Trip to Harper's Ferry.

The wife and I drove to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia yesterday, home to John Brown's famous raid. We've always liked going there, and we even thought about getting married in the church on the hill for a while -- when we were still considering getting married anywhere near a church. To me, Harper's Ferry has its own magic, much like Salem, Massachusetts always has. Those are two cities that I have always wanted to live in, at least a little. Last time I was at Harper's Ferry, it was the day after Thanksgiving 2002. It was bitterly cold, and we hiked all of the way up Maryland Heights, the mountain across the river from the town. We ate lunch on a cliff, and I decided then that I hoped I would end up in a PhD program away from a city. But all of the PhD mess was up in the air -- everything was just a mess. Even with the recent wrecking of our car and the harrowing hunt for a new one, I think my life has come together much more now. I don't live in or even around a city (unless you consider Carbondale a city, which, living my whole life in real cities, I do not). The PhD thing is taken care of. I'm married and happy. That said, I do miss the city -- bookstores and Ikea and Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee and just seeing different people around. In Carbondale, I usually feel like a serious hipster. But in Baltimore, I feel pretty square. Not that being square is bad.