New England is a funny place. My zip code starts with the number "0" zero and there are cross-walks that run diagonally through the busiest intersection... talk about efficiency- why talk the sides if you can take the hypotenuse? I've noticed the sky is a funny blue color- it is pure and very very clear and looks absolutely spectacular littered with puffy clouds.

On my run this morning I saw a whole herd of chickens crossing the road. I thought maybe I was chasing them without knowing it. Then I saw a Bic lighter sunken into the sidewalk, planted by someone with a sense of humor right before the cement had dried. It looked like it had just cozied up into the pavement one day, deciding to pull the asphalt covers over it's head as it took a nap.

New England has a fascination with Audi's which I'm inclined to agree with. It also has a fascination with ice cream that my sister Anna would be inclined to agree with. They serve "snacks" at bars (little bowls full of munchies), and they really do have an obsession with Dunkin' Donuts, both of which I'm delightfully inclined to agree with. Nobody looks at me funny for ordering a Bud Light when there is IPA sitting right in front of me.

Where I once sought out "fire roads" to run on, here I've discovered the trail equivalent of "farm road". I'm oddly drawn to running on pavement these days because the roads I jog on lead to vast landscapes opening up in front of me as I round a bend. There are sweet little farm houses with barns and gravel driveways (those "Oh my God- I want to live there!" type places), and epic views of the coast line and small bays peppered with tiny sailboats and splintering docks.

My job life is different here too. I walk around all day with small test tubes of reagents thawing in my pocket, thinking about the logistics of simultaneously running a gel and a PCR and having a lunch break. I say the word "reprint" and have used Avagadro's number for the first time since high school, two things I never thought I'd do again. While I'm jogging, I try not to fret over my primer dilution and whether I messed it up or not. When I get into my car and drive away from UNH, everything I did there all day that was work-related waves goodbye to me as I come to the edge of town. My job says, "Ok, see you tomorrow, Sarah. Have a good night and don't think about us, ok?" Kate came up with my mantra for the year: "What happens in Durham, stays in Durham", a philosophy unknown to my years of teaching and grad school before that.

I have the time and space to do things like blog, get lost (literally) in the local areas, and wonder how I will fill my acres of free time this weekend. I'm not getting much sleep, but my day is so easy that it seems to work out okay by morning and I don't seem to really need it. I guess I'm hearing myself quite clearly these days.

So I have no way of ending this entry. It's just an update- this is what life is like right now. It feels familiar and comfortable, like it's been waiting here for me, patiently, while I tended to some odds and ends and then got my shit together. I know I'm still in the honeymoon stage, but sometimes things just work out for you and the honeymoon is never over. I'm think I'm just gonna sit with that and my Bud Light for awhile... under the puffy clouds of course.