Back From NH

N. and I left Wednesday to look at places to live in NH. We saw a total of 13 places in about a day and a half. Some places we could have easily skipped since it's clear that I can't live in a place that's miles away from civilization. Some people are happy driving 8 miles down their dirt road. I am not one of them.

We mostly looked in the town of Lebanon. It's a small--2 restaurants (not including the Chinese Buffet and Pizza Parlor, which we have yet to sample) but at least it's a town. I like the idea of being able to walk to the library, post office, etc. I know once the Bean and winter arrives I'll be driving but I like the possibility of not having to. I'm really going to miss walking around Prospect Park with N. but at least living in a town we can take walks around the 'hood or down to the green.

You know what's annoying? You think N. and I would feel totally rich being five hours out of the city but we don't. The place we have hopefully (cross your fingers, lurkers) found is a little more than we'd like to pay and we have to pay for heat, which is no fraking joke what with New England winters, oil prices, and a Bean who needs to live in a 70 degree abode. You'd also think that moving out of the city would increase our space exponentially but it won't. It's one of these places that's really nice looking but deceiving small and kind of awkward. Don't even get me started on the closets! But it is pretty and there's a dishwasher! and washer/dryer! which is exciting. N. and I figured that doing our own laundry instead of sending it out to the place up the street will save us an average of $4,000 a year, which should easily cover our heating bills.

You know what Lebanon, NH needs? A coffee shop. Although I can easily blog at home, I often need to do my "real" work in a coffee shop. Yes, I'm one of those annoying people with my snotty-assed XL lattes on my Mac Air. There's no place in town that comes remotely close this and even Hanover, which is where Dartmouth is, I don't think superior looking Mac users taking up the coffee shop to write their great American novels, are really part of the culture.

There might not be a coffee shop but there is a really fab looking pool in this enormous rec center thing in Lebanon. And, there's baby sitting for $2.75/hr for members. Now, that's a deal you just couldn't find in Bklyn.

I'm Going To Miss (Most of) This

There's a baby crying. Like really crying. And this woman next to me has been on her cell phone for maybe 40 minutes. The sing along is going to happen in 20 minutes so there's about 1,000 kids and their caretakers gridlocking the water cooler with their $1,000 strollers, getting amped up on coffee and organic apple juice so psyched to sing Old MacDonaldTwinkleTwinkle for the next half hour. Normally I can block all this out but today I'm not really getting much work done because I keep thinking how there won't be anything like this in NH. I'm not kidding when I say there must be 25 kid-less people all between 20-40 on their laptops--23 of them are using Macs of course.

One thing I won't miss is the shoeless man.

I understand being comfortable. But not wearing shoes--today he's not even wearing socks! I don't want to see his feet. That's not why I paid $8.00 for a decaf latte and scone. He wouldn't be able to pull this shit up in NH. Mid-April it's still too cold to be a shoeless wonder.