Dogfish Juggling

I’ve been in Athens for a few weeks now, and my first impressions of the city are pretty well formed.

Put simply, I really like this city.

I’ve gotten pretty familiar with the little corner of Athens known as the “Boulevard Neighborhood” over the past few weeks. Our house is nestled at the end of a quiet street, which dead-ends at a vacant, kudzu-covered lot and is bordered on one side by a very small creek with rather steep, heavily-wooded  banks. While we don’t have much of a yard, there seems to be an abundance of open green space in the area, and Echo and I have had quite a lovely time exploring it.

We have a very nice base route for our morning, afternoon and early-evening walks. From our house, we head about five or six blocks along Hiawassee, where it once again dead ends, this time at a rail-road track. We typically head over a block, then start our trip home. Over the past few days, we’ve been taking a route which allows us to cut through the playground of a near-by elementary school. It’s been quite nice. In addition to the standard, expansive playground area, the school has a sort of out-of-doors, secret-garden-style classroom, which Echo and I have enjoyed exploring at the end of our walks. However, today I discovered an even better option.

As school will begin shortly, I knew the days of our elementary-school diversions were coming to an end, but quite happily I’ve stumbled upon an option which will seemingly serve our needs in perpetuity.  The story of the discovery is a bit serendipitous.

Emily and I had gone out to run a few errands, and when we came back to the house I realized, much to my dismay, that I’d driven off with Echo’s leash resting on the bumper of my truck. I promptly picked up a reserve leash and Echo and I set off in search of the missing equipment.

I had a notion in my mind that the loss had occurred in the near-by parking lot of the bank, which was the first of our errands.  Quite happily, my intuitions proved well grounded, and Echo and I were joyously reunited with our leash.  This happy occasion was rendered all the more exciting when I noticed a large, naturalistic green space directly behind the bank.

Echo and I spent the next 10-15 minutes exploring the area, much to our satisfaction. We eventually discovered a small footpath, which connects directly to our current walking route.

Walking Echo is a very enjoyable exercise  in our neighborhood. On every outing we meet a new dog, and the side walks teem with activity. The people are friendly, and despite Echo’s nervous disposition, I think the city is growing on her.

Dog-walking aside, though, Athens is a charming city. I’ve only been out downtown once or twice, but the experiences were quite enjoyable and the people seem interesting. The Athens-area juggling club certainly holds a big appeal for me, and I’m looking forward to meeting more jugglers.

Also, now that I have a job, I’m looking forward to settling down in the city and making some new friends.

But I suppose all of that will wait for another day.

Life has been moving along at a rather happy clip here, these past few days, and it’s kept me fairly occupied.

Perhaps the most noteworthy event in the past week is my return to the workforce. I’ve been through my first day of training at Athens Student Business Services, a local transcription service primarily devoted to transcribing case notes for financial planners. I can’t say that it is the most fascinating job I’ve ever had, but it has flexible hours and will provide a bit of income for me, so I am rather pleased with the development.

I’ve also recently returned from a trip to Jesup for my birthday, and while I am glad to be back in Athens, I enjoyed the trip. I had the opportunity to attend a group sit at the Vipassana center, and it was really nice to visit the Dhamma hall again.

It’s been a bit of a struggle for me to keep up my meditation practice. I can’t really say why, either. I’m not sure where my motivation breaks down, but I only manage about an hour a day two out of three days. I think part of it is the miasma of an entirely ungoverned schedule. Hopefully, once I start my job in earnest (Monday), establish some sort of regular schedule for myself and really settle into a more sustainable life here, I will have a bit more of a solid base for my practice.

On the subject of Vipassana, I’ve been meaning to get this bit of thought out of my head for awhile.

On the first day of our 10-day meditation retreat I met a few of my fellow meditators. We had about 3 or 4 hours before our vow of silence, and during that time we all pretty much asked the same questions: “How did you hear about this, why are you here?”

Most of the answers were pretty generic — a friend of a friend, a trail of on-line links — but one stood out. It came from an older member of our group. Like me, like most of us, he was a “new student,” meaning he’d never sat a Vipassana course before. He was as prototypically middle-aged as you can imagine. He was taller than me, wore glasses and was slightly balding. He had the softness of features and body that comes from decades at a desk job.

“I came here,” he explained, “because I’m over 50, I have two children who are grown — over 20 — and I can’t remember any of it. I can’t remember anything. I was so busy living in the future, I missed my whole life.”