As we wind down our week in Cambridge, MA, I’m feeling thankful for all the opportunities, expected and unexpected, these six days in the city have brought.
- Son’s iPhone application programming day camp at MIT. Their days, interestingly enough, sound a lot like our days at my writers’ retreat last week — write quietly for a few hours, eat and talk, play a little, write quietly for a few more hours — only with programming instead of writing. But with that same sense of being around "your people" while you work.
- Daughter’s afternoon camp at the Museum of Fine Arts. We have arts & crafts programs at home, too, but none where you can walk downstairs to see and learn about the Egytian art before you sculpt your own canopic jar. Very cool.
- Bike lanes and bike paths. Cambridge has worked hard to make bike commuting a reasonable alternative to driving, and we’ve biked almost everywhere this week. The traffic’s a little nerve-wracking at times, but most people are very aware of bikers.
- Espresso Royale Caffe – the coffee shop not far from MFA where they serve a tasty iced latte and don’t seem to mind if you talk to yourself while writing in the corner.
- Revision time. I’m just about ready to send my dystopian storm book to my editor at Walker/Bloomsbury. (It’s coming next week, MK!)
- Research time. I have pages and pages of notes for a future project. All the kinds of tiny details that you can’t really get without being in the place and using all your senses.
- Writer friends! We got to meet up with Ammi-Joan Paquette, Loree Griffin Burns, and Valarie Giogas and their families. It’s always so much fun to see writer friends in person when we usually just get to talk online.
- Museum time. We especially loved the MIT Museum with its Artificial Intelligence and hologram exhibits. Today, we’re going to see the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and tomorrow, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum before we head home.
- Going home tomorrow to see my husband and the lake…and the big crew of family coming to visit on Saturday!