Little by little this new place, this residence, is resembling a home. I will never forget the first time I met each of you, that fret-filled Tuesday night.....the evening of "MOVE DAY." I had only one continuing-ed class at the Macon Road campus, had no idea where the class was located (never saw the new building before), and worse, had no idea what this class was about!
Over the Christmas holiday, my children had a blast teasing me about once again becoming a college student. They were filled with opinions, challenges and your every-day ribbing exercises. One thing they said in unison was, "You made us do it...you have to do it...it's not fair!" You see, I strongly encouraged all my kids, my three and the niece who lives with us, to participate in their schools' honor programs. In fact, I pretty much insisted on it. So, on a fate-filled night I signed up for the only honors course I could find.
It is two months later, I fought the urge to 'drop' and am still struggling with the fact that my writing skills are poor. BUT...I am enjoying this! I enjoy all of you!
We now live in a gentrifying neighborhood in Cooper-Young. We moved from a street directly across from Overton Park, a beautiful 6500 square foot gem to 1700 square feet of ugly and old. The first order of business was to install the security system and the wireless shebang-stuff that allows us to have television, telephone and internet. Now all of this is fairly common in normal houses, but this old gal had 'knob&tube' electrical wiring. A relic system that my husband thought could be replaced in a week. WRONG! As I watched the electricians work, I was mostly amazed that they were fascinated with this old stuff. They worked patiently side-by-side with the contractors that were moving walls, securing molding, closing windows and opening new doorways. She is still ugly and we have stuff everywhere, but I've come to appreciate this new side of midtown. I have wonderful neighbors, interesting people not very different from my old neighbors. In fact my old neighbors are new neighbors here in this new part of town! Instead of only running through Overton Park, our group now runs south at least one day a week with this new house being a pit-stop, we've picked up two new joggers who live in Central Gardens, and now have a group of fifteen or so on each run.
We've found newspapers dated 1927, hand-made baby toys, an inscribed headstone from 1932 (no body yet), that makes me wonder about the family that last made this a real home. As fascinated as I am at times it never lasts long. When I step onto the porch and look towards the west, I see ghetto. I know this ghetto has been bought by a reputable developer, but it is still ghetto today. This in its own right makes me feel bad, that less that one mile from my old house, folks were/are living this way, and there's no reason for it. (that's another note)
I keep telling myself, this is a great move for us. We have two children completely off the payroll, one graduating this spring from the University of Virginia taking a job in D.C., and a junior at UT Knox. I keep telling myself I'd be dancing a 'jig' if this space were in New York City. We have retired from the bizarre property taxes of Memphis and have an opportunity to put some seriously needed retirement cash aside! I have a new kitchen, small, unfinished, but new. We have a yard and garage. We are living this adventure one day at a time and it's all good!
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