Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Still Reflecting on Moving, Because it is Taking so Long to Get a Move Date Set and so it Seems Both Prolonged and Surreal

A grad school classmate often posts random mobile shots from her day. She lives in D.C. and seems to visit other cities often. Something about one I glanced at toady helped me identify part of what makes me feel sad about moving. She took a picture from, perhaps, a bus window of a street of smallish row houses, some with their front porches closed in with vinyl siding. There are wires and signs -- it's a cluttered shot. And the shoveled sidewalk -- widely cleared here, a narrow path at that point -- draws my eye all the way in. It feels urban, and familiar, yet not familiar in the "what street in Richmond must that be" way because it seems more D.C. or Philly or Balto. somehow. It does makes me think, Yeah, that's we city folk know. And then I remember that she's n times hipper than me, maybe grew up in a city not a suburb, and that D.C. is a major league city (if unusual in so many ways). I remember that I'm headed for a house with a plot of grass and a neighborhood with only about 4 restaurants in walking distance (and those are longish walks!).

Many people I know left the Fan area years ago, when they started families and need space and better schools. Living here still made me feel younger. Not having kids, helps, too. Moving "to the suburbs" (it is in the city, really) makes me feel like I am finally having to say goodbye to young adulthood. Next time she posts a cool city scene, I might have to think "yeah, I remember what it was like to live in town."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Move date = Feb. 19. Whew.

Georgi said...

I had this idea about the type of community that I wanted to raise my children in - diverse, urban, stores and shops within walking distance, etc. We bought this fantastic house a few years ago now and, as we started our family, quickly realized that we needed more room. It all came down to money. I hate that we're looking outside of the city. Richmond felt so tiny after moving back from Chicago but while I was in the Windy City I vowed that I wanted my little one to grow up in a community where they could shop, eat, socialize, and go to school without ever getting into a car or onto a bus. Can't seem to achieve that in RVA. We looked at bigger houses in Church Hill but quickly realized that the $10k a year we'd have to spend on private schools was more than we could afford.

I love the idea of having space for Aislyn's toys and an area where she can ride her bike up and down the street. But I'm so bummed when I drive into the neighborhood that we're looking at building in and see cookie cutter homes. I need to win the lotto.

BTW - your new house is fantastic. =)