Loving Salem

It's not always easy to do, to love your hometown. When you know it inside and out and can see all its flaws its often easier to criticize and complain than it is to love. Last night, though, was one of those nights that reminded me of my great love for this quirky little place.

I met with two retired coworkers/mentors for happy hour at the Wild Pear. We sat outside, enjoying the fine weather, catching up on our summer escapades, and just enjoying each other's company. Then we wandered over to Venti's for a glass of local cider and two of us stayed and ended up spending hours sitting on the sidewalk, talking, meeting people that I'd seen around town but never talked to, people watching, and enjoying summer.

We split up around 9, but I still wasn't quite ready to go home because the weather was so perfect for walking around, so I ended up stopping by Clockworks for a little bit of the open mic night and heard some GREAT guitar music.

Then, as I wandered along the streets, I ran into some acquaintances sitting outside at Brown's Towne who asked me to sit down and quickly moved from acquaintances to friends.

I finally wandered home around 11:30 and fell into bed. Happy.