November 3, 2010

  • Home is wherever I’m with you

    I mentioned in the last post that we’ve recently relocated to Ann Arbor. Many factors lead to the decision, most of them financial. While Ann Arbor doesn’t even come close to Chicago in scope or scale (size-wise, culturally, and in terms of diversity), it has it’s own unique identity. It is a very livable place and there are a few factors that make this especially so for me.

    1.) Trees. Ann Arbor has lots of them. More than 50,000, to be exact. Lush trees arch over every street, branches reaching to touch each other from opposite sides of the road. Autumn has taken a hold of each leaf by now, yielding reds and yellows, browns and tans.  

    2.) We’ve lived in a lot of places where the smell is bad. Really bad. Like the time in NYC that the Manhattan sewer line overflowed into the Hudson River. Or when I slipped on dewy, congealed vomit on a Saturday morning run in Glasgow. Or that reeking Chicago factory near North & Elston that smells like sulfur, dog food, and boiled carrots. None of these things smelled very good. It smells so fresh here. Like trees and cider and split wood and wind. I like inhaling all of a sudden; it feels so damn clean.

    3.) The commute. You know your city is tiny when you’ve lived in it a total of 2.5 weeks and already have so many aquaintences that you’ve never had a bus ride without running into one and having a chat. The commute is a miniscule ten minute bus ride into town. Unlike any public transit experince I’ve ever had, the bus comes on time, when it is supposed to, reliably, according to schedule. I also love it because I ride for free, one of the many perks of my job.

    Those are my top three at the moment. I also like how this is a pedestrian-friendly town. People walk & bike to get around. There is stuff to do. The farmers’ market is the most incredible thing, comparable to the Union Square green market in NYC but with prices I can actually afford. The prices in general here are a huge relief from big city life. I actually see a chunk of my paycheck for the first time in ages. My new colleagues are nice; my job is so new that I feel odd to assess it in any official capacity yet (this is only my first week), but the benefits are incredible and I was very engaged in my first actual tasks today.

    In total: I like it here. As Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros sing:

    “Moats and boats and waterfalls,
    Alley-ways and pay phone calls,
    I’ve been everywhere with you.

    We laugh until we think we’ll die,
    Barefoot on a summer night
    Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

    And in the streets you run afree,
    Like it’s only you and me,
    Geeze, you’re something to see.

    Ahh Home. Let me go home.
    Home is wherever I’m with you.
    Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
    Home is wherever I’m with you.”

     

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