McCartney is playing Boston's Fenway Park tonight and tomorrow night, and Airtran's taking me there today!  One of my favorite rockers in one of the greatest ballparks and towns -- it doesn't get much better than that for me.  My cousin Wes is a Red Sox season ticket holder and they got first dibs on tickets, so he invited me up to visit family and to see Paul.  As much as I'd like to see the show here in Piedmont Park, I didn't feel like it'd be a great idea just finishing chemo and starting radiation next week with the wonderful hot August temps.  Temperatures in Boston tomorrow when I'll be seeing the show, 80 high, 60 low and clear -- perfect!!  So up to my hometown (even though I'm ALMOST a native Atlantan) today.

My family's originally from Marblehead -- a beautiful, quaint, small seaside town not very far north of Boston.  True Marbleheaders are a fiercely, proud-of-their-heritage people. Abbott Hall holds the town's treasures including the original patriotic painting, "The Spirit of '76."  Marblehead is the birthplace of the American Navy -- it's also the birthplace of my mom and dad who first met in kindergarten.  My family has a pretty colorful heritage. A great-great-great (12 times) -grandmother of mine, Rebecca Nurse, was hung as a witch during the Salem witch trials (she was actually a very well respected woman, immortalized in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible.")  Another relative, sea captain Benjamin "Flood" Ireson, had a poem written about him by John Greenleaf Whittier.   Although Whittier's poem is very unflattering  and Benjamin had been tarred and feathered and accused of being a traitor, he was actually found to have been a true hero after his death (poor guy!)  Encouraged by my brother and cousin, my mom and I joined The Daughters of The American Revolution last year and the Fort Peachtree chapter was impressed by how many lines we could trace directly back to patriots from The American Revolution.  Aside from my immediate family almost all of my family is still in or near Marblehead, and my dad is buried there.  So, of course, I love to visit. 

AJ will be filling in for me tomorrow and Friday, and I'll be looking forward to giving you a great report of McCartney's concert to help get you geared up for the Piemont Park show on the 15th.