I had an odd milestone today. In a final push on my last dissertation chapter (don't worry! still got revisions and defense to go!) I opened a browser that I don't usually use, the better to not get snared in my Gmail/open tabs while looking up a translation. And that's when I realized I hadn't used this browser since I left Boston.
Its autocomplete suggestions drew on my last address there, and its website autocompletes related to my Boston life. (Speaking of which, this is how I found out that Bee's Knees, once The Only Decent Breakfast Place near my Allston apartment, is now closed, because of course it is. Boston: you're not very good!)
Anyhow, I realized in that moment that it really has been a bit since that move. The summer in Europe skewed my sense of timing, but it's now been about a year and a quarter since I left the city behind. It's sitting with me, a little while after my brief and weird trip down memory lane. After a few settling-in months in Chicago, the "how did you like Boston?" question faded away, and so I haven't really thought about it til today.
And the answer, with a bit more distance, is... largely the same? As I say: Boston's insane price spikes (more recent than I realized, to hear from a friend who used to live there) make it nearly impossible for good or creative restaurants at the lower end of the cost spectrum to make ends meet. Its public transit is neglected and inefficient. Its stubborn conviction that old things are to be accepted rather than improved still sort of makes me nuts. It's a city that really only works for those affluent enough to live near where they want to be, or with the money to jump cabs routinely. And its people still strike me as more [openly?] rude, sexist, racist, and homophobic than where I am now. All of which is to say: it's still not my city.
That said, there are some real solid good memories in there. A few spots (largely in my Jamaica Plain year) that had that hum of creativity and experimentation that I love. A few music venues that gave me some lovely nights. A neighborhood eatery that, while pretty unremarkable, was worth tromping through a blizzard to get to to make sure they felt supported when the whole city shut down. The Boston Symphony, which in my first two years was a great weekly reset thanks to a generous student ticket program. And a tiny core of amazing people - variously brilliant, kind, creative, and thoughtful - who got me through the worst, most challenging, and occasionally most exhilerating, years of my life.
Most of all, though, I miss New England. After visiting a friend in Madison, I miss Boston's sense that in 90 minutes you could be anywhere: the coast, a mountain, a forest, a lake, or Portland (arguably a better food city), which was my unplug-and-relax haven from Boston work. I miss the Amtrak that made it easy to have productive weekend getaways. And yeah, I miss the short-hop cheap-as-dirt flights to Europe.
All of which is to say, I'm scheming ahead. Come my defense date, I'm hoping to tack on a few days after whatever comes in order to tromp around the region a bit. To see my friends, yes, and to see Boston with fresh eyes after a stretch away. But also to poke up further into Maine than I got to go during my school years. To drive into Vermont, which tight budgets and a cohabitative schedule kept me from - ever - experiencing. And to exhale at the end of this process that, even as its end approaches, seems endless.
More to come soon. Including, probably, an update on a family trip to Colorado and some solo midwestern hopping around. But first, let's knock out this chapter and round the corner to the final stretch.
