Only for the weekend, and only because it is my dear friend Brenda’s wedding (and I’m a bridesmaid!!). Being back here is completely bizarre. As I type this I’m sitting at Crossroads, a coffee shop in the VCU area where I spent probably hundreds of hours concepting, studying, chilling and wasting time and then concepting some more during the crazier last two years of college.
Being here as an outsider feels so different. When I arrived last night I immediately noticed the slower pace and the *niceness*. The sirs, the ma’am’s the lack of basic overall ambivalence to which I have become so accustomed in ny. People behave as though they have all the time in the world here, and all the safety. They leave laptops unattended everywhere, bikes are leaned up *UNLOCKED in front of shops, someone just used the bathroom here and left his wallet on his table. With his laptop. Insanity.
Also, no one here uses horns. It’s amazing, they just wait patiently while cars pull out in front of them and stop. Drivers seemingly doing what? Checking their makeup? The air quality? The patience is staggering. The familiar screaming of voices from cars, raised to compete with the screeching of trains and the wailing of sirens is absent. In its place an unnerving silence. An oasis of quiet.
Unfortunately, I am not a fan of quiet.
Last night I slept at my friend Joy’s house way out in what feels like the country to me now, and I actually had to turn on my ipod for background noise to fall asleep. The crickets and cicadas and wind in the trees just didn’t do it for me.
I love Richmond though, don’t get me wrong, this was my home for over 12 years of my adult life. I just know with every ounce of my being that my move to New York was the right thing… Pshh, probably the very best thing I’ve ever done for myself. The people in VA are kind, but they are also entrenched in the ways of the south, and that simply is not me. It never was. It’s a nice place to visit, but my heart calls out to my home now. Particularly on this day, 9-11 when I feel so much that I should be there.
Things will begin gearing up in a few hours for the wedding festivities, but in these few quiet moments before the storm I am enjoying a bit of much needed tranquility. I think I’ll take a stroll around my old campus. Perhaps run into an old friend or two.
Only for the weekend, and only because it is my dear friend Brenda’s wedding (and I’m a bridesmaid!!). Being back here is completely bizarre. As I type this I’m sitting at Crossroads, a coffee shop in the VCU area where I spent probably hundreds of hours concepting, studying, chilling and wasting time and then concepting some more during the crazier last two years of college.
Being here as an outsider feels so different. When I arrived last night I immediately noticed the slower pace and the niceness.
The sirs, the ma’am’s the lack of basic overall ambivalence to which I have become so accustomed in ny. People behave as though they have all the time in the world here, and all the safety. They leave laptops unattended everywhere, bikes are leaned up unlocked in front of shops. Someone just used the bathroom here and left his wallet on his table. With his laptop. Insanity.
Also, no one here uses horns. It’s amazing, they just wait patiently while cars pull out in front of them and stop. Drivers seemingly doing what? Checking their makeup? The air quality? The patience is staggering. The familiar screaming of voices from cars, raised to compete with the screeching of trains and the wailing of sirens is absent. In its place an unnerving silence. An oasis of quiet.
Unfortunately, I am not a fan of quiet.
Last night I slept at my friend Joy’s house way out in what feels like the country to me now and I actually had to turn on my ipod for background noise to fall asleep. The crickets and cicadas and wind in the trees just didn’t do it for me.
I love Richmond though, don’t get me wrong, this was my home for over 12 years of my adult life. I just know with every ounce of my being that my move to New York was the right thing… Pshh, probably the very best thing I’ve ever done for myself. The people in VA are kind, but they are also entrenched in the ways of the south, and that simply is not me. It never was. It’s a nice place to visit, but my heart calls out to my home now. Particularly on this day, 9-11 when I feel so much that I should be there.
Things will begin gearing up in a couple of hours for the wedding festivities, but in these few quiet moments before the storm I am enjoying a bit of much needed tranquility. I think I’ll take a stroll around my old campus.
Perhaps run into an old friend or two.
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