It's Loverly

• Mozzarella sticks with raspberry sauce on nearly every menu. I’ll say it again, Albany NEEDS to claim this as its own before the rest of the world catches on. These Albany Sticks are the best appetizer you’ll ever have.

• Thacher Park just a short drive up the road.
• Shopping At the Warehouse on a regular basis.
• My favorite Albany restaurants, including Debbie’s Kitchen (the #12!), the Gingerman, Bomber’s, and Ichiban (my favorite sushi anywhere).
• Washington Park
• Sunday afternoons spent learning family recipes from my mom
• Coffee shops that are open past 7pm (specifically the Muddy Cup and Uncommon Grounds). I also have high hopes for the closest cafe to our new place: Cafe Perk Ups (bonus: crepes!).
• Not only being there for all the family gatherings, but being able to host them in our own home.
• More time to get to know Wolff’s Biergarten
• Evenings hanging out with our siblings
• Reconnecting with our friends in the area, and the ones who pass through on a regular basis.
• More time with the family that also happens to be friends.
• Connecting with newer friends in the area.
• The Spectrum (the movies AND the snack bar)
• Mahar’s
• The Miss Albany Diner (for sale! Buy it!)
• Being around to see the kids in the family as they grow
• Albany All Stars Roller Derby!
• The Adirondacks just a quick jaunt up the Northway
• On a related note, being able to hop in the car with my dad on summer days off to spend an afternoon sailing at the lake.

• Not having to drive over the mountains in snow storms to be there for winter holidays.
• Working downtown
• Checking out the Troy Winter Market (summer too!)
• Lark Street
• Time with our families being a normal part of daily life, rather than a drive and an overnight stay and packing every possible visit into one weekend.

(Again, I reserve the right to add to this list- and I know I will exercise that right.)

• The mountains. Small but pretty, different every day, visible almost anywhere you go– including from our apartment. I’ll miss hiking and driving up these mountains, and watching them change with the seasons.

• The restaurants. India House. Sierra Grill. Amy’s Place. Apollo. Sunrise. Mount Tom’s ice cream. I could go on and on.
• And on the topic of food: Trader Joe’s. It’s going to be so very hard to adjust to living far from TJs.
• The bike trails, oh the bike trails.
• The laid back, work to live, happy vibes.
• My Girl Scout troop.
• Walking to work through charming Easthampton.
• Berkshire Brewing Company’s Steel Rail extra pale ale.
• Working on a beautiful campus in a beautiful building with great people.
  
• Our CSA farmshare, in which the farm was a 1/2 mile from our house, and picking up our share involved a weekly trip to the farm, picking flowers and herbs and raspberries, and seeing nearly everyone we know.
• The running trails along the Mill River, through the woods, past farmland and community gardens. My running buddy.
• Webs! (Although after packing up my yarn stash, it’s clear I need to stay away from any yarn stores for a long, long while.)
• Strolling Main St., Northampton
• The potlucks
• Trivia, and the Plunder Cats

• Above all else (even above Trader Joe’s), I’ll miss the friends we’ve made here. We are so, so lucky to have found such great people here. I mean really, awesome people. I have faith that our friendships will endure the little bit of distance, that we’ll talk often and see each other regularly. But it’s hard leave these people that I love so much.

(I reserve the right to add to this list as more comes up, which it will.)

Addendum:

• The RMVs, which are generally pleasant, and a “long wait” is 15 minutes. And people still complain! They have no idea. I’m not ready to re-experience the Albany DMV hell.

Three years and four months ago, we moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. Pat was headed to UMass Amherst to finish a degree, and I was job-hunting after finishing my Masters program at SUNY Albany.

Our decision to head to Massachusetts was based on school, and our desire to live somewhere different for awhile. In the months leading up to our move, I started to worry. I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave Albany. I liked life there. I had a good group of friends, I knew the area like the back of my hand, I liked being near our families, I was feeling settled. I was sad about leaving all that, and the idea of moving to a place where we knew hardly anyone was scary. Finding a job in a place where I had no connections was proving to be very hard. At one point, after a trip to MA to check out apartments, I cried in the car on the Mass Pike. I wanted to put the brakes on the plan to move and keep things exactly as they were.

But we didn’t. We found an apartment that we loved, we packed a truck, and with the help of many reliable and strong friends, we moved our life to a new town in a new state. Not terribly far, but all of it new.

I took a job as a nanny while I looked for a ‘real’ job. In my free time I biked all the trails around town, I explored the shops on Main St, we tried the restaurants that we could walk to from our apartment. I missed Albany, but this place was growing on me. There were mountains visible where ever I went, the sky was unlike any other, the people were laid back, the attitude was right up my alley.

Slowly, this became home, and a lot of life happened here. We met some of our best friends, I found a job, we adopted a kitten, we invested in an air mattress which was used by visitors from near and far, we got engaged, we played trivia, we planned a wedding, we moved to another town, we celebrated the election of President Obama with dancing in the streets of Northampton, Patrick grew a beard (and a few months later, shaved it off), we had a winter of potlucks, we found community, I ran races, Pat helped grow a business, we took classes, Pat graduated, we developed our cooking skills, I had a Girl Scout troop, we climbed mountains, and we fell in love with this valley.

So why would we ever decide to move away from so much that was good? It wasn’t an easy decision, but I’ll tell you all about it in the next post.

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all photos by me except the last one, by Patrick.

Last month, we spent our first wedding anniversary having our potential new home inspected.

Yep, we’re in the process of buying a house! It’s thrilling and terrifying and exciting and stressful and eeee!

The house (not quite ours yet, but close) is in Albany. While we absolutely love the Pioneer Valley and our friends here, our grand plan was always to settle in our hometown. We’ll be within a few miles of both sets of parents, and we’ll be able to give back to a city that is near and dear to our hearts (and maybe we’ll get to attend some of those famous All Over Albany events!).

This is something we’ve dreamed about and worked towards for a long time- it’s surreal to be in the midst of it. The next month promises to be bonkers, with packing and goodbyes and moving and painting and leaving my job and starting a new one. Stay tuned for more…

“Life is too short to waste. Dreams are fulfilled only through action, not through endless planning to take action.” ~D. Schwartz

I love this idea. We adopted a number of antique cameras from Pat’s uncle, and my dad has a rather impressive collection of his own. My dad’s sat on a family room shelf when I was a kid, and occassionally I’d get him to show me how they worked, but for the most part both collections just sit in a box. This display idea is so whimsical and fun– I love the playfulness of framed cameras, poised to take your photo. And look! A neon pink 110!

p.s. After trying both, I’m declaring Vi.sualize the image bookmarking winner over We Heart It – it’s just much easier to sort and find images once they’re bookmarked. My Vi.sualize page of collected images is here.

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(Image via Houzz)

Sunday night I made butternut squash soup.

Monday night it was potato leek soup.

And there is a batch of tomato black bean soup cooking the day away in our slow cooker at this very moment.

It’s just that kind of week- gray and chilly, the trees quickly becoming skeletons, and a need for coziness in full swing.

One Strap Baby Booties
Originally uploaded by mon petit violon

I have a number of friends expecting babies this winter and spring, which seems like a perfect reason to dive back into some crochet projects. Conveniently, baby projects also tend to be small, and small/quick projects will be the key to me finishing anything this autumn and winter!

I have a Webs gift card (courtesy of Meg and Steve) burning a hole in my pocket- this might be the perfect excuse to buy a new crochet book.

(How adorable are these booties? I think I could handle making a few pairs of these for the little ones!)

On Sunday I ran a 5k on a very cold, rainy, windy morning. I made myself go- I had already paid the registration fee, and I was meeting two friends there. But I soooo didn’t want to go. I sooo wanted to stay in bed.

But I went. I bundled up and I ran. Along with a couple hundred other brave souls, I ran past a 1700s-era cemetery, through muddy fields, and alongside tractors, all the while the wind gusts smacked and rain pelted against my skin. And I crossed the finish line with my fastest time since 2003 (and only 5 seconds off that time, my true personal record).

Patrick bundled up too and cheered me on, took pictures, was the great supporter he always is. It made the miserable conditions much more bearable. He even bought me a bagel, soup, and a chai latte at Woodstar afterwards.

I’m glad I got out of bed- and glad I got to spend the rest of the day on the couch, under blankets, sipping tea and eating brownies.