Mom's First Game at Fenway!

It was my mom's birthday exactly 11 months ago yesterday. For that birthday, we presented her with a series of gift certificates — one to be enjoyed "sometime next week" (a restaurant gift certificate), one for "sometime next month" (a spa gift certificate), and the last one for "sometime next year" (a promise to get her to Fenway for a 2008 game). At last, she was able to cash in the "sometime next year" gift yesterday.

We were prepared, as much as I despise the entire concept, to buy tickets from a ticket broker. I lucked out, though, big time — after entering the MLB drawing for tickets to one of the Yankees series, I was able to get 4 tickets together for the sunny game yesterday...for face value...$12 per ticket.


It was pretty hot, but we were blessed with the occasional cloud and sea breeze. Mom got to see JD Drew's home run, did the (seated) wave, and participated happily in the 7th Inning Stretch. I took a bunch of photos, of course.


We left early in order to beat the crowds (the Sox were losing pretty badly, anyway), and headed to Kelly's Roast Beef at Revere Beach. Mom and Dad got to see the ocean, and get some awesome summertime sandwiches for dinner. It was a great day.

Eddie Izzard, Stripped (Me of $120)

OK, that's not even true. In fact, Eddie tried to help. It was the ancient Orpheum Theatre in Boston that did this past April. Since leaving the theater angry that evening, I have had "Write Letter to Orpheum" on my to-do list. Of course, it has been pushed to the end of the list repeatedly by such things as "Pick Up and Move Across State."

I am not one to threaten the writing of a letter without seeing it through, so this has been weighing on me a great deal. I want to mention, as well (particularly because I have a reputation in my office for continually contacting the Starbucks Coprorate Office about the unfriendly employees downstairs — which I've only done once!), that I often take time to send complimentary letters. To give an online nod to these businesses, I have sent such letters to Boloco (an awesome, growing, green, local burrito place), Tully's Coffee (whose cheerful employees made my day one rainy Saturday in Seattle), the Pine Street Inn (whose work cleaning the area around the Holocaust Memorial I am very grateful for), and McDonald's (where I received unexpectedly friendly customer service). McDonald's replied via email to my recent comment:

Hello Erin:

Thank you for taking the time to share your complimentary comments with McDonald's. It's a rare person who takes the time to compliment. Thank you for being that person!

Every McDonald's restaurant employee is trained to provide our customers with the best-possible restaurant experience. This includes providing fast, accurate and friendly service, and serving outstanding food quality in a clean and pleasant restaurant environment.

Please be assured that your nice comments will be shared with the franchise owner and restaurant team of the McDonald's you mentioned. I know they'll appreciate the time you took to share your comments with us.

Again, Erin, we know you have many choices when making your dining-out decisions, and we truly appreciate your choosing McDonald's. We look forward to serving you again soon under the Golden Arches.

Jennifer
McDonald's Customer Response Center

So, you see, I try to keep these sort of things in balance.

It would be wrong if I didn't contact the Orpheum about my experience there. Below is the letter that I am dropping in the mail today:

Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02109

July 24, 2008

Dear Theater Manager,

I am writing to inform you of my experience at the Orpheum Theatre on April 30th of this year. I purchased two balcony tickets to Eddie Izzard’s performance on that date via Ticketmaster for a total of $118.55. My order number for this purchase was XXXXXX. I found your contact information on the Better Business Bureau website.

I have attended many theatrical events in Boston and throughout the world. These seats at the Orpheum were the worst seats I have ever been sold. Because of the pitch of the seating in your theater, the view from these seats (Balcony, Row T) is 100% obstructed. There is no warning of this obstruction when purchasing tickets, and the lack of view of the stage is certainly not reflected in the price. I would never have purchased tickets for obstructed seats, and I remain embarrassed to have unknowingly subjected my friend to the aggravation of trying to see the stage from these balcony seats.

I could not remotely enjoy Eddie Izzard’s performance, despite being a long-time fan. He is a largely physical comedian, and the inability to see his performance made only for frustration. Throughout the show, I heard complaints from many other people in the balcony section. In fact, at the beginning of the performance, we were also unable to hear the performance. It took a frustrated person from the balcony section to stand up and shout to the performer, himself, that we could not hear. Thankfully for us (embarrassing for you), Mr. Izzard responded kindly to her yell and adjustments were made.

There does not seem to be the same retribution for the sale of bad experiences as there is for the sale of bad consumer items. Obviously, I can’t “return” my experience, despite holding the receipt. My bad experience at the Orpheum was completely the fault of the theater, and I feel I am writing this letter on behalf of a number of people who felt very taken advantage of following this performance.

Because of the 100% obstruction of the stage from my seats, 100% frustration for the duration of the show, and my 100% disappointment following a much-anticipated performance, I am requesting a 100% refund of the price I paid for these two tickets: $118.55

Thank you for taking the time to address this situation.

I will be sure to follow up on my blog if the Orpheum follows up with me. Please post a comment if you had a similar experience at the Orpheum.

Yankee Doodle, Crucified

This year's annual Fourth of July Parade in Pittsfield started out just fine. I have received a few horrific sunburns at this parade during my lifetime, and so the brief rain on this parade was most welcome.

This year's theme, "A World of Music," seemed like it would allow for limitless ideas. Somehow, though, most floats turned to the song, "This Land Is Your Land" to fit the theme. I'm thinking that parades should be treated like potluck dinners—you can't have everyone bringing potato salad. Who monitors these things? Anyway, as I said, the parade started out just fine.

A nice traditional fife and drum corps, commemorating America's independence:


A surprise visit from our governor, Deval Patrick! Very nice!


Deval was followed, with a number of exceptions, by a significant number of floats carrying people that I swear I have seen on PCTV late at night when they show headshots of the sex offenders in town. In fact, we wondered if participating was part of their required community service. Harsh, I know, but I am proud of my hometown and am very concerned about the future of this parade. More than that, I am concerned for the children at this parade who have no idea that the Uncle-Sam-on-Stilts-Guy is seriously sketchy and undeniably stoned.

And then, to me, the parade took another disturbing turn. As I understand it, a number of area churches joined as one big group to walk, float, ride motorcycles...and reenact Jesus' crucifixion?!?


The procession came to a halt for a few minutes with this, the second of the Stations of the Cross, right in front of my spot on the curb. I was forced to take in the inappropriateness of this (lazy man's) reenactment of one of Christianity's holiest events. Worse still, he has strapped his fanny pack to the base of the wheely cross.


All of this begs the question, what is the purpose of a parade? And what should be included in (or excluded from) a Fourth of July parade? Separation of church and state, anyone? Should anyone who attended this year's parade arrive here after googling "pittsfield fourth of july crucifix," please leave a comment.

I feel silly imposing such criticism on a hometown parade. According to the Berkshire Eagle,

"Once billed as 'Your Hometown Parade,' the Pittsfield Fourth of July Parade dates back to 1824, when the procession consisted of Revolutionary War veterans and politicians riding in horse-drawn carriages. Today's modern parade has floats, balloons and marching bands, but still retains the small-town, patriotic flavor of its roots."

Floats, balloons and marching bands = good. Crucifixes = bad.

New Family

I confess, this is officially old news, but I came across this photo earlier today, and it's one of my favorites — ever.

Last summer, my father's second cousin (I think?) married Gene Shallit's daughter. It was an outdoor affair, and my dad (whose photos always crack me up, anyway) took this blurry photo of Gene as he processed.


I love it. He looks like a covert villain, pondering his plan to steal some tiny woman and tie her to a railroad track.

They took away our WHAT?!

We at 84 State Street were warned early this week that the Starbucks in our building would be closing at noon on Friday because it had been chosen as the location for the scene of a feature film.

Crews spent hours setting up lighting and wiring and fog machines, and 'extras' lined the sidewalks waiting for the director to yell, "Rolling!" They waited a long, long time...and I have a feeling that the 5 hours they spent on our street corner will translate to about 5 seconds of film: man buys two coffees, man runs out of Starbucks with said coffee and crashes into someone.

This is going to be a great film (insert sarcasm here). I have learned it's called "The Proposal" and it stars the man mentioned above, Ryan Reynolds, whose name I did not recognize, but who I vaguely recall from the horrifically-named TV show "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place." But, since every one else seems to know the guy, I thought I'd grab a photo for the ol' blog along with some shots of the whole crazy film-making process. I confess, I got way more excited about this event than I (or anyone) would have expected of myself. I think part of me knows I won't be living in the city for too much longer, so...well...you get it.

The film crew:

The extras (it never occurred to me that sidewalk walkers were cast!):

The spectators:

Ryan Reynolds and some seriously star-struck people:

As my coworkers and I were retuning to our office, we shared an elevator with some crazy young woman in a big fur hat. She was not from around here, and seemed very concerned for us that the outside of our building was in disarray - she spoke as if this sort of thing happened all of the time at 84 State. As she confusedly exited the elevator, she shouted, "They even took away your Starhole!"

That they did, lady. That they did...

Red Sox World Series Parade 2007

One of the perks of my current job is working smack in the middle of Boston. I get to catch a bunch of events and weird promotional things (for example, I got to see Fabio pushing I Can't Believe It's Not Butter one day last year...lucky me!) just by stepping outside.


Naturally, a small bunch of us went to the Red Sox World Series Parade yesterday, and we thought we had a pretty good position for viewing - right in front of the press stand! Unfortunately, this whole event was a chance for people to behave badly and about 15 people (including a mom with her 4-year-old daughter!) climbed up on top of the MBTA vehicle in front of us - the roof was concave, but that didn't stop them from doing the Papelbon dance.

Future car-tippers:

Despite a near altercation with some chic who insisted upon wedging herself in front of me, climbing on the truck, such that her butt was in my face (I would have taken a photo and published it on the web if I had her name!), I had a good time. And all was made well when I got to see my personal Red Sox MVP pick, Mike Lowell.

He waved right at me!

And it starts all over again in April...

Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

John and I heard the announcement of Stevie Wonder's tour stop in Boston by chance one morning when it was broadcast on the radio while we were getting ready for work. I always receive advanced notice of Boston area concerts and shows vie email, and we never have the radio on in the morning. We both felt lucky to have learned of the concert. Even luckier, we we able to get two tickets to a show that sold out in two minutes.

This is so not my photo:

The first time John came to my Somerville apartment, looking at my CD collection he said, "Wow - you have Innervisions? We should get married." So, Stevie and that album have become extra meaningful to us. Stevie played a number of songs from this fantastic album, and we felt like he chose his entire playlist with us in mind. He even sang "Isn't She Lovely" as his daughter Aisha shared his piano bench. John and I are still taking in the whole evening!

"Touch Him, Splinky!"

...encouraged my husband (jokingly, of course) as Garrison Keillor strolled by our row of seats as he warmed up for the Prairie Home Companion broadcast from Tanglewood this past Saturday evening. Touch him, I did not but photograph him, I did.

This photo has particular meaning to me because for the many years I listened to A Prairie Home Companion on weekend drives back and forth across the Mass Pike, I had no idea what Mr. Keillor actually looked like. My mind invented a face for the voice: that of a plump old white-haired man with a beard (think: Santa Claus). When I first saw his photo in the newspaper a couple of years ago, I actually had a difficult time accepting that his was the face attached to the mouth from which the familiar voice is broadcast. I'm OK with the idea now, and really enjoyed seeing the show (and Mr. Keillor) in person.

I Left My Heart...

Thought I should publish some photos from our recent trip to San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge


Alcatraz (Con los Alcatraces!)


The Hills!


Swing and a Miss - Barry Bonds at the Plate vs Oakland

damMIT !

Always nice to have your camera on hand...I guess... Caught now ex-governor Mit Romney hanging out with Santa Claus at Quincy Market right before Christmas.