It's day 11 of my winter cold. Unlike all but four hours of last week I feel well enough to be back in the office today and, better still, unlike those other four hours that I was in the office last week, I'm well enough to be reasonably productive today. I'm still congested and a little achy, retain an intermittent cough, and sound like Marge Simpson's sisters, but I'm fairly hopeful I'm in the last few days of this virus's grip. And I am feeling much better, if not completely well.
We spent the weekend in Boston, as planned, though much more quietly and housebound than expected, for which I felt simultaneously grateful and guilty. The flight up Friday morning provided a rather unpleasant experience, as the congestion in my sinuses and ears made it difficult to equalize the air pressure, and for a while I was worried my right eardrum was going to burst. And even the short, easy walk afterwards from Harvard Square to Jeff's friend Sonal's house in Somerville left me feeling tired, overheated and breathless. We went out to dinner (an excellent dinner, in fact, at The Elephant Walk in Cambridge, a French/Cambodian restaurant near Porter Square), but we ended up staying in with Sonal and her downstairs flatmates and their cat, rather than venturing downtown for First Night, ringing in the New Year with limoncino, champagne, ice cream and cookies.
On Saturday, too, we stayed in all day, visiting and baking with Sonal, and otherwise just lounging and taking it easy, ordering in pizza for dinner with her flatmates, and then finishing off the evening with a boardgame.
Yesterday, we had a delightful yet inexpensive brunch at Veggie Planet (located in Harvard Square at Club Passim, where I saw a great many folk music concerts back in my Cambridge-Boston years, you'd never know that their delicious dishes were vegetarian or vegan) with one of Jeff's dormmates from his sophomore year at Stanford and her husband. Afterwards, we made our way back to Logan for the shuttle flight back to DC yesterday evening, where we spent another quiet night, catching up on email and snuggling together on the couch in front of the television.
All in all, I had a very nice time, and I'm appreciative that everyone else seemed to be willing to indulge in a low-key, quiet New Year's; I had wanted originally to spend New Year's on the Common, taking in the fireworks, ice sculpture, arts and dance, and continued to feel a little guilty that my cold may have been a factor in everyone staying in instead. I don't think it would have been productive or wise for me to stay out late and cold, though, and, frankly, no one else seemed to have a strong preference for going out either, so I think everyone else enjoyed the weekend.
