Some Fresh Country Air

Last night I came home after taking a small, but much necessary and well-deserved two-day break from the city. I really love NYC but it is always important to go out and get some fresh country air once in a while. If only to remind yourself that there are places in this world where people live in spaces bigger than a matchbox.

The last two days were spent in beautiful Norwalk, CT with a Canon T1i camera in hand filming interviews and being around cats and dogs all day. I got to pet many many cats which made me very very happy. It also made me want to adopt one, but sadly my roommate is allergic (or as she puts it, they make her sneezy) to them so a kitty is out of the question for the moment. I guess that was the hard part. Mostly because there was a cat that was such an adorable purr box whose owner had passed away. We got along just fine. We were a match made in heaven - a girl whose cat had died, and a cat whose owner had died. Also, little Gretchen (the cat's name) was a black tux cat which is one of my favorite kinds. Ah well...as I was reminded by the person I was helping out with the video, whenever I do decide I can get a cat, there will be plenty of them in need of a loving home.

But besides me petting cats and going around Stamford with a camera in hand, being out of the big city was nicely refreshing. I got two full nights' sleep on a very comfortable bed and was greeted by the first signs of countryside spring. The light is beginning to change a little. I was able to survive without my light winter coat for a few hours outside. I did not want to stay in bed for the rest of eternity. It was still a little too chilly to go out and run outside, but it is getting there.

I ate at a pretty fantastic diner and a pretty fantastic mexican restaurant.

I didn't think about money. I didn't think about my apartment needing cleaning. I didn't think about navigating the subway. I didn't think about all my laundry sitting in my hamper.

I did think about the Hudson Valley and the cornfields in Iowa and how beautiful these places are in the spring. I did think about how relaxing Norwalk is in the summer. I decided that perhaps the summer would be a good time to take a trip out to the midwest and reconnect with my Kansas roots. Or it might just be a great opportunity to lounge about the Norwalk harbor.

Maybe I should just go up to Vermont and do that beer and cheese tour M and I consistently talk about.

I definitely have spring on my brain. But it is March after all and you can just feel it coming around the corner.

Of course, after we've put away our winter coats and are all happy about the prospect of frolicking around in the flower fields, we'll probably get that one last dump of snow in April. Because that's how bitchy New York State weather is.

Categories: Connecticut, film, Norwalk, NYC