And you were not thinking of me

[resonant]

I made my third visit to Soon-To-Be New City yesterday, and I'm amused by the way my mental picture of the place is taking shape, as defined by the places I'm pretty confident I could get to without consulting a map.

Visit 1: Historic bed & breakfast; spouse's university; cheap Greek restaurant; library; multiple interchangeable cute little downtown coffee shops.

Visit 2: Generic hotel; mall; staffing agency; movie theater; Starbucks inside a grocery store; Target; Red Robin; convent with walking trail overlooking the river, where we looked down on a bird that we think might have been an eagle; two ways to get from the chain-store sprawl to the university and back again.

Visit 3: Airport; two ways to get up the bluff from the river; kidlet's high school; Ukrainian restaurant.

If I can locate a couple of money machines, an Asian grocery, a schmancy grocery, a cheap grocery, a farmer's market, a hardware store with cranky old guys who know how things work, a gym with yoga, a hiking trail, and an actual job, I'll pretty much have covered all the places I go here.

Comments

[quinfirefrorefiddle]

The bigger, newer HyVee would still be pretty good. The old one is crap, don't bother, but the Aldi up by Kohl's is great & cheap. The people at my old school had a deal going with a yoga place, but I wouldn't be surprised if your uni had a gym & yoga. There are trails all over. Also the monastery (not convent, other side of town) has a labyrinth.

[resonant]

If you ever go back to visit, we have got to have a meet-up.

[fox]

Eep, movingomg indeed. Hope it all goes as smoothly as possible!

[resonant]

It's kind of terrifying. We bought this house in 1993. Even I don't know what-all is in the basement.

[norah]

I got stuck on "kidlet's HIGH SCHOOL" Holy shit when did she GROW UP?

[resonant]

Tell me about it! She's e-mailing the counselor for advice on writers' groups, and some days I'm still having to stop myself from reminding her to use the bathroom!

[myalexandria]

out of all the cool things about this post (plus crossed fingers on the job) the one that really stood out was "kidlet's high school." OMG.

[resonant]

Thanks for your crossed fingers, and you could not possibly be more shocked than I am about the high school thing. I mean, in Iowa she's old enough for a learner's permit!

When I was a kid, childhood seemed like a whole lifetime, but now I see how, from an adult's perspective, "that time when the kidlet was still living with us" will seem like such a short time.

At this point I wish she could stay forever. The Tech Goddess, who has grown sons, says, "Nature makes them obnoxious and smelly so you can bear to let them move away."