Big Apple Cheese

I want to thank Paula and Bart of The Givin House for making me feel a little more at home here in Wisconsin. They own a shop that has distinctive home furnishings with a French country flavor. If you or someone you know is having a baby, make sure you stop by to view the nursery of your dreams.

So, now that I have to actually drive to get anywhere, I have been radio surfing in attempt to amuse myself while motoring from place to place. I have discovered that local culture tends to dictate what one hears on the radio. OK yes, I could hook up my iPod and avoid the “what the heck is that playing on the radio” thoughts followed by the channel surf dance to find something other than a commercial for vitamins. But in an attempt to absorb the local flavor, I have been expanding my musical experience to include genres that not only did I rarely, if ever, heard in the big apple, but were so looked down upon by my New York City pals that they would avoid dating anyone who even liked the offending music.

Yes, I am talking about country music. In metropolis I could never find a good steak nor a good country music station. So, when I moved to the midwest I explored this forbidden fruit. And, I am a little hooked, although I am not sure I would admit this to my peeps in Manhattan.

Is this a fad or is this truly some deep unfulfilled desire thwarted by the din, dirt and dance mix mania of the city? Time will tell. In the meantime, I have George Strait hanging out in my iTunes library and serenading my little house on the prairie…on occasion.

I wonder how many readers I have lost during my hiatus from my blog (almost two months)…well maybe there will be some understanding souls out there waiting patiently for another post, or at least willing to give me another try.  It’s been almost two months since I purchased my little house on the prairie, having moved from the big apple to the state of cheese…and brats (still waiting to try my first brat).  Seems there is a lot to owning a new house.  In fact, I didn’t even have a mailbox when I moved in, and so there it started, a new mailbox, new window treatments, landscaping and a ton of new furniture.  Today I was thinking I have been in a bit of a bird mode, you know, going out and collecting sticks for my nest, only these sticks cost a few bucks.

So, here I am in my little nest away from the big city wondering if I will ever entirely fit in, wishing I were closer to my family…closer to anyone.  I have lived around the country, the west, the south, east and now the midwest and having flown over the rainbow a few times, I can say that each place holds a charm and a wonder, and each place is called home to a lot of folks, but it takes time to call a place home.   Making a house is fairly easy, although expensive, but still not as challenging as making a home.  So, as I am gathering things for my new house, I am gathering relationships for my new life here in Wisconsin.  Not sure I will ever call Wisconsin home, but I will look to the sky and hope that the dreams I dare to dream of finding a home, really do come true.

Today I closed on my house in Wisconsin. It’s official. I live here now. On this holy Thursday, the eve of Good Friday and yet another snow storm, I am more reflective than having more common feelings such as elation, joy, relief, or oh my, what have I done. For me it is more of a calm, reflection of having arrived at some point in my life that came with a great deal of work and was a point that I wasn’t certain I would ever attain.

I had dreamed of owning a house like the one I purchased. I feel in a way that I have achieved a level of independence and security (OK, as secure as one can be with a mortgage), and perhaps a place where I can finally plant some roots (at least for awhile). It’s not that I haven’t owned before. My apartment in New York City was fun, but didn’t seem like entirely mine, and other places I have owned never quite matched my dreams. It’s like I can check this off my list of things to do in this life.

Now buying this house was nice, but certainly not at the top of noteworthy achievements. I still remember how I felt with those other more life changing milestones. Those are memories I will never forget, should never forget. Graduating from high after a period where I wasn’t certain I would finish at all, graduating from college after years of working my way through, graduating from graduate school where I never imagined I would ever be. These were proud moments and I reveled in them. But, even those pale in comparison to life events that have touched and changed my soul.

So, on this holy Thursday, along with celebrating my new home, I am reflecting on the important times of my life, not those things that I have achieved, but on those that I have learned, grasped, received and given. Not what I have achieved, but what I have become. I am celebrating the real gifts in life, those that don’t necessarily come from hard work, but those experiences that have truly transformed me, that have made me learn what it is to give and receive love, and charity, and to have hope.

On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, I closed sale on my apartment in New York City. After eight months on the market I have separated from the place I called home in NYC. A one bedroom, 900 square foot apartment with hardwood floors a view of a garden and all the sirens, car stereos and people, people, people one could want living in the city. The quiet of the Madison suburbs where I have been staying have been pronounced in comparison and a little unnerving. Although I have been living in an apartment complex, I have heard so little from my neighbors I have on occasion wondered if I actually had any. I was not used to so much quiet. Not that I am complaining mind you. I am certain I can get used to not being awaken by fire trucks and restless neighbors in the middle of the night.

So, now that I have cut all financial ties with the big apple, I am free to put down some roots in Wisconsin (granted if the snow eventually melts). As I may have mentioned previously my apartment sale was not without angst, frustration, a few additional wrinkles, gray hair, and a lot of drinking, so when I got the call from my attorney that the sale was final I was elated (well, as elated as a former New Yorker can be). Make no mistake the big apple and the state of New York took a fair bit of the profits from my sale, but now I can pursue my soon to be little house on the prairie. My little house which I will close sale on in a week.

People visit New York City for a taste of something new and different from their usual menu. What can a New Yorker do for a change of diet (other than walk to another corner), we could leave NYC (just to put this in perspective true New Yorkers would never consider this an option). OK none of my New York friends would agree, but I have (at least for now) pursued a different path. So, this former New Yorker who gave up a piece of New York will soon be taking a bite out of Wisconsin. Bon appetit.

Today I saw grass…well, what grass would look like if it were brownish, muddy and flattened from living under the snow for three months. It was still grass, emerging in patches as if the snow was finally giving up its hold and letting go of winter, opening up windows into the earth below. Where I thought there were hills, I discovered they were not hills at all but snow piled so densely they had become part of the terrain. The entire landscape seems to be changing and since I did not know what it looked like before, it seems a bit surreal.

I think for the most part we don’t expect the earth to change and shift a great deal, at least not in a day. I think we expect, with the exception of construction workers, eccentric landscapers and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, that the topography of our surroundings don’t really change, at least not so quickly that we for a moment may loose our bearings a bit. Years ago in the region where I grew up, we had a great deal of flooding. There were rivers were there were lakes before, and lakes were there was dry land. In my mind I still have an image of driving down a familiar road and looking off to the side to see a lake. For a moment I was confused, disoriented. I thought I had driven too far, or taken a wrong turn. Then I saw a building sitting in the middle of the lake that was definitely not a houseboat, although the owner probably wished that it was, and realized this lake was not there before and had never been in my life time.

Funny how unsettling it can be when our physical world changes around us. A feeling we share as we speculate and gossip about a new subdivision, a new high rise, a new highway. We feel nostalgia about the way things were, even though we may appreciate the possibilities of what may be coming. Now, I doubt I will feel nostalgia about the way Wisconsin has looked these past almost two and a half months I have been here. Although I will certainly never forget. I am however appreciating the change and looking forward to the possibilities that may be coming…

Today I went curling…for the first time. For those of you with a puzzled look on your face trying to picture what curling is, don’t feel bad, I didn’t know either. Apparently, I missed the riveting curling match at the 2006 winter Olympics that everyone, including my sister seemed to know about. How did I do, well don’t look for me in the winter Olympics, but I wasn’t entirely awful, and although not a bad outing, I am pretty much done with curling for this life.

So, curling, I am told by some seasoned Wisconsinites, is a “Wisconsin thing,” a Wisconsin thing among a list of Wisconsin things, I am discovering. So, I am slowly working through my things-to-do-in-Wisconsin list that Wisconsin has decided are her defining characteristics.

What I have done already:

The Friday Fish Fry. When I first heard about this I assumed, as lent was approaching, this was a classic Wisconsin event born out of the tradition for abstinence from meat on Fridays, so embraced by my religion. Well, whether it emerged from that or not, it had become the Friday thing to do in Wisconsin and something I have checked off my list.

Cheese Curds. I had never heard of cheese curds, but it is understandable that Wisconsin would shine when it comes to cheese. What are these things they call cheese curds beside a bit off-putting when I first heard the name. They are for those who know about them (apparently a lot of folks, but not me), called the “squeaky cheese.” Yes, they squeak a little in your mouth when you chew them. Other than that they are just cheese, a light and fluffly cheese that squeaks when you chew it, and yes, they do squeak…a little.

Looking forward to it:

Brats. Now I am a New York hotdog hound and having sampled hotdogs all around the city, I know where to find the good dog, and where to avoid at all costs the very bad dog. Apparently I have have missed out on sampling the Brat though. Now I am told the average hotdog does not compare to a Wisconsin brat, but I am quite certain this meat hound would thoroughly enjoy this Wisconsin delicacy…sometime soon.

Not sure I will be checking the following off my list any time soon:

Ice Fishing. Now, this piqued my interest having grown up in a place where going fishing was a weekend favorite. And, the thought of walking out onto a lake of frozen water, breaking a hole in the ice and dropping in a line to catch I don’t know what, was vaguely interesting. But, imagining a day in the cold, wondering how sturdy the ice really was and what I would do if I actually fell in, does not motivate me to visit the tackle store anytime soon.

Cow chip throwing. Yes, I have heard of this, and I suppose there are those who take pride in this “sport,” but I am fairly certain this is no where within a million miles of my things to do list. Where’s Bloomingdales?

Today the temperature in Madison is in the upper 40s. Now since I have been in Madison, I have been staying in an executive suite while looking for more permanent housing. Outside my living room is a small balcony where icicles have been forming from the roof line, some growing to the point where they are hanging down over four feet! Occasionally, I have been tempted to step outside and engage in a some icicle removal along the lines of how much impact could I make as a four foot icicle goes crashing down two stories. However, my concern for the safety of my downstairs neighbors and my not wanting to add to my probably growing reputation as a slightly eccentric New Yorker, I decided to let them continue to decorate my patio like ice bangs through which I have been looking past to the nature outside.

With the warm temperature, these icicles have been rapidly melting away revealing a landscape of shrinking mounds of snow and ice. I have yet to see grass since I have lived in Madison, and have made this known to everyone I have come to know hoping to hear that under all that tundra there lies a green carpet of lush lawn. But what I got instead was that once the snow melts away, what I will see is a soggy, matted, brown, muddy ground that merely adds to the bleakness of a very long winter. It is the final ugliness that makes the coming spring (alleged coming spring) more spectacular as the deadness of winter becomes this lush green spring when the burden of constant snow removal will become the burden of constant lawn mowing, and mowing and mowing.

I haven’t seen ground yet, and not sure if the snow will melt enough today to make that a reality. Temperatures will cool down again and more snow is forecast for the week (yes, more snow taking Madison far beyond the record!). So, probably it will still be awhile before the earth emerges as ugly as it may be. I have given up anticipating the milder promise of spring even as an official spring is coming upon us in about three weeks. So, for now I will have to create a virtual spring that will live in my imagination. Maybe not reality, but at least I won’t have to mow it!

Now that Madison, Wisconsin has beat their record for snow by A LOT, there is no more to say about the weather. This was not the winter to move here, but that’s life. So, here I am stuck in my temporary living suite for the day watching the snow flurries and occasional snow plow and perhaps insane driver go by. Since most of my belongings (books, hobbies, CD, movies, etc.) are in a storage locker on Long Island, I have little around me to keep me occupied. Yes, one can really miss their stuff. Although I am fairly certain that if the weather were nicer I wouldn’t miss all that stuff as much.

In NYC, there is so much close by and public transportation makes it easy to get around that days like this just never meant being banished from venturing out if even to the corner coffee shop for some greasy eggs and bacon with all the other claustrophobics. I will admit I did complaint about the winter weather in NYC as much as I do here. So now you know some about my personality.

About half the weekends I have been here I have worked at least one day. I spent a couple weekends running errands and a couple more house hunting. This was probably the first weekend I spent almost exclusively in this apartment. So what have I been doing? OK, I admit, I have been reading a fair amount for work. But mostly I have been surfing the internet. Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without the internet these days (I am not much of a TV watcher). If there is such thing as internet addiction, I have it!

So, here are some internet findings I am sharing. My brother-in-law actually found this YouTube video Frozen Grand Central. (By the way, YouTube is a great way to amuse oneself - for HOURS!) It was filmed in Grand Central Terminal in New York City in February. I passed through Grand Central nearly every day of the week when I lived in NYC. I took the subway to Grand Central, worked close by, did much of my food shopping there, my wine shopping, card store shopping, make-up, eye glasses and occasional Starbucks. I knew how to take advantage of the tunnels and corridors to avoid a few block of bad weather. So, the video was a little walk down memory lane as well as a reminder of the crazy happenings one would come upon while living in NYC.

SKYPE. For those have not discovered Skype, I highly recommend it especially if you are stuck in record-snow-fall-country and want to see a friendly face. It’s free internet video calling. With a camera (my Mac has one built in but you can buy one) I can see and talk to my family living across the country. We bought cameras for all of our family members, since we are spread out and I must say it is really nice to be able to see my four year old niece ballet across the floor or my two year old nephew hanging about in his superman pajamas.

New York Times on-line. For those of you who like a to peruse the Sunday paper and are environmentally conscientious.

National Public Radio - NPR. If you didn’t catch all those great stories during the week, you can listen to them here while your doing your laundry or cleaning your house. You can also access local public radio stations. Yes, I still listen to New York Public radio WNYC every day. I have to remind myself when they give the weather forecast that I am not living there anymore. Last week they were giving the forecast saying how cold it was going to be, only in the 20s they said, and I thought, if only it were that high here (we were barely above zero that day!).

Just a note, if your going to be listening to music and radio on your computer, I highly recommend buying some decent speakers. In fact, I don’t even own a stereo, but I play all my music through my computer. Which brings me to another favorite pastime, iTunes. Not just for music but I have a number of audio books. It’s nice to be able to listen to a book while hemming those new pants you just got at the we-have-to-get-rid-of-this-stuff-before-inventory-counting sale.

I suppose I could bore you to death with all of this, but I thought I would list a few of my on-line snowy day favorites and hope someone else trapped in this wintery bliss will appreciate it. Stay warm.