Whenever I'm in Western Mass, I feel that all of the things inside me that make me me are measured correctly (flour, salt, oil, water) and that I'm just brighter and happier. We took some pictures at the Mill and I look positively euphoric, and all I was doing was drinking an iced tea and looking at the waterfall.
I love it here so much that I question what I mean when I say "going home." I don't mean to be a heretic. I know there are fervent Austin lovers and rightfully so. Austin and me are sort of like that marriage that you don't leave because he doesn't beat you and he makes a living. Western Mass and me are sort of that smoky passionate thing but in a garret with no heat and canned soup for dinner.
In other news, THE ECONOLODGE HAS A POOL! A rinky-dinky chlorinated eye drop of a pool! I wish I had brought my bathing suit. The pool is indoors and the door is right next to the communal microwave. The (We Jam) Econolodge is the parking lot of the former "dead mall," which, in the decade that has intervened between my college graduation and now, has been transformed into a giant Wal-Mart. So much for rustic small-town New England.
The Ladycollege offers its reunion attendees rooms on campus, but somehow, I didn't think Bob would be down with the creaky beds, the inadequate blanketry, and the coed bathroom situation (by coed, I mean women's bathroom but with male privileges). Although the Ladycollege is renowned for having the best dorms of any small college, without one's belongings to brighten them up, the rooms are rather spare and sad and uncomfortable. I want him to like WMass, so I'm shelling out for a hotel.
Posted by Zerd at May 14, 2008 03:50 PM