1) What were you doing 5 years ago? In the summer of 2003, Heather and I moved to San Francisco, having just completed our undergrad careers. We were moving there so that we could both begin grad school, and live with a family while taking care of their kids. We had chatted on the phone with the mom once, never talked to the Dad, and never met the kids. When we flew there we had $50 together, no other money in the world, and we didn't even know if they were going to buy our food. When mom picked us up at the airport, with the current nanny, we seriously contemplated whether they were a two-mom family and just hadn't told us. We weren't out to them; we were friends who both happened to be moving at the same time, maybe they weren't out to us? Within 24 hours we had had the best 'girls weekend' with mom and "Turkey" (as the 2yo little boy called the nanny). Dad was still a big question mark as he travelled and was out of town most of the time. Mom took us around the city, fed us the most amazing food and treated us like we were her oldest, best friends.
It was the most incredible example of generosity and warmth of spirit that I had ever seen up to that point, or have seen since. Even now, whenever we need a pick-me-up, we can call her and hear the excitement, warmth, love, and joy in her voice from thousands of miles away. This experience as a whole was terrifying, exhilarating, and unbelievable all at the same time. She changed my life in many ways, and, I hope, changed me for the better. Dissertation proposal
Get outside for some fresh air
Call health insurance company to find dentist
Pay rent
Fill out paperwork for dissertation funding
Coffee
Toast with goat cheese and strawberry jam
Almonds
Chewy fruity candy
Cheddar Cheese (sometimes with peanut butter because I'm gross like that)
Pay off my student loans
Get my car fixed and painted (because Heather hates the color)
Hire a financial planner because I wouldn't know what the heck to do with my money
Have Osker's dog walker come every day for adventures
Give money to Cottey
Gosh, only five places I've lived? Hmm...
Watch Hill, RI... absolutely wonderful little beach town. My first nanny job was there in the summer of 1999. I admit, I was spoiled! I had charge of one little guy, 14mo, and the family was able to use a friend's cabana on the beach whenever we wanted. I would go to their house around 9, pick up the baby, take him to the beach and play for a few hours. We would then eat lunch and I would put him down for a nap on the floor of the cabana.... he would sleep for a good two to three hours and I would read books and work on my tan. Then I would take him home around 3 and I was done for the day... Ah, the good life!
Lynchburg, Virginia... yes, the hometown of J.erry F@lwell. We went there for school for two years. We pulled up to the school, having driven all night, on the morning of orientation. (noticing a trend? we tend not to preview things very well, I guess.) The school is gorgeous, set back in the rolling hills of VA with large, beautiful brick buildings... however, sadly enough, to me it looked like an insane asylum! Eventually I enjoyed the school well enough, but at first.. Yikes! Scary!Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA... ugh. When Heather and I left San Francisco, we wanted to move to Boston. However, while we had a bit more than $50, it wasn't much more. We stayed with my parents for about two weeks while Heather found a job and then moved in with a bunch of other girls in JP. I had heard that it was where all the lesbians lived, so I insisted that we check it out. Blech! We hated it! Heather more than me, but neither of us enjoyed the neighborhood. The girls that we lived with said that they were "crunchy granola" but really were just plain dirty and stinky. One of them had hair almost to her knees and only washed it about once a week. It was everywhere and she smelled bad most of the time. The other had somehow created a cave in her bedroom where she burrowed through dirt, scum, and junk in order to sleep in a bed piled high with laundry that she just shoved over every so often. Yuck! Luckily we only lived there for a few months and then moved out! Yay!
Chestnut Street, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA... aaaahhhhhh.... much better..... Heather insisted that we live in Beacon Hill. (thank goodness for Heather's insistence!) After living with the dirty girls we found our own place in Beacon Hill. It was tiny, garden level (read as half underground) and the floors sloped downward. We had little to no furniture, most of our stuff (bed, computer, tv) sat on the floor, but it was OURS! Just us, no roommates, no employers, just the two of us. This was also where we lived when we got Osker. It was tiny and had a bathroom that had tiles a mix of bubble gum pink, black, and seafoam green... but it also had a nice brick courtyard right outside our door where Osker could run around in circles to his heart's content. That courtyard saved his puppyhood! It also had the most amazing location in the city. When the big political convention came to town that summer Osker was able to make friends with all of the secret service folks and added police security details (to this day he loves a man in uniform!). We were a mere stone's throw from two gorgeous parks, near the river, near any city amenity you could want... It was great... and then... the landlords sold our building.. :(
Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA... after we were bought out of our lease we moved up the hill a bit. We found this glorious two bedroom apartment right in the best part of Beacon Hill. Of course it had a tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom, no dishwasher, nolaundry... but, oh the location!! A very famous senator was our neighbor and the secret service had just left after keeping it safe while he was running for president... This is where Heather proposed and this is where we lived when we got married (many of you have visited!!). The heat was horrible in the winter (non-existent in the back of the house), there were MICE all the time, and it badly, badly needed a paint job. We left it to move in with friends to try group living again and while we love our current place... man do we miss that spot.
1 comment:
It's almost like I can catch up a little on the years. I like how each place you lived also reflected what was going on in your life, and you associate certain places with those memories and events. I think that way too, (but I'm not very good at sharing-that's not very nice is it) and for a while I used to think "where was I living?" to remember how long ago something had happened.
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