Things I'll miss; the view from the road(s)

We had a nice weekend, spending a lot of it with various groups of friends, and making some new acquaintances...

Friday afternoon I took off from work a couple hours early and went up to Mansfield Hollow to play my banjo under a tree in the sunshine. Does it get any better? Met a guy up there who also plays clawhammer, and have a couple new songs to learn, now. That was a nice surprise!

Friday night we helped Em's parents pack up the truck for their move up to New Hampshire. Most of the guys who were there, helping, were people I've known for... 11 years, at this point? Guys I had crushes on when I was in high school, you know the drill. Pizza and beer and salad and packing up the moving truck. Good times... Anja had her first ride on a quad, and loved it. You should've heard her maniacal laughter. She came home exhausted, grubby, covered in dirt and sweat and gatorade and chocolate, and thrilled to her eyebrows. Had to wake her up just enough to wash her hands, face and feet before I dropped her into bed, lol.

Saturday was such a fantastically beautiful day, high 70, sunny, breezy... took Anja out to ride her bike for a while. It's so nice to see how much she's improved since last summer, without any practice, just from having better control and confidence. She's excited about biking to the beach this summer, and I'm excited for her :) I went for a run, we walked to the park. Then off to Jay and Berk's for a barbeque... drank entirely too much wine and enjoyed the beautiful evening, the fire, visiting with like-minded and comfortable friends.

Sunday... slept in a bit, caught up on housework and paperwork and bills and such. Dropped Anja off at my mom's and headed up to Storrs to see Slavic Soul Party in a barn, and hang out with a couple of friends. Good times! Ran into Anja's teacher there. We ended up dancing (how could you not, to that music?!) and chatting with a couple members of the band and students of the bandleader. John might get to play his tuba with another group they have (blame that one on me), and I'd love to do some more dancing with those guys, soooo fun.

Bittersweet, these days. I love driving around up in Storrs and Chaplin, all the beautiful old trees and houses and stone walls. I love being in a place that has history to it. I love old barns (and heck, new barns, too). I love the *age* and feel of this part of New England, and I think often about living in a city that's constantly being remodeled. Munich has gobs of old, but does it have old in a way that's accessible to me in the same way? I don't know. It certainly doesn't have people that I've known for 10 or 15 (or 27) years to hang out with, to drop in on, to just enjoy the shared knowledge of each other's lives. That's a hard thing for me. And I know that if we stay there, we will gradually build that anew, and it's where Anja would feel how I feel now about Connecticut... but it's hard to look at it from this vantagepoint and know what the right decision will be, how much time and soul to invest... would I ever feel as comfortable there as I do here? Especially as we continue to build up our social network, to meet people who already know people that we know, to invest ourselves in groups that we will soon be leaving, the decision is hard. Sunday night, I might really have been willing to scrap the whole venture.

I didn't bring my camera at all this weekend, anywhere. I think I really need to start doing that more, so that at least I can have the pictures to help hold onto the memories and feelings...