I was working from home today, and this is the view from my desk chair when I look out the window that’s to my left. It used to be straight in front of me when I was sitting at the desk, but I may have rearranged the furniture in the office/guest room twice this week, so now it’s to my left. It’s not the prettiest of views (especially when it’s an overcast, grey, winter day), but I love having it.

Random tidbits about this view (and our neighborhood):
– I’m pretty sure that we are the only people in our neighborhood that walk on the sidewalk. Everyone else walks down the middle of the street. Quincy’s sidewalks are in horrible shape, but they are certainly not so bad that I would choose to walk in the street instead of using them. I’m talking everyone – families with babies in strollers, women with infants in carriers, the can and bottle collectors with their stolen shopping carts. It’s one of the first things I noticed about the neighborhood when we first moved here, and it has driven me bonkers ever since.
– We belong to a local running club (I may or may not have over-thrown the guy who started it and taken charge myself), and recently met one of our neighbors through it! You would think that living on an all residential block we would have met our neighbors being out in the neighborhood, but it’s urban enough that people just don’t work like that. We are friendly with our downstairs neighbor Dave who moved in a few months ago, and we have both met our immediate next door neighbor Mr. Matchlight (whose stairs you can see in the photo – not his real name), but otherwise we have never spoken with any neighbors. Until one of them showed up at a running club event, and it was discovered that she lives in the building on the left in the photo above. In fact, if I had taken the photo at a different angle, you would be able to see her windows.
– Our neighborhood is primarily Asian. At one end of the block is the Greater Boston Chinese Community Center and at the other end is the Chinese Baptist Church of Greater Boston. When we first moved here, it felt very, very different than our previous neighborhoods (most recently a predominantly black neighborhood with a smattering of Vietnamese and prior to that a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood) but we have come to love having an abundance of amazing Asian restaurants near us…even if I do miss being able to get a great burger within walking distance.
– At least once a day when I’m working from home, I overhear someone having a screaming argument. Sometimes it is two people walking down the (middle of the) street, and sometimes it is one person on the phone, but it always happens.
– My favorite sight to see out the window is the children from the daycare around the corner out for a walk, all holding onto the loops on their rope…do you know what I’m talking about? It’s like a little parade of adorableness, just for me to enjoy from my window! It’s hilarious to watch all the toddlers looking and pointing and pulling in a different direction while their teachers walk along at what must be a painfully slow pace and try to keep them in line. I should add here that these are the only other people who walk on the sidewalk, so don’t call DSS on them.