Frankly, Mr. Shankly

Toe,
It has been a long rainy day, one on which I worked pretty much non-stop, and I am just going back to work, after a break for dinner and mattress shopping (yes, joys of domesticity). I took a side project and have been working nights and some weekends to finish it, thus I am missing out on a night out, or watching a movie, or whatnot. My wife went out with a friend to a gallery opening.

I have been thinking again about writing more. I looked over the stories I wrote this past year, and I think I have enough to start shopping around, after I give them some work. You know, I get this way, everytime I take a side job: I start to think, "why am I not writing my own stories as a side job?" Of course, then when I do have free time, and don't have to work nights, I end up watching a movie or drinking with friends.

A part of me seriously wants to give up drinking. Or friends. I'm not sure which.

Seriously, though, drinking is starting to bother me. We have a few friends in town who drink a fair amount, and we have become something of the go-to couple for having a drink (we have a well-stocked liquor cabinet, and like to use it). So lately, as in the past year, I think C and I have started to drink a little too much. Speaking for myself, I feel it is starting to get pretty unhealthy.

Anyway, I'm going to try to cut down the drinking and amp up the writing.

This is not what I planned to write her tonight. I wanted to write to you about an old letter I found from my Mom that cracked me up. I'll save it for another entry.

Hope you and El are well. Have you moved into the house yet?
Love,
E-Word

Glory Days

Toe,
Congratulations on the new home--it looks awesome. I loved your story about the previous owners. That kind of personal history makes the place really unique, and I think you put it well in that you feel like you will be caretakers to the home. I wish you well as you start out in the new place, and I hope it is one day bursting at the seams with your kids.

I, too, sometimes think I am recreating some version of my childhood home, in some sense. We never lived in a house as nice as ours, I don't think--our home never had as much character--but I feel that my attitude toward it is very much as if I am recreating something I grew up in. I want it filled with food, with a garden in the back, and I have both these things now. I wanted a neighborhood where I could say hello to people, and befriend them. We have that now. I wanted a place that I could invite people into, that I could walk out of and putter about the yard cutting grass. All these simple pleasures my life is so full of these days, it seems I recall something like them from my childhood, something that I experienced or witnessed my parents experiencing.

Weird the way these dreams and aspirations get passed down.

Speaking of aspirations, I too want to see Bruce in concert. I've loved him for a long time (I actually bought "Nebraska" the week it was released, whenever the hell that was, in the early 80s), but it's been a fandom I've held at arms length because I always felt he was kind of uncool, so I've never seen him live. So silly, because they guy is an amazing songwriter and performer. We should go see him together.

A great Springsteen album: "The Wild, The Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle." Dude stuffs an entire albums worth of lyrics into every single song.

Love,
E-word

I'm goin' down

E-word.

Two words. Bruce Springsteen. On account of having a heavy metal older brother and over-exposure to 'Born in the USA' as an impressionable adolescent, I never took him seriously. Man, have I been missing out. I just recently got Nebraska and Born in the USA and both are amazingly amazing. I now want to see this guy in concert.

Love,

Toe

It's different for girls

E-word,

I've come to a realization. I want to recapture the best moments of my suburban youth. I haven't been talking about it here, but El and I are moving out to (don't go back to) Rockville. We've bought a suburban home that I hope someday will be bursting at the seams with children. Well, I don't know if I'd go that far, but it would be nice to have a couple of them wreaking havoc.

The people we bought the house from had lived there for 35 years. They raised a family and promised themselves they would never move to a senior community, but old age caught up with them. Carol has signs of dementia, and it's time for them to move to something more manageable. It happens to the best of us, I guess. The house has a beautiful sun room. Carol told us that the best time to be in the sun room is when the first snow falls. She told us to crank up the heaters in the sun room and sit and watch the snow as it falls. She fought back tears every time she told us this story.

Rick and Carol told us to buy lots of candy, because kids are going to come in droves to the house for Halloween. The neighborhood has lots of kids, and they always see them walking to school with their parents. The elementary school is just around the corner from our house. They said they wondered if maybe they were bad parents, because 35 years ago their kids walked to school by themselves.

Her sun room story reminds me of one of my favorite memories from childhood. I loved watching the rain fall during summer thunderstorms. I'd sit by the sliding patio window and watch the rain bounce off of the concrete patio. After the rain stopped, I'd go out in the backyard and smell the ozone and wet grass.

It's kind of a crazy thing buying a home from people. This house has a history, it's like in a way we're caretakers of their home, of their memories. I hope that me and El can make this house our home, and we someday find people who are going to be caretakers of our memories and the memories of Rick and Carol.

Love,

Toe