Favorites things are right here

So, I'm buying a house. It's in the neighborhood I had picked out as perfect right after moving here, and it's in the style I most associate with Wisconsin, and it's the only one I ever looked at, and it's perfect and a dream and it should be mine, touch wood, all things willing, by the end of this week.

I was describing its location to my cousin when she was visiting recently, and mentioning that I wasn't sure how I would give people directions to it when they were coming to see me. And she recommended that I direct them from a major north-south artery that runs the length of town to the closest side street, and just drive across, and that way they would avoid having to drive down College Avenue, which is the main drag of downtown. And when she said this my heart went, No! Because that drive down those last few blocks of College Ave., past the Art Center and City Center and the Starbucks and all the other cafe's, and the place I used to get my hair cut and the museum, and toward the University campus, that's one of my favorite drives in the whole world. Other people take the highway to get to where I'm living now but I always drive down College Ave., all the way, just so I can drive down those few blocks. Why would anyone ever drive so as to avoid them, when I go out of my way to experience them? And so I realized that those few blocks of College Ave. are in fact one of my favorite drives in the world, and guess what, they are right here, in this town. And close to my house! Or will be, as soon as it becomes my house.

When I was thinking about putting an offer in, I talked to a friend who lives in a house with his girlfriend, and when they were looking they viewed upwards of 50 properties, so the girlfriend knows the real estate ins and outs of every neighborhood in town. I asked him what they thought about the location and he mentioned the noise from the trains. The tracks run diagonally pretty much right through the center of town, right on the surface there at the same level as the roads. And the trains by law have to blow their whistle before every intersection. And those tracks run about two blocks away from the dream home, so I will hear those whistles, maybe in the middle of the night, maybe every night. But the sound of a train whistle is one of my favorite sounds on earth. I may have even mentioned it here. I can hear them faintly in my current place, and every time I hear that high lonesome sound it reminds me that I am back in the Midwest of my youth, and of my people, and it fills my heart with warmth. Train whistle sounds are one of my favorite sounds on earth, so it's not going to be any problem at all that I can hear them well, all the time, from my new house. As soon as it becomes my house.

Good things in strip malls

One thing you learn pretty quickly about this town is not to judge establishments by their exteriors. Three of the best restaurants I've been to in the last year or so have been in strip malls. Two of them were the hottest table in town and all the rage among everyone I knew. But they were all three in the most unassuming locations, just tucked into strip malls beside pet shops and payday loan companies and what have you (actually, not literally either of those but you know what I mean). And they were spectacular - perfectly great atmosphere inside, great food, mainly good service. You would never have picked them from just going past.

So much about this town is like that. You'd think given all the demographic statistics that the people here would be the most boring people on earth, and to have any sort of cultural or intellectual life you'd have to move away to a Big Cty on a Coast. But if you actually meet the people, you find the most interesting folks, with the most interesting pasts and biographies, and experiences and interests and capabilities. Can't judge them by their exteriors either.

Favorite scents

• Jasmine in bloom
• Hash browns cooking
• Snow at night, when the temperature is below freezing

(more to come)

Americana (abridged)

So when you fly from Appleton to Denver, the first things you see are small farms with one farm house and one barn each - perfect, quarter acre squares cut out of the landscape with roads between that run exactly north and south, and exactly east and west. This continues for hours, although you might go in and out of cloud cover, but when you emerge there it is again, that midwestern grid, all the way across the middle. Then, eventually, as you head west, you start to see the circles. They are bigger than the squares were, a whole acre each, perfect green circles and you can see along a radius the straight black irrigation pipes that define them, and brown bits at the corner before the next circle in the quilt. Then as you go further west there's more brown, and fewer circles, and some gentle undulations of the land but it's more barren and scrubby. And then just when you're sick of that, the captain announces your descent into Denver and asks you to fasten your seat belt and put your seat backs and tray tables into the locked position, and then if you're by the window you look out and see what seems like a line of low clouds defining the western horizon but as you get closer it's clear that it's snow at the top of the mountains, and when the plane swings around either to the right or to the left to approach the runways you see sun glint off the tall buildings downtown. You look out over it, that distinctive Colorado vegetation and the city and the peaks beyond, and wince with all those memories of being young and new and learning to drink and dance and all the rest of it, but as the plane taxis you look out over it, that brown scrubby landscape, and you’re reclaiming it and it’s yours.

Written after a flight in September as part of an email (thanks DJ for permission to reprint), abridged as above and read out to a poetry group tonight.

Possible Answers

No, never.
I'm flattered, but no, I don't think so.
Not right now.
Not right now but maybe later.
Maybe.
Let's see how things go.
Let's try it and see how things go.
Yes.
Yes, immediately.
Yes, I always have and always will forever.

Without condition

Knowing that there's someone out there who loves you, at all times, just as you are, is one of the chief comforts people get from religion.

Work not yellow enough

I attended a team-building session at work today that included a profile of my work style. In addition to descriptions of my strengths and weaknesses and preferred communication styles, there was a page that listed the features of Ellen's ideal work environment. Here's what it said that should include:

• Bright, motivational, inspirational posters and prints abound.
• She sees the impact and results of her efforts.
• The culture promotes a democratic management style.
• Information is openly and freely available and exchanged.
• There is ample opportunity to express ideas.
• The emphasis is on informality and tapping in to inner creativity.
• Her inspirational vision is nurtured.
• She has freedom from authority and bureaucracy.
• She can question the ruiles and the traditional ways of doing things.
• A flexible approach is taken to the specification of hours and days worked.

I'd say these are all true of me.

Not one - not ONE - applies to my current work situation.

(C) Copyright 1992-2009 Andrew Lothian, Insights, Dundee, Scotland. All rights reserved. www.gatehousealliance.com