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Thoughts about OH
Jun. 18th, 2009 09:17 pmThis is Day 4 in OH (either Ottawa Hills or Ohio or both). We left Dallas on June 2nd, spent a week driving up to Toledo (a whole nother story), met the moving truck last Tuesday to unload boxes, then left the same day to go spend time with my parents. (Actually, we started that visit by dropping Miriam off and spending a couple of days at a bed and breakfast in Jim Thorpe, PA, just the two of us. A nice break for us, although it did end up with me doing genealogical research while Jen spent some precious fun time on the Internet, something she hadn't been able to do for a week or two.) We got back to Toledo on Sunday, which was the first night we actually slept in the new house.
Jen started work on Monday, and as we haven't lined up a babysitter yet I've been in full-time Daddying mode. This hasn't been too bad, since there have been little chores to do, like running to the bank or the insurance agent or the grocery store. Our house turns out to be pretty well located for walking: we're within a mile from the University (though not Jen's campus), from a couple of grocery stores (in two different directions), a bagel restaurant, a bookstore, a Sears, a Home Depot, a Costco, our bank, and a pretty big playground. When Miriam is tired, it's been easy to pop her in the stroller and walk somewhere or other (I like to have a destination when I'm walking). Pretty good for a house in a village which has zero businesses within its borders. And for the most part, the walking terrain has been pretty good, unlike times in Dallas where taking a walk meant walking on a crummy narrow sidewalk next to a busy four-lane road, or walking along the shoulder of a busy road with no sidewalks. It's not a pedestrian's paradise, but it will do very nicely.
We've met a few of our neighbors; the family from next door even came to our door and brought us flowers and chocolate. Our neighbor on the other side introduced me to her daughter who was a "Red-Cross certified babysitter" which sounds good. Mind you, Ottawa Hills was hyped up to the point that I'm a tiny bit disappointed when I see someone on the street who *doesn't* immediately come over and introduce herself, but of course as an introvert I'm also relieved that the neighbors aren't TOO friendly. :)
What has occupied my thoughts as I've walked through the neighborhood is a feeling of specificity, of a nebulous future beginning to gel. Although we did spend 5 years in Chicago, 3 years in Boston, and 3 years in Dallas, life since college has felt peripatetic, and I felt like I didn't want to get too comfortable in any one place because it would be temporary. But we've bought a house here, and we're probably staying here at least until Jen gets tenure, which is 6-7 years from now (the rest of our thirties, I realized). We could be here until retirement or even the rest of our lives. The neighbors we're meeting now will most likely be our neighbors for years, not months-- hope we get along! In the past, I've mostly ignored (or, occasionally, loathed) our neighbors. Miriam has changed that, so that in Irving this past year we got to know several of our neighbors pretty well, but since we were there for so short a time it didn't proceed beyond "new family on the block".
Being the sort who has trouble living in the present, it can be kind of overwhelming to try to imagine how we're going to get from that stage to being an integrated part of the community. It's something I've actually longed for for a long time, but it's intimidating too.
This feeling of specificity is particularly strong when I think about Miriam growing up here. This house is going to be her template of what a house should be. The way we lay out our furniture and decorate will probably invoke feelings of nostalgia for her for the rest of her life. She'll know these streets like the back of her hand. A little kid in a stroller might be her best friend in a few years. I took Miriam over to the elementary school, and it was amazing to think, not just that Miriam would be going to kindergarten someday, but that she would be going to kindergarten in this school, right here.
Overall, it's looking like a really good place to live. The house will be good once we get these boxes out of here (a scary prospect in and of itself; big stuff is easy to place, but then we have boxes with all of these niggly little things which don't have a home-- where do they go?) Neither of us have felt like unpacking very much in the evenings. I suppose we should devote the weekend to that, but I also need some time to start doing some research stuff again; it's been hard to jump back into it after a tiring day. It will help when we get a babysitter lined up; I have to remind myself at times that this week has been an anomaly in terms of watching Miriam all day 5 days a week. Which is actually kind of neat: the last two weeks in Dallas I had to do this, and I was agonizing over it, but now I'm apparently confident that I could watch her full-time if I needed to.
Well, enough for now.
Jen started work on Monday, and as we haven't lined up a babysitter yet I've been in full-time Daddying mode. This hasn't been too bad, since there have been little chores to do, like running to the bank or the insurance agent or the grocery store. Our house turns out to be pretty well located for walking: we're within a mile from the University (though not Jen's campus), from a couple of grocery stores (in two different directions), a bagel restaurant, a bookstore, a Sears, a Home Depot, a Costco, our bank, and a pretty big playground. When Miriam is tired, it's been easy to pop her in the stroller and walk somewhere or other (I like to have a destination when I'm walking). Pretty good for a house in a village which has zero businesses within its borders. And for the most part, the walking terrain has been pretty good, unlike times in Dallas where taking a walk meant walking on a crummy narrow sidewalk next to a busy four-lane road, or walking along the shoulder of a busy road with no sidewalks. It's not a pedestrian's paradise, but it will do very nicely.
We've met a few of our neighbors; the family from next door even came to our door and brought us flowers and chocolate. Our neighbor on the other side introduced me to her daughter who was a "Red-Cross certified babysitter" which sounds good. Mind you, Ottawa Hills was hyped up to the point that I'm a tiny bit disappointed when I see someone on the street who *doesn't* immediately come over and introduce herself, but of course as an introvert I'm also relieved that the neighbors aren't TOO friendly. :)
What has occupied my thoughts as I've walked through the neighborhood is a feeling of specificity, of a nebulous future beginning to gel. Although we did spend 5 years in Chicago, 3 years in Boston, and 3 years in Dallas, life since college has felt peripatetic, and I felt like I didn't want to get too comfortable in any one place because it would be temporary. But we've bought a house here, and we're probably staying here at least until Jen gets tenure, which is 6-7 years from now (the rest of our thirties, I realized). We could be here until retirement or even the rest of our lives. The neighbors we're meeting now will most likely be our neighbors for years, not months-- hope we get along! In the past, I've mostly ignored (or, occasionally, loathed) our neighbors. Miriam has changed that, so that in Irving this past year we got to know several of our neighbors pretty well, but since we were there for so short a time it didn't proceed beyond "new family on the block".
Being the sort who has trouble living in the present, it can be kind of overwhelming to try to imagine how we're going to get from that stage to being an integrated part of the community. It's something I've actually longed for for a long time, but it's intimidating too.
This feeling of specificity is particularly strong when I think about Miriam growing up here. This house is going to be her template of what a house should be. The way we lay out our furniture and decorate will probably invoke feelings of nostalgia for her for the rest of her life. She'll know these streets like the back of her hand. A little kid in a stroller might be her best friend in a few years. I took Miriam over to the elementary school, and it was amazing to think, not just that Miriam would be going to kindergarten someday, but that she would be going to kindergarten in this school, right here.
Overall, it's looking like a really good place to live. The house will be good once we get these boxes out of here (a scary prospect in and of itself; big stuff is easy to place, but then we have boxes with all of these niggly little things which don't have a home-- where do they go?) Neither of us have felt like unpacking very much in the evenings. I suppose we should devote the weekend to that, but I also need some time to start doing some research stuff again; it's been hard to jump back into it after a tiring day. It will help when we get a babysitter lined up; I have to remind myself at times that this week has been an anomaly in terms of watching Miriam all day 5 days a week. Which is actually kind of neat: the last two weeks in Dallas I had to do this, and I was agonizing over it, but now I'm apparently confident that I could watch her full-time if I needed to.
Well, enough for now.
