I never thought I would discover a new passion at this point in my life.  I’m not super old, not even what I would consider old, but you usually take up new things when you are in your twenties.  Let’s say I’m past the 20s, so when this skiing obsession took over, I was surprised.  I thought my interests were set.  Teach, take photos, write some stuff.

But physical activity, that wasn’t really on my radar anymore.  I did sports until I was a teenager, when the angst took over and I stopped.  And I was never really good.  I participated, but I was never a star.  And I wanted to be a star.

Now to the skiing obsession.  I like it because I’m usually out there alone.  I talk to a lot of the people on the lifts about their day and those conversations can be pretty funny.

Skiing also helped me learn some life lessons.  On the skis, you have good days and you have bad days.  Sometimes the conditions on the slopes are good, sometimes not.  You don’t control any of this.  You do great on hard slopes, you do worse on easier slopes.  Mother Nature will always teach you a lesson.  You fall down, you have to get right back up.  You get into problems, you have to resolve them immediately.  You have to figure it out.  Otherwise, you get into more trouble.

OK, I’m doing philosophizing.  Let’s look at some photos.  Believe me.  Stunning:

Imagine for a moment you a rich person in let’s say 1890.  I mean really rich.  Rich like ridiculously rich.  And you decide to start collecting art.  Your ridiculous lucre allows you to travel the world and collect priceless treasures probably for a song.  The Europeans were down on their luck back then and there you are with your boatload of cash, ready willing and able to take whatever they need off your hands.

Now where are you going to put all of this?  Well, if you are Isabella Stewart Gardner, the odd cookie of the title, you are going to put it in your house.  Your very large house that you modeled to look like a Venetian palazzo.  As you do.  Room upon room of priceless treasures.  And this in the middle of it:

Now we get to the part about Mrs Gardner and her odd cookie-ness.  Her namesake museum was the victim of a spectacular robbery about 20 years ago.  Her personal Vermeers and Rembrandts were stolen.  Now as per her will, the museum cannot be changed, so there stand in the museum three empty frames where painting used to be.  The museum itself seems to be angry about it, but I think it is pretty great and a great way to attract people to the place.

Alas, you cannot photograph those frames.

Once you get the signal, please unite.  Here’s the signal:

Just kidding.  I love to hate the green line:

Boston in a rainstorm is just about one of the greatest things in the world.  It just looks so steamy and mysterious, I think.  See if you agree:

Morning New York City:

I got stuck in 30th street station in Philadelphia on Saturday night.  All because my bus was five minutes late.  I did the natural thing.  I started taking photos of the people waiting for their trains, who were in the same situation as me:

Throughout my childhood, one commercial ran almost constantly, for a place called “Mount Airy Lodge” located in the Pocono Mountains.  Mount Airy lodge was the height of 1980s tacky.  They had heart shaped jacuzzis in the room and also ones that were shaped like champagne glasses.  They were in the honeymoon suites and whatever happened in the champagne glass jacuzzi, stayed in the champagne glass jacuzzi.

Taking a cursory look over the Mount Airy lodge now, it looks pretty nice.  If I had the possibility to stay up there and probably the money, I’d probably take it.

The Poconos:

Another thing I always thought sounds kind of not glamorous, but those mountains turned out to be quite lovely.  And Camelback, the resort I visited, doubles as a water park in the off season.  I like the combo of the white snow with the colorful slides and the white snow.  Not to mention the brightly colored ski lifts.  All in all, it was a funny, quirky and quite nice.  See:

But per usual for Allston, not with too much enthusiasm:

Funnily enough, I have a great love for Allston.  I came to this place and immediately liked it.  It is a nice residential area, but with a lot of life too.  And it doesn’t care if you like it!!!  My motto for life.

As it has for 400 years: