Today: Cambridge to Bread Loaf

I drove up from Virginia to Boston on Sunday. Should have been a ten-hour drive, but there were massive storms (it rained all through Connecticut) and then I hit bumper-to-bumper weekenders heading back into Boston on the Mass. Pike, so it took more than eleven. I stumbled around Cambridge a bit and found my friends' house and they were waiting for me with a couple of bottles of sauvignon blanc and nice summery supper of salads. On Monday Rob had to work, poor sod, but Deb and I checked out the Degas exhibit at Harvard's Sackler museum, then explored my old bookstore haunts (Cambridgians are spoiled, and the selection is amazing; the abundance of literary journals alone is amazing and I picked up several that look like they might be good markets for me in the future). We had a great lunch at the Border Cafe and then, in the afternoon, we went down to tour Rob's place of business--Equal Exchange, the fair trade coffee company. We saw the roasting operation and new packaging machines, and even had a nice espresso. That night I got together with a fraternity brother, another Rob, for dinner and drinks, met his family, and had a wonderful time discovering our complete agreement on political matters. On Tuesday we hung out and read, I revisited the bookstores, we did sushi for lunch, and since the weather had improved considerably we did a cookout in Rob & Deb's delightful garden. Good wine, good food, good company. It is now Wednesday morning and I'll be heading up to Vermont shortly for Bread Loaf registration. More later!