11 of 2011 Part One - Boston(ish)

So I don’t know if you’ve got to see or know the new Facebook profile yet. It sure is creepy… and yet I admit this is something I’ve lamented a lack of on Facebook. The visible history of everything I’ve written and posted and decided was important to share and perform for the world at that precise moment. I spent some time trolling through my history yesterday. Some of it made me sad because of friends now absent from life… and some I found absolutely fascinating because I saw the enigmatic posts of my hermit-like novel writing.

So it got me thinking – as the dwindling dates of December already have – what exactly are my highlights of 2011? As in what I think now, on December 16th. Not what Zuckerberg and Co. decided were the top stories of my life in the last 12 months.

I decided to choose the apropos number of 11 things. I am going to split this list into two entries – because I’m not keen on word economy. And I think of 2011 as two realities. The first half, which was life in Boston. The second half, which was life in Worcester.

So Boston – here we go.

1. I published a novel. My novel. I shouldn’t say the process is complete. It was just the beginning of a very long journey… one that has another entry in the Worcester part of this list. But, it was terrifying and exciting. I can still feel my heart pounding and the elated disbelief as I came downstairs after sending the first file to Smashwords. My roommate went out and got me a bottle of Jameson’s… that I couldn’t even drink because I was so stuck in the clouds. There are so many more details to this story, to this process… but that initial moment of letting my manuscript go into the great wide open was a huge leap… a leap that no doubt shook up the universe to make a whole lot of other things change… and make me believe that not only am I author of a book, but author of the change.

2. Frankenstein. It was a random pair of outings to Coolidge Corner Cinema (my favorite movie house in the Boston area these days). Part of the National Theater Live broadcasts of productions from the West End. It was a fun little habit I gave myself last winter. Something to get through the snow. Something to abate my pangs of yearning for the South Bank and my most favourite city. But in the middle of it – and maybe because of the confidence acquired from my earlier artistic endeavor – this got me thinking about theater again. Imagining all the possibilities outside the general form of stage. And okay, it was just one really cool production… especially the one with Miller as the Creature and Cumberbatch (my new favourite ginger) as Frankenstein.

3. Banned in Boston. It is a bigtodo of my every year. And I paste my Facebook wall with all the press and laments of colored envelopes giving me headaches. But this year’s April Fool’s bash was the best... thus far. Even the snow didn’t get in the way of such a perfect culmination of 4 months of work. A fabulous show. Some really generous performers and supporters. Free wine. And just the overall satisfaction of a job well done.

4. Supper Club. Supper Club was not new in 2011. The fact the momentum of my 2010 resolution continued and grew, however, is something of which I am most proud. In a world where communication constantly degenerates over phone texts and Facebook statuses, I am so happy I get friends to sit around a table and talk. They still don’t get my absolute hatred for the presence of their phones… but at least most of the time they put them away to enjoy some company and good, good food for a few fleeting moments once a month. Moments when I am glad to be alive in this present.

5. Moving. So, technically this is about leaving Boston. But… I got lazy in the last four years. Settled. And I suppose in some minds, that’s a good thing. And in some contexts, it is. Not that life in West Newton was bad. I mean I wrote the book there. I hosted Supper Club there. I shoveled a lot of snow there. But I wasn’t motivated. I needed a change of scenery. And the funny thing is… the scenery I found myself craving at the start of 2011 was Worcester, the city to which I thought I would never return. But… the wherefore of that determination… is to be continued… and posted in the next half.