Wednesday wanderings

Today our car was in the shop and I had an appointment with my acupuncturist at his new office, so between the subway ride and the office I was able to peruse a Philly neighborhood I haven't spent much time in -- Fairmount. It's very cute there, and if I lived there I could walk to both my school and to Whole Foods (which I did after my appointment and had a lovely lunch -- vegetarian sushi and a chocolate croissant! Yum!) Unfortunately, the houses there are very expensive... *sigh*

I think a lot about moving. I like my house, but as I've probably mentioned a million time in this blog, I really don't like our neighborhood. Matt's job requires us to live within the city limits, and although I like living in the city I don't appreciate the fact that his employer dictates where we can live. I would love to move across the bridge to New Jersey, where the homeschooling laws are better, but that will have to wait until I finish college and become the primary wage-earner (I can hardly wait!) In the meantime, there are some Philly neighborhoods I certainly wouldn't mind considering, like East Mount Airy. The thought of the actual act of moving, however... oy....

My poor, neglected blog

It's been four months since I posted here! That's terrible!

I'm going to try to do better. It was a long, difficult summer. Things are improving.

My next-door neighbors, the ones who cut down my favorite tree AND brought all sorts of vermin into my life, have decided to move to Florida and put their house up for rent. At the beginning of this summer, *we* had planned on being the ones to move, but our plans fell by the wayside as we contemplated spending loads of money on other things. Now that we've decided not to go that route, we're re-contemplating a move.

Yes, we still own a car. But, we've been doing a lot more walking and using public transit, and it's really not so bad. In fact, I kind of prefer it. For instance, yesterday I was driving across the SAME intersection where my accident happened in March, and the SAME thing happened -- only instead of getting slammed into, I just got the horn-and-finger for *daring* to let pedestrians cross before completing my right-hand turn. (I guess I didn't get the memo that it is now okay to run down pedestrians!) I am so sick of drivers and their egos. It's much nicer to let someone else do the driving or let my feet take me places.

I can't even remember what else I had written about here before my long absence. Anyhow, I'm really going to try to keep up with this blog, I promise!

;)

Moving on

And so it came to pass that between trees being cut down and drunken 4 am brawls in the street, between lack of kitchen counter space and dirtball next-door neighbors introducing a host of vermin into our lives, the Friedenberg family decided that it was time to close up shop on the quickly-declining block where they had spent almost ten years.

Yes, we're moving. I've had enough. There is much to do to get this house ready to sell, and I understand that right now is not the best time to put a house on the market, but it's time for us to go.

Unless Matt finds a new job (not likely -- he likes where he is), we are required to stay within the city limits, though that's fine with me. There are a zillion different neighborhoods from which to choose, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

If I could afford to buy my dream home, I'd look for an old four-bedroom Victorian with a huge kitchen, wood-burning fireplace, big backyard and laundry room on the main floor. And my own writing room, preferably in the third floor tower room ;)

But I'd settle for something with some kitchen counter space!