Snapshots

— My sister Jean gave me a play by play account of the movie Angels in the Outfield. I literally never wanted it to end. While the account was going on here is what we did: we drove into town, went to Belmont’s, went food shopping, went to the video store, went to the liquor store, and drove back to her house. Jean, occasionally, would break out, and say, “Oh my God, this is going on so long …” “Please don’t ever stop.” At a couple of points during the re-cap, tears were shed. The second Jean started crying, I would start crying. So … we were picking out mozzarella … and CRYING over Angels in the Outfield. Jean told me every scene. “Then … there was a press conference … and the kids showed up … and so did the evil broadcaster … and then …” There was a long unexplained pause. We continued to look at mozzarella. I glanced at Jean to see why she had stopped. She looked at me with something akin to panic. She confessed, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to get through this next part.” hahahahaha I was like, “Go! Cry! Talk and cry!! Do we need salad dressing? Okay, so what happened next.”

— Beth wanted to cook me dinner. She’s very into Rachel Ray and wanted to try a recipe out on me. She emailed me, “Is there any food that you HATE, just so I know?” I fire back an email: “I only hate coconut and applesauce.” Beth emails back: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Okay so I won’t pick you up at the train then holding a coconut cake with applesauce dressing.” We get to Beth’s house, cozy, warm, inviting. Conor, her son, ambushed me from around a corner the second I walked in and I screamed at the top of my lungs. EXCELLENT. I was totally busted. Beth and I drank wine, she cooked her Rachel Ray masterpiece (which was really good) … Tom came home, and I sat in the living room talking with him for a whilel about his new job, which sounds great. Then we ate. The meal was YUMMY!!!! Lots of good talk, laughter, etc. After the meal, Tom walked by, carrying a plastic bag full of something and went down into the basement. Beth’s curiosity was peaked. “Tom? Where ya goin’? Whatcha doin’?” No response. This will be important and funny later. So Beth and I keep talking – and then – weirdly – we hear Tom SAWING something in the basement. “What the hell is he doing??” Beth said. When Tom emerged from the basement, he went into the kitchen. Beth and I kept talking in the dining room, oblivious. Then, finally – Tom walks into the dining room, carrying a tray, and announcing, “Dessert!!” And he puts down in front of me half a coconut filled with applesauce. hahahahaha And here’s the best part: he cut up little apple slices and stuck them in the applesauce – so they were lovely little garnishes. The SAWING we had heard had been Tom sawing apart the damn coconuts in the basement. The funny thing about all of this is that Beth KNEW what he was planning – and of course forgot about it in the moment – and tormented him with questions as he went into the basement: “What are you doing?? Where are you going???” We were all just HOWLING. That damn coconut exuded EVIL. The image of Tom, in the kitchen, carefully slicing up an apple and placing each slice in the applesauce is just too feckin’ funny. When Tom came into the dining room, holding that dessert tray, he looked like an absolute maniac. hahahahahahaha

— My parents and I drove up to Quincy on a cold grey day – to see the Adams house. Sadly, although it had said: “Open Mon – Saturday” – it also had said: “Closed November to April.” So that was kind of a bust – but it was a great day anyway. We met up with my uncle Terry in Quincy (he lives there) – and snowflakes were starting to flutter down. We sat in a toasty warm Starbucks for a while, having coffee … hearing about Terry’s retirement. “So what have you done so far? Are you volunteering anywhere?” Terry replies, “So far I have read a biography of Henry Ford, and a 2 volume biography of Napoleon.” Sounds like my kind of retirement!!! We then walked up the street to go see the Adams house, unaware it was closed. But before we got there, there was a big brick building with a plaque outside of it – This is the Quincy Historical Museum – founded by Charles Francis Adams, Jr. – it had been a boy’s academy before it was a museum (the academy was set up with an endowment from John Adams) and it’s also the spot where John Hancock’s birthplace was. A gorgeous building – but sadly, it was closed. But … but … John Hancock!! I just looked around, soaking it all up. The grey withered grass, the white sky, the snowflakes … and John Hancock’s birthplace.

— Then we walked up the street to see the Adams house. Even though it was closed to the public, it didn’t matter – it was great just to see it. I’ve seen it before – because we come to uncle Terry’s every year for Thanksgiving, and we drive by it every year … but this was my first up-close-and-personal view of it. It was AWESOME. There’s a gate around the outskirts of the land so you can’t get in there – but we walked around, looking in thru the gate. It’s a beautiful house – painted a kind of interesting grey – with black shutters. The walls buckle out on the sides. One of the front doors looks like it has cut one of the windows in half – so you have one pane on one side, and one shutter, and one pane and one shutter on the other side. All the shades are down. And then – the best part – out in the back is the stone library which … well. I can’t even really think about that library without getting goose bumps. Built completely of stone, it contains over 14,000 volumes and that includes the entire book collection of John Quincy Adams. MAN. Books were so important to this family that they had to build a whole other building for them. I want a stone library like that!!! Terry was regaling us with amusing tales of other members of the Adams family. “Yeah – he moved from this house because he could see the immigrants outside his window.” I can’t remember which Adams family member that was – maybe Charles. Anyway, it was great to wander around with Terry because he’s a wealth of information.

— Then we walked a couple blocks – past the prep. school for girls – also set up with an endowment from the Adams family – to see the birthplace of the wife of John Hancock (Dorothy Quincy). The Dorothy Quincy House. It’s a short walk away. Funny – as we approached – we walked by an apartment complex, a big old high school – and through all of this brick and mortar, we would get occasional glimpses of a big yellow house. My dad said, “Well, we can obviously see it from here …” It stood out. There is nothing else that that COULD be than the birthplace of some famous person. They just don’t really make houses like that anymore. Gorgeous. Again, it was closed – but we walked around the outskirts – it’s a HUGE chunk of land – with a brook on one side. Just the feeling of being in the presence of a historical moment … being in the presence of the PAST … is wonderful. So so rich. Especially because I KNOW about these people. Not everything, but … context is so important when you’re sight-seeing – and these people, though long dead, are REAL to me.

— It was just a great little visit. Cold, snowy, lots of conversation as we walked from place to place … wonderful.

— Then we went over to Terry’s to visit with the family. It was Diane’s birthday. Both Matt and Rachel are home now – so I got to hang out with them and see them. Rachel used to live in New York and I really miss seeing her more often. Always good to see her. I want to have an O’Malley cousin gathering at my wee apartment at some point in April. It was great. Snow falling outside the window, coffee brewing – a nice visit – before we set off to come back home.

— Jean and I took Hudson for a walk on the beach. Cold dark sand – that was all packed down and kind of mushy – Hudson just running free – the waves were freezing and green – just crashing on the shore … It was beautiful. It’s got to be the most beautiful beach in the world. One of my most favorite places on earth.

— Then – after the Angels in the Outfield re-cap – we came back to Jean and Pat’s – Jean made a great dinner – we watched a little bit of Grizzly Man which appears now to be on a constant loop on the Discovery Channel. They’ve seen it, I’ve seen it … we still can’t get enough of it. Jean, cooking in the kitchen, calling out to us, “Her poop! This came from her butt! It came from inside her!” Jean’s assessment of his psychosis, “He just wanted to be famous.”

— Oh, and Jean and Pat just saw the Hamlet at Trinity and were raving about it. That seems to be the general feeling. I wish I could see it!!! I told them one of my favorite anecdotes about Christopher Walken coming and talking to our school (he’s done a ton of Shakespeare) – Lipton asked him what his favorite line in Shakespeare is. Walken said, almost immediately, “I think my favorite line is the first line in Hamlet – because – it’s simple, it says it all, you really don’t get any better than that first line.” Lipton asked, “And that line is …” Walken replied, ” ‘Who’s there?’ ” hahahahahaha It’s true, though! And the funny thing is Walken was dead serious. Much talk about Shakespeare. Jean has a comic-book version of Hamlet – with thunder-thighed Renaissance-fair drawings – Hamlet wearing tights, with Prince Valiant hair – It’s for kids, so the language is all boiled down – and the “to be or not to be” speech has now become: “Life is hard. It might be better to sleep, or to die.” hahahahahaha

— We watched Wedding Crashers which was a total riot. Vince Vaughn was cracking us UP. “Did you motorboat them? Did ya? Motorboat? Did ya motorboat them????” Oh – and apparently Jean and Pat’s DVD player is on the fritz – but they discovered that they can play DVDs using their Play Station … so to see Pat using the little Play Station control-thingie as a remote – was hysterical. Rachel McAdams is adorable. That chick could be another future Oscar winner. I called it when I first saw her in Mean Girls. “That girl is going to be very very successful.” I stand by that first assessment!!!

— Then there was the big moment. I went over to Mere’s, bearing coffee and bagels, in order to see her poor black foot. I have been hearing about it, she has been sending almost daily pictures … but nothing could really have prepared me for the reality. The only thing I could keep saying was: “Jeeeeeeesus, Meredith … Jesus!” OUCH, man. Poor woman. She starts a new job this week, and she is on crutches, and her foot looks like a movie-monster. But it could have been sooo much worse. And everyone is hopeful that she will make a full recovery. But damn. That foot. Today is her appointment at the Wound Care Clinic – so I’ll be thinking about you, Mere!!! But we didn’t just talk about the foot. We drank coffee and talked about the Olympics, and karate, and her new job … very good catch-up.

— Oh … and for the LIFE of us – for a good 15 minutes – we could not remember Howie Mandell’s name. We … tormented ourselves … I kept saying, “I think his name is Huey …” We basically kept listing his resume to each other … trying to remember … And then there were long stretches of silence when we basically could not move on to other things, because our brains were SO occupied with trying to remember his damn name. Mere finally shouted it out triumphantly. Phew!