Good Eats in New Haven

I've been in New Haven since Monday, kicking off my dissertation research with painstaking archival work in Yale's Gilmore Music Library. I won't bore you with details, but it's equal parts fascinating, mind-numbing, incredibly useful and completely pointless. Apparently this is what I have to look forward to throughout my career - tenure, here I come!

On to the reason for this post: like my dad, I have acquired the habit of enjoying food a great deal more when I'm away from home. (No offense meant to Maggie's or my own cooking ability, since clearly we are awesome in this regard. It has more to do with a willingness to try new places, see old friends, and meet new ones. And it helps that this research trip is Harvard-funded, so I'm more inclined to actually spend money on food.) My jaunt to New Haven has proved no exception.

Soon after my arrival, James and I hit up an excellent Chinese establishment right across from his apartment (Royal Palace Restaurant - yelp reviews here). For $6.95 we had soup, General Tso's chicken (James very spicy, me not at all), and fried rice. Awesome deal. In the evening, we patronized a well-known New Haven establishment, The Educated Burgher. (This is Yale's version of Bartley's in Harvard Square.)

There, I enjoyed a 1/3 lb. bacon cheeseburger with curly fries and a chocolate banana milkshake. Sure, I'll regret it in 20-40 years, but until then, it's all good.

Yesterday I had a small breakfast of Frosted Flakes (I never get sweet cereals at home!) and a lunch of a ham-and-gruyere croissant and a sandwich composed of Boar's Head (TM) roast beef, horseradish, and cheddar on a kaiser roll with a Snapple lemon iced-tea. But the main event was dinner.

Apparently the place to get pizza in New Haven is Pepe's, located in the city's own miniature Little Italy. James and I met there Will, Judy, Lindsay, and Kristen Oakes, family friends from way back who live 30 minutes from New Haven. Sure, we had to wait almost an hour and a half to be seated, and sure, then we had to contend with the world's slowest/most negligent waiter, but then! The pizza was excellent. We got an original with mozzarella (the original original comes without cheese!) and a pepper, sausage, and mushroom with mozzarella. Amazingly, Pepe's only serves pizza. That's right - no pasta, no subs, nothing. Don't believe me? Check out the menu:

My junk-food culinary overload continues tonight with all-you-can-eat sushi at an event James and his colleagues have been planning for at least a week. I'll let you know how it goes!

Weekend in the Berkshires, Part 2

I can barely describe the many layers of thoughtfulness, style, and significance that permeated the wedding of Meredith and Andres at Mass MOCA. Suffice it to say, there were many. We enjoyed the Klezmer band that played traditional music throughout cocktail hour, the ceremony, and the first part of dinner before switching to covers suitable for dancing. We relished the "Pfoho fizz," a special cocktail whose origins have something to do with the Harvard dorm (Pforzheimer) where Meredith and Andres lived for three years. We oohed and aahed over the ketubah, commissioned from an artistic uncle whose use of color and whose layout created a document unlike any we'd seen before. And we were impressed by the skillful, respectful combination of various Jewish and Chinese traditions during the service, which took place among the museum's exhibitions, saving us the $15 entrance fee (of course, there was much, much more to see). As evidence of the service's hybridity, the chuppah (supplied by the groom's Taiwanese parents) had been hand-embroidered with Chinese characters. Beautiful.

The wedding was also fun - the band was great, the food was delicious, and it was nice to experience a purely social event with many of my classmates. When we finally left the party, Maggie and I walked (!!!) through the rain back to our host's house, giving us time to digest and rehash all our favorite moments.

The next morning, we were up fairly early and had breakfast at a new restaurant on Main Street before getting coffee at Brewhaha Cafe. Eventually we walked over to the hotel where the wedding party had stayed, said goodbye, congratulations, and thank you to Meredith, collected Matt and Madeleine (Frank had gone back to Boston with Tom the night before) and drove back to Ben's house.

We said goodbye to Ben, his roommate Annie snapped this photo, and we took off - in the wrong direction! But on purpose, as we wanted to walk around Williams College, located in Williamstown, 10 minutes west of North Adams. Williams was beautiful - and with property values in Western Massachusetts actually reasonable, I'd be more than happy to get a job there.

Finally, we arrived back in Boston around 3:15 in the afternoon, just in time to show our apartment to a prospective subletter for next year. And with that, our weekend getaway came to an end!

Weekend in the Berkshires, Part I

Yesterday afternoon, Maggie and I joined our friends Matt, Madeleine, and Frank for a road trip to the Berkshires, a heavily-forested, "mountainous" region in the northwest corner of Massachusetts where every town is quaint, artsy, and peaceful. Our ultimate destination was North Adams, where we would attend the wedding of my classmate Meredith and her fiance Andres.

View Larger Map

On the way, we took a slight detour to stop at the Montague Book Mill, a used book store in a converted (you guessed it) mill. Their slogan is, "Books you don't need in a place you can't find," and boy were they right - we had to take a detour on top of our detour to get there. But it was worth it, both for the books and for the excellent cafe where we had lunch.

Back on the road, we actually drove right through North Adams and up Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in MA (3,491 ft.). We parked just below the summit and hiked up the last half-mile or so, pausing at the top to enjoy the amazing view.

On the way down the mountain, we learned how to use second gear (it slows you down!) and, once back in North Adams, Maggie and I were dropped off at our lodging for the night. True to our pre-Paris frugal nature and our preference for "authentic" accomodations, we avoided staying at the hotels recommended by Meredith in favor of couchsurfing with Ben Lamb. Ben drove us around North Adams, giving us a local's perspective, and we saw the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, a bunch of old factories converted into artists' residences and studios, Main Street and its charming cafes, and part of Williams' campus (in Williamstown, 10 minutes away).

Eventually we returned to Ben's humble abode, where Ben regaled us with stories of his summer spent counting sockeye salmon in the Alaskan wild. Wild, indeed. Then, it was time to get gussied up for Meredith's wedding! And so we headed to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art . . .

(To be continued)

Unveiling

Sorry I've been AWOL. For the last two weeks, I've been in South Jersey at my mom's house. My first week here, I helped prepare for and execute a massive yard sale - I basically cleared out the attic and parts of the basement, and we sold/gave away tons of stuff. Success! My second week here, I prepared for and executed a) a concert yesterday at the Friends Village (assisted living facility where Bubbe lives); b) Poppop's 89th birthday party (directly following the concert); and c) the Unveiling for my dad's monument (today). This entailed: 1) practicing a lot, as I haven't really played since dad died; 2) baking three batches of cookies, two batches of ice cream, two cakes, and grilling london broil, chicken, and salmon; 3) getting together a short service, which I led.

I also (in no particular order) did a lot of yardwork, ran various errands, spent time with family, booked airfare to Paris, found out I got a Fulbright for next year, possibly found an apartment in Paris, and enjoyed a day at the beach with my mom and cousin Jacob.

This hole got much deeper, but I can't prove it. Also, this picture was taken before I suffered a massive sunburn. This despite having put on sunscreen. Check out Jacob's cool shades!

Anyway, it's been a busy two weeks. Today was the culmination of it all - going to the cemetery for the first time since dad died, seeing the monument for the first time, saying goodbye all over again. It was easier, and it helped to be surrounded by lots of supportive friends and family - way more than is normal at an unveiling. I think Dad would have liked the memorial (simple but elegant) and the service (short, respectful, and mostly in Hebrew).

Dad, the stone I left on your monument is one I found in St. Geniez-d'Olt, France in July, 2004. It's been my lucky stone ever since - the one I've carried in my pocket every day (strange, I know). Today, I felt like it was the right time to leave it behind, with you.

I miss you.

Success!!!

I ought to have posted about this sooner, but in my excitement (and in a bustle of out-of-the-house activity) I completely forgot.

PANDA IS CURED!!!

Well, kind of. (You knew that was coming.) 

As of about two weeks ago, Panda is now capable of calmly enduring time at home by herself. The longest she's gone so far is almost 6 hours; we try to make sure she spends at least 2 hours a day alone. 

The breakthrough came when Maggie put somme of our dirty clothes on the other side of the front door. When we left, Panda could still smell us (as if we were right there in the stairwell), and was comfortable enough to pass out in front of the door. Since then, she's taken to sleeping on the futon - around the corner from the door. 

When we leave the clothes, she still whines and paces for a few minutes before she calms down. When we don't leave the clothes, she's just as anxious as she ever was - barking, howling, scratching at the door. We try to always leave the clothes.

Life is completely different now that Panda can be home alone. We can take leisurely trips to the supermarket; we can go out for dinner; I can check out books from various libraries on campus without having to make sure someone can watch Panda. FREEDOM!!! 

As much as I give Maggie credit for the clothes-at-door innovation, we both realize that Panda's anti-anxiety medication (doggie Prozac) had a lot to do with it. We'll keep her on the Prozac for at least a few more months until we're absolutely sure that she'll be calm without it - until we can leave, without clothes at the door, and elicit no more than a yawn from a contented, anxiety-free Panda.

Home Care

As you might know, dad could be a little . . . irrational . . . about certain things, like travel and personal hygiene. While I entertain none of the same anxiety about these aspects of life, I have adopted my dad's home care fixation. Every time someone drags a piece of furniture across my hardwood floors, I cringe - even though I've preempted such negligence by attaching felt to the bottom of every chair, couch, futon, table, and nightstand leg. Every time I look at the inside of the bathroom door, my stomach drops a little. (At the height of her separation anxiety, we misguidedly left Panda in the bathroom, thinking she could do little damage. She tried her hardest to get to us, making toothpicks out of that door. Sigh.) And even though I've tried to accept the necessity of putting holes in the wall to hang pictures and kitchen utensil-holding peg boards, it still pains me to do it.

So it is with my dad's (and now my) neurosis in mind that I proudly post the following pictures of the condo, which I think we've kept in pretty good shape. Thanks, dad, for teaching me the value of proper (better than proper: near-obsessive) home care.

(The pictures are intended to entice a subletter for next year, when we'll be in Paris. If you know anyone who needs a place for next academic year, let me know!!)

Garden

We've been hard at work on the front yard the last few weekends, and I'm happy to announce that the 17 Conwell St. Community Garden Project is underway! Here's a list of the veggies we've planted:

Tomatoes (cherry and beefsteak)

Peppers

Squash

Zucchini

Broccoli

Lettuce

Peas

And we have lots of flowers and herbs and a few perennials, too! Check in every once in a while for updated pictures as the garden grows, and grows, and grows . . .