Day 42: Murphy's Law

I'm Adam Sell and I have two months left before I leave Boston. My challenge? Do something in the city every day. Have ideas for my adventure? Send me an email.

I suppose it was bound to happen sometime. I was going to run out of my apartment in a hurry to get somewhere for this project, and I'd leave my camera behind. Naturally, I wouldn't notice until after a 40 minute train ride, by which point there's really nothing I could do about it. Such was the story today, as I made it all the way to the Museum of Science before I realized I'd forgotten one of the most important parts of my operation. Rather than double back and spend another hour and a half on the Green Line, I just picked up a single-use camera there. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to get it developed yet, so if the picture beneath is no longer just of my ticket, it means I've gone and scanned something better.

I suppose that was inevitable, too. For the Boston in 60 Project, I had hoped to avoid the most tourist-heavy or stereotypical destinations. I wanted to get out and see places I didn't know about, or do things that had never occurred to me. But the call of the Museum of Science was something I couldn't avoid, particularly when they've got that Baseball as America exhibit going on. In much the same way I'm a sucker for museums, anything to do with old-school baseball, and I'm there.

It's only appropriate, though, that I once again hit a photography roadblock. No photos were allowed in the exhibit. I'm guessing it was to preserve the really old stuff inside, but I didn't ask. And since I was toting only a crappy single-use camera instead of my slick Canon model, I didn't dare cheat. But the exhibit was pretty cool - I, unlike many of the ragamuffins skittering around with high-pitched voices, was interested in the development of the catcher's mitt, and in the history of baseball in film. They just wanted to see David Ortiz's hat from last season's World Series. I'm sure they got their fix, though, when they made it to the end of the exhibit and got to pitch in front of a radar gun. I'd personally like to know if that radar gun was functioning properly (66 miles per hour? That's it? I thought for sure I threw harder than that).

Lest I focus too much on one exhibit, however, today was the first time I got to explore many parts of the Museum on my own. I like to move through museums at my own pace, stop and check out what interests me and blow right past what doesn't. So the computers exhibit that I've never gotten to take a proper look at (why do I always end up going with kids with short attention spans?) held my interest for a while, while the wildlife of New England did not. Speaking of the computers, though, I only just found out the old Computer Museum next to the Children's Museum closed. And this was almost ten years ago! How is it I missed that? I loved the giant keyboard and trackball!

At any rate, no, I didn't finish my visit with a laser show. No, I didn't get into an Omni movie, and no, I didn't see the lightning exhibit (that one did, in fact, hold the kids' attention when I've been recently). But I did get to take some cool pictures! I just haven't seen them yet.