The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us and though distant, is close to us in spirit--this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
---Johann von Goethe
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September 21, 2008
Hello! I haven't posted in a while because I have been trying to figure out what I think of my new situation - new job, new town, turning 37...yipes. I've been traveling a bit for the job, been to Chicago, Springfield MA, Lincoln NE, and headed to Atlanta this week. Hopefully that will be it for a while - not so big on the traveling lately. I tacked on a three-day trip to Missoula after Lincoln, surprising my brother who came out there to celebrate his 40th birthday with our parents. I hadn't seen him in three years, so it was pretty great.
It actually feels like Fall here, which is a lovely novelty. No more sweaty Septembers.
Lately I am obsessing over the fact that I now live in an environment where Starbucks is the closest coffee shop - it's walkable, true, which is more than a lot of people can say, but there is a serious lack of independently owned coffee places once you step outside of Boston or Cambridge. And even in those more progressive locations, there seems to be an under-appreciation of what good coffee is and how it is made. Seriously. Push-button espresso machines like you would find in a McDonalds (or Starbucks, same thing). So after living within 4 blocks of great coffee in my last two cities, this is a significant downgrade in quality of life for me. It's mainly due to the fact that to live close to those good coffee places here, you have to have a lot more money than in Seattle or Austin - real estate and rent are even more out of reach in the "desirable" neighborhoods here. Sigh. I am actually thinking of changing up my awesome 10-minute commute by car and re-route through Harvard Square on the bus system a couple days a week just so I can stop at a decent cafe on the way to work. This would add about 45 minutes to my commute and at $1.50 each way add more expense. But it might possibly be worth it...
It actually feels like Fall here, which is a lovely novelty. No more sweaty Septembers.
Lately I am obsessing over the fact that I now live in an environment where Starbucks is the closest coffee shop - it's walkable, true, which is more than a lot of people can say, but there is a serious lack of independently owned coffee places once you step outside of Boston or Cambridge. And even in those more progressive locations, there seems to be an under-appreciation of what good coffee is and how it is made. Seriously. Push-button espresso machines like you would find in a McDonalds (or Starbucks, same thing). So after living within 4 blocks of great coffee in my last two cities, this is a significant downgrade in quality of life for me. It's mainly due to the fact that to live close to those good coffee places here, you have to have a lot more money than in Seattle or Austin - real estate and rent are even more out of reach in the "desirable" neighborhoods here. Sigh. I am actually thinking of changing up my awesome 10-minute commute by car and re-route through Harvard Square on the bus system a couple days a week just so I can stop at a decent cafe on the way to work. This would add about 45 minutes to my commute and at $1.50 each way add more expense. But it might possibly be worth it...
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