I like Madison

Today was a great day off. It started by sleeping in a bit. Then some cereal with strawberries and coffee with soy that I didn't have to make.

Then I left the house and walked to get my hair cut. I love getting my hair cut and Thorpes, the place that I go, is great. I even was given yummy chocolate peanut butter treats. Then I walked over to Cafe Zoma, a coffee shop that just reopened with new owners. Now it is open later like a real coffee shop. Yeah. And so I sat and drank some iced coffee and wrote in my journal a little and checked my email and such. Then went to a little market and walked back home. What a great day! I love getting to have a day that I can go to places and not have to drive. What a great spot to be! And so many other people were outside too, walking, running, biking. It is great! I wonder what moving to the other side of town will be like. I'll get to walk to different things then.

I have been spoiled for sure. And to have not even have chosen this house, just to have landed in it in such a great spot. So much to be able to walk to. And finally it is warm. I got to wear a skirt and flip flops on my travels.

Now I am going to have dinner and sew a bit hopefully. It's been too long. Do you ever have those things that you want to do, and they just never seem to happen. I think it would be great to have more of a space to be able to sew. Maybe next year I'll put a desk in my room or in a corner of the dining room, then I could have a better space than the kitchen table for creating masterpieces. And maybe it would happen more often.

Madison is a great place, with lots to be able to walk or bike to. I never want to live somewhere where that is not possible. There are so many coffee places, nice friendly people. Good stuff. I need to be careful when crossing the roads though, not to get hit by people biking. I also got startled while I was waiting to cross the street, by a guy running. I jumped a little and he felt bad. Sorry running guy.

I have trouble slowing down and stopping sometimes. Like while I was sitting at the coffee shop, I was thinking of things that I need to get done. Or things that have happened. It took be a little bit to just stop and breathe. Time that does not have to be productive.

Then my day was rudely interrupted by coming home to a mess of a kitchen. AH! I hate dirty dishes out and crumbs on the counter. Yuck. I even bought the sponge at the end of a handle that holds soap. It is easy and if you wash the dish right when you use it, food doesn't get stuck. The mess of it makes me anxious. Yuck, yuck, yuck. But everyone is different and other people may be stressed out by the idea of having to wash a dish right away and may like the idea of doing a stack of them later better. So that is the price I pay for living with other people, not the end of the world. Frustrating for sure, but for getting to know people and getting to live with them, there are things that must be done, like cleaning up.

Back to Madison. I really like it here and the more that I am here the more that I like it. There is a lot of water (lakes) around and there are even docks that float on the water in many locations around the city. Like yesterday I ran down the bike path to a park on the lake and stood on a dock for a while looking at the city and the capital on the other side of the lake. Neat. Then I ran home through a pretty neighborhood. Tomorrow I may go rollerblading, something that I haven't done in years. May be dangerous. But now I am off to make a nice dinner and sew and relax.