Urban Living

I've lived in downtown Salem, Oregon for almost a year now, a fact that recently made me stop and think. For years it was my dream to live downtown. The thought of living in a hip urban space, above some businesses, in the heart of the city really appealed to me. But when that dream first arose, I was in my 20s and I had no means to accomplish it. So the dream sat as a seed that slowly grew until the time was right. In September of last year I packed up my little apartment on the outskirts of downtown and happily started my life as an urban dweller. My apartment is above a bar, next to a hair salon and a pizza place, and in the same building as a cider house, a spa, and a salon. I can walk about a block or two and hit four or five coffee shops, lots of dinner or lunch options, froyo, and tons more. I have a rooftop patio, my bedroom is a loft that I enter via a ladder, my bathroom is in an old elevator shaft, my ceilings are about 20 feet high, and my windows sit surrounded by an old brick wall. Oh, and I can buzz people into the building. You could pretty much say that my dreams came true :).

And while I've felt that I have embraced living downtown and my urban lifestyle to some degree, I paused to consider that I perhaps have not been fully embracing it. I've stopped by coffee shops, watched the sunset on the roof a few times, picked up dinner around the corner, randomly met up with friends downtown, walked lots of places, hosted parties, stuff like that, but I still feel like I should consider the options that are available to me to experience this period of urban living. I've renewed my lease for one more year and I want to make this one count.

And now, the blog.  Every good project has some guidelines and vision, right?  So here are some of mine.

Vision for the blog:  This blog will chronicle the things I do and ways that I embrace urban living in downtown Salem. This will encourage me to embrace Salem and give me a creative writing outlet, but I also hope it will encourage others to go out and do something fun in the city or to provide ideas for things to try out.

Rules: Anything I put on this blog has to be within walking distance for me from my apartment so that I truly embrace the urban downtown part of my current life. Plus, I love the fact that I rarely have to drive anywhere!  *Caveat:  If I do something really super cool within the Salem area and had to drive to get there, I might make a special exception.

Ready. Set. Embrace Salem.