Weekend Journal

Despite the fact, we chose to spend the near perfect day yesterday in the city, Steve and I have been thinking a lot about the country lately.

It has been a gradual process. We moved out of the city very, very reluctantly five years ago. For many years, I mourned. I missed the loud noises. I missed the feeling like I was part of the most interesting, cutting edge place on the planet. I missed the diversity of faces and backgrounds. It took a long time to accept the move to the suburbs.

Sure, there are some things I'll always hate about the burbs, but there are some good things, too. I really like growing things in our backyard. I don't miss the slow, stinky subway. I don't miss my cockroaches.

I love home repair. Weird, I know. But I actually spend a lot of time talking with my more knowledgeable neighbors about repairing cracks in plaster walls and replacing cracked window panes. I'm in the midst of another grandiose summer project. I'm refinishing the woodwork upstairs. Turns out there's oak buried under all that cracked, nasty finish. I'll do a show and tell on the blog at the end of the summer.

Besides, the really great things to do in the city -- restaurants, shows, and museums - aren't everyday sort of things. We're close enough to go in whenever we like for those things.

Actually, now we're thinking about upstate New York, which is totally foolish. We can't move too far from Steve's job and we can't afford a second home. Yet, reality does not prevent me from surfing the real estate websites.

It all started about a year ago, when my friend Ann P. who is like a miner's canary for everything cool and artsy, got a place way, way up North. Like North of Watertown. She and her husband go up there for the summer and garden, read, and write. No Internet access. That I probably couldn't handle, but the garden and the mountains look awfully nice.

I would like a place to grow more than six tomato plants and six pepper plants. I would like my kids to have woods to roam around in. I don't want to deal with neighbors.

Sigh, I'm sure that I'll outgrow this itch, but that's where we are right now. Looking North.

Comments

[B mama]

We moved to upstate NY a year ago and it's pretty great. My husband still works in the city (though he doesn't have to commute every day) and we've got great nature for the kiddos up here. It's a nice and vital area.

[Laura (geekymom)]

This is pretty funny. We're feeling a similar itch and although I didn't blog this because I didn't want anyone at Mr. Geeky's work to think we were truly serious, we were contemplating moving back to grad school town, where life is slower, we can get more house for the money, potentially way out in the country, and still have good schools. But, no museums really and certainly no job potential for me unless I worked at our old grad school. So I think we've rejected that idea, but I do think I'm going to surf the local real estate sites anyway. :) It's sort of like looking at the Sears toy catalog around Christmas. You know you won't get what's in it, but it still feels good to look.

[bj]

Hey, at 95K, like in the article you linked to, for 8 acres, even I was attracted (and I live on the other side of the continent).

But, I know that the house in the country, with lots of house puttering (drywall, plaster, refinishing) is a fantasy for me, and not a reality. I feel awe for people who can do those things, but they never actually happen when we're in charge.

[lmc]

I grew up in Ithaca, which is not nearly as far upstate as Watertown (although for some sports, we played them), but far more upstate than I've noticed the Times tends to focus on (Hudson Valley is so not upstate). I really, really like it here. People who yearn for the city, either NYC or LA tend to look at me askance, but really, I'm more a small city girl. (Hate, hate, hate LA and hate living here.)

Although, I have to admit, before the Internets, it was sometimes hard to get some things. And you have to put up with crappy roads (and here I thought those potholes might be shovel-ready) and slow road-clearing crews when it storms in the winter.