Townie.

The huge change in my life over the past year, besides the addition of Nathan, has been that I no longer drive or take the train to Boston every day. I no longer dress in business clothes and talk to adults about adult logistics and adult solutions and have adult lunch meetings with Freshcity delivering tasty wraps and kettle chips.

I can't decide if I miss that or not. I know I miss the routine and being challenged and being, sometimes, rewarded for a job well done. I miss getting a quarterly bonus. I miss having laid-back, entertaining coworkers and an easygoing boss. I don't miss the long commute, having to smile politely at and work with people you dislike with every fiber of your being, and trying to do my job without the resources I needed because the economy was tanking and our clients were disappearing.

I've become a townie this past year. This is something I'm loathe to admit and not very fond of at all, but that's one of the things that happens that no one warns you about. Before, Gloucester was somewhere I watched TV for a few hours, fell asleep, then went back to Boston in the morning. I just happened to live here. Now I'm here all day, every day.

It has its upsides, I guess. I still live in a city, and everything I need is in walking distance. I now have spoken to most of my neighbors, they like the baby, they like the chickens. I have recognized people in the supermarket. I ran into my dentist at the bank. I have two people my age I'd consider friends here - someone I met online, and someone I carpooled to a Saturday class with.

And so Gloucester has morphed into somewhere we really wanted to move from as soon as we could, to a place where, begrudgingly, we will end up staying for a long time. It's getting easier, at least.