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Aug. 7th, 2009 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerReading LJ, I can see that everyone else is happy that it's Friday, but I admit to being sad! It means I will have to leave my lovely friends (though I get them back next month when they return to DC) and this lovely place and go back to hot, humid, "have to go to work every day" DC. It will be nice to see my friends :-) there again and to be back with the Kitty Boyz, but it's really hard to go away from all that I've enjoyed this week.
Chris and Melissa have been absolutely tremendous hosts. They have pulled out all the stops in showing me around all the cool places in the area (resumption of travelogue in later post). We've had some great games, Mel has cooked some absolutely marvelous meals for us, and Chris did a breakfast one morning that was delicious. They've helped me tremendously by listening to some of my cares, talking over options with me, and giving me heartfelt, sympathetic, sensible advice. I have to say, one couldn't find better friends anywhere--I'm more grateful to them than I can say.
Vermont in summer is like the best of Massachusetts and Connecticut, with a slightly more rural, a little less cosmopolitan feel. I don't mean it's Hicksville at all, just that the towns here still are *Vermont* towns and clearly happy to be so, not overly impressed with people or practices "from away". The part of CT that I spent my summers in is pretty much a playground of the well to do NYC set, and you have to dig deep to find a real Yankee there any more. Burlington is a university town, as is Middlebury, and Stowe is close to being a year-round resort, but there's still a good deal of native character that doesn't come from putting "Vermont" in the title of a store or painting a green mountain on something.
Neta and I talked about moving up here at some point when we couldn't take DC any more, maybe to Bennington or points north. It would probably be like living in the Highlands, in that one can't just have one job--you need a number of occupations to support each other. But the quality of life in this part of the country, for me at least, is hard to beat. I'm still very excited about my UK plans, but there's no question in my mind now that if things don't work out there, I will be looking for a place to live back here in the northeast.
Chris and Melissa have been absolutely tremendous hosts. They have pulled out all the stops in showing me around all the cool places in the area (resumption of travelogue in later post). We've had some great games, Mel has cooked some absolutely marvelous meals for us, and Chris did a breakfast one morning that was delicious. They've helped me tremendously by listening to some of my cares, talking over options with me, and giving me heartfelt, sympathetic, sensible advice. I have to say, one couldn't find better friends anywhere--I'm more grateful to them than I can say.
Vermont in summer is like the best of Massachusetts and Connecticut, with a slightly more rural, a little less cosmopolitan feel. I don't mean it's Hicksville at all, just that the towns here still are *Vermont* towns and clearly happy to be so, not overly impressed with people or practices "from away". The part of CT that I spent my summers in is pretty much a playground of the well to do NYC set, and you have to dig deep to find a real Yankee there any more. Burlington is a university town, as is Middlebury, and Stowe is close to being a year-round resort, but there's still a good deal of native character that doesn't come from putting "Vermont" in the title of a store or painting a green mountain on something.
Neta and I talked about moving up here at some point when we couldn't take DC any more, maybe to Bennington or points north. It would probably be like living in the Highlands, in that one can't just have one job--you need a number of occupations to support each other. But the quality of life in this part of the country, for me at least, is hard to beat. I'm still very excited about my UK plans, but there's no question in my mind now that if things don't work out there, I will be looking for a place to live back here in the northeast.
