Cambridge, Part 2

Years ago, when I was in my senior year of college, I came up to Cambridge to visit my friend, Miranda, who was then a freshman at Harvard. I remember walking around Harvard Square, bustling urban center, and feeling daunted by the activity, the scope. I remember walking through Harvard Yard among the dorms of brilliant students, the halls of academia, the library, and feeling--in my then very insecure way--like I had absolutely no business being there, no right to walk around among the great minds of my generation.

Today, I walked through Harvard Yard again for the first time since my visit with Miranda. I sat in the same tea shop where I met her here on Brattle Street, in the same seat, and drank possibly the same cup of tea I'd had. I walked through Harvard Yard, past her dorm, past the library. It's all as I remember it. Nothing has changed, except that, woefully, Miranda is nowhere near Cambridge anymore, and that I felt perfectly in my right place.

babies, babies, everywhere...
My niece, who for the time being is possibly named Maude, but whose name is really indeterminate, is doing just fine. She has learned very quickly how to breast feed (interesting side note: babies have to learn to breast feed...they don't know how to do it instinctively...weird, huh?), and remains incredibly cute. Which is actually quite rare for newborns, who tend to look a little like squished Jack o' lanterns for the first couple of days.

Not at all apropos of my Jack o' lantern remark, I went to visit with Sam and Terry and their boy, Nathaniel today. He's a healthy ten pounds after three months of life and is very talkative. He's even beginning to make basic sorts of language sounds, which I didn't think babies could do until much later in their babyhood. So, well done, Nathaniel. Sam and Terry are taking very well to parenthood.

So many babies here. I've never been a giant fan of babies, except in the abstract, but--and perhaps this is because I have a certain familial closeness to these two (at heart, if not entirely by blood)--I couldn't get enough of Maude and Nate. It kind of makes me want to move here.

I'm heading to Philly tomorrow. Thanksgiving's going to seem like a really drab affair by contrast to all of this. Just another feast holiday, the same one we had last year.