i went to the woods because...

Yesterday was supposed to be my last day of lovely ethereal Christmas vacation, and today I was supposed to grudgingly return to school with the attitude of one being forced out of paradise and, um, such. HOWEVER! There has been a snowstorm going about allllll day ever since the middle of last night, and so, SNOW DAY! NO SCHOOL! I am thrilled to say the very, very least.

And thrilling also was YESTERDAY. I went to Walden Pond!!!!! :D I had never seen it in winter before and so set off. It was, as always, amazingly beautiful and I love it... Frozen pond, snowy woods - it's so divine that I hear someone was even inspired to write a whole book about it. ;) Heheh. Of course Thoreau's name can be seen - but I think that he would be glad that the pond is still so possessive of its own beauty...

There were quite a lot of little kids going around at the pond (with older relations). At the beginning of the main trail that goes all the way round the pond, there was this very tiny girl with her adult, with a sled. The adult said, "Do you know, when I pulled you in the sled, I was pulling you over sand covered in the snow?" The little girl said, "Why is there water?" And the adult responded, "Because we're at Walden Pond, and ponds are made of water."

We went up the steep slippery slope to the railroad that goes behind the pond. (The same railroad that Thoreau wrote about so much...) I took a picture when I was practically laying down in the middle of the tracks. Good thing there was no train coming. :P

Then, we went to the Concord Museum. I'd never been there before but am incredibly glad that I did go... Walking through rooms with creaky floorboards and old windows, looking at Native American arrowheads and relics of the Revolution, then finding the room with Thoreau's furniture in it and things like his surveying whatsits and some pencils... But all throughout I was making a new friend, a man who works at the museum - I had actually met him two summers ago at Walden Pond - but met him again at the museum and found rather a kindred spirit in that we are both obsessed with Thoreau. When he said that he had even moved to Concord originally because of Thoreau, my mom remarked to me, "It's like a male version of you." Heh. But he was very nice and gentlemanly anyway, and told me to write to him (he had given me his email address) and keep in touch. I will definitely do so but haven't written yet because of course I don't know quite what to say (being afraid of saying something dumb)... and decided not to be a chicken and wrote to him.

And, he told me that they look for summer help at the museum, and I could maybe get a summer job there this summer. He told me to come back when I graduated and fill out an application... And made it sound quite favorable. It would be the GREATEST thing to work for the summer at the Concord Museum. (Infinitely better than my last summer's job in the food service industry!) Getting to be daily around Thoreau's furniture? Getting to work with ADULTS who are mature and kind and who genuinely love what they are doing - history? It would be divine...

It was quite an amazing day actually.