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Well, I was a no-show at Dave's blogging shindig at Harvard last night. Why? Therein lies my tale of woe.

First of all, I hate city driving. I'm not experienced at it, and I don't know my way around either Cambridge or Boston. But I armed myself with directions ffrom the Harvard Law school web site and set out from southern New Hampshire around 4:40pm. I got into Cambridge (I guess) at about 5:30pm, shortly after which the directions became completely meaningless and I got lost. I stopped at a gas station and got direction from a couple of nice ladies, except that their directions didn't work either and I was forced by one-way streets to go in the opposite direction from what they had indicated. I eventually somehow blundered my way into Harvard Square, then after a little while stopped at another gas station to get direction to Mass. Ave. I got there, but went too far and crossed over the river into Boston. After a while I got turned around and went back across the river into Cambridge. Soon after that, I think I was actually in the right place -- but there was no place to park. I looked for a spot for a while without any luck. It was 7:15pm, 45 minutes after the meeting was supposed to start, and I had been driving around in the city for almost 2 hours and was completely stressed out. At this point, I didn't even know if I could got out of the city, but I had seen an entrance to 90 West in my travels, managed to get back there, and got the hell out. I got home around 9:30pm. My hand, still recovering from surgery, and aggravated by the stressful and prolonged driving, was throbbing. Between that and all the caffeine I had injested during the day (much more than usual), I didn't get to sleep until after 2:00am.

Sorry Dave, I was really looking forward to meeting you and participating. I may try again next time, but only if I can get someone else to come along, or if I take a train or something.

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