Clara Raubertas // Freelance Web Design, Web Development, and Web Consulting // Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts clara raubertas design. development. consulting.

5. Peace - Gene Wolfe

6. Don’t Make Me Think - Steve Krug

7. Midnight Robber - Nalo Hopkinson

8. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin

9. Generosity - Richard Powers

10. The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience - Kirstin Downey

11. Where the Girls Are - Susan Douglas

After a meeting a couple weekends ago I found myself too tired to do much EXCEPT ride the T, so I hopped on the Orange Line and rode all the way out to the end. Sitting on the mostly-empty train, watching the city shade into suburbs and nursing the remains of a small hangover, was remarkably relaxing — an almost meditation-like escape from work and daily life.

I got off at Oak Grove and walked around, but the most exciting thing I could find within a few blocks of the T was a laundromat (I should have done some preparatory research!). I also wanted to find a bathroom, so I decided to search at the next T stop — Malden — where, much to my delight, there was a bathroom INSIDE THE STATION!! More and more T stops have this feature now — this is an awesome public service. Keep it up, MBTA!

Walking around Malden was a little more exciting than walking around Oak Grove, but by that point I wanted to transition back into getting some work done, so I didn’t spend much time there. I also declined to take the opportunity to visit Wellington, which is now the only stop on the northern branch of the Orange Line I haven’t been to yet — I’ll probably regret not going on this trip, since from the train it looks like Wellington is even more nothing-more-than-a-parking-lot than Oak Grove. Maybe some preliminary research will help me discover the secret exciting parts of the northern Orange Line?

The next day, I went with a couple folks to the historic Adams houses, adjacent to the Quincy Center T stop. For most of my childhood — well, actually, probably until as recently as a year or two ago — a guided tour of a historical person’s home seemed like the Most Boring Thing Possible. But when a friend proposed this trip, I looked forward to it all week. Maybe it’s my somewhat newfound interest in politics, or just a broadening of my interests as I get older? In any case, I enjoyed learning about the Adams family and seeing their homes — plus checking out historic Quincy!