Avery and I closed on the house on September 29th, 2004. It has been nearly four full months that we have been land owners here in Ithaca. We've lived here for just over three and half months. While there isn't a home sickness for Massachusetts or Boston, there is a bit of thoughts and contact with the homeland going on everyday.
Here are a few things:
1. Boston.com isn't my home page, but it is a page I go to at least once a day (usually about 10 times a day). Sometimes just to check out news and headlines, sometimes to read all about the Red Sox and Patriots, sometimes to do the old "local" crossword online.
2. I listen to WERS (Emerson College radio station in Boston) usually from about 9 or 10 am until 4 or 5 pm. The music (Coffee House until 10am, Jazz Oasis from 10am to 2pm, and gyroscope, 2pm to 5 or 6pm) is good, the DJs are beginners mostly, but it is a little bit of "home" (Boston) piped into our house here in Ithaca. I'm listening to WERS right now.
3. NECN has videos highlights from New England news which is always fun to watch (a couple times a week I check in on New England news)
4. BostonDirtDogs.com and SurvivingGrady.com for my Red Sox fix.
5. When we get back to Boston (four times from October to December), we always pick up a copy of the Boston Globe to thoroughly read through. The columns and the editorials and the articles and the pictures and the sport section are well worth the money.
It is almost as if I was still in Boston. I think my feeling is often that of an immigrant here. I always wondered when my Russian friends friends would gravitate to Russian grocery stores and Russian newspapers and Russian music, instead of quickly embracing all that is the United States. Now I understand the disconnect. You gravitate naturally to what you know and what you like. Sometimes new business open up for a specific group of new immigrants. Perhaps Ithaca needs a Boston store with authentic Boston items (no baked beans allowed!).
I think that while I find comfort in what I know (Boston things), I hope to someday find new bookmarks in my web browser for local news, local music and local entertainment. At least with the exception of the Red Sox. I know that I won't be buying a copy of the Sunday Boston Globe at the Ithaca Wegmans. It isn't because they don't have it - they do get a few copies shipped in each week. I flipped through the paper from Sunday the 15th yesterday when I was there and I just wanted to take it home and read through the whole thing, all of the articles just looked so interesting and inciteful. When I saw the sticker price - $6.20 my thoughts turned to my home delivered Ithaca Journal.
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