Ch-ch-changes - 10 years on from a watershed moment

 (The Last Drops of Lyons)

I had just gotten fired the day before.  I clearly hadn't done my research quite enough when I accepted the job in February of 2014 at a small, inner-city trades school.  Seemed like it 'could' have been a good decision at the time, but oh boy.  Working for a what I would best describe as a boatload of serial misfits led by a humorless sociopath, when I let HR know about two weeks' earlier that I was to have a change of address, my misanthropic supervisor took the opportunity to 'let me go' the day before our move. 

Great.

But, man, I was still excited and optimistic about the move itself!  After 11.5 years in the 'old house', I saw the move in many ways as a restart for my family and I; so many things had occurred in our former house, most notably was the fact that my first wife, Kim, after waging war against a cancer for over a year, died in our front room two days after bringing her home from the hospital.  We had only been in that house 3 years at that point.  

Of course, many terrific events had likewise taken place there.  The move to it in January 2003 - with Kim - was met with "wow, it's the first house I've put my name to" -- a combination of anxiety coupled with pride coupled with the possibilities of making it our own.  We decorated it the way we wanted.  We had our own music rooms.  We had a dog.  We also lived near the city which provided us access to a lot of her music gigs and the other fun having city access affords. 

And then almost a year after she died, Erika and I started dating.  She'd moved in about a year after that, and we were married in August 2008.  Having Erika now in that house was like a fresh start in terms of defining how we wanted to run it and on our terms.  And, within a few years, our daughter and son were born.  And we had a dog and a cat.    

All was good with that house, until, gradually over years, it really wasn't.  From a combination of factors, including financial (the upkeep on an 80-year-old home was, uh, challenging), social, and neighboorhood-ish - plus our look toward the future for ourselves and now our children - we made the decision to move to our present house.

10 years ago today, we took the keys.  

10 years.  Wow!

So much has changed for us.  Almost all of it, I would suggest, has been far, far for the better.  We left a neighborhood well in decline, and a school district that was abysmal.  Facing the fact that our children would be in that school district was but a big impetus for us to pack and go.  Our kids have been in our current school system here for the decade we've been here.  From the teachers to the direct school staff to counselors and adjacent school district support, it has exceeded our expectations.  I'm confident that would not have been our experience had we remained where we were. 

We have met a plethora of people in our current community than we did before, where people essentially kept to themselves.  We've established a larger network of friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and just plain friendly and accessible neighbors here than we ever had back in the old 'hood. 

Financially, it was pretty difficult to keep up with everything that entailed owning that old home.  And so, we have been renting ever since we've moved here.  Sure, it may not be the "American Dream" that the Joneses would care to define over and over and over again, but for us, the freedom to do other things with our income aside from trapping us in a piece of property has been a most impressive and intelligent move on our part.  And, aside from owning property, it's a less expensive area here than where we moved from.  

We also are able to stretch our legs in vast tracts of open space compared to where we lived prior.  Having access to massive forest preserves, woodlands, fields, etc., minutes from our door, or within 30 minutes west, north, or south, was also a big consideration.  Anyone who knows me just a little bit would understand this. 

Is it Shangri La?  Lol.  No.  I hate our kitchen space ("two-butt" kitchen, as we call it).  And the house itself doesn't have the 'character' of the old bungalow we moved from.  But then again, nor does it have the rope and pulley window fixtures, a garage suited for a horse-n-buggy, or a furnace system that probably dated to the Kennedy Administration, as our old house had.  No, ours now is fairly plain Jane, but at least it's functional, more modern, and again, it works for us in this time and place.  Very well, in fact. 

And so, yes, reflecting on this day - which represents the second-longest (and counting) address I've lived in in my life - it has been an unequivocal excellent move.  We're not sure what the future holds - who is? - but we would like to remain here, physically in this house, at least for the foreseeable future, but most definitely to stay in this area.  Still having access to the city fun and friends is great, but my countenance is, and probably always has been, to cheat westward (read:  more country access).  We've got it pretty good in both regards - wedged between urban and country (closer on the latter) - and hope to keep it that way for years to come.

Nice job, Warrenville, IL

XOXO

 (another sunset in one of my favorite place -- our back deck)