Saturday, July 9, 2011

Settling in

Pigs by whatstepheats
Pigs, a photo by whatstepheats on Flickr.

Finally we are feeling somewhat settled down here. There is just so much involved in relocating. Tomorrow will mark the date one month ago when the movers came to pack up our lives in Providence. One month ago tonight was the last night we spent in our Providence condo. It's gone by so quickly and yet never has it felt like I've jammed so much into 30 days.
We've been trying to get health records sent, appointments set up, to make friends, to find hairdressers and babysitters, get Sam a passport (here you have to make an appointment with the post office to submit passport application materials!), learn where to go for what.
It's such a big deal, moving to a 'foreign land'. Though it's made me realize that we lived in a part of the country where people just are not kind for far too long. It's made me realize that it is really hard to be nasty to people who are kind to you, even when they are incompetant or annoying. It's made me realize something I've always suspected - I am not a typical Rhode Islander, if I am a typical anything.

I love that it's sunny and hot here everyday, I love that the whole town slows down on Saturday and nearly shuts down on Sunday. I love that everywhere you go there are kids. I love the food we can buy at the grocery store 5 minutes away - great, fresh produce, fish, meat. All you need.

Basically I really love it here! I can see myself someday living in Little Compton right on the ocean, or in Boston, but short of that, I'm not sure I could ever move back north. Even if I did it would be part time.

We are within driving distance to Houston, Dallas, and most closely Austin. I can't wait to explore Austin.

A friend's photo of Fenway got me thinking of Boston. I love Boston, always wanted to live near there. When I was a teenager and used to visit my dad's cousin who is a renal pathologist at NEMC. I would follow him around at the hospital all day. I wanted that life. I guess I still do. I didn't realize then that what you want when you are 14 really doesn't morph much over the years. You are who you are. I've been suppressing it, trying to take shortcuts (shacking up with one doctor and marrying another instead of becoming one? Freud would have a field day)...but it keeps coming back.

Now I have Sam so for now this is my life. But I still consider nursing or massage school down the line, when he's older and when the next potential child is too. I love the human body - maybe massage. That's another thing that keeps surfacing in my head.

I finally got some tomatoes and peppers in the ground. Hope to find more seedlings this weekend...

Happy weekend, happy summer!