note #1: retreat details are up on the tab above!
note #2: i’m writing this post ahead of time on 5.25 because our internet is being disconnected today. hope it works!
good morning!
hopefully, as you read this we are in the midst of actually packing up to move from our sunny east chapel hill apartment [home for the 3.5ish years] to a historic loft apartment in downtown durham.
the back-story
josh and i have been in the area since we started med school — and met each other! — in 2002. we moved to chapel hill in 2007 from a house [that we owned] in north durham because a) josh was having to commute way too far to get all the way to UNC every day and b) this happened.
creepy google maps image of the house we moved out of in ’07
feeling uncomfortable where we were, we were quite hasty with this move. in retrospect, i actually think that losing a lot of material things [and realizing that all we really cared about was our safety!] made it a little bit easier to strip down and simplify, which we HAD to do in moving a 3-bedroom house’s worth of belongings into a 1-bedroom apartment. our house sat on the market for 15 months [paying rent + mortgage = financial ouch] but finally sold!
we chose a complex in an area that was not terribly exciting but seemed safe and was located midway between duke [for me] and UNC [for josh]. however, when josh received acceptance from the dark blue vascular surgery fellowship program last spring, we decided the time was right to move back.
and so tomorrow we’ll be going back to durham, only this time to the more fun downtown section to live in an urban loft apartment [actually a renovated tobacco warehouse!]. while i am super-excited to explore new surroundings and opportunities [many within walking distance!], i really did enjoy our years in CH.
therefore, i’d like to dedicate this last chapel hill post to the top 5 things i will miss about living here!
1. my favorite out-the-door running route
i LOVED that i could safely head out my door in the early mornings and run! i had a 5-mile route that served me well throughout residency — it probably won’t surprise you that i really crave doing the same run over and over again, and this one never let me down. there were hills, but nothing terrible. it could be stretched to a 10+ mile long run with a continuation up franklin street all the way to carrboro, or it could be truncated to 3ish miles [my usual jaunt these days].
parts of it include nature [a cute little brook; often some deer] and one day i even took a video:
i will definitely miss this route!
2. my kitchen nook
since we live in a one-bedroom, there’s no dedicated office. however, this cute little nook in our kitchen served me quite well over the years! more than 1000 blog posts were drafted at this desk:
3. the chapel hill whole foods
probably one of the few places i shop where i have actually gotten to know the people that work there! i do not want to think about how many $ i have spent at the registers, but i really do love this airy and never-terribly-crowded WF location.
[source]
4. CH comfort food
everyone has their go-to places for when they are not only too lazy to cook, but too lazy to drive more than 2 miles, right? [or is it just us? 🙂 ] here’s a list of our CH fall-backs! ahh, glorious take-out memories . . .
✔ the loop [pizza + salad]
✔ red lotus asian kitchen [asian fusion takeout]
✔ sushi yoshi
[and if we were motivated to drive more than a mile . . .]
✔ sage cafe [persian / vegetarian]
✔ mill town [belgian gastropub]
5. entertainment
chelsea theater [for movies] and cats cradle for concerts. although i have to say i’m pretty excited about proximity to the DPAC and carolina theatre!
there you have it: a [very partial] snapshot of the past 4 years in CH. the nice part is that since we’re not going far [20 minute drive away!] we can revisit any of the above if the craving really hits.
hope you all have a fabulous thursday, and i’ll see you all from the D-side!
No Comments