Catching Old Ladies In The Act
Chris and I took a little jaunt to Boston this past weekend to visit with Shannon, Julia, and Julia's beautiful family. (We missed you, Nicole!) It was so nice - not too much diabetes-talk, but more like the reunion of old friends.
Ah, I love Boston. We tucked in some lunch at the Purple Shamrock (where all items are renamed to sound Irish - hence my "Celtic Cob Salad" and Chris's "O'Hamburger," or some nonsense) and ventured off to the gardens.
On our walk, we saw a rainbow that was encircling the entire sun. I've never seen anything quite like it.
We also saw some of Boston's finest: The Macy's Fashion Police. These girls were an atrocity - O and I had our fun mocking them relentlessly. If this is your job, you should quit, because there is no need for you. Seriously. (Nice hats.)
After a ride in the Swan Boat (where we saw potentially plastic turtles, beautiful spring flowers, and Chris almost knocked Shannon off into the murky water trying to take pictures), we walked along the garden paths and there we saw it.
An old lady in the act.
Signs were posted everywhere - "Keep Off The Grass." People complied, for the most part, but we watched as one old lady walked around the partition, knife in hand, towards a huge tree. She leaned up and started to carve her name into the trunk, her friend coming over to help her.
"I'm getting this picture for evidence. We're caught her red-handed, defacing Boston property!"
And as the shutter snapped, I realized that this old woman was carving her name into a tree for perhaps the last time in her life. Her withered fingers held tight to the knife, despite her shaking hands, and she chipped away at the bark.
It was a minute where I felt young and foolish, making jokes while this woman was etching in one last moment of her life. From her gentle hands to her baby blue socks, if I close my eyes I can hear her asking her friend,
"Help me reach just a bit higher. I want to make sure people can see it."
Comments
Oh, Kerri, what a magical day! It makes me more upset to have missed it. :(
Regarding the Police - THOSE girls are the fashion police? Really? YIKES!!!!
Young and foolish? To have thought what you thought and felt what you felt, even if it felt sort of late to you - is neither young nor foolish, my dear.
Posted by: NicoleP | May 15, 2007 09:41 AM
LMAO....too bad you didn't get her walker in the shot!
Posted by: Shannon | May 15, 2007 10:01 AM
How cute!
Posted by: SarahN | May 15, 2007 10:02 AM
Nicole - The Fashion Police were actually handing out "tickets" (which were just coupons for Macy's). I wanted to punch them in the nose. So irritating. And we missed you!!!
Shannon - Bertha-98. Her screen name for AIM. Chris is chatting with her right now about her fines for tampering with the trees. ;)
SarahN - :D She was a cute old lady!!
Posted by: Kerri. | May 15, 2007 10:05 AM
Can you believe I didn't take ONE picture all day? Gah. And we missed the Make Way For Ducklings parade. Bummer.
Posted by: julia | May 15, 2007 10:46 AM
BUSTED! lol
That is so sweet though.
Fashion Police = Lame!
Posted by: George | May 15, 2007 12:51 PM
Wonderful story of the lady and great picture of her too, it's so sentimental. :)
Posted by: alison | May 15, 2007 06:32 PM
Sounds like you all had fun! We go into Boston Friday to see the endo. Would you like me to publicly chastise those "fashion police" fonies for yah?
Hopefully the weather will be good enough for the swan boats.
Love that lady!! She's totally earned the right. :) great post as always.
Posted by: Lea | May 15, 2007 07:54 PM
Fashion Police - ha!
The part about the elderly woman...so touching.
Posted by: Rachel | May 15, 2007 08:18 PM
I guess we know where all the TMD majors go after graduation....
zing!
Posted by: Krista | May 15, 2007 09:15 PM
OMG - I would have been ticketed by the fashion police in a nano-second. Maybe I'm out of it - but I had no clue those people really existed LOL!
I love the story about the elderly woman though. I'm so jealous you guys got to meet up *sigh*. Oh to win the lottery lol. Glad you had lots of fun :)
Posted by: Jamie | May 15, 2007 10:06 PM
I think it's funny how everyone thinks the old lady scene is so touching.
If you were there it went down much differently on the sidelines.
I exclaimed that she was breaking the law by being on the grass and Chris suggested we get Kerri to take a picture of her so we could use it as evidence to turn her in to the police. We were going to show Bertha no mercy.
We are going to hell. LOL.
Posted by: Shannon | May 16, 2007 06:44 AM
But Shannon...Kerri made it sound like such a touching scene...
Now I don't know who to believe!
Posted by: Rachel | May 16, 2007 09:40 AM
Let me set things straight -->
We definitely laughed our asses off at the lady climbing over the ropes to etch her name in the bark. The picture was taken to implicate her for her crime. :)
However, it wasn't until after the fact that I felt a little bit like a crumb for mocking her for making her tangible mark.
However however, it is definite that we're going to hell. So it that other crew of ladies we saw running on the grass. They're going, too, for stomping that greenery. I think I have their picture, too...
:D
Posted by: Kerri. | May 16, 2007 10:07 AM