phyllo facts

I love keeping a filofax (not the flaky pastry, although that's how some folks pronounce it) when I can't remember everything that's happened since I last blogged over two weeks ago. Let's see...since February 6th, in addition to the usual, I attended a presentation by NY painter Adam Cvijanovic, watched some mind-blowing animation by William Kentridge, experienced my first Boston blizzard (like DQ but with fewer M&Ms), bought tickets to listen to Kara Walker speak at the MFA in March, lost my monthly T pass, which was a huge bummer, visited family in Oregon, and most recently decided to erase and animate some charcoal portraits à la aforementioned Kentridge and Amy Adler.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, I've seen some amazing art, and had a real breakthrough (I think...I hope) with my own. Stay tuned for that.

As for that blizzard, Neal did some documenting. You're probably wondering why we walked to the T when the wind was gusting at 50 mph and the snow was falling at about three inches per hour, and you're right to wonder. Turns out I had the bad luck of being scheduled to work at a store that doesn't let a little blizzard get in the way of weekly goals. I was shocked at how many people were in the mall, but on the other hand, the Pru serves as a corridor between the convention center and a bunch of hotels, so the majority of shoppers may very well have been stranded tourists. Even so, shopping would have been the last thing on my mind in that kind of weather.

Needless to say, my nearly mid-semester break in Bend was much appreciated, despite making the trip solo. It was actually colder there than here on the first day (10 below with the wind chill factored in), but warmed up to about 43 by Monday. I did some cross country skiing for the first time in at least two years, as well as some hiking, bruised both knees by falling on snow and ice, enjoyed the kind of blizzard I prefer at DQ, and ate tasty Mexican food two of the four nights I was there. I was happy to be home in Boston, but there are some things (namely blizzards and Mexican food) that the west coast just does better. Not to mention the fact that I got to see my Dad, grandparents, and an aunt for the first time in almost a year. I've done a lot of sightseeing in Bend (even lived there for a year myself) so I didn't take many pictures, but I've posted a couple on Flickr.