Settling in, but still unsettled in Providence

I suppose the title says it all. We are making progress in getting settled here in Providence, but emotionally we are still very unsettled about being back in the US. Odd but true.

Let me explain.

Since moving in on 19 November we have begun the process of becoming American homeowners once again, and frankly we continue to have mixed feelings about. Somewhere along the line I probably alluded to these feelings before, but the stark reality is that for the past two years we have been pretty carefree -- and it's now starting to dawn on both of us how "spoiled" we had become: no debt, no homeowner hassles. Now we're back in the groove (some might say the "grind") and feeling the perplexities an “adjustment phase” at the moment. Or maybe we just really miss Paris and Italy.

The upside is that we needed to get our stuff out of storage and get on with living like adults -- or something approximating adulthood. We also looked forward to living in a big city. So we have met both of those goals: we now have our "stuff" back, we own a place in Providence and we're getting on with the vagaries of being alive, the peculiarities of our world, enjoying the simple delights of a good wine, a tasty meal, laughing together; things to be savored when we are lucky enough to have them.

And so here we are. Since I last wrote -- aside from the road trip we took on Saturday, 1 December -- we have pretty much gone through all our boxes and have so far made two trips to the Salvation Army with one or two more still ahead of us I'm sure.

Small bugs still pop up in the condo: right now a leaky pipe under the kitchen sink, but then other bugs get fixed: the mailbox is repaired, our stove works fine after all (that's me not reading the manual thoroughly), our door buzzer to let people in works fine although the talk/listen features were manufactured by drunken 12-year-olds, and the trash got picked up at last.

Clothes are all put away in their respective places, pictures, prints, photos are now going up on the walls and Susie's numerous handcrafted teddy bears and Santas are finding their own special places of course.

Along the way we’ve also eaten out at several of the local eateries: Gracie’s restaurant in downtown Providence. Incredible food and service, and a superb wine list. We’ve also eaten at two local Mexican restaurants: La Hacienda, just down the street from our building and Don Jose Tequila on Atwell’s avenue.

Speaking of Atwell’s Avenue and Federal Hill, we caught up with Jack and Pat F. from Rutland this past Friday night. They were in town to hear their son in a concert at Providence College (he’s in the music program there) and we happened to connect earlier in the week by phone and email so we planned to meet them for dinner. Since they like to hit Federal Hill when they come to Providence and since we lived nearby we opted to meet up with them at Cassarino’s, night at Cassarino’s, just off the corner of Dean street on Atwell’s. The food was plentiful and tasty – although volume seemed to be the operative word here. Service was, shall we say, interesting: when our server explained one of the wine specials to Jack she said that it tasted of raspberry and “stuff like that.” We skipped that one. Keep it simple I always say and our gal that night lived up to that motto – right down to her glossy black fingernail polish. Lots of laughter at the tables around us, which did my heart good to hear so many people enjoying the slice of life handed to them.

The search for work continues as well. I troll Craigslist every two or three days and send out the occasional inquiry to a posting for anything from a Photoshop specialist to a teacher -- in fact I'm looking into working as a "cognitive skills tutor," which should be exciting since I haven't a clue as to what one does but I'm sure it's fascinating. Susie meanwhile is still negotiating with a local restaurant -- they clearly want her but are trying to work out the details. We just tell each other what Egina, our Italian teacher in Siena use to always say: “Piano piano,” step-by-step.

Wish you were here, and maybe you will be soon!

Steve