Ten years ago today, we packed up our babies, our black cat, and all of our junk (we didn't have much furniture yet) and stuffed it into a yellow cube van. We left behind our basement apartment in Jethro's parents' city house. We moved into a brick bungalow just like it, but with one big difference- this one would be ours. It wasn't my dream house. It was about a hundred years too new, and did not have fifty acres of land attached to it. It had no barn. It didn't even have a shed. But it was ours.
There was a pile of previous owner junk at the side of the road. The locals slowed down to gawk at us new folks. I wrinkled my nose at them. The old owners had been there for 29 years. They had wallpapered almost all vertical surfaces and left various pieces of curtain rods, coat hangers and window screens in every closet. We didn't care. This was our house now.
That night, we sat on a couch with our babies cuddled in our laps and our black cat finally purring after establishing that this was his new domain. Our big oak bookcase was in ten sections in the middle of the room surrounded by boxes. We were kinda freaked out. We couldn't afford this house. We did not come up with the downpayment ourselves- that was a little "get out of our basement" present from his parents! We were 26 and 28 years old. We had one pitiful music business salary. But we had a house and we were GRATEFUL and determined to make the most of it with what little we had.
The next morning we woke up to a foodless and fridgeless kitchen. He went out to hunt down some muffins for breakfast. When he came back, he announced, "You're never gonna believe what happened yesterday while we were moving."
"What, did the world end?"
"Almost." He slapped down a newspaper. There was a big picture of Princess Diana on it. Right away I knew that the date of our arrival in our home would always be linked to this event. Sure enough, when I woke up this morning the guys on the local Big City New Modern Edge Rock Station were talking about this being the 10th anniversary of Diana's death. Of course, them being all cool and stuff they were guffawing about it and remembering which large breasted waitress they were lying beside when the heard the news, which they didn't care about at all, and in fact only thought of it because, like, this chick didn't really do anything other than marry a guy with big ears. And whatever.
All I could think of was that I moved into my house that day.
Ten years later we're still here.
We figured on a five year plan. We're now looking at a 2008 escape plan.
I'm desperately ready to get out. Even though I have dear friends here now, and networks, and a life, I want out. No more streetlights. No more stop lights, neighbours with perfectly square flowerbeds, no more constant traffic ten feet away from my house. No more. I need room and open sky and horses in my back yard.
So how are we celebrating our 10th anniversary in this house?
Getting the heck out of it.
See ya.
18 comments:
Have a great time. See you tomorrow night...
I remember the day she died. I was at my Uncle's house down in the Texas Hill Country.
You will get out of there. You will be able to watch those horses from your kitchen window. You will be able to walk out with a mug and rubber boots and your pajamas and pet their noses, wet with dew, early in the mornings. You will. And so will I.
not stayed in one house for 10 years, yet, so it would be a record for me, and that was one sad day, not your getting your own place but the death of Di.
keep at it and you will be out soon
hummm..the day Princess Diana died...that was five houses ago for me.
Us, too. We're making our escape plans, too...we are not waiting on the lottery, either, though if that happened first! Gotta get out of this town.
Today is my mom's birthday, too...honestly, I don't remember what I was doing when Diana died. I didn't have television then, lived on a mountain in a 14 foot trailer with Maggie, worked, hiked, fished and camped...hardly went to town, hardly read a paper...I wouldn't mind getting back to that kind of life...
Wow. Interesting. I was still in my condo when she died.
I was at the hospital waiting for a friend's baby to come. I'm going to look forward to hearing how your 2008 plans progress. Do you know where you want to go? Or just the country?
The tornado got us out of our house in town and into the country... Not exactly the place I had dreamed of, though...
You're going to make it, though... 2008 is your year... I can feel it...:-)
When Di died...
(A very depressing moment, I must say)
I believe that was 3 houses ago for me, but the current one is the first we've owned.
One day, Heidi, you will have your acres in the country, and I will have my secluded home in the mountains, and all will be right in the world.
We were woken by our clock radio with the news, which was odd because it was Sunday morning and it had never come on like that before...spooky.
Good luck with your plan.
10 years ago we had just moved from a two bedroom townhouse to a 3 bedroom(just around a corner, really), as my daughter was born a few weeks later. My husband had to go away for a few days and while I was quietly unpacking the news came on and told of her death. I thought it was some sick hoax. It took a few days to sink in
i remember it well, and i can't believe it's been ten years.
wow.
hooray for you, getting away!
I remember when she died...it was three houses ago and my father-in-law was alive and well then. I miss him more than I miss her to be honest although I felt she died way before her time.
I guess I am the only person in the world who doesn’t give a shit that Diana is dead. It is a shame that anyone has to die at an early age, but what makes her so great or her death anymore tragic than the mother of three who died by running into a bridge abutment trying to avoid a car crossing the median coming head on at her? It’s a local thing around here. I know she did a lot of volunteer work, especially with the old land minds. But she was a philandering mother of two, one of which (Prince Andrew) has questionable parentage (the red hair – like one of her lovers). I can’t help but believe that if she had been at home with her two boys she would be alive today. On the other hand, I am proud of you for lasting ten years in one place. But I hope, desperately, that you get your horse farm on day soon.
Well, don't brand me as some kind of royalist (believe me, I'm not) but here's a clip to set the record straight. (I have to agree that I care more about people locally that die senselessly than any freakin' royals...)
LONDON (AFP) - Britain's royal family forced the late Princess Diana to blood test her younger son, Prince Harry, to prove he was not the offspring of an affair with an army officer, according to a newspaper report.
Diana, who died in 1997, did not tell Harry why his blood was being taken, the Sun newspaper said in extracts from a book by Simone Simmons, an "energy healer" billed as a former close friend and confidante of the princess.
Senior royals, notably Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip, feared that their son, Prince Charles, who was married to Diana, might not have been the real father of Harry, who was born in September 1984.
Diana had previously had a passionate affair with army officer Major James Hewitt, and there had been rumours that Harry -- who, like Hewitt, has red hair -- was the product of that relationship.
Simmons, whose book "Diana: The Last Word," is being serialised by the tabloid newspaper, claimed she felt Diana should know about the rumours Harry was illegitimate.
"It fell to me to impart the unpleasant news to the princess," the paper quoted her as saying.
Diana, who publicly admitted to her affair with Hewitt in a 1995 television interview, insisted that the dates of her affair with the officer meant he could not possibly be Harry's father, Simmons said.
However, she was pressured to carry out DNA tests on both Harry and his elder brother, Prince William, to prove their paternity, the Sun said in its Wednesday edition.
The tests showed that both princes had been fathered by Charles, the heir to the British throne, who Diana finally divorced in 1996, a year before her death in a Paris car crash.
On Monday, the Sun printed an extract from the book in which Simmons claims Diana had a passionate affair with John F Kennedy Jr, the son of the assassinated US president, who himself died in a plane crash in 1999.
Some other British newspapers have ridiculed Simmons' supposed revelations, saying she was never especially close to Diana and is most likely inventing stories for financial gain.
I've been in my apartment for three, and I need to get the hell out too. I want horses and blue skies and a lake in my back yard, but I'm pretty reasonable and will settle for some grass at this point. ;)
Jethro, thank you for your comment. First of all, I, in my usual dumb ass manner, used the wrong name in the statement about the questionable parentage, and I stand, head bowed, in humble embarrassment for this. Secondly, even before I heard anything about the question, I had asked myself the same question, since he “looked” so different. I guess I need to go back to my high school biology class and relearn about genes and such.
But I still don’t see the tragedy, other than the usual waist of like something like this cause. I hope she is resting in peace, and above mortal gossip.
Coffeypot, that last line was well said.
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