Dear Beantown, Are You My City?

When life in Vermont came to a screeching halt, my adventures beyond it started in BahstonBaaaaastonBeantown.

I mean, Boston. I love Boston. Seriously. I love it. But could I/should I live there?

One of my best Vermont friends and I headed to Mass to see Buffy. This is where I mention how apropros it is that our friend's name is Buffy and she lives in Boston. So mentioned.

Buffy left our workplace not long before my own departure and headed to Boston to market underage children. And by underage children, I mean head up marketing for a very respectable and highly funded non-profit, dedicated to enriching the lives of young adults as teachers and mentors to underserved student populations. Hopefully, if they do their job right, they'll reduce drop-out rates and downgrade rampant drug use from illicit substances to something more respectable like pot.

I kid. I know their goals stretch way beyond problematic reductions to include improving the odds of success for the students. If they happen to give them something to do besides sex and drugs, then they've done their job.

Buffy loves her new gig and definitely loves Boston. I would share with your her texts begging me to move there, but I won't. "WHEN R U MOVING TO BOSTON???" comes to mind. (Ooohh there it is anyway.)

I think Buffy and Boston are a great match for each other. Just like so many of us in our little family unit (approx. three, anyway), we all hail from and crave the atmosphere of big cities. As a Laaahhhng Island native originally and former resident of San Fran, I think Buffy always had the sense that she'd wind up back in a more metropolitan area than Vermont.

And one weekend with her in the Big City proved it was the right move. She was much more relaxed and after just a few weeks was already settled into her new home and navigated public transit gracefully.

SIDENOTE: Speaking of transit, public or otherwise, I consider it quite a success to navigate complicated cities well. And I am feeling VERY SUCCESSFUL lately, thanks to easy-to-read subway maps in multiple cities and my trusty GPS tour guide lady thing secured to my windshield.

So Buffy's happiness in Beantown begs the question: Is Boston my city?

I enjoyed the people I met and the interview gauntlet at an agency. Good people, great work, exciting clients. And it was directly across from the Gucci store. (Which itself could prove to be very problematic.)

In the end, though I enjoy Buffy and her life immensely, I didn't have the home-like feeling in Boston. I do quite like the diverse, intelligent, cosmopolitan culture - and of COURSE I love the climate and everything about New England and THE RED SOX, but it didn't grab hold of me with no sign of letting go.

So I continue my southward adventures, auditioning cities along the way. Next up? New Yawk.

With faith and nothing but possibilities,

The Megster