Taking a brief break from the cowboy motif at work here, I joined my friend Chris in Boston for an extra-long weekend of camaraderie and chillaxing at the condo – when and where a Nor-easter arrived right in the middle of the whole thing, testing the coziness and comfort of a condo weekend. Happily, it was a grand time – our typical 36-hour window of getting along swimmingly was extended and we made it out unscathed. In truth, my friendship with Chris has been one of the sustaining graces of my adult life – and after over thirty years of being in each other’s lives, he’s more like family than a friend. As such, we have navigated how to deal with each other’s idiosyncrasies, as well as how to appreciate our differences. Such as his proclivity to bring bad weather wherever he may roam.
I arrived a day early to decompress from the madness that is work and life, and the weather was still fine. Fall is usually brilliant in Boston, and this beginning was a beautiful and welcome day of sunny warmth with the slightest cooling breeze hinting at more to come.
I began the day with an early bowl of pho from my favorite place in Chinatown (Pho Pasteur) – the ideal fall weather companion. Fortified and warmed for the day ahead (the wind was already picking up) I procured some charcuterie ingredients to assemble for Chris and I later that day. It would be a weekend of mocktails and dining simplicity, with a dinner of charcuterie followed by a matcha ice cream run along Newbury Street.
A matcha and taro soft-serve swirl is my ideal dessert these days – not too cloyingly sweet, with just enough matcha kick to keep me up slightly past my bedtime – a boon when visiting with old friends. We talked of many things – including upcoming trips and adventures, since it’s been a while since we traveled anywhere other than Boston or New York together.
When the Nor’easter finally did arrive, we kept mostly to the condo with a few dining exceptions, and while I departed early Sunday morning, Chris was staying the week to work on his projects. I envied him the stretch of days and nights in the condo, which is the coziest place to be during a storm or a cold night or an entire fall and winter.
