Anniversary I & Boston Breather

Monday, October 8th was our first anniversary. Connie reserved a table at Jean Georges (complements of Dimitris & Susan - gift certificate was a wedding present), but I made sure they knew we were celebrating, and I bought a little something at her favorite Jewelry store. However, the real clincher that night was my greeting card. I made her cry, which is always a good sign of successful mush-prose. Hey, what can I say? I love her! There were two things that went wrong that evening: 1) foie gras with passion fruit seeds. I mean, why ruin a perfectly good, silky-smooth piece of goose with sour, black, crunchy bird food? 2) Yankees lose to Indians ending their season and our already-unlikely chance of getting World Series tickets through the post-season ticket lottery scheme. Regardless, we had a fantastic evening. We needed it.

The next day we rented a company car and drove off to Boston. Due to a reservation issue - Seinfeld was onto something - they couldn't give us a normal sedan so we drove off in a Ford Edge SUV beast. It was brand new and smelled awful, but at the same time it was luxurious and I enjoyed driving it. The only thing that wrinkled the smooth ride was Connie insisting on playing the book on CD version of Harry Potter 7 the whole way. We just finished reading the book a couple of months ago (after standing in line with some kids at midnight)... Sometimes she drives me crazy with these obsessions of hers. Other times I find it cute.

In Boston, we had a nice room overlooking the Charles and Cambridge from Copley. I drove her around during the day from one campus to the next, and helped setup a few info sessions when my help was needed. But we ate lunches with Scott or Cris, and had dinners with Scott & Marissa every night. They were really good sports as they were staying up late with us every night and going to work at 6am the next day. Connie's work days didn't start till noon. We had an unfair advantage. They are gracious hosts, though, and we had great times at their immaculate (and almost done) apartment, gay dbar in Dorchester, and exquisite Oishi in the South End.

We spent a night at Cris and Margo's new place as well. It was the first time I stayed with Cris at his place rather than mine or Scott's his parents' cottage in Thousand Island Park. Margo has really done a great job of settling him down and I was surprised to feel cozy and comfy in his apartment. We spent Saturday night watching an amazing Indians/Red Sox game. As Yankee fans, we have to cheer whoever is playing the Red Sox. Cris was not amused by that, but teh game itself was fantastic and lasted past my bedtime. Connie kept waking me up to announce updates until the Indians finally clinched it with a 7-run 11th inning :)

I spent much of our conversations with friends, colleagues, and strangers that week convincing myself that quitting was the right thing for me at this time. This was supposed to be a week of relaxation for me so that I could calmly take the big plunge and resign on Monday. It worked!