Welcome Wagon.

We have officially been welcomed to the neighborhood by Pam and the neighborhood Welcome Committee. Have I mentioned lately how much I love living here?? She brought with her not only hi's and hello's and handshakes, but healthy treats for wolfie, a $10 gift certificate for the neighborhood coffee shop, a gift certificate for free pizza, neighborhood business coupons galore, and a bunch of other stuff to help us get to know who and what is around us. We've also been added to the neighborhood e-mail list. I mean, really, I feel like I've stepped into the Twilight Zone. It feels too good to be true. And free pizza and coffee to boot? After Pam left, Vinny and I looked through everything she dropped off and whole-heartedly agreed:

We love it here.

All we got when we moved into our last neighborhood was dog poop in the front yard and our garbage can knocked over on a nearly daily basis by the crabby girl that lived across the alley. There was Tasha and Jonathan, and Tina and Neema...but eventually they moved away and we lived in a dirty little piece of hell. These days life not only smells better, it feels better.

Sure, I suppose even this place has its down-side but, whatever it is, I haven't found it yet. All I know is that when I walk out my door and run into my neighbors it almost always results in a deeply satisfying conversation.

And I still haven't gotten over the fact that we are living in the best of both worlds. We have all the extremes of nature on one side of us and all the extremes of a city on the other. Yesterday V. and I finally took our first public transit adventure and rode the bus. We got on early for the "rush hour" experience since that's when I'll need to be on it for work. We walked down our own quiet neighborhood streets to the bus stop where we timidly clambered on...and the closer to downtown we got, the more people that got on, the more diverse everything became, the more excited I got that I ACTUALLY LIVE HERE! As I watched the passing urban scenery out the window...two old men sat on the edge of a flower garden drinking coffee from thermoses...one man emerged from a red door covered in graffiti...a woman walked with her baby in a stroller...cars, concrete, grey sky...there was something beautiful and exciting about the common-place, the everyday; I looked out the windows trying to capture what I saw. Portraits. Colors made more intense by the rain.

In the past I never imagined myself living here. Actually, I always thought I'd hate it. Turns out the opposite is true...because I'm finding that I might never want to leave. I'm a country girl at heart, but this place..............mmm, this place makes me happy in a way I never, ever expected.