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Today was a really short day at school for A: starting at 11:30 and ending at 2:30. She’ll be starting M and W next week, and the week after, her Friday will also be a more normal length.
I had been mentioning to R. repeatedly that this was an opportunity to take her in and go out to lunch, but he wasn’t interested. Then, a couple minutes before I was heading out the door, he shows up and is like, I’m going with you. I was of course dressed extremely comfortably, but it was now too late to change that. Oh well!
We dropped A. off and looked at various lunch options — Yard House and Common Craft were both high on my list. We opted for Common Craft which was just opening, and had a couple Zero Gravity beers. He got a chicken sandwich (good) and I had the falafel lettuce wraps (also good). The Zero Gravity Porter (alas, not for sale there in cans) was _awesome_, one of the best Porters I have ever had.
Also! While we were lunching, I got a text from the architect. He had committed to a conversation with the snippy guy (the one whose house I pass within dozens of yards of on my 3 mile walk) and apparently that went really well and he’s feeling a lot better about things. Yay? I talked to R. about my clothing ideas for the meeting. I described a couple of the things I’d been thinking about and said that sounded like Lisa Su, which cracked me up and does suggest I’m on the right track. I’m not gonna do shiny rock; I was thinking the jet bracelet from the trip to Whitby and the ridiculous chain I bought last year, but otherwise moto jacket and entirely uninteresting and anonymous black pants. The big question is the shirt, which I’m leaning towards a dark purple with a drapey neckline. But I might just go with all black.
After that, we walked the mall, both levels, almost every aisle. We went into only a few stores. I bought A. a Genshin Impact art book at Newbury Comics. (There was an extremely adorable girl there with her dad and we kept running into her and chatting with her and her dad.) Burlington is doing pretty good, for the most part, and Newbury and Primark both had decent foot traffic (midday on a Friday is not the busiest time for malls, altho this was school vacation week in Massachusetts which presumably helped a bit). We’ve only been in Primark once before (in York, England). I was struck by the $7 ballet flats in a neutral off-white — what a perfect cheap shoe for prom or whatever, especially if you are planning on arriving in heels but don’t want to be miserable the whole time. Or just in general. There’s a Glitterati at Burlington Mall, which I’d never seen before and wondered if it was a popup, but it appears to be a permanent fixture, to the degree that permanent fixture means anything at all in a mall. There’s a Camp, which has a gorgeous facade on it.
The Lords and Taylor building is supposedly (circa 2022 news articles) going to become lab space, but I don’t know that that has actually happened or not.
We did not go into the Macy’s, but we did go into Nordstrom’s. The shoe department at the entry had a lot of Hokas, Crocs, some fancy prom sandals of the Badgley Mischka level, and an amazing variety of slides and similar. Not at all what I remember (this is in no way surprising). I looked at some fairly nice chains in the cases in jewelry and then we rode the escalator up and as we arrived on the second floor, more or less in sync, R. and I said, “reduced density of display!” And we also noted the total absence of any foot traffic. I don’t really know what to make of any of this, really.
Let’s see, what else stood out: Tumi has some colorful items (no foot traffic, and some of the men’s side color is a godawful stripe design I have no idea what they were thinking over there, maybe some kind of sneakerhead thing?). Coach continues to have very pretty things that are overly large and actually don’t hold much more than your phone and a lipbalm. In addition to Newbury Comics, there’s an FYE, and a couple other similar Funko Plushie other Merch type stores (what do you call these, anyway?). Almost no men’s clothing items anywhere (Johnston & Murphy has a location, and there’s some sort of Miltons the Store for Men thing that felt like a prank but is actually still owned by the same local family that started it just after WW2. This is what happens when you survive everything; you become culturally illegible and mildly absurd).
After a while carrying the art book, and being too warm because I had not dressed for Mall, we went out to the car, dumped stuff, and then I proposed going somewhere to sit down for an hour with a beverage. We wound up at Row 34, and the two women at the host stand were weird at me while I took off my hat (it _is_ a bright and shiny mickey hat, in pinks and lilacs and a lot of dazzle) and swapped my sunglasses for my glasses. They did finally hear me say, Table for Two, please, with a toothy smile, and seated us. R. got an Ayinger Maibock, which was excellent, and I had iced tea and we got a half dozen (chef’s selection) oysters. They were yummy. Server was fun. Nice acoustics and I intend to return (dressed at least somewhat better) for dinner. (Not today!)
Then we retrieved A. and went home. I had a 7 pm phone call with a cousin once removed, and it was nice to catch up with him. He’s a high school english teacher, but not one I hate — he at least points out to his students that the stuff he is teaching applies to video games and everything else, too. He’s recently board certified, so good for him and I’m glad he’s being recognized.
FF went late, because I didn’t have to be awake at all in the morning. Fun day!
I had been mentioning to R. repeatedly that this was an opportunity to take her in and go out to lunch, but he wasn’t interested. Then, a couple minutes before I was heading out the door, he shows up and is like, I’m going with you. I was of course dressed extremely comfortably, but it was now too late to change that. Oh well!
We dropped A. off and looked at various lunch options — Yard House and Common Craft were both high on my list. We opted for Common Craft which was just opening, and had a couple Zero Gravity beers. He got a chicken sandwich (good) and I had the falafel lettuce wraps (also good). The Zero Gravity Porter (alas, not for sale there in cans) was _awesome_, one of the best Porters I have ever had.
Also! While we were lunching, I got a text from the architect. He had committed to a conversation with the snippy guy (the one whose house I pass within dozens of yards of on my 3 mile walk) and apparently that went really well and he’s feeling a lot better about things. Yay? I talked to R. about my clothing ideas for the meeting. I described a couple of the things I’d been thinking about and said that sounded like Lisa Su, which cracked me up and does suggest I’m on the right track. I’m not gonna do shiny rock; I was thinking the jet bracelet from the trip to Whitby and the ridiculous chain I bought last year, but otherwise moto jacket and entirely uninteresting and anonymous black pants. The big question is the shirt, which I’m leaning towards a dark purple with a drapey neckline. But I might just go with all black.
After that, we walked the mall, both levels, almost every aisle. We went into only a few stores. I bought A. a Genshin Impact art book at Newbury Comics. (There was an extremely adorable girl there with her dad and we kept running into her and chatting with her and her dad.) Burlington is doing pretty good, for the most part, and Newbury and Primark both had decent foot traffic (midday on a Friday is not the busiest time for malls, altho this was school vacation week in Massachusetts which presumably helped a bit). We’ve only been in Primark once before (in York, England). I was struck by the $7 ballet flats in a neutral off-white — what a perfect cheap shoe for prom or whatever, especially if you are planning on arriving in heels but don’t want to be miserable the whole time. Or just in general. There’s a Glitterati at Burlington Mall, which I’d never seen before and wondered if it was a popup, but it appears to be a permanent fixture, to the degree that permanent fixture means anything at all in a mall. There’s a Camp, which has a gorgeous facade on it.
The Lords and Taylor building is supposedly (circa 2022 news articles) going to become lab space, but I don’t know that that has actually happened or not.
We did not go into the Macy’s, but we did go into Nordstrom’s. The shoe department at the entry had a lot of Hokas, Crocs, some fancy prom sandals of the Badgley Mischka level, and an amazing variety of slides and similar. Not at all what I remember (this is in no way surprising). I looked at some fairly nice chains in the cases in jewelry and then we rode the escalator up and as we arrived on the second floor, more or less in sync, R. and I said, “reduced density of display!” And we also noted the total absence of any foot traffic. I don’t really know what to make of any of this, really.
Let’s see, what else stood out: Tumi has some colorful items (no foot traffic, and some of the men’s side color is a godawful stripe design I have no idea what they were thinking over there, maybe some kind of sneakerhead thing?). Coach continues to have very pretty things that are overly large and actually don’t hold much more than your phone and a lipbalm. In addition to Newbury Comics, there’s an FYE, and a couple other similar Funko Plushie other Merch type stores (what do you call these, anyway?). Almost no men’s clothing items anywhere (Johnston & Murphy has a location, and there’s some sort of Miltons the Store for Men thing that felt like a prank but is actually still owned by the same local family that started it just after WW2. This is what happens when you survive everything; you become culturally illegible and mildly absurd).
After a while carrying the art book, and being too warm because I had not dressed for Mall, we went out to the car, dumped stuff, and then I proposed going somewhere to sit down for an hour with a beverage. We wound up at Row 34, and the two women at the host stand were weird at me while I took off my hat (it _is_ a bright and shiny mickey hat, in pinks and lilacs and a lot of dazzle) and swapped my sunglasses for my glasses. They did finally hear me say, Table for Two, please, with a toothy smile, and seated us. R. got an Ayinger Maibock, which was excellent, and I had iced tea and we got a half dozen (chef’s selection) oysters. They were yummy. Server was fun. Nice acoustics and I intend to return (dressed at least somewhat better) for dinner. (Not today!)
Then we retrieved A. and went home. I had a 7 pm phone call with a cousin once removed, and it was nice to catch up with him. He’s a high school english teacher, but not one I hate — he at least points out to his students that the stuff he is teaching applies to video games and everything else, too. He’s recently board certified, so good for him and I’m glad he’s being recognized.
FF went late, because I didn’t have to be awake at all in the morning. Fun day!