So summer is drawing to a close. No fanfare here, as I didn’t do much anyway, and I’m tiring of the heat! I did get some great practice in with the camera.I saw a total of two butterflies on campus this summer, and the timing was right for me to immortalize them in the digital world. The two female “eastern swallowtails” posed nicely for me. Either that or they were just that hungry! The male Monarch was a pain in the butt, but I finally got him! I guess some ladies out there would say “of course the male was more difficult.” We are a stubborn lot, that’s for sure.
The only trip I took this summer was to New York this past weekend—and I would much rather do that in late fall! Since it was hot, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, and then the American Museum of Natural History on Sunday. The cab rides (my first in NYC) were fantastically INSANE! They were a learning experience, so it’s unlikely I’ll take many cabs after I move up there!
That move is still on! I haven’t been applying for jobs because the timing is wrong. If I find one with relocation allowance, hell yeah I’ll go for it sooner! But in this economy no one does that anymore.
The trip this weekend only reinforced and strengthened my desire to move there! Just BEING there felt so right. People say, “But it’s so noisy and hectic.” Well my life here isn’t exactly quiet.
Since I can’t afford to retire to a farm somewhere, I’m stuck driving to work in a HELLISH daily ritual. Although my new country afternoon route has helped a bit of that, my morning drive is still a choice between stop-and-go madness on a bastion of suburban sprawl or 80mph madness on the Interstate. Either way, it’s 20 to 30 minutes to go 12 miles. I could much easier hop on a subway and be zipped anywhere in Manhattan in a matter of minutes.I also have to contend with mannerless neighbors here, so that won’t be an issue. I can promise you, suburban stay-at-home soccer moms are often far more intolerable than anyone I’ve ever met in Manhattan, including the cab driver who was screaming at the pedestrians on Sunday! I also have to deal with idiot neighbors who have parents helping to pay their rent. Why should they appreciate their home since they don’t pay for it? Never mind that very few people born after 1980 were taught anything but that the world belongs to them and no one else. (Well-intentioned exercises in self esteem can be thanked for that!)So Manhattan will almost be an ESCAPE from madness for me, and frankly, I’m getting antsy! I want to go NOW! I may not get to see many butterflies, but the parks are plentiful and only a quick walk away.
I like that you’ve done the pros/cons for moving…and it’s not like some people I know who’d be: ‘wow! NYC! It’d be awesome to move there!’ blah, blah, blah. Do you still have the ballerinas upstairs? Are they your reference point for Greenville kiddies?
They are supposed to be moving out this month. We were told their lease would not be renewed. I am counting the minutes, because they are just as dumb and rude as the day they moved in.
I’m sort of guessing they’ll leave the apartment empty until we move or renew, because they’ll want to be gutting both apartments at one time. Crossing fingers.
And no, I don’t think I’d move anywhere just because I was in awe. Frankly, I’m not really in awe of NYC. I just feel comfortable there. The irony is that it feels more laid back to me than this suburban life. LOL