sub-urban

There are quite a few cars on the road here sporting a license plate frame that says, "Make the choice//SUBURBAN". I'm pretty sure that it's from a car dealer around here somewhere, but every time I see it, I want to pump my fist in the air and shout, "Yes! I choose sub-urban!"

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to us! We have been in Michigan for a whole year- well, a year and two weeks by the time I'm getting around to writing this. My office at work celebrated by turning off my network access, so I spent my first two days back at work after three weeks off just sitting around daydreaming. Mr. Brown celebrated by taking the kids out to ice cream. Our actual anniversary date is May 5, so I think from now on we should celebrate by going to dinner in Mexican Town, which we haven't explored yet even though we've been here a year.

Here are some of the reasons that we love living in Detroit:

1. Canadian radio stations

2. Indian grocery stores (please note: plural!)

3. Middle Eastern, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Thai & Russian restaurants (to name a few)

4. there's not a major concert tour that doesn't include Detroit

5. the fascination here with cars and car companies

6. the Woodward Dream Cruise!

7. The milder winters

8. the way the city explodes back into life in the spring

9. the Detroit Red Wings (I've decided to be a fan)

10. every driver here sees me on my bike and gives me the right of way.

Look at that, it came out to exactly ten. I'm transcribing a list I wrote up for a friend of mine when I was trying to explain why I'd turned down a job offer in Alabama. While I have been looking diligently for a job there for some time, when I was actually offered one, I discovered that I'm not yet done living in this fabulous city, in spite of Alabama's significant advantages (family, weather, cost of living). Mr. Brown and I decided we'd stay for awhile. There are so many more things we want to do here: visiting Mexican Town is just one of them. I want to make friends with my aunt & uncle in Ann Arbor. I want to make better friends with people I've just started to get to know. I want to go to Canada.

So happy end-of-our-first-year, beginning-of-our-future-here to us! I'm excited to see what we get to do and learn and experience this year!

5 April 2010

I drove five hundred miles around Detroit last week in this: to find this:

Three bedrooms, two car garage, and backyard with a picnic table.

moving

I have PCS papers. We're moving to Detroit, Michigan, the first week in May. Farewell, Iowa! I guess I'll have to change the name of this blog.

Rents in Michigan are twice what they are here, so Mr. Brown keeps trying to prepare himself and Rose Pink for the idea that we'll be living somewhere less spacious than our townhouse. "We'll probably be in a smaller place," he'll say. Rose Pink, without fail, always counters, "Or bigger! It could be bigger, or smaller, we don't know!"

It started way back in December, when I was offered another job with the command if I would move in March. I accepted, but then changed my mind and decided to stay in my current job and go ahead and move. They put me on the calendar for July, and we were waiting for official papers before announcing anything. Then when I came back from the Leavenworth trip, I had a really bad week with my boss, and Mr. Brown told me that we should just go ahead and move in order to get away from her. (She's retiring and not moving to Detroit.) So I asked for my orders to be moved up to the beginning of May, and that was approved two weeks ago. I got my paperwork yesterday.

I thought it would be good to have a short time before I moved - less time to mope, less time to be uncomfortable around people, less time to answer for the ka-jillionth time the same questions about whether or not we're excited and how much time left. I think it was the right choice. I didn't want to tell anyone at all at church, but Mr. Brown didn't let me make that decision. It's been so hard, this whole upset and the mixed feelings of excitement and loss, that I didn't really want to talk about it with anyone, and I didn't want people looking at it or prodding those feelings.

Mr. Brown told one person the day the May move date was approved, and when we got to church on Sunday it seemed that most of the people we talked to there already knew. Word gets around, I guess. It was such a relief to me not to have to tell anyone, and Mr. Brown cleverly deduced that I didn't want to see the disappointed look on others' faces when we gave them our news. He very thoughtfully made sure to tell everyone that might possibly need to know, so that it wouldn't have to be me breaking it initially. My husband is so kind.

In a lot of ways it seems an appropriate time to move. I was just telling Mr. Brown that it seemed like our group of townhouses is filled with ghosts. He quoted Counting Crows at me, "Memories are just films about ghosts" but it's true, when I look around all I see are the people who used to live here. Either the townhomes are empty now or they have grownups in them with no kids and so we never see them. There's a particular push/riding toy that has been handed around from family to family and has actually been part of this group of townhomes for longer than we've lived here. I wonder if the people who first bought it realized that it would stay here for so long. And at this point, nobody else realizes that it's been around here so long, except maybe the landlords.

We are excited and interested to move to a new city and experience new things, a different ward, a different culture and different learning opportunities. But Davenport is a good place to live and we do like this city and will miss it very, very much. We'll be gone the next two weeks. I have a training class in Detroit, and then Mr. Brown and the kids are coming to join me for a few days to look for a place to live. Sigh. Here we go, another adventure!

4 December 2009

When I was putting the lights on the Christmas tree last Saturday, I made myself dizzy just by walking around it to get them on.

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I went on a quick trip to Detroit with my supervisor this week. We left Tuesday morning and returned Wednesday afternoon. The meeting we traveled for was a dud, but getting to meet face to face all the people that I work with daily was really great. They were all so friendly, and really seemed eager to meet me and eager for me to move up to Detroit. Honestly, it made me think about moving there a little more seriously, because really nice coworkers can make a bad job bearable. (As I know from current experience!)

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The day after I got back we had a dance party in the living room and as we all frolicked in the living room, I thought about how much I love my family. I've turned a corner. While I have never disliked any member of my family individually, I have often been frustrated with the family collective, with the restrictions and responsibilities that have fallen on me because of my children. But the past several weeks I have found that the frustration has dissipated. I love my family individually, and I love the family group, too. I am so glad and grateful that they are all in my life right now, together, at this time. And I'm really grateful to feel that way, too.