From one Avalon to the next, setting up house

Despite wanting to patronize local businesses, searching for an apartment has led us to the "Starbucks" of apartments: Avalon. We were in an Avalon in Newton, a beautiful 3/3 new apartment that Tom's company put us up at for a month. It was literally bigger than our house in Sunnyvale, had 2 indoor parking spaces for us, elevator, A/C, and a kitchen nicer than any kitchen that I think we'll be able to get in a house in Lexington at our price point (dark wood, brushed nickel hardware, granite counter tops).

So either because of that Avalon in Newton or just wanting to "move on up" (cue the theme song to The Jeffersons) from our Sunnyvale house, we ended up in another Avalon apartment complex but in Lexington. We only really had 2 choices in town because of our desire to have a shorter term lease (6 months). The only other one willing to do it (and barely, based on the dates we had) was an old apartment complex which greatest strength was its location and a free membership to the Hayden Center. The kitchen and bathroom in those apartments were so old that I'd rather use the ones in our Sunnyvale house because at least we could pass our Sunnyvale bathrooms for "retro". It was cheaper too, but I just knew everytime I would walk into that old apartment, I'd be like, "ug" and I just can't live that way for 6-12 months. So Avalon it is: "Time Well Spent" is their logo. More like, "Money well spent".

So we signed a lease for Avalon which is known for being a little nicer, a little newer. There are two here and we are in the "old" one (12 years old). It reminds me of our condo, just a little older, but still in a much newer category than our house so it's "movin' up". I realize that with the Newton apt and this one, I really don't mind "setting up house" since the apartments are clean and newer. With our Sunnyvale house, I just remember thinking (and smelling) "musty" whenever I put away stuff in our kitchen cabinets, needing/wanting to lay down shelf paper first. How nice and easy to *maybe* wipe down a cabinet but otherwise just start putting things in. My fridge in Newton has never been so clean and organized, not cluttered by barely opened jars of mysterious Chinese sauces. And in Newton, since we only lived there for a month, I was also able to keep the pantry uncluttered, not wanting to overbuy and have to move boxes of food over to Lexington.

It is also fun to set up house because we don't have a lot of stuff to unpack into our little 1100 sf apartment. We won't get our stuff from the moving company for another month so we're borrowing and living on the minimum now that our nicely furnished apt is no longer. But that's okay. I take it as continued lessons in living less cluttered. I anticipate having a nice big garage sale sometime after moving to a permanent house. If I can live 6-12 months without some of our stuff, I can bear to give it away.

Now that we have a "permanent temporary" place, a real mailing address, I can start to feel more settled: more willing to make a friend, more willing to move forward on registering for school, summer activities and finding doctors. We are true Lexington residents now. Just waiting for a house to buy.

Little things about Boston

Yes, I know I'm still in the United States but still, there are little things, little reminders, that tell me that I'm in Boston/east coast and not CA anymore.

Limes - They are all over the place! Anywhere you'd expect to see a lemon (wedges for water, lemonade, etc.) you also see a lime! Minute Maid frozen lemonade pops? Nope. Frozen limeade. Paul Newman's lemonade? Yes, you'll find it next to the Paul Newman's limeade. Chipotle had two dishes at the fountain bar, one with lemon wedges, one with lime. Who knew? Which reminds me, can't wait for my first raspberry lime rickey again.

American cheese - In CA, all we could get was the orange kind. It all tastes the same but I always felt like the orange was as unnatural as the thought of the processed American cheese food itself. White American cheese always made me feel a little better since the days back in high school when I first ran across it in MD. But I could never find it in CA.

Buying liquor - Leftover from some archaic law about not selling alcohol on Sundays (blue law?), you can't buy beer or wine in grocery stores, most of them anyway. Most of my friends know I don't drink but I just wanted red and white wine to cook with again. Can't find it anywhere! Thank goodness MA law allows 3 stores of every chain to sell alcohol and I found a Trader Joe's in nearby Brookline who sold wine. I felt a little like a lush, frustrated whenever a store clerk would say they don't sell wine.

Driving - I'm still surprised that the drivers are often nice here. Crazy, yes, but nice. They let you in when traffic is tight. They wave at you if you let them in. It's much more interactive, it makes you feel good.

Although today at Trader Joe's, some guy was beeping a lady who wasn't getting into her car fast enough. She was waiting for me because I was getting my kids out of my car next to hers. She was so ticked at the honker, she said she was going to stand there longer just because. Ah...east coasters.

Roads - The roads here are just nuts. They aren't straight at all. I've never depended on the GPS so much in my life. And we're getting used to the crazy pattern that a street named after a city means that street leads to that city. In Lexington, you'll find Bedford Street, Woburn Street, Winchester Street and Waltham Street. As soon as Waltham Street cross the border into Waltham, it is called Lexington Street. It's confusing but I used it once to my advantage while lost in Newton and trying to get to Lexington. I saw a Lexington Street and blindly followed it and it worked!

Lexington itself is its own tangled web of confusing roads. There's a 4/225 route which in some parts of town is Mass Ave and others it's Marrett Road. And in other parts of town I think Marrett is 2A and in yet others Mass Ave is 2A. Mass Ave and Marrett do end up intersecting in two places in town. There's 2 and there's 2A, 3 and 3A, which are not the same. Sometimes a street will split and the small side road retains the name of the big road and the big road continues on with a different name. There are lots of spider web like intersections, not just 2 roads crossing at right angles, but 3-5 roads converging at random angles. And of course, roundabouts.

Weather - It has rained its fair share here and I'm surprised I'm not more appalled by the regularity of the rain, seeing that I've been out of it for a good 15 years. It's somewhat refreshing. I always used to say that I like rainy days because if I'm in a crappy mood, then at least everyone else is too. When I first arrived in CA, the day in day out sunnyness started to get on my nerves, like everyone's supposed to be happy all the time because it's sunny all the time. Maybe I'm back in my element now, going with the ups and downs of the weather, feeling relieved that it's okay almost relieving to stay inside for the rainy day, and being extra appreciative for the beautiful day that follows.