Catching Up - A New Haven Rant followed by the Plus Side

Well, we've moved to New Haven. I pretty much hate it here - the drivers are insane (seriously, it's anarchy on the roads, meaningless red lights + no helmet laws = well, i guess I'll see some head trauma when i get to rotations), there is no decent, halfway decent, or somewhat approachable natural foods store or local produce of any kind anywhere, recycling is a joke, and the people in my neighborhood are weird. By weird i mean, well, lets put it this way - I have a rather large tattoo on my right arm. This is a pretty stuffy neighborhood - it's middle class, but unbeknownst to me before I moved here, Connecticut is conservative... i get LOOKS on my tattoo. No comments, no questions, just looks. The men leer at me. They are all middle aged, married men and i can almost hear them daydreaming about the 'wild child' who just moved in next door.

It's creepy. They try to have long conversations full of small talk with me (without mentioning but also staring at my large tattoo). I've never had so much meaningless small talk either.

Lucy and I ride our xtracycle (big bike that she can sit on the back of http://www.xtracycle.com) a lot, which is really nice. We live in a pretty flat and low-key part of town, so that's fun. I had planned on riding everywhere, but I'm seriously terrified of the drivers here. I've been to Boston, Boston's traffic is controlled and temperate when compared to New Haven drivers. Oh, have i mentioned the amounts of garbage on the streets?! I am honestly SHOCKED at how many times I've seen people toss their bags of garbage out their windows. I seriously can't believe it. Which goes to the maddening and awfully saddening amounts of trash on the shoreline.

New Haven is blessed with a lovely shoreline which it largely ignores. West Haven and East Haven each have nice beaches, which would be fantastic and idyllic were it not for the tons of waste and human refuse lining the shores. It's disheartening, discouraging, and unpleasant.

But there are redeeming factors in this town as well, and I'm getting used to it here.

My dear friends Joe and Sarjan and their fun and forceful daughter Ruby have moved here as well. I have gotten to spend some real quality time with them which I haven't had with Sarjan since we were 16. Lucy adores Ruby (who is 11 months) and is constantly angling to spend more time with her. She is a wonderful big sister.

I have a Kung Fu school!

I taught a workshop a couple weeks ago and Sarjan signed up as did two others plus Todd. They have all signed on to continue with classes and I have had a few serious inquiries about classes to continue. I am enjoying it tremendously! I can't say how much this has changed my life here. I was miserable without kung fu - I missed Seattle so much, my friends, my Kung Fu family, my quality of life! Well, I don't know if you know this, but I heart Kung Fu. And it is coming through in my classes - having all my workshop participants continue with classes is truly divine. I can't believe how this has all worked out too.

I mean, one day, I was walking down the street in the main part of my neighborhood and I noticed a yoga/dance studio space that said it offered studio rentals. 3 weeks later, voilà! Ohana Kajukenbo is born.

More on Ohana in a later entry, for now that is enough dear reader. I am exhausted from a trip to Middletown where there is a truly fantastic children's museum to which i will most certainly return.

In summary, New Haven sucks, life is good.