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December 30, 2007

Return to Nesting

This weekend is a very special time for me. Not because of New Year's--that's nice and all, but eh. No, what's significant about this time is that as of this past Thursday, it has been eighteen months since we moved into our current apartment. I know, that doesn't seem all that exciting. But it is. And here's why:

This is the first time in ten years that I've lived somewhere for that long without moving.

Seriously. Ten years. Since March of 1998, I've been moving with such regularity that it's amazing I didn't just buy an RV and move into it. I'd like to present a log of my moves over the last ten years, so that you can all see just how crazy it's been. I'd also like to point out that while, yes, all college students move between home and school every year, my situation was a bit different. That's because after the summer after my freshman year, I lost my bedroom. My brother moved into it, my things were... well, not there anymore, and when I was at home, I was sleeping in either my dad's office or a den. That means that for the entirety of college, all of the belongings I wanted access to were with me at college. I didn't leave clothes at home, I didn't leave keepsakes at home, I either boxed them up and stored them, or moved them at the beginning and end of every school year. That said, here we go:

• March 1998: from Plymouth, where I'd lived for 12 years, to a house in St. Louis Park
• August 1999: to an apartment in Toledo, Ohio, for college
• October 1999: to a dorm at UToledo, because my apartment roommates were homophobic party girls who exploded my microwave and expected me to cover for them when the cops came a-knockin and they were drunk
• May 2000: home! to my room, for the last time
• August 2000: to a dorm in Oberlin, Ohio
• June 2001: home! but... to my dad's office
• August 2001: to a different dorm in Oberlin
• January 2002: to another different dorm in Oberlin when I got a promotion that involved a move
• April 2002: home, to my brother's abandoned room, when I had a nervous breakdown
• August 2002: back to a dorm in Oberlin, the same one as the previous August
• May 2003: graduation! off to an apartment in Hopkins, MN with Lauren
• August 2004: wow, a record! over a year in one place! but now off to a dorm at Augsburg when I got an RD job
• October 2004: hmmm, another promotion that involves moving to a new dorm...
• January 2005: and another nervous breakdown that involves quitting and moving. this time to a fabulous apartment in Minneapolis near 50th & France
• July 2005: sadly, we have to leave the great apartment when Lauren gets an RD job in, sigh, Oberlin
• June 2006: and that was all the Oberlin we could handle. off to our new apartment in a res hall at the U of MN, where Lauren got a new job

And here we still are today. And here we will stay at least through June, if not for another year, depending on whether or not they move Lauren after this year.

All I care about is this--I have not had to pack, search for movers, pay movers, or tear my hair out about how to set up a NEW living space in 18 months. It's too bad this apartment isn't the most livable place and has no storage or closets... But it's still a wonderful feeling, to be in one place so long. It still doesn't feel like home. I guess maybe knowing that we could be moved any given year, combined with the fact that it's... well, a dorm, kind of means it might not ever feel like home. But it's still been nice to stay still.

And maybe that's why I've been looking for houses again lately, stalking edinarealty.com like a deranged person. Maybe that's why for the first time in a year and a half, I feel like I can look toward the future. Maybe feeling just a little bit more stable has been good for me and I can finally, finally relax enough to start feeling like I'm not running a marathon just to keep up with where life is taking us. It's a really nice feeling.

Posted to Minnesota & Nesting & Nostalgia & Oberlin at December 30, 2007 06:54 PM

Comments

Posted by: deena at December 31, 2007 11:19 AM