City No. 5: Stamford, Connecticut, or, “Gee, the only thing to do here is to go to the mall…”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews

Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects. 

"Gosh, Katie, you're the most interesting thing in Stamford."

"Psh, I know..."

I didn't take any pictures in Stamford, CT, hence the photos of ourselves...

I know you must be thinking that I’m exaggerating here, but Peter and I found ourselves so bored with the city that we got excited by the Barnes and Noble and the H&M located in the mall.  And yes, we’re still talking about Peter and I.  People that HATE malls.  And actually, architecturally speaking, it was kind of interesting to look at.  The footprint of the mall was actually quite small, but it was about 4 or 5 stories high!  But that’s all it offered.  That, and an inaccurate map of the mall.  Peter and I spent probably 5 minutes or more riding the escalators up and down (and then back to the map to double-check) because the map said the bookstore was on a floor that it definitely wasn’t.  We probably looked like idiots, but c’mon!  The map was wrong! 

We did happen upon an art gallery that was pretty interesting.  They were exhibiting an artist that worked primarily with earth, and the surrounding concepts (like everything that can be made with it, done to it, the tools used to do all of these things).  It was pretty interesting, and it the owner of the gallery seemed to think that Stamford was on the “up and up.”  He had seen a lot of growth in the two years that he’d been there, and he anticipated Stamford becoming a very important city for the arts.  And if little galleries like his own keep coming into the city, I think he’ll be right!  It’s close enough to New York (40 min on the train) that it could probably get some foot traffic, but it would take people coming to Stamford FOR the galleries.  What came first, the foot traffic that allowed galleries to grow, or the galleries that created foot traffic?  I’m no expert, but I felt a little bit about Stamford the way I did about Wilmington, but with a positive twist.  While there is not much in Stamford now, because everyone commutes to NY for everything that they need (work, art, culture, food), people do live in Stamford.  If they need to in the future, they can make Stamford their home for everything else again, too.

But currently, Stamford—eh.     

Oh, and I must also add (just because it’s hilarious), that when Peter and I jumped into the car and plugged “Stamford” into the GPS, it gave us directions to Stamford, NY.  Which we followed for 40 min.  And then we realized our mistake.  Oops. 

AND--one more thing-- the Goodwill in Stamford was the most expensive Goodwill that I've EVER been to.  They were selling their goods for prices comparable to H&M, and in some cases, were MORE expensive.  Coats were being sold for $25-80.  Sweaters ranged from $10-$25.  Shoes were rarely under $10.  I was appalled.  

City No. 4: Brooklyn, New York, or, "Though we're not going to consider this city (cause it's huge and expensive), we might as well stop by since we're already here...and of course I have to write a review"

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews

Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects. 
   

This city has many things to offer, one of them being our good friend Hala and her boyfriend Sam—friends from North Carolina that relocated to New York this year.  Our trip there was short but sweet, and had a bit of a hiccup in the middle (more to follow), but we got to experience a delicious vegan Asian fusion restaurant, found the most amazing coffee shop—so good we went there 4 times (no joke!  It was that good!), visit an awesome independent bookstore, and toured the largest antique shop that I’ve ever seen (4 floors!).  All in all, it was a good couple of days, though far from the kind of “New York experience” that we could have had.  You’ll see what I mean in a second. 

           

First, the hiccup in the middle:  We had rolled in to Brooklyn with enough to walk around a bit, find the amazing coffee shop, and then eat dinner with Hala at the vegan restaurant.  Then, being exhausted from the trip, went to bed.  There was not enough time for Peter to workout at the YMCA.  So, he woke up at 7 am, and headed over.  When I woke up at around 8:30, he had still not come back.  I thought it was a bit strange, but didn’t think much about it.  When he finally showed up, he looked a little disheveled, and in hindsight—maybe a bit pale. 

“How was your workout?”  Hala and I asked from the kitchen table, sipping our morning coffee.

 

“Well,” Peter said as he sat down, “not good.  I passed out.” 

And he proceeded to tell his morning adventure.  Apparently, he worked out really hard (without eating breakfast first!) and when he got back to the locker room, he started feeling really dizzy.  Then he realized he was having a hard time seeing—his vision had become dark and tunneled—and he was also beginning to have difficulty forming thought.  “I’m having an emergency,” he finally decided as his world went black...  When he woke up, he was on the floor, and the previously full room was completely empty with the exception of one person—coincidentally, a person he had been working out next to earlier in the morning.  He tried getting up, and with difficulty and weakness he staggered to the person. 

“I think I’m having an emergency, please help me,” he said (though he’s unsure if he actually formed real words, and it wasn’t a bunch of gibberish), and then his world went black again. 

When he woke up again, he was thankful that he was both caught by the person, as well as placed gently on the floor.  A trainer and a few other people surrounded him and they fed him Altoids, a granola bar, water, and made sure he was ok before they sent him on his way home.  Never was an emergency vehicle sent for (which I thought was odd), as the trainer diagnosed him immediately.  No breakfast.  “People pass out all the time in the morning because of that,” the trainer said to Peter.  “Next time, be sure to eat breakfast.”

Peter felt strange all day, suffered from a migraine later on, and all-around didn’t feel like doing anything strenuous (understandably), so we took it easy and watched movies on Hala’s netflix account, Peter napped a bit while I wrote this post, and we literally didn’t do anything all day but eat at a Thai restaurant down the street.  It was the only full day that we had in the city, and we spent most of it in an apartment, but it was a very relaxing day in that way.  It was a much needed resting period after the “go-go-go” that we’ve been enduring for the past two weeks!  But maybe we didn’t make good use of our time in New York, but we’ve already seen so much on our trip, I can’t believe that we missed that much.  Here, I’ll give you the list of things that we DID see, and then things that we didn’t, and you can decide for yourself.     

We ate at Wild Ginger, the vegan Asian fusion restaurant where we had sweet and sour mock chicken, veggie potstickers, and summer rolls.  Delicious.  Building on Bond was the coffee shop that we returned to multiple times.  Their almond scones and apple turnovers were to die for, and their design (using old chemistry lab stools, equipment, drawers, etc.) was AMAZING.  Like nothing I’ve seen before.  The great independent bookstore (damn, I can’t remember the name of it!) has famous people, like Miranda July, do readings and lectures there. 

Here’s what we missed:  Miranda July was scheduled to speak and do readings from her book THAT FIRST NIGHT that we got into town.  The night that we ate the amazing sweet and sour mock chicken.  Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha was scheduled to play at the Met, or the next night Rene Flemming was performing in an opera by Handel.  We did not ride the subway, and, according to Hala, an amazing exhibit showcasing “Sesame Street”, at a museum in town.  We did not join the protests for Occupy Wallstreet, and we did not see any art at any art museums…

Maybe we did miss out…but poor Peter needed to rest up.  Sorry, New York, we used you as a resting stop.  Maybe we’ll get to see more of you next time, eh?  You’ll always be there…

City No. 3: Philadelphia, PA, or, “City of Brah-brah Love and the Land of One Thousand Million Cats”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews

Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.   

 

I was amazed with many of Philly's attributes right off the bat—enough so—that I started to keep notes on all that I enjoyed.  But first, I will explain the title of this blog.  Surely the brotherly love part is typically common knowledge (“City of Brotherly Love” comes from the literal Greek translation “brotherly love”), but the cat thing?  While I hope this is a gross exaggeration, I have a feeling that it may not be.  There are cats everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  Mostly skinny cats, hiding under parked cars, slinking around corners and rustling in the brush.  They meow at night.  And most of them are unapproachable—incredibly feral.  But after hearing about how our couch-surfer’s neighbor deals with the issue (and I suspect she’s not the only one doing it this way), it is not surprising that the situation is not improving.  She adopts some of them (13 at the moment?), and then the rest that she can’t afford to adopt, are fed outside her back door.  And she has comfy crate and pillow that the mamma cats can use to birth and raise kittens in.  But here’s the kicker:  she refuses to get them spayed and neutered, and according to the neighbors, seems to like it when the mamma cats have kittens in her back hard (which grow up to be strays that she feeds but can’t afford to take care of, and who also breed more kittens in her back yard).  The kittens we saw in her backyard had eye infections that had progressed so much that the eye was glued shut with puss.  I understand her wanting to help, but man—those poor kittens…

Some graffiti on the streets.  Pretty sure that little thing is an opossum.  Maybe?

Anyway, so there are many, many cats.  But also there is a subway system, the Mutter Museum (a medical history museum that housed many crazy things including a 70 lb ovarian tumor as well as many books bound with leather made from human skin—ugh!), China Town, as well as that famous bell with the crack in it (ah yes—the Liberty Bell!), an indoor market, and a brewery that uses Thomas Jefferson’s original beer recipe!  Basically, Philly has much to offer in the realm of interesting things as well as in the “uninteresting things” --such as really expensive name-brand stores, trendy gourmet restaurants that cost an arm and a leg, as well as the people that enjoy these things.  Needless to say, it was obvious to see that we were getting closer to NY, NY.  And just as much as I wouldn’t live in downtown NY, I wouldn’t live in downtown Philly. 

The neighborhood that our couch-surfer hosts lived in, however, told an entirely different story.  Once poor (and it still has poor areas), the areas of “East Kensington” and “Fishtown” had their own small-town/urban renewal feel.  Small businesses have moved into disheveled, old buildings and created adorable “shabby chic” atmospheres, and homeowners have moved into abandoned homes and created new and lived-in spaces.  One man has even put up several pre-fab houses that give the area a very strong feeling of transition and progression.  If we moved into Philly, this would be the place to be, as it still has relatively good deals on homes, there’s plenty of room for the community to grow, and it’s on the L Line!  For two dollars (or if you have a token that only costs $1.55), you can get downtown and not have to worry about parking—and feel free as a bird!  Lovely! 

Philly, you’re a-ok in my book!  A little bigger of a city and further along in development than what we are probably looking for, but still a really cool place. 

View from way up on the 27th floor of a building downtown. 

Liberty Bell!  Of course, you can only see the side that doesn't have the crack from outside.
To see the crack, you've gotta pay a few dollerz to actually go inside.  No thanks!

More graffiti. 

This delightful elephant slide is exactly like the one that sat in my front yard as a child.  Brought me back to those
days of zero responsibility.  This slide gave Philly a few extra points in my book. 

Thomas Jefferson's delicious brew!  His original recipe!  He was a great brewmaster.
It was a nice brown ale with a nice caramel aftertaste.  Yum. 

City No. 2: Wilmington, Delaware, or, “Wilmington, how you disappoint me so…”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time: The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews.    

Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northeastern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.   Lastly, please forgive any spelling or grammar errors.  I'm typing these out pretty quickly, sometimes battling failing routers at these coffee shops.  There's just no time to proof-read. 

  

Just like Baltimore, I knew nothing about Wilmington before we got here.  Unlike Baltimore, however, it was not due to the fact that it is underrated and unappreciated, but rather because there’s really nothing here to rate or appreciate, and therefore nothing to hear about outside of the city.  I’m being harsh, aren’t I?  Well let’s just say that I have not enjoyed my time here.  To emphasize my point, I have included a photo that describes my feelings for the city.  And don’t you worry, it was taken here in Wilmington, so it is a dual-function photo.  You get to see how I feel about Wilmington, and you get to see how Wilmington feels about me. 

Anyway, some things about Wilmington that I must mention: It is about 30-40 min. away from Philadelphia, and about 50 min. from Baltimore, and 2 hours from New York.  These facts are very interesting to the daily routine that Wilmington endures, as the result to being so close to where the “action” and “real cities” are, is that no one actually lives here in Wilmington except for the very poor, and people who don’t enjoy long commutes.  Wilmington houses many bank companies here, and it actually has a very impressive downtown area surrounding the bank buildings.  The bankers and company come down for their 9-5s, eat lunch in the city at the restaurants down the street, and then leave when they’re done with their workday.  To any of the cities that I mentioned above (except for NY, maybe.  That seems far away to me…).  The population of the city plummets at this hour in the day.  We even went into a bar and the bartender told us she would be surprised if she had many more customers after us.  This was at around 7 pm.  “If I ever owned my own business here, I would close at 2.  It’s just not worth keeping it open.  It costs more to pay for the utilities and the employment than to just close.”  This was on one of the main drags in town. 

Now before I keep harping on how much I think Wilmington sucks, I must mention that I was not properly informed on the city before I went in to explore.  Our couch-surfer hosts did not have many suggestions as to where I should go, except for “Trolley Square” which I kept mishearing every time she said it because she said it so fast.  I ended up not finding the “cool” part of Wilmington (which was Trolley Square!  “Aah!  She was saying “Trolley Square!”) until last night.  This was after a day of driving and walking around town TRYING to find the hidden jewel—the hip part—the “redeeming attribute” of Wilmington.  While I came close (I think I was a block away at one point), I just never drove far enough into that section of town to see it. 

Anyway, after I’ve had some time to think about why this happened, as well as having a chance to speak with a local about it, it is because of this:  Wilmington is not localized at all.  While it appears to be formatted like any other city out there (a down town with some close neighborhoods), Wilmington is completely spread out and offers neighborhoods, but they’re quite far away from each other, as well as from down town.  You really have to know where they are before you start trying to find them.  This was my mistake.  Sorry Wilmington, I didn’t quite understand you, but still.  You should know better…

After seeing Trolley Square last night, my opinion was a little more neutral, rather than “I hate Wilmington,” but after thinking about the mentality that is so common in this city, I must stay that I still rather dislike Wilmington.  I’ve lived in a feeder city before (DeKalb, IL), and my experience seemed similar to the ones people here are experiencing.  Because they’re so close to Philly and Baltimore, no one really cares too much about improving this city, which would be an incredible feat.  Instead, the common theme seems to be that people are saving up enough monetary resources so that they can move out of this city, into a better one.  And because this is the overall consensus, people are constantly leaving, and no one is investing into the positive change in this local community.  Also, it appears that the local visual and performing arts are also overshadowed by the arts in Philly and Baltimore (and New York in this case).  Any time anyone wants to go to a good show, they don’t expect it to be local and in Wilmington, they automatically expect it to be out of their city.

Basically, what is great about Wilmington, DE?  Answer:  It’s close to Philly and Baltimore.  Enough said.   

 

City No. 1: Baltimore, Maryland, or, "Baltimore, you are AWESOME!"

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time: The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews. 


Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northeastern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.   Lastly, please forgive any spelling or grammar errors.  I'm typing these out pretty quickly, sometimes battling failing routers at these coffee shops.  There's just no time to proof-read. 

Harbor!  Sailboats!

I have to say that I knew very little about Baltimore before we entered its city limits.  In fact, as we’ve started this trip, I had to come to terms with the fact that I know very little about the Northeast in general.  Not only that, seem to know nothing about the geography of the area.  I had a long moment of epiphany when I opened the map, and realized that the distance from Baltimore to New York City is very tiny (this encompasses Wilmington, DE, AND Philly!).  Only 5 hours or so (minus traffic)!  Being a Midwestern girl, where things are spread out (Madison is 5 hours away from MSP), this was very shocking. 

I’ve known a few friends who lived in Baltimore for a few years throughout the years, but I guess I never really took too much interest in the details surrounding the city.  Everything was very new, except for its reputation for being poor, and dangerous.  While these things are indeed still very valid attributes of the city, I learned a few new things:

1) Baltimore is a harbor city!  (Who knew!  Big boats!  There’s even a draw bridge!)

2) There are many areas that are totally “up and coming” and will be very important to the revitalization of the city in the upcoming years

3) It is very large, much too large to be totally walkable (believe me, I tried.  Anyone willing to give me a foot massage?)

Also, most of the houses in Baltimore are “row-houses” which makes this city a very interesting one to think about if you’re thinking about buying.  As a musician, and one who tends to be loud-spoken sometimes, I would wonder about the passage of sound through the walls…and there is very little greenspace, as there is little or no yard.  But literally ALL of the houses within the city are row-houses.  The “normal” houses are a little further out of the city in the suburban areas.     

As for being dangerous, I did encounter an area that was a little sketchy, and being on foot, I was a little uncomfortable, as I could not get out faster than I could walk on my little legs.  But, it should be taken into account that this was at 7 am in an area surrounding a hospital.  This tends to be a bad area in any city, and 7 am is a bad time to judge a place as people are not out and about on their way to work yet.  Later, we drove through this same area and shops were open, people were working, and it seemed to be transformed.  But this is not to say that there are not areas that are very dangerous.  We drove through an area that had blocks upon blocks of boarded up rowhouses.  Blocks upon blocks.  No exaggeration.  And this is typical for many areas of Baltimore.  And these areas tend to be very impoverished and, therefore, dangerous.  While there are many efforts to “revitalize” these parts of Baltimore, it seems that there is still much more work to be done. 

There were many “cute” areas around town, each neighborhood with a different character (much like MSP), and each with a feeling of potential for something great coming up in the future, but my favorite (just because of its location near the harbor) was Fells Point.  I could easily see myself wandering down to the docks in the morning, a fresh cup of coffee in hand, to enjoy the fresh air while planning the rest of my day. 

Baltimore has much to give.  Two days was not enough time to get the full experience, I suspect.  Much to many little neighborhood pockets here and there to see everything!  Apparently there are 4 different opera-based groups, a strong art movement--all stuff that I would explore more if there were more time.  Unfortunately our trip did not cover a weekend, and so most arts and entertainment activities were very limited, but I suspect it would have been awesome.  We got a chance to see inside the Schuler School of Fine Art, an incredible hidden fine arts jewel, and it would be a place that I would want to check out to greater depth if we moved here... Baltimore is definitely high on my list, thus far.  

This was a little dock that I fell in love with.  It was so quiet and peaceful that I went back--twice!

There's a boat in the city!

Baltimore at night. 

Some blurry row-houses.  Action shot from the car.

Tree growing out of an abandoned building.  Nature always finds a way...

And time for...a little different somethin'

Reflection.  As I sit back and totally enjoy my new surroundings, I have a few things to share.  This month, while living by myself, I learned many things.  1)  I am a messy person by nature.  Having Peter gone meant that I found patterns of messes that I typically would blame on Peter  ("Aww, that Peter, piling things up on the counter like that...err wait...shit.  I do that?  Really?" Surprise, surprise!).  I do hate doing dishes, and can really tolerate an extreme amount of kitchen filth.  The threshold is finding fruit-fly larvae in old kitchen sponges, by the way.  I know you were dying to ask.  2)  I really hate being a messy person.  Even while I'm not doing anything about it, it still sits there and stares, distracting me enough that I don't actually get the things done that I need to get done.  I find myself wanting to start projects but first have to clear enough space before I can actually start, which means that typically I'll start cleaning, and never get to the project because I'm exhausted from the manic cleaning.  It's a never-ending cycle--a monster!  3)  Because I never get to my projects (because of the never-ending mess), or if I do, I always start with the project that NEEDS to get done, instead of the one that I'm most excited about, and sometimes there is a lack of follow-through because of that.  Sometimes.  Or just an all-around lack of excitement or enjoyment.

So, I took this past month to delve in and treat myself to saying "yes" to whatever whim or desire I had--as far as design or projects were concerned.  I took that long list of projects that I had WANTED to do and knocked them out one at a time.  Even the ones that didn't make a lot of sense in "logical-priority world."  I went with the ones I was really excited to have done.  I worked day and night (at one point I worked in the morning at the box office, came home for a couple hours with just enough time to eat quickly and sand the top of a table frantically before I headed to opera rehearsal) and was exhausted, but happy.  There is something so empowering and exciting about doing the things that you always put off.  Often times, I realized that I'd been putting things off because I didn't have a key element and just needed to go to the store to get it (I had wanted to fix a chair but didn't have any wood glue; wanted to sand something, didn't have sand paper.  You get the idea...).  I looked around and was finally fed up with the somewhat broken or ugly objects in our house that we had either inherited from other living situations or bought on the cheap, just because we needed something.  And as a person who loves color, clean lines, cohesion, I finally broke down and decided, "no more!  I will fix everything that I don't like!"

So, with no other real purpose of writing this, except to motivate or inspire others to do the same, I give you this:  I feel AWESOME!  By the time the month was over, I had only three projects that I hadn't completed, out of more than 13.  I feel accomplished, empowered, and definitely very thrifty.  I did not purchase anything new (except for the raw materials and tools:  stain, varnish, glue, sandpaper), as I am a firm believer that "nice" does not have to equal "new."  So, go on, my lovelies, do the things you've been putting off!  Get them done!  Say "yes" to awesome projects!

WHEW!

I had the whole house to myself for the last month, and with all of my extra time to myself, I made myself busy with household projects.  Here are the results!  Coffee table stained and varnished, pillows covered and one of them completely hand-stitched together (sewing machine broke down before the last pillow was completed!  Alas!), broken shelf replaced, chairs stained and varnished, art room cleaned, desk created (using a door found at Habitat), and reading nook invented (last picture).  I'm exhausted!