I had an unexpected 3 day weekend recently which I used to go visit my sisters in the various places they live, just in case I get the call to leave for Antarctica sooner rather than later. Fortunately the furthest I had to travel was only about 8 hours away, and I could break up the trip to Burlington, VT both coming and going by stopping to see one sister at her school, and stopping at my parents’ house.
It was great to explore Burlington more thoroughly, both with the two sisters who live there and on my own. Wandering round the pretty downtown area I could easily imagine myself living there, slipping into a groove – buying fun fabrics from Nido, eating sandwiches on sunny afternoons at Zabby and Elf’s Stone Soup, spending long hours reading or talking to friends at Muddy Waters (an extremely pleasant coffee shop), walking along the shores of Lake Champlain, and drinking lots of craft beers at any number of places. Lovely thoughts. Of course, reality would be a bit more complex than that. But for a day or so it was fun to pretend.
While my sisters worked I napped in Waterfront Park, drank beers in the sun at The Vermont Pub and Brewery, spent an hour or more at Crow Bookshop and scanned the shelves until I had found all 5 NYRB paperbacks in their collection (which I bought!), poked around in secondhand clothing shops (discovering Unknown Arts in the process – yay, fun t-shirts!), listened to musicians on Church Street, and met several interesting people (a friend of one of my sisters is cutting corn out of his diet and daily life for 2 weeks, which is a startlingly hard thing to do – check it out).
This was the first of what I hope will be many investigative trips as I start to actively look for the next thing, the next place, the next step. Of course if I go to Antarctica that will be the big IT – the next EVERYTHING. But that might not happen (I promise to elaborate on the Ice thing soon!) And if it doesn’t I am determined to explore other options, other states, other cities, other paths not yet traveled by me.
I’m back at where I call home for the time being though, and while all those OPTIONS swirl and stew around me, there is the work at hand (and plenty of it as cruise ship season peaks in Bar Harbor), the books at hand (I definitely need to start reading my growing stack of NYRBs), the beers at hand (plus the fun ones I brought back from Burlington with me), the hikes to take, the things to draw or take pictures of, the projects to do, the CSA veggies to eat, the music to listen to…
Speaking of which, one more thing gleaned from the Burlington trip – Moderat:
what we have here is a failure to communicate 
I am so, so curious about the Antarctica thing. So curious.
Meanwhile, Burlington sounds awesome. I know just what you mean about imagining yourself into a fantasy life in a given place based on a few days of vacation there. Reality would be more complicated but there’s no reason to let it intrude before it has to. 🙂
By: Emily (Evening All Afternoon) on September 14, 2011
at 11:40 am
Someday (sooner rather than later) I’m going to pretend I live in your corner of the country for a few days! 🙂
By: tuulenhaiven on September 15, 2011
at 8:27 am
Thanks for the video. I liked it a lot.
The Antarctica sounds a bit scary. I tried watching Far North just before (I’m off sick with some sort of flu thingy). Have you seen it? I couldn’t concentrate so had to stop. Amazing pictures of icy landscape.
By: Caroline on September 15, 2011
at 8:45 am
Far North sounds familiar but I haven’t seen it – mmm, Sean Bean though. 🙂 Glad you liked the Moderat video – their music is a little bit odd!
By: tuulenhaiven on September 15, 2011
at 9:29 pm
I didn’t think the music was odd. I liked it, it reminds me of Trentemoller. I love his music. And his videos.
I finished Far North. I am not sure I liked it… Disgusting ending. It’s like a gruesome myth or fairy tale in which the stepmother gets VERY jealous. This is the second movie I’ve seen by that director, the first was The Warrior. I think I didn’t get them.
By: Caroline on September 16, 2011
at 1:42 am
I’ll have to investigate those movies – and Trentemoller while I’m at it. 🙂
By: tuulenhaiven on September 17, 2011
at 10:28 pm
[…] up a few more NYRB paperbacks at Crow Bookshop, and was happy to discover a shop I had overlooked last time I was in town called Trinket – located delightfully at No.32 1/2 Church Street. Lunch with my sisters and […]
By: A November Roadtrip « what we have here is a failure to communicate on November 11, 2011
at 12:41 am