boston again: several observations

last time i remember visiting boston and making judgements about that city, i had decided it wouldn't be a great place for me to live. saturday morning i flew back. much to my surprise, i found myself largely wishing to change this determination. some thoughts on returning home, some inspired by the city, others by my suburban place of birth.

-i am not scared of driving on those narrow massachusetts roads like i was 5 years ago. at that point, driving for the first time in two years, i got a bit frightened every time a car passed me; it seemed destined to tear bits off of my vehicle as it passsed.

-the new charlie card system is great, but for a city putting in brand new fare collection machinery, shouldn't something more durable than a magnetic strip on a paper farecard be used? i noticed one entry gate read 'smart cards only,' so perhaps there is an option like dc's smarttrip. i suppose there's nothing as cost-effective as magnetic strip technology, but has anyone ever had their card erased by being stashed too close to their cellphone? a co-worker had that happen to several hotel room keys in one weekend. i think he's lost subway cards that way too.

-airport workers have a tough job. i left my ipod on the plane, realized it right after leaving the secured area, and went straight to the ticket counter to report it. they couldn't let me through security to lead the search, and the plane was already boarding again, so they sent me away for 10 minutes. i returned and they had yet to hear back from the gate. this is when i began noticing the degree of stress ticket agents were experiencing, and that was without anyone yelling at them. the line was long, counter seemed to be understaffed, a computer was troublesome, and there's me waiting at the side hoping someone would be able to shield out all that distraction and mount a search for my stuff. no one turned it in, they didn't find it on the plane, and i wondered if it was under the seat behind me and thus undected by anyone. baggage services had heard nothing, but again looked to be dealing with major stress and some surly-looking customers. it's hard not to blame the airline, you know? i felt like all this 'great customer service' stuff was rubbish when they couldn't find something i had left behind less than an hour before. today, as i checked again to see if it had been turned in, they remembered me and wondered aloud if another customer had simply grabbed it. that seemed realistic, and allowed me to shift blame from the airline itself, when its employees had certainly made every effort to help me. i found myself easily able to forgive the person who lifted my ipod, feeling it was not right but certainly understandable. at a subway stop on the way home, i noticed a man sleeping on a bench. he was wearing work boots, one with huge holes worn in the side and one with a plastic bag tied around it. i took off the heavy black shoes, still in excellent condition, that had spent the previous 6 months at my parents and left them with a note for the sleeping man. i suppose that because someone took one thing from me, i wanted to let go completely by giving something else freely.