gin bucket and ye old providence

yesterday was the first league game of providence women's rugby and we beat great northern by a landslide. i was not going to start originally, but because of the absence of some players i ended up playing most of the game. i played okay - there were some really good momments rucking and scrumming, winning the posession of the ball. i need to learn how to be quick on the forward punches. but anyway, we had fun putting the field together (measuring the lines and drawing crooked lines to make up the pitch.... that was a lot of work.....!) and playing in the blazing hot sun trying to leave last footprints of summer in the september new england. the social at the sticky fingers (yes, that is the name of our sponsoring restaurant/bar) was quite fun, they let us step outside to their parking lot in the back to sing rugby songs which i haven't sang since college! we also did boat race in which i was recruited to take a spot, and obviously we won - i will never let the legacy of smith rugby down!!! after we got pretty happy with free sponsored beer, we made plans to meet up at my apartment for the traditional GIN BUCKET race. these girls are CRAZY. perhaps even crazier than smith ruggers.... well, not quite. so let me explain gin bucket for a moment; basically you have teams and each team gets a trash can filled with half handle of gin, two litters of fresca, and half bag of ice, and you drink it with TURKEY BASTER passed around among your team mates. you are only allowed to puke once, and you can recruite bystanders as "little birds" and squirt the juice into their mouths if you cannot possibly drink anymore. ha. CRAZY. the team lastnight ended up being all the veterans versus rookies and myrta, and of course, we won! again, i will never let smith rugby down!! although we did have two pukers. the evening ended with adrienne, jen, annie and i sneaking to pulse for girlspot while others (straight girls, basically) went back to sticky fingers to meet up with the men's team. pulse was more hoppin then last time i was there, and i danced quite a lot with a pole, the gals, and some random girls. it was fun.

so obviously i was exhausted and drunk, and ended up sleeping until like noon today, although i did get up at my usually hours and fed the cats. i had all sorts of interesting dreams, and just could not fully wake up for a long time. after finally getting up and cleaning the trash cans and basters, i decided to take a walk to downtown (people here call it "down city" which i think is really cool) to explore this city that has been challenging me. i also wanted to be able to show alida why our life here could be fun. here is what i found out - or what i think this city is all about:

i believe that providence is the poster-case of the industrialization tragedy. this city has flourished as one of the major ports for fish canning industry and other no-longer-popular industries such as steel and railroad. but as the franchised, monopolized capitalism came in, the businesses got bought out and people began moving away to either to suburban areas or other big cities, namely boston and new york. as a result providence ended up being an empty hole of a donut, where beutiful brick warehouses and victorian homes, and sky-rises were left unoccupied, becoming the city without neighborhoods. the construction of providence mall didn't help either. the problem is, all major big-name retail stores prefer to exist in a place where there are guaranteed customers, and since the providence place mall IS such the place where pretty much all providence residence shop (except for me!) they all have stores there instead of having individual buatique in down town area. the cost of renting and maintaining these historical buildings in down city is probably adding to the problem too, that local small restaurants and shops are simply unable to afford the space, thus the spaces are either left untouched or filled with dunkin donuts and starbucks. as i walked down waybossett and westminster and other streets of down city, i saw some amazing, beautiful architechture that are historic, with lots of details that speak of the time when providence flourished as the ocean city. it also has such great potential to be a great neighborhood, with small bistors and bars, with privately owned buetiques and cafes. only if the providence place mall was not built.... i cannot help but think about that. however i did see some efforts in trying to bring privately owned stores into the vacant spaces in these streets, and there are some that already exist. there are also a lot of warehouse renovations to convert these spaces into gorgeous lofts (which i've been looking into but hell, they are expensive!!) which would also utilize the empty space effectively and bring the people back into the down city area. i realized today, walking under the crisp warm early fall sun, that this city could be like new york only if people were able to make "that kind" of commitment to rebuilding the community. new yorkers LOVE new york. and in most neighborhoods, families still own corner stores and restaurants. even big-named retail shops have their butiques in the buildings that has been on the streets of new york for decades.

the point is, i want to like providence and i want alida to enjoy it as well. perhaps with a little more knowledge of where this city has come from, we can be understanding and actually try to help bringing the old providence community back to what it's supposed to be. i want to see the now sporatic existance of shops, galleries and restaurants evolve into a neighborhood, with diverse group of city people filling the streets on weekends. i want to see more affordable residential quarters in the heart of the city. then, i think, i might just love providence that way.