Winging it in... Boston

We'd like to be unhappy, but, We never do have the time

This weekend has seemed to be another of those weekends- I have so many at the minute- in which I can rattle off a list of jobs and places I have been to, yet I don’t actually feel that I have accomplished very much or achieved a huge amount.

Possibly some of this is due to being caught up in work and an online course- which is interesting, if not a little time consuming. This weekend I think I have seen about five hours disappear to it, some of which was an online discussion and some just paperwork. I ma starting to wonder just how useful the internet actually is… in theory it is a great tool, it should be able to let people from all over the world video chat in a virtual classroom. In practice, a good proportion of the two hours was spent trying to resolve technical difficulties. The software was designed to work in Google chrome, and the word documents to open on a mac- none of the participants have this information beforehand, and to be honest, even if I had known I’m not entirely sure I would have wanted a new browser. Last time I used Google chrome I had issues with other applications. Again it is a case of should be fantastic, if only there was limited choice. Too much choice is not only overwhelming but also totally impractical. Or maybe people (myself included) need to bring their expectations of technology in line with personal and practical limitations. Just because something IS possible does not mean it is possible for you in your situation.

I have also, finally, gotten round to getting my hair cut. I’m not sure why I get so excited about this, as it looks exactly the same as it did two days ago, just an inch shorter. I also spent 15 minutes talking to a nun, only to realize that she wasn’t a nun, just an old lady with a towel on her head. In retrospect I was in a hair salon so this should have dawned on me earlier. It would actually make quite a good joke, but it is unfortunately true.

In an attempt to be social I did attend a charity party. I have to say I failed miserably on the social front, and ended up having a long and interesting conversation with people I already knew. It was very nice to catch up with them, but didn’t really do much to widen my social circle. I was also a bit bad at the getting involved for charity aspect. I didn’t really get into the whole tetherball tournament, or the bingo thing- but (in my defense) I did leave my donation for the events, and I am quite sure that the charity really doesn’t care whether I participated in the tetherball or not, as long as they get my money. Victoria, thank you for all the effort you went to tho, and I am terribly sorry I was antisocial at your party. Here is the link to the web page that it was all for. http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/HyannisT11/vrenfro#My-Fundraising-Page

I have also finally managed to get to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum too, this week. This is something else that has been on my to do list for about a year now, and I have just been too lazy to walk the mile down the road and actually manage to fit it in. Isabella Gardner was born in 1840, died and 1924 and was left a huge fortune by her father in 1891. She used this money to travel, collect objects and to plan and build a house in which to keep them. In her will she stipulated that the galleries should be left in the same general arrangement that she had created, and while it is very eclectic it is a bit like visiting the store room in an old library. There is stuff everywhere.

I did absolutely love the house- it was a real mix of Italian/ Spanish style, all built around what should have been an open courtyard, containing Byzantinesque mosaics and Moorish tiles. Covering three floors the museum has a very idiosyncratic style, including European Modern art (Degas, Manet, Matisse), Tapestries etchings and a slightly less than perfect Seventeenth Century European collection. This collection sports ten empty frames representing ten pieces of work (including two Rembrandts and a Vermeer) that were stolen in 1990. Given Isabella Gardner’s will, that everything remain as she left it, or be shipped to Paris, auctioned and the profits donated to Harvard, the empty frames are a way of ensuring that, despite the theft, the museum trustees have not altered anything, and so they are able to keep the collection.

Isabella Gardner does seem to have had somewhat of an affinity for religious paintings, statues, crucifixes, alter pieces, and candlesticks. In fact she has an entire chapel on display, including Italian stained glass- it was a somewhat strange experience, not entirely sure if I wanted to discuss her arrangement as a work of art, or if I should revere it in church like silence. I am still a little un-decided, I think I’m coming down on the side of reverence.