An Oasis in Suburbia

Many thanks to the Knitting Queen for the shout out!

Joel found the card for the (broken anyway but mostly redeemable) digital camera, so hopefully soon this blog will suck less. I have ideas, people! I just can't implement any of them because I am not technologically advanced. Heck, right now I'm stealing wireless internet for the first time ever, simply in order to update my blog. Welcome to the twenty-first century, right?

So, I recently moved to the suburbs of Atlanta. After living in the actual ATL for three years, I finally couldn't afford the luxury of having my own apartment any more (damn student loans!) and broke down and started shacking up with my boyfriend, who has been a grown-up longer than I have, working a real job and owning a house and actually feeding his cat every day, etc. Me? I'm twenty-five and still work the occasional unpaid internship. Anyway, living in sin with Joel has been great so far. The only problem is that I now live OTP -- that is, Outside The Perimeter -- in Marietta. Even worse, I work in Alpharetta. Both of these cities at least used to be their own independent villages with real town squares and everything, so they're sort of redeemable. And our house is a simple brick ranch-style home, not some horrid plywood McMansion in a gated subdivision that was a forest two years ago. But still. I live in the suburbs. I'm not that kind of girl.

Yesterday, however, I discovered a coffee shop between home and work that, although it is one of a chain, is really rockin' and doesn't feel like it's just on the other side of the ever-expanding highway-to-the-exurbs from a gigantic mall. Okay, so there's a Porsche dealership next door. But still. There were two geese magically finding food on the perfectly-manicured (pesticided) strip of grass between the parking lot and the street. The girl at the counter has hair that's dyed multiple colors that couldn't possibly have grown out of her head -- but not in that tacky, trendy, trying-to-be-hip kind of way. And she gave me a free drink before plopping down at a table with the manager (constantly having non-work-related converstaions on his cell phone) and a guy I think is her boyfriend. There's an actual lake out back. I'm not asking if it's natural or bulldozer-made, because I might be disappointed. I sat down in a comfy brown leather chair and sank into knitting my brioche hat for a good 45 minutes. The hectic day with the eight-year-old who can't find his nose and "forgets" how to walk just melted away. I felt like I was back in the coffee shop where I worked while I was in college. It was awesome.

Amazing what free coffee and good knitting can do for the soul.

Anyway, I came back today. Here I am, right now, stealing wireless from a nearby Cigars, Etc. (shame on you, Caribou, for making your customers pay for internet access! I spent four dollars on the damn Turtle Mocha I'm drinking!)(so much for that free drink I got yesterday.) and looking out the window at the peaceful lake. And I'm going to try to write job applications and knit. And pretend that there's not a Porsche dealership next door.

Amazing what knitting can do for the soul, despite the four-dollar coffee.
(the "free" internet helps. Thanks, Cigars, Etc.!)