Arrivederci Atlanta; Back to Boston

Seven months ago today, I arrived in Atlanta.

Today marks my last full day in Atlanta.

Tomorrow afternoon I return to Boston.

So what happened?

Earlier this month, I lost my job. I sprung into action. What other choice did I have? I had to move forward.

Late last week, I was offered a position in Boston. In a little over three weeks form now, I'll be starting a job working in legal records for yet another outsourcing company. I've been assigned to a large law firm in the Seaport District. I won't be making as much money as I did down here but I'll be making more money than I made in New York.

This marks the third time I have moved out of city and out of state in less than three years. Hopefully this will be the last move for a long time to come.

But if I had to move anywhere I'm glad it will be back to Boston. I lived in Boston longer than I've ever lived anywhere else. It's my spiritual home - JP, Cambridge, day trips to Walden Pond. There's something about walking along Mass Ave across the Longfellow Bridge from Back Bay to Harvard Square. I've never had that feeling during my time in Canada, in New York City or here in Atlanta.

Now I lived in a lovely apartment in Midtown Atlanta a couple of blocks from Piedmont Park. But outside of that vicinity Atlanta is just too spread out for my liking and public transportation isn't equal to the task. I never went to Downtown Atlanta and only went to Buckhead once and that was to get a COVID test. I had hoped for a trip down to Savannah or at least to Decatur but this will not come to pass. Aside from a large procession of young kids without a care in the world riding their scooters on the sidewalk at full speed, I hardly got to know Atlanta let alone The South.

There were some joyous moments during my time here. The spontaneous street celebration after it was announced Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump that Saturday afternoon last November. Not quite two months later, the election of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate. I even managed to write an article in The Forward about casting a vote for Warnock despite some reservations about his views on Israel. I even got interviewed by a correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor in response to the article. 

Although Ossoff and Warnock were instrumental in getting the stimulus bill passed, this triumph has been tempered by the attempted insurrection at the Capitol the day after they were elected accompanied by the passage of a voter suppression bill here in Georgia which gives the legislature the power to overturn the will of the people. Georgians will probably elect Stacey Abrams Governor in 2022 but the Republican legislature will probably say to hell with that.

Then there was the sadness of the massacre at several Atlanta spas which claimed the lives of 8 people - six of them Asian women. I visited the site of the two massacres on Piedmont Road days later and will never forget the young man who carried the sign, "I Am Not a Virus". 

Of course, there is good and bad everywhere. Boston had the Boston Marathon attack and New York had 9/11. As for Atlanta perhaps if I had moved here in my late 20's it too would have become my spiritual home. Naturally, the pandemic complicated matters considerably. Still, it is lot harder to meet people when you are approaching 50 than when you're approaching 30. I do have a small network of people in Boston and the surrounding area with whom I can renew acquaintances. I also intend to explore new outlets starting with candlepin bowling. 

While the cost of living is lower in Atlanta than it is in Boston so too is the quality of public services. When I applied for unemployment insurance in both Massachusetts and New York I had a wait time of less than a week. As of this writing, nearly a month after applying, I have yet to hear from the Georgia Department of Labor regarding my unemployment claim. My efforts to contact the Georgia DOL as well as my state representative were all for naught. Fortunately, the job offer in Boston has rendered this moot. But what if that hadn't come to pass? Who knows how long I might have waited. Georgia is also one of those Republican states which has opted out of the enhanced unemployment insurance program.

Mind you I'm not sure where I will be living in Boston just yet. But this was the case when I first went there more than 20 years ago. This time around, I will be staying with friends for a few days. I do have an appointment on Sunday morning to look at an apartment in Cambridge. Hopefully I will have something in fairly quick order. If this is the case then I will likely head to New York City to visit my Dad for a few days before making my way back to fully reacclimate and reconnect in Boston. 

When I said goodbye to Boston in September 2018, I made this observation:

Honestly, I don't know when I'll be back. The past year or so has been one swift kick in the ass after the other. Despite good people here and there, on the whole, Boston was getting me down. It is not a friendly place. There's an aloofness which precludes kindness and warmth and I have not been immune to its effects. As time has passed, I have become more uncomfortable around people and generally more anxious being out and about....Boston is not without good memories. But I will need time and space to better appreciate those memories.

As it turns out, my exile from Boston lasted nearly a 1,000 days. This has given me plenty of time to better appreciate my memories of Boston both good and bad. There will be unpleasant people I will meet along the way. That unpleasantness while momentary has a way of lingering. There will be struggles and bad days accompanied by anxiety and uncertainty. This too can linger. But hopefully this will be tempered by my existing social network and my efforts to expand upon it. Given the impact of the pandemic, I can only hope that more people might be receptive to saying hello and sticking around.

Needless to say, anxiety has been the order of the day in both losing my job and abruptly having to pull up stakes yet again. But there is something to which I can look forward. My new journey in Boston will begin by having dinner with my neighbors Monica and Stephanie. This should help put me at ease. Perhaps the appetizers will come with good omens.

I suppose a trip to Fenway Park is in order even though I've cooled to baseball over these past several years. I never did get to Truist Park and had little way and no desire to travel to Cobb County to see the Braves. I remember the days when I could walk to Fenway from my apartment in all of 10 minutes. Even when I moved to JP, it was a short subway ride away. It is a truly a neighborhood hangout. When the Red Sox win, "Dirty Water" by The Standells is played. Boston, you're my home.