Greetings infrequent readers of this blog!
I have been traveling since last Wednesday throughout New England, trying to stay as far away from I-95 as possible. I spent a night visiting my friends Matt and Jen; and then drove up to Keene, NH to visit with Jed and John, whom I know from a wonderful week I spent in Provincetown 3 years ago. Besides the fall foliage (so so in my opinion), I did a number of neat things.
1) Went to many wonderful used bookstores in Northampton, specifially Raven and Gabriel Books. You can see my library here. Definitely a good time.
2) Attended an open house at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H. This was a real highlight, as I got to tour the house where Edward and Marion MacDowell lived.
3) Saw wonderful scenery, including Route 9 through Southern Vermont (esp. Hogback Mtn.), Mount Mondanock (N.H.), and western Massachusetts. Not that eastern PA and N.Y. aren’t nice, just not as impressive in the topography realm.
Tonight’s the last night as I’m staying with college friends in Connecticut, before traveling back to Charlottesville and Culpeper. It’s been a good vacation, but not mind-blowing. I did realize that I am not meant for complete rural living, like where you have to drive 30 minutes to get to town. I think it works for New Englanders because there is real cultural life in many of the small towns throughout N.H., Vt., Mass, etc., and you can kind of state-hop and catch a lot of cool stuff. I know there are a lot of tradeoffs to small town life vs. city living (and I’m not saying I want to move back to D.C.), but some of the things I’m looking for are: a solid community of artists and progressive people; 2) decent goods and services outside of Wal Mart; and 3) affordable rentals (for now) and condos (for later). I’ve been thinking I need to get a pet soon too. Oh yeah, and the whole single vs. being in a relationship thing. I guess I have been thinking after all. I love my job, and the choir (and soon my volunteering at the local radio station), but I need more friends and people to hang out with in Charlottesville. Hopefully I’ll find some of these things this fall…as well as getting a sofa and a comfy chair. Long drive tomorrow, so I should go.
