Standing still
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
I tried something different this past weekend: staying put [in the area in which I physically live]. I honestly can't visualize the last time I was in town for the weekend, and I guess that makes sense because I've been traveling non-stop for the past 10+ weeks, and even before that, my weekends in the Southern Vermont area have been few and far between. I took advantage of friends in nearby towns or beautiful places I'd always wanted to visit. I've had a lot of trouble exploring the space right underneath my nose.
I think part of it is because I thought I might be terribly bored, or maybe that it would remind me of the fact that I'm up here without the same kind of community I had in Washington, D.C. Most notably, admitting I don't have a social life whatsoever beyond hikes with Atlas, yoga, and trips to the Co-op.
Well I'm happy to report that this past weekend was none of those things. It went surprisingly well. From a visit to the monthly Gallery Walk in downtown Brattleboro on Friday night with Ben, Rachel, and Wendy (where I ran into half of my office colleagues), to my first experience contra dancing at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield on Saturday night. Finishing off the weekend was a hike through the vast dog park with Alejandra and Atlas on Sunday, some excellent Korean food in NoHo, and the requisite visit to Trader Joe's in Hadley. I even took in a beautiful sunset in my own backyard. Not at all a bad weekend.
Although it's been extremely easy to enjoy the beauty that is Vermont, it's been hard rectifying the fact that my home and life are in two places at once right now. I know I ultimately have to return to Washington, D.C. - to figure out my next steps and to familiarize myself with the international development side of my organization - but it's been increasingly tempting to delay that as long as possible. I'm not sure if the stress of figuring out if I want to relocate permanently not or the utter idea of packing up my stuff is paralyzing me, or if I'm concerned that when I get back to Washington, my lack of social life will be ever the more obvious because I'm in a city where things are constantly happening.
I think I underestimate what is possible in both places, so hopefully I'm in store for more pleasant surprises, and if I can stay in Vermont for the winter, I could hit up Killington every weekend if I wanted.... So tempting.
Decisions don't need to be made tonight, or even in the next week, so for now I'll do my best to finally let myself feel what it's like to "live" here, rather than just "work" here.
Posted by kalabird at November 6, 2007 10:39 PM
Comments
Wishing you good luck with your decisions.
Yeah, stuff like that is tough.
Kept me paralyzed in Germany for a whole 8 years ;)
Posted by: Nicole at November 10, 2007 11:04 PM