October Baseball

It is a good time to be a fan of baseball.

Filed by Jen Cole on October 5th, 2008 under Uncategorized | Comment now »

The weather down here

Has been frightful. From freak storms to earthquakes to record heat wave before summer even starts. I can only assume that the end is near–are locusts next?

Filed by Jen Cole on June 20th, 2008 under Uncategorized | Comment now »

Greetings from Virginia

A few things about living here:

No one’s dog barks. I mean you might here a bark or two in the course of a week, but NO ONE leaves their dog outside for more than a few minutes. And everyone has big fenced yards too, so it would be easy to leave a dog outside for the whole day to annoy the community.

I have yet to see a dog poop when out walking. everyone picks up after their dogs. And they stop to talk, which I know is not specific to here–people with dogs are always happy to talk to people about their dogs. Today we met Saki and Suzi, two little um…lhasa apsos? who live on the corner. Plus there’s Katie, the boxer across the street, Whistle the border collie next door and Ollie, the mini schnauzer two houses away.

When I am stopped behind the school bus, children of all colors tumble off, so we are living in a multicultural neighborhood. An upper middle class multicultural neighborhood.

Almost every grocery store parking lot is a carbon copy of the University Heights one, as far as it being a total and utter train wreck. I swear the only accidents that happen happen in the parking lots of the Home Depot.

Drivers are so polite here. I got beeped at ONCE since I have been here, for not paying attention at a light but it was the shortest, most polite little toot ever!

However, when you give someone the right of way, or wave them through, they almost NEVER wave back to you. They also don’t give you the right of way or wave you through.

Since i have been down here, i have seen one street tree hit by a car, as opposed to three or so per week in PVD.

I realize that the suburbs are markedly different from the “inner city” but the level of civility here is so much higher! People in general aren’t NICER, they are just civil. It is kind of jarring, actually.

The other day when I was in DC a seemingly homeless guy at the metro wished me a good day. I replied “And I hope you have a good day too” and he said “Stay safe, baby girl.” Homeless people in PVD just growl at you.

There are definite downfalls with living here, I don’t want you to think I’ve just candycoated everything. I have yet to find a restaurant that is even remotely interesting (although i did have tapas in DC monday–but honestly it was freaking cheese and cheese toasts! with olives) and the irony, is of course, that I don’t even care that much about food, but I see the intrinsic value in creative food choices, and the architecture in the suburbs is so awful–really, entire towns built around the brick, split-level raised rainch, and there do not seem to be any community gardens within about 15 miles of me.

Don’t even get me started about how I can’t find a bakery with really good cake. Ah Scialo’s, LaSalle and Pastiche, and Greggs, How I miss You!

Traffic is almost aways a bitch, regardless of what time it is.

Anyway…

Filed by Jen Cole on May 12th, 2008 under Uncategorized | Comment now »

Feast or Famine

“And all these moments in time are like tears, in rain. Time to die.”

Ok a little melodramatic. But it is time to leave Providence. I’ve been here for over 20 years. I’m ready to try something else.

But while there are reasons for leaving that include the soul crushing feeling I get every time I read the Providence Journal there are just as many things that I will miss terribly. Here are a few of each:

The YEA Providence list!

Planting Saturdays:

http://www.pnpp.org