I live in Anoka now. I can now officially announce this fact.
Having resided half an hour away from the area I cover with my parents and brother and a pair of dogs, I am making the move along with my partner and her sister. This is obviously, if you can’t tell by my previous writer’s blocks, my first foray into independent adulthood past my profession.
This has been a long process involving multiple college graduations, job hirings, job changes and heavy lifting and attempts to figure out how internet connections actually work. As I write, I used coin powered laundry for the first time last night. And, I will actually cook my food regularly, and not just here and there.
My partner’s sister will also be there some of the time, while also living with their family in Andover-we will look forward to her enthusiastic and beaming presence when we can get it. For now, though, the focus remains getting a place for the approximately 2.3 of us set up.
Oh, and my partner Madeline’s cat Piper is joining the fun as well. A very adorable creature that chases after laser lights, rolls around in potato gardens and enjoys trampling on one’s chest in the middle of the night.
So that’s all splendid! But I write, of course, to transparently confess that I, up to this point, have driven approximately 33 minutes to work every day. Which is quite substantial for gas mileage expenses, and may also provoke the occasional response of “How dare you outsider urbanite come here.”
My older routine went something like this: I’d get up, slug coffee down, then take Highway 100 to 694 to 252 to, eventually after all of that, another approximately 7 minutes, traffic and weather depending, on Coon Rapids Boulevard. That’s a lot of Hennepin and Anoka Counties to cover extensively.
My drive length now? Take a guess and then read the next sentence.
Your first guess was high off the mark.
So was your second guess.
OK, I’ll tell you. Four minutes.
Yup. That’s the perk of living right behind where you work. I’ll never have to work remotely again, no matter the conditions. But the good news is I can sleep in a little more. Ah well.
But for now. Hello Anoka. Nice to meet you in person and not just behind my keyboard or covering nearby councils. I look forward to getting to know you more.