It’s been a few days since my last update, mostly due to the impending deadline for finding out about what I would be doing, and where we would be living, next year. It all started in late January, when I applied to film preservation school in Rochester, NY. The deadline for applying came and went, and after six weeks, I began to think I’d hear soon. I spent the next week knocking on wood every chance I got, making deals with passing traffic (“If I step on that crack before that car passes me, I’m in…”), and trying not to jinx anything by feeling overly positive about my chances. After the deadline came and went and I still hadn’t heard, Aimee and I headed out to Provincetown to get away from things. We had a terrific time at the decoratively eclectic and very nice Land’s End Inn (the site doesn’t do it justice) and enjoyed walking around and sampling the town’s restaurants. By the time we headed back, I’d gotten word I’d been admitted, so the day was spent driving from the very eastern tip of Massachusetts, back through Boston to pack up, and along the entire length of the Mass Pike, continuing on I-90 all the way to Rochester to get a feel for the place during Aimee’s vacation week from school. We stopped in Amsterdam (woah) and Utica (for dinner) before hitting the Roch at around 9:30 last night. We found a little mo/hotel with free internet, excellent.

This morning, we began our exploration by checking out the Park Avenue area (check out the great Rochester Wiki resource), where we had a great lunch at Magnolia’s and enjoyed the amazing weather. We walked the streets around the cafe and then returned to the hotel to have a run (with my James Joyce Ramble coming up soon) and made arrangements to see some realtors and take a look at apartments tomorrow and Wednesday. We had a nice dinner at Tapas 177, somehow in a basement but filled with sunlight at the same time, to celebrate the one year it’s been since we got engaged. After listening to a few tunes from the widely-advertised Fickle 93.3 fm, we finished off our first day at The Little Theatre Café for jazz and a local brew.

My first impressions of the place have been great; I’m excited about getting a nice apartment for not a whole lot of money, near work and near some great restaurants and cafes. There seems to be a lot to do in the area, lots of cultural institutions, Toronto just a few hours away, friendly people, and lots of local microbrews. In that order. We’ll do some more exploring tomorrow, and head back on Wednesday.