Seve(n/r)ed
So long, 2007, you ol' sonuvabitch, you. You've done your share of good, and you've shown us a lot of change, too.
Although we moved to Chicago in 2006, it really feels like 2007 was the year we started living - L-I-V-I-N, per Dazed and Confused's Wooderson - in our house here in Park Ridge and in Chicago again. We sold the MN house, and completed the purchase here, and have renovated the shit out of the ol' box, and it looks and feels like our home now. That's 2007.
The last three months of 2007 were, despite the renovations, some of the longest and hardest we've known, despite our good fortune to have house, health, etc., what with me being in New York so frequently. The concurrent nightmare electrical project at the house certainly didn't make things easier for Cindy and the gals. That was 2007, too.
Most notably, 2007 illustrated, for me, how when you restart your life in a new city not once, but twice, in 3 years, there's bound to be casualties to friendships. Returning to friendships left behind in Chicago when we cleared out in 2004, you discover that part of how we all dealt with the move was closing the book on certain levels of closeness, and those books are harder to reopen than you'd think. Likewise, new friends that seemed so close in Minnesota have, for all intents and purposes, vanished from our lives entirely. That's not surprising -- they're Minnesotans, afterall -- but sad, really. In either case, you make an investment, and when you move, it all comes to nothing. At least, that' what 2007 has shown me.
So New Years Eve is here, a time of fresh starts and new adventures. It's perhaps appropriate, then, that we're celebrating with new friends, from our third "new life," our restart in Park Ridge. It should be a nice, if somewhat subdued, evening, though not unlike a few we've hosted ourselves through the years. Certainly, less dynamic than many I've spent with brother Cale over the years – from bear-biting in our quasi-bachelor days to singing for prostitutes in Vegas.
And that's how life is at the end of 2007 -- somewhere between parenting and prostitutes, you make a new life for yourself and look forward to the year ahead. That's 2008.
Although we moved to Chicago in 2006, it really feels like 2007 was the year we started living - L-I-V-I-N, per Dazed and Confused's Wooderson - in our house here in Park Ridge and in Chicago again. We sold the MN house, and completed the purchase here, and have renovated the shit out of the ol' box, and it looks and feels like our home now. That's 2007.
The last three months of 2007 were, despite the renovations, some of the longest and hardest we've known, despite our good fortune to have house, health, etc., what with me being in New York so frequently. The concurrent nightmare electrical project at the house certainly didn't make things easier for Cindy and the gals. That was 2007, too.
Most notably, 2007 illustrated, for me, how when you restart your life in a new city not once, but twice, in 3 years, there's bound to be casualties to friendships. Returning to friendships left behind in Chicago when we cleared out in 2004, you discover that part of how we all dealt with the move was closing the book on certain levels of closeness, and those books are harder to reopen than you'd think. Likewise, new friends that seemed so close in Minnesota have, for all intents and purposes, vanished from our lives entirely. That's not surprising -- they're Minnesotans, afterall -- but sad, really. In either case, you make an investment, and when you move, it all comes to nothing. At least, that' what 2007 has shown me.
So New Years Eve is here, a time of fresh starts and new adventures. It's perhaps appropriate, then, that we're celebrating with new friends, from our third "new life," our restart in Park Ridge. It should be a nice, if somewhat subdued, evening, though not unlike a few we've hosted ourselves through the years. Certainly, less dynamic than many I've spent with brother Cale over the years – from bear-biting in our quasi-bachelor days to singing for prostitutes in Vegas.
And that's how life is at the end of 2007 -- somewhere between parenting and prostitutes, you make a new life for yourself and look forward to the year ahead. That's 2008.
posted by dave at 11:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home