"So, you're moving to "Party Central"? my colleague asked.
I asked him what he meant by that. The old, brick apartment building with the lobby straight out of Norma Desmond's mansion in SUNSET BOULEVARD looked positively sedate.
"The building is fine. It's that neighborhood."
It still seemed pretty puzzling. Oxford Street glories in a row of magnolia trees in a fine green mall; one independent record store; a cellular phone shop; one coffee house, one upscale bar, and a Japanese restaurant. This hardly seems the sort of place which would have the police responding to drunken revelers at 2 AM.
To a New Yorker, Rochester is pretty sedate, period; but it all depends on where you are coming from. My new apartment is right around the corner from the Science Center, and a block away from the George Eastman house, so there will be opportunities for pleasant outings.
The building also has a fine roof terrace with picnic tables and a cooker. It is an open area where the tenants hold parties. Since my apartment is nowhere near this terrace, I should do all right (and most likely I'll be at the parties anyway.)
Other news: I'll be traveling a lot this summer, once the apartment is fully set up; one trip that I've always meant to take has been booked and paid for (through the nose, but it should be worth it.) I'll be taking the "Canadian" train from Toronto to Vancouver in August and staying with friends in that city. So watch this space for updates.
In the meantime, a happy Memorial Day to you all.
