Milestones

It's been a great summer for me, and there is a lot of news to update. I'm writing from my new home in Brattleboro, VT, where I begin orientation for a Master's program tomorrow. I was at Penn State for two years, which was about enough for me--I worked with fun people and enjoyed having students around all the time, but the bureaucracy of a large university was not a good fit for me so it was time to move on. I had a great summer in State College and moved away just as classes were starting so it was perfect timing for me.

Of course there are a lot of changes afoot here in Distant Wanderings land: the move brought with it lots of tasks like packing and loading trucks, changing addresses, setting up cable and electricity, finding the grocery stores, drilling holes for shelves and hooks, and the obligatory trip to Ikea. Although I've done this process before, this time it had a new and exciting twist to the process because I did it all with a partner. My boyfriend Nate decided to move to Vermont with me, and we moved in together on the 5-month anniversary of the day we met. I suppose that's pretty fast, but it feels like the right decision for us and we are loving it!

I am really glad to work together with Nate on everything from storage of pots and pans to measuring windows for curtains to scrubbing the greasy stains off of the oven and stove. But at the same time, it makes me pretty amazed at the independent woman I've become in my years of living alone. As we arrange the bedroom furniture I marvel at the memory of setting up the bed at my new apartment last year and moving the dresser across the room, both tasks accomplished by myself. I am proud of the skills I have developed over the years, like hooking up stereo speakers and measuring and drilling holes to hang things on the walls. But it's really nice, and a lot more fun, to be able to share these tasks with someone else.

Our apartment is "quirky" to say the least. It's the attic of a 3-story Victorian house, and comes with slanted, low ceilings, bizarrely shaped closet space and unwieldy "nooks" in some of the rooms that pose a definite challenge in the decoration department. The main room is about 40 feet long and 15 feet wide (although the ceiling starts to slant down after only 5 feet or so). I think we have done a great job at engineering the room so far, and it is now divided into three sections: a living room, a dining room/kitchen extension, and what we are calling the "sunroom" - a kind of ironic name since although the apartment boasts windows facing all four cardinal points, the sunroom's window is the sole window facing north and therefore receiving the least direct sunlight.

There's lots of work to be done, but I'm having a really good time doing it. We're also really excited to explore our now hometown, which is a really liberal, earthy, hippie type of place. We are only a block from downtown, which is full of little shops and cafes and a surprising collection of international restaurants for such a small place. One of our biggest joys so far has been the ability to buy wine and beer in the grocery store! After two years in PA, where liquor and beer are sold in separate government-sponsored stores (and in fact, there are two kinds of beer stores depending on the quantity you want to buy) this is such a relief that it almost left more of an impression than the wonderful farmer's market, the variety of activities and events going on around town and the plethora of hiking/walking trails accessible from just a couple blocks from our apartment.

This year promises to be exciting, challenging, probably difficult at times, but hopefully fun throughout. I hope to blog more frequently (but, luckily for you, less long-windedly) about all of the things that are going on in my life. I hope you'll stay tuned!