Sports writer - Grant writer

Tag: Boston (Page 5 of 5)

On Being The Best Luck Charm

The Front Page of the Boston GlobeNever have I been a true fan of professional basketball. Yeah, as a tweenager, there was some excitement in Rochester when the Toronto Raptors came into existence- but they quickly flew away, once we realized how horrendous they really were. (Although that never stopped the proliferation of purple Vince Carter jerseys around the city.) But otherwise, the NBA did not register on my radar – I’m really short, I grew up in Hockey Land USA (Detroit can be Hockey Town, but Western New York is Hockey Land), and out of all the professional sports out there, my father thought basketball was the most corrupt. (Ever the conspiracy theorist, my father believed that all sports were corrupt – but he watched most of them anyway, because they were fun.) This all added up to my never exhausting my Sports Girl energy on following the Boston Celtics when I moved up here four years ago.

Last night, however, I became the most despised of all sports fans – the bandwagon jumper – and went to a local bar to watch Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Since I moved here, I’ve spent every potential championship game for a Boston sports team working an event on campus designed to keep the students from rioting. For the first time, a Boston team could win a championship and there were only a handful of students around, and thus no need to throw an arena-sized viewing party. Continue reading

The Closest I’ll Get to Covering the Olympics – This Week!

I have 6 posts in draft form that I’m working on. I need to drink more caffeine when I get home from work each evening in order to finish them all. But before I finish all of them, I have more important blogging to do!

Chellsie Memmel (aka Scrunchie Girl), who will compete in the Visa US Championships later this weekYes, your trusty wanna-be sports blogger will be attending the Visa U.S. Championships for women’s gymnastics this week at Agganis Arena in Boston, MA. This is the closest I have ever gotten to attending anything having to do with the Olympics, as this event is the first part of the three-prong Olympic team selection process for the women’s gymnastics team. I am not an official media member, so there will be no fancy live-blogging. But I will be taking notes and blogging after the junior preliminary round and the senior preliminary round on Thursday. Will I give you all the skill by skill breakdown? No, I think International Gymnast does a great job of that. But who else can comment on leotard colors (please, I hope no one breaks out lime green) and any standouts like when I picked out “Scrunchie Girl” (later World Champion Chellsie Memmel) during the 1999 U.S. Classic Child Elite competition. Take note, Junior competitors – if I find a reason to anoint you with a nickname during the competition, then this means only good things for your competitive future.

So I hope that you check back on Thursday for my blog entries about the Visa Championships! I promise to consume enough caffeine that day to finish them all!

Kat’s First Ever Vacation

Ah-ha, I’m back. If this entry had to have a title, it would be, “Kat’s First Ever Vacation.”

Yes, last Thursday and Friday I traveled to Boston all by myself, to look at grad schools and to get away. I mean, this was a chance for me to run far away from all the work I’ve done and still have to do for a 48 hour span. I had no computer access, and I couldn’t bring my work with me due to limited luggage space. So the trip served that duel function. I was wicked nervous before I left–yes, I’ve been to Boston before, and largely did that trip by myself (due to my falling out with the IC Model United Nations team), but still–could I get through this major city all by myself? And I was frightened that my inital love of it back in 2001 was a fluke and that I’d get there and absolutely hate it and have to start all over again in my search for graduate programs.

How was it?

It was only the best time I’ve ever had.

If this city is this much fun alone, then I can’t even imagine what it must be like with a group of people.

I fell in love with Boston University. I love that school. Words can not express how much I am in love with that school. The admissions department in the School of Education are some of the nicest and welcoming people I have ever met during the whole college search process (and I’m on the third college search process of my life). I would be honoured to attend that program. For you Binghamtonites out there, there is a bubble tea place right across the street from the College of Arts and Sciences building. The bookstore, like Binghamton’s, is a Barnes and Noble, but it’s a real Barnes and Noble. We’re talking with the cafe and interior and everything. The residence halls are absolutely amazing–all quaint and historic and an art history minor’s dream. I hope they are reading this. PLEASE ACCEPT ME TO YOUR SCHOOL!

I also love Harvard, although I didn’t get to meet with anyone there. The Graduate School of Education is on one little side street across from…where is that, perpendicular to where HMV used to be in Cambridge. Oh, that street where Fire and Ice is. (Okay, like no one knows what I’m talking about. Fire and Ice is this wayyyy overpriced but way cool restaurant that I went to with the Model UN team back in 2001, and in order to make my way around Cambridge the day after we ate there, I had to relate everything to that restaurant and the bead store across the street.) So that’s where Harvard GSE is. And it looks very nice, and the students around the buildings looked and seemed very nice and dedicated. While I love BU, my dream since I knew what college was and knew that I wanted to go to college has been to be accepted to Harvard. So I’m going to try. And the area is fantastic (even though I still don’t understand why there are like three Au Bon Pains in the immediate Harvard Square area. I think that one big one is enough…but I like that place, so I won’t complain.)

Northeastern was the site of my favourite food expierence of my trip. Nice school, great buildings, mad busy for the beginning of August (but they are on quarters not semesters, so I think that’s why–but they’re going to semesters soon)…and then I went to lunch at Gregory’s, which is this little deli across the street and down some. The guys that run the place were entirely way too nice for their own good. I was overly tired right then, and hadn’t eaten in hours (I had been up since 9am Wed, and this was at 12:30 on Thursday…I had caught about 3 hours of sleep on the red eye bus I had taken, but they weren’t the best hours of sleep), but they had me laughing, and by the end of lunch, I knew I’d be able to make it till I got back to my hotel that evening. I intend on trying to go back there everytime I go to Boston, and eventually when I live there, I will try to get there as much as I can. They had loyal customers stopping in who seemed to absolutely love them, and I know why.

Suffolk Universtiy was cool in that it is right near the State House, meaning that it is amazingly political around there. I had this feeling I was passing important people as I made my way up the hill to find graduate admissions. There are a lot of cute eateries around there (what can I say, I enjoy restaurants too much), and Filenes’ Basement is within walking distance. I didn’t get there this time (that’s the one place I’m dying to get to and haven’t yet), but that it is within walking distance (along with H&M) of Suffolk earns the university bonus points. It also seems like they are completely redoing some of the residential areas around there in an a revitalization effort, which can be good. And Boston Common is right there.

I also got to see Fenway Park (I didn’t get to go to a game, but I got to walk by it after Friday’s first game, and got to get hit on by a drunken Red Sox fan). I also got to go to FAO Schwartz, the store I want my children to be exposed to early and often, and the rest of Bolyston and Newbury Street (the coolest place to shop ever created–well, if you have money. If you don’t, it’s fun to walk around and gawk-without-gawking.) I also went to the Prudential Center (a nice mall), and walked past the Park Plaza (the way expensive and fancy hotel I stayed in my first time in Boston). I also found places I need to visit the next time I’m there (MIT–I had to switch trains once and found myself there with no time to walk around and look–but the area looked great). And then, of course, no trip is complete without…finding a supermarket and seeing if it lives up to Wegmans. I did find one, Shaw’s, that did live up to Wegmans. I was impressed–the one I went to had its own wine section, something I don’t even think the Pittsford Wegmans has. It was very nice.

So, all in all, I fell more in love with Boston that I thought I ever could. I hate to admit this, but I teared up when I got to South Station to leave on Friday night. I want to live in Boston. When I was 10, my aunt (who was from the Cape) told me, “Katie, I want to take you up to Boston because you’d love it. You’re a Boston girl, I just know it.” And she was right. That’s where I want to be, and the possibility of moving there in a year is an amazing feeling. A lot of my friends have fallen in love with New York City, and can’t picture not living there, and I could never understand their feelings until last week. I now have those same feelings about Boston.

So if anyone ever wants to take a jaunt up to Boston, you have a travel partner. (Oh, and if anyone is thinking of going to grad school up there in Fall 2004, let me know.)

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