I Have No Ants On Me! AKA Research Trip Part One

Operation Research Trip June 2012: A several part (however long it needs to be) series about my research trip to Boston, Salem, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia by Michelle M. Pillow.

I have no ants to hold me down, to make me fret to make me frown. She has ants, but I am free–I have no ants on me!

Michelle M. Pillow at Harvard in Boston, MA

What? You’d sing too if you were the lucky one who came away from the Millennium-Bostonian hotel ant free. Ok, ok, so maybe I should back up a little bit. Hi, world. I was born on a… wait, no, fast forwarding… darn VHS tapes work about as good as the flight attendant on my last flight home. She had no clue where we were going and about had a mad rush for the door when she announced we’d be stopping on the wrong side of the country. Ok, so it was funny… I mean, I laughed to see everyone panic. I’m just happy she wasn’t flying the plane. Oh, and to that young mom who kept her baby quiet–bless you, bless you so much, bless you right in the heart. I admit, I had my doubts that I would think your baby was as cute in air as in she was down in the terminal while we were waiting to board.

I digressed again, didn’t I? Oy. Ok, take five…

I love my job. I have the best job in the world. Ok, well the best job for *ME* in the world-if you’re into 18 hour work days, making stuff up, biting humans while trying to suppress your magical powers, pouring over historical research data, meeting new people, trying new foods, traveling to exotic locations… like Boston. What? I loved Boston. I would so marry Boston’s Little Italy if only that 70 year old married homemade pasta making guy would have me. I just put on 300 lbs daydreaming about it. Mmmm…. pasta.

This season’s busy work travel schedule started with a bang (or should I say with an army of ants attacking Mandy M. Roth’s suitcases) as I joined the lovely Ms. Mandy (aka Mandy M. Roth) for the first research trip of the year. It started in North Boston near Quincy Market in the downtown district right by Little Italy (say it with me–mmmm, pasta).

BTW if you’re visiting the area, book your hotel in advance. We were limited on choices, but did end up in what was reported to be the very lovely, very clean Millennium-Bostonian. To be fair, I had a great ant-free room right in the heart of downtown. I could see the edge of Little Italy (*cough pasta*) from my balcony, as well as the entrance to the Lieutenant William F. Callahan Tunnel. Unfortunately, my travel partner’s luggage was attacked by tiny ants coming from the hotel room’s mini bar. Even though my room was OK, I’m irritated on principal. It was a raw deal, especially considering this happened at the start of our trip. The hotel could have done a much better job dealing with the situation. Taking $100 off a $700 bill seemed a bit like a  luxury slap in the face (and it took them nearly 8 hours to even come to that solution). It’s really too bad because I would have given them high marks otherwise. I guess you can tell a lot about a place by the way they handle their problems.

While in Massachusetts waiting for our boat to come to port, we did manage to take a train down to Salem, MA. Ok, I wanted to love Salem. To be fair, we were there on a Sunday, so it might not have been the most happenin’ of days to visit. That said, it felt very tourist-y to me. When I visit a place, I want to be immersed in the history and culture. If you follow my antics in even the smallest of measures, you know that I’m a historian/cultural anthropologist at heart. I want to feel a sense of what this place means and who these people really are. Instead, I was transported to the Witch version of a seaside Ripley’s Believe It or Not tourist trap. (Even now, it kills me to write that because I wanted so much to fall in love with Salem). Please, PLEASE someone tell me I was just there at the wrong equinox.

From Mass. we loaded onboard the Carnival Glory for St. John (New Brunswick) and Halifax (Nova Scotia). I’ll be talking about Massachusetts and Canada in future blog posts… after my 700 plus photographs are done with the start of post-production. OK, that’s fancy photog talk for I gotta get ‘em off my memory card and onto the computer.

Stay tuned for more on the trip, authorly stuff, and well whatever else I feel like rambling about cause it’s my blog and I’ll ramble if I want to, ramble if I want to, you would ramble to if it happened to you… hey, started on a song, needed to end on one.