Settled

After finishing our first full week in Massachusetts, things look pretty familiar. I am reading the paper and drinking coffee, Brian left for a run, and the boys are playing some muted version of basement soccer in the living room of our third-floor apartment. What's missing, of course, is the space outside, the neighborhood friends, and a place that is so fully home. Although we're not planning to stay in Worcester forever, I think we're starting to feel more comfortable in the space.

The trip east was great. The boys handled the long hours in the car very well and our three i-devices (iPad, iPhone, and IPass -- a automatic toll reader from the state of Illinois that worked flawlessly from Illinois through Massachusetts), let us know about traffic, showed up maps with our location as a moving "blip," and allowed us to make reservations from the road. Pretty neat.

My work at the AAS has been wonderful. The community there is collegial, the staff is incredibly helpful, and -- well -- they have really neat stuff there. I've been paging through their graphics collections -- looking at drawings and engravings from as early as 1770. As I'm looking, the staff looks over my shoulder to share my enthusiasm, and them stops by with more things, "I thought you might be interested in this, too." People there have gathered materials of things to do around Worcester for Brian and the boys, invited us over for dinner, and are working to find me a bike to ride while we're here. If the library "lived" in Minnesota, I would have my application in already. I look forward to my work there every morning and the images from the research swirl through my head every night. I don't have any more answers than when I started, but I feel like the puzzle pieces are starting to come together. I have a lot more ideas for articles, though.

We hope to go to see the LA Galaxy play the NE Revolution in Foxborough tonight. I'd like to get to the ocean soon and -- as the staff at the AAS informed me -- the John Paul Jones house in Portsmouth is hosting a birthday celebration for my favorite pirate/patriot on Sunday afternoon. There's cake.