In the City, There Is Something to See

To preface this, the last two times I've ridden the commuter rail, I haven't had to pay. This evening, on my return trip to Wellesley, was the first time a conductor has collected my ticket in months. Sometimes, nice little things like that happen. I try to revel in these trivial joys as much as I can.

"Whatever were you doing on the train into Boston?" you might wonder. Well. That is an excellent question.

I went in this morning to spend time with a few very dear friends, two marvelous people both of whom graduated last year. Before seeing them, however, I walked around the south Boston waterfront and watched the seagulls flying around. I always forget how ocean-y the harbor smells until I go there, and then I get excited and take lots of deep smell-y breaths until a stranger gives me a dirty look and then I stop. Luckily, that didn't happen today, so I got lots of ocean smells before I left.

Afterward, I met up with Zoë and we spent some time at Franklin Square Park before meeting our friend Katie at the SoWa market, which is a big bustling place full of everything imaginable. There were faux-taxidermists and honey vendors and farmers' stalls. I got some huge peaches and, what's more, three rolls of 35mm film for five dollars! But perhaps most spectacularly, we saw K-Bot (the elusive president of Wellesley College) wandering around the market with her husband. There goes my theory about her being a computer algorithm. Darn.

All in all, it was an exciting, happy, tiring day. We walked all over the city, talked about everything under the sky, and accidentally got a little sunburned--my backpack straps left quite an attractive line on my shoulders.

The Inner Harbor from Fan Pier.

Simply a relief; these signs should be everywhere.

Some really proud construction that brightened up my morning.