Thursday Thirteen #217

MY VALENTINE TO BOSTON

This week, we're all Bostonians. Here's my tribute to one of my favorite cities.


1) It was founded in 1630.


2) It has a rich heritage of education. In 1635, it became home to America's first free public school, Boston Latin.


3) Today it can claim more than 100 colleges and universities. That doesn't include the two most famous -- Harvard and MIT -- which are actually located across the river in Cambridge.

4) Boston Public Garden, designed by Frederick Olmstead, is America's first public garden. Nature lovers can enjoy literally hundreds of varieties of trees and flowers, and families enjoy the famous swan boats.

5) Right next to the Garden is the Boston Common. The Frog Pond provides relief from the summer heat and during the winter it's frozen for ice skating.

6) Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, opened 100 years ago and is the MLB's oldest ball park and has an honored spot on United States' National Register of Historic Places. 

7) It's a terrifically easy city to navigate. Trust me, I have done it as a tourist with no problem at all. The MBTA (or "The T") carries more than 165,000,000 commuters annually.

8) Every year more than one million visitors see works by Monet, John Singer Sargent and Gaugin at Boston's famous Museum of Fine Arts.

9)  For more than 100 years, shoppers looked for deals at Filene's Basement, which was a Boston-born phenomenon. It got started, literally, in the basement of high-end Filene's Department Store and gave birth to the term, "bargain basement."

10) Newbury Street is 8 blocks of retail delight. You can find jewelry, clothes, books, art ... all in beautiful buildings from the late 1880s.

11) The TV show Cheers made Boston's bars famous. Today drink aficionados recommend the sophisticated Avery Bar at Ritz Carlton Boston Common for the best martini in town.

12) It's also home to the Boston Marathon, which has been held every year since April, 1897. And make no mistake -- there will be a Boston Marathon next year, too!

13) Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino have announced the formation of The One Fund Boston to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, 2013. It raised more than $6 million in just 24 hours. But that doesn't mean your donation wouldn't be most welcome.

LOVE YOU BOSTON!

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Much Ado about Nothing

The bombing in Boston upset me more than I anticipated it would, probably more than it should have. It's thrown me off my game emotionally and mentally, and it's kept me from blogging because these feelings are not something I want to examine.

Which means I never updated the summons story. I was served with my own summons on Saturday, and I spent the weekend worrying about nothing. It was, in my lawyer's words, "pro forma and expected." The mortgage company has to serve notice to all involved parties and, since my mother is gone, my sisters and I are the remaining involved parties. We have no personal liability. We need take no action.

In short ... YAWN!

I stopped by the lawyer's office Monday morning to drop the packet off and was delighted anew by how pleasant and good looking he is. He's not young, and it's interesting how the gray mixes with his blond hair. And I think it was freshly cut. Sigh.

So Monday I got comforting news from a handsome man, I moved into my new, solo (albeit short term) office, so I should have been happy, right? No, because right after my 2:00 meeting, I heard what happened in Boston.

I was actually kind of frightened to take the el home on Monday night because it runs over the Chicago River. Because if I was a terrorist trying to destroy Chicago, that's where I'd hit. I hate that my mind went there. 

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net