Staycation 2009

When my friend David told me he’d secured a reservation for a trip to the top of the Travelers’ Tower, I had no choice but to invite myself along. This would bring me downtown in the late morning, and since I had plans to be less than a block from there later in the afternoon, I figured I would just spend the time in between downtown.

At eleven we zoomed to the 21st floor. I did not think about the logistics of this. After having walked 2.5 miles to get downtown, the three flights of stairs did not seem so fun. The view was worth the panting. From the street, the tower does not look like it can hold more than two people. We had six people up there, and there was plenty of room for more. I had no luck locating my apartment.

The entire trip took about 15 minutes, which left me with lots of time to fill. We headed to JoJos — a decaf mocha for me and a chai for him — and headed to 960 Main. David is starting classes at Capital Community College in the fall, so I was giving him a little tour of where the cheap food and drinks can be found in the building. Wandering past the Center Stage kiosk, I encountered a sale rack outside of Sadhna’s, which has been open for almost a year now. I got a pair of sequined turquoise heels that were marked down 50% and I blame this purchase on not wanting to publicly embarrass David any longer for wearing flip flops. I hear so much about the lack of shopping downtown, but really, I have the receipts to prove that shoes and more can be obtained.

Inside 960 Main there are plaques showing what was on each of the floors when the building was G.Fox. I learned that the area where I tutor was used to sell aprons! Where I sit to eat lunch was either the fitting rooms or the negligee department. Yes, they used the word negligee.

From here, David and I split. I headed down to the river with my backpack loaded full of zine-making supplies. I sat on the sloped area by the amphitheater stage (while looking at the Riverfront Recapture website to find out what this area was actually called, I learned that Pilobolus has canceled their performance because of funding) and learned that it was too difficult to balance everything while cutting paper and attempting to not litter. The weather was too perfect for me to retreat indoors, so I figured I would walk around but cut my losses as far as my project was concerned.

The path that connects the Riverfront Plaza with Riverside Park was dotted with women doing some aerobic exercise, men fishing, and park rangers. There was a nice breeze coming off the river. For all the poor maintenance of parks that has been reported on recently, these areas were spotless yesterday.

At Riverside Park I realized that there were picnic tables with garbage cans nearby. This let me sit in the shade while working on my zine.

There were people using the beach volleyball area. When I was finished, I noticed a lot of school-aged children being instructed about the challenge course (they were closest to the rock-climbing wall).

I headed back up the steps, which I’m quite sure are steeper than those found at Machu Picchu, and grabbed some inexpensive veggie rolls at State House Square. I still had a few hours before the early evening event, so I took myself to the CT Science Center.

I’ve been twice before; this was my first solo mission. Most of my time was spent in the Planet Earth, Energy City, and Exploring Space exhibits. I’m happy to report that I noticed only one “out of order” thing this time and one “coming soon” thing. The “Pedals of Doom” were “out of order,” and I swear I had nothing to do with that!

There was also some wear-and-tear of the round windowsills, which is unfortunate for something that has only been used for a few months.

My CT Science Center trip was a relatively brief one, which left me time to head to the Hartford Public Library. On my way, I ran into Luis of IonHartford. Sometimes I get cranky about it, but I do enjoy living in a place where I run into someone I know almost every time I leave the house. My trip to the library was actually purposeful. I am working on a project that requires some archival research. This means that I may need to use the Hartford History Center, housed on the third floor of the library. My task was merely to locate it, as the library signage leaves much to be desired. The women working there were polite and friendly, even though I accidentally breached all kinds of protocol by carrying a backpack and not signing in. They pointed me to a free packet that contained a copy of the Hog River Journal, as well as nice color prints of the Age in America project. I’m the kind of person who frames postcards and calendar pages, so this was like hitting the jackpot for me. This project uses image and text to play with words containing “age,” like voyage and bondage. Banners created from this are displayed downtown.

At 4:30 I headed to the Wadsworth Atheneum for a blog event attended by Brendan, Joel, Chris, Nels, Ken, and a few others whose names I forget or who do not have blogs (yet!). This was followed by their monthly first Thursday event. The hip hop act was much livelier than some of their past musical choices. After a few hours, I finally left downtown for a free film at La Paloma Sabanera in Frog Hollow.

I crammed a lot of activity into just a few hours and could have spent more time doing each thing that I did if I had not made time-specific plans. I could have had a more formal lunch rather than take-out. I could have spent more time at Riverside Park writing. There are still sections of the new science center that I have not visited. I didn’t do any research in the Hartford History Center.

Hartford is always dealing with a bad rap, but this week seems to be particularly special in that way, as there is a newspaper columnist treating a single street in the city as if it is a foreign land, as if the people living there are completely Other. While reading her barrage of cynicism, I was reminded of a fairly recent column she ran about Hartford’s hidden jewels.

Strangely, every time this columnist ventures into a bit of optimism, it’s framed as someone beating the odds or an anomaly.

Hidden or out in the open, Hartford has plenty of jewels. I live here by choice. I’m not trapped. I’m not trying to get out. I’m not using this as a parking space until something better comes along. I live here by choice, and there are reasons for that. Hartford also does have plenty of areas that need improvement. But both of these ends of the spectrum could be better addressed by someone who experiences them daily, rather than by someone who lives out in the sticks and comes into town for her paycheck or entertainment. When a person is invested in a place, when she goes to bed and wakes up in a place, she has a more rounded idea about what the positive and negative aspects of that place are. I think that what I am partly trying to do with this blog is to provide a more balanced picture of what it is like to live here. Sometimes I have a day off that allows me to soak up the beautiful weather by the Connecticut River and visit with friends around town. Other times, I’m dealing with incompetent tax collectors and an unresponsive police department.

Here’s the point at which I redirect you to other blogs that are also writing about Hartford (not necessarily exclusively, but at least sporadically) from the perspective of the resident:
Urban Compass
Mira Hartford
Live in Hartford
IonHartford
Coffee Rhetoric
Greater Hartford Real Estate Blog
Down in the Hollow
Beat Bike Blog
We Live in Hartford and You Should Too
Scenic Root