The Four Corners of the Mile Square

January 9, 2008

I have a new friend, and she has a car.

I met Cristina yesterday after receiving an email from her; she, too, is relatively new to Hoboken, and found my blog. She suggested we meet for lunch at the Karma Café, an Indian place on Washington Street I'd been planning to try. She knows the place well, and it was a perfect choice -- exotic enough (Indian food, incense, soothing decor) -- as it was right down my alley. Of course it made me think of my friend Gail Goodwin, my vegetarian Church of Religious Science minister friend from Alabama who loves this sort of thing, but that too was fitting. I felt as if Gail were introducing me to someone who would be part of my new life.

During the course of the lunch, a light, tasty Indian buffet including what is known as rice pudding but is actually rice cooked in a milky sauce spiced with cinnamon and cardamom, Cristina told me that she had brought her car and would drive me to the corners of Hoboken I had not yet found on foot. This was an exciting prospect, and made the meal and the conversation more interesting. I have only just begun to find my way around, as readers of this blog (obviously including Cristina) well know.

She lives in a new building on Observer Highway, not a neighborhood I can easily access. Next door is an old factory building now used by artists as studio spaces. She can walk to the Target in Jersey City from her home. Now I realize I could too in pleasant weather when I'm in the mood for a long walk.

On our drive I got to see the Waste Management building, or maybe it was the Water Management building; anyway, it was an errand she had to run to the north end of town, and driving to it we passed the spacious Shop-Rite Supermarket I had not been able to locate. Again, I can walk to it when I feel like walking...really walking. And when I have my shopping cart along.

We drove through a little of Jersey City, in the neighborhood of the beautiful Newport Mall I've written about before. I know how to get there by subway and Light Rail train, and now I see how very accessible it is by car. And that for a determined walker, it could be reached on foot.

I know the east side of town pretty well, because I live there, and from the downtown side I catch the many buses and trains to other parts.

Now I know a little about the rest of Hoboken, and I have someone to explore with.