Thursday, September 27, 2012

Domestication and Richmondering

We are looking for a new place to live at at the mo. We, being the Royal Collective We that is the two of us, that is the joint partnership, that is the couple unit. Our lease is up here in November (by ours I mean his, by we I mean we...following thus far?) and we're now on the prowl for the best place EVER for the cheapest price YOU'VE EVER SEEN. That should be a prize and a half. Apartment shopping tomorrow. Hoorah for that. I'm sure we'll come back with a fresh impression of all that Richmond, Virginia has to offer and be overcome with the excitement of acquiring our own little Southern plantation home.

I may have made it clear to many that Richmond, the keys to my heart does not hold. I'm sure I've truthfully only mentioned it once or twice (did you see my PSA?) and probably just in passing (25 pages). Honestly, though, I'm giving it another go-round here lately and Southern charm is anything but charming but, it IS quaint. Vintage quaint. Everything smells like magnolias in April and your shoes are actually squishing from the humidity but the cupcakes down on Cary street are to diiiiiie for and they have gluten-free flavors! I will - no lie - exhale vast amounts of histamine during any given time of the year but I swear to you the houses are all lopsided in a really perfect, little way. Jeremy claims that there is not one staircase in the city of Richmond that is not leaning but I'm sure he secretly loves it. Southern charm is a set of leaning stairs, you guys. The nightlife is about as "happening" as that great idea you had for one week when you were 13 when you decided to put Vaseline on your eyelids because you thought it gave you shiny eyes. It turned out it just made you look like your eyelids wouldn't stop sweating and that's Richmond nightlife: sweaty eyelids. Sweaty eyelids that close at 10:00 in the evening. Despite the perspiration pools, I've managed to find some banging coffee shops in the area. This is a major plus, as well, considering that Richmond seems to be the only city within 30 miles that understands that Starbucks is not coffee. Wait, that's a lie because I just remembered Hiram Haines' Coffee and Ale House which is definitely not in Richmond.
This gem is in Petersbug and Edgar Allen Poe, himself, was a regular here. Not anymore though. He's dead and everyone is reportedly aware of that fact. Robert E. Lee is alive and well in the hearts and minds of Virginians everywhere and the War of Northern Aggression is merely at halftime while those aggressive northerners are busy being...busy? uninterested? coy?...but Poe is basically just dead.

Wish us luck tomorrow and all that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

People several states away understand that Starbucks is NOT coffee! Some of us have even had the pleasure of serving REAL coffee, before SB EVER left WA. Unfortunately, SB has the market on gumption when it comes to marketing their crap. Say La V.....Great idea to resurrecting the blog! I MISS YOU! So glad to hear you are coming to visit....will we get to see you? Wendy