Among many impressive sights in Salem, one was this, at Pioneer Village, of a very small cottage replicating those built in 1629. I imagine that this is the sort of cottage that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne moves into, “abandoned by a discouraged settler,” after Pearl’s birth. When I think “cottage,” I think of little English cottages […]
Whenever I am overwhelmed, I fall back on an exercise from Heather Sellers’s Page after Page. List 10 items that you experienced, in ALL CAPS. 1. EAVESDROPPED ON TWO TOURS AT THE ROBERT GOULD SHAW MEMORIAL 2. TOOK PICTURES OF MARY DYER’S STATUE IN FRONT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE HOUSE 3. SAT IN KING’S CHAPEL […]
So far my trip has been AMAZING! (Note to self: All that anxiety was a waste of time.) I did not find a hotel, at least not one with a reasonable price attached, so while in Boston I stayed with the daughter of a good friend of mine–and felt as though I had met up with family. […]
Tomorrow night I leave for Boston — two days walking around where Nathaniel Hawthorne once walked — and ten days at the Gell Center in upper state New York. Scary! I worry about my daughters. Aren’t I completely crucial to their well-being? How will they survive without me? I worry about my students. Yes, I’ll […]