a bit mystifying what could be floating around here, but it's all getting sucked into the filter now. Lorianne posted something last week on FB about the recent thaws leading to mould allergies. However, I tested positive less for outdoor moulds than indoor, plus the trigger really seems to be indoors, behind the shut-tight windows of my apartment. Maybe some mould came in with the lovely Valentine roses? (sigh) Anyway, having regained a little energy, I also washed every sheet, pillowcase, blanket and duvet cover in my bedroom and (face-masked) vacuumed the bedroom spotless. And the air purifier hums away. I'm hoping that when spring comes (when? when?) the shots will already have some desensitizing effect to ward off spring seasonal allergies, which also make me miserable every year. If not, I have flonase and the HEPA filter at the ready.

Dilemma of Business Travel

Reasons in favor of business travel:

1. Breaks the monotony of the office where one is chained to a desk day after day.
2. Perqs of dinner out on the company's dime.
3. Meeting some of the actual human beings behind "the client" moniker.
4. Enjoying the company of colleagues and getting to know them better.
5. Being a team player, fulfilling a needed role as part of my job.

Reasons against business travel:

1. Inevitably arriving at the destination late, starved, having a big dinner (see #2 above) just before bed, with no time or brainpower left to review the next day's presentation.
2. Inevitably not sleeping well because of late dinner (see prior), overly soft bed, overly stuffed pillows, and the current hotel trend to supply a fat comforter and no blanket so the choice is roasting under the overstuffed comforter or lying like a cold corpse under a sole skimpy sheet. (have not mentioned the new threat of picking up bed bugs...)
3. All the usual herding and prodding at airports, then being squished into tiny airline seats with neither elbow nor leg room and the Russian roulette chance of getting a sniffling/hacking cellmate seatmate for the duration of the flight.
4. Client typically letting slip at the very end of the presentation that the work they want done has some jaw-droppingly impossible deadline that, if accepted, will make your and your colleagues' lives miserable anyway.

I should note that #2 of "reasons against" is, yours truly, the Sensitive Traveler's nightmare and does not apply to everyone. I am the Princess and the Pea. One of the colleagues I traveled with stood with us at Chicago O'Hare last evening in 20-degree weather with no coat, quite indifferent to the cold, and she slept like a baby through the night, too. I had my hat, gloves, coat, boots, a sweater and a coat and I was shivering. I'm the canary in the coal mine, the squeaky wheel - must have food! must have water! must have heat! no, not too much heat! must find a bathroom! must have caffeine! no, not too much caffeine! It's not easy. It would truly work okay, much better, if there were only a little more time allowed, but usually the presentations are still being worked on until the last minute. (sigh) Which is why I don't get out of the office much, I guess.

Waterworks

[Splash Fountain at the Christian Science Center, Boston; 5/30/10]

Boston is especially well hydrated this season as the fountains have been turned on all over town. At the far end of the reflecting pool at the I.M. Pei-designed Christian Science Plaza, the splash fountain was on.

But the real surprise was the beautiful bronze fountain near Tremont St on the Boston Common. The Brewer Fountain first graced the Common in 1868, but sputtered out in 2003 from neglect. The fountain, "the only known surviving copy of the original featured at the 1855 Paris World Fair," was eventually dismantled, restored to glory, then reinstalled on the Common. The pump was turned on just last week. (Interesting story in the Globe.)

[Brewer Fountain on Boston Common]

Over on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, kids were playing in the fun Rings Fountain, which shoots water 30 to 40 feet in the air in unpredictable patterns.

[Rings Fountain]

Another unexpected find was the Harbor Fog sculpture, also on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which emits a cooling fog. Apparently there are nautical bell sounds and lights that interact with passersby, though we only saw the lights.

[Harbor Fog; Customs House in background]

Maria mentioned last week my old, defunct The Sensitive Traveler blog, in which I made recommendations for easing the stress of travel. It occurs to me that these fountains offer visitors (and natives) the perfect antidote this summer for heat, noise, and other city stressors.