This Old Town

Based on a few of my previous blog posts (like this one), the following post may come as a surprise...So, brace yourself.

I might actually miss our old digs.

Okay, not so much the digs (okay, not at all), but I do miss our old town.

Today, my mom, Lizzie, and I drove first to the locale of my new job (YAY!!), and then took the hike up to my university to pick up my official transcripts so I can send in for my certification. 

It really is the perfect town. It's geography just stinks (rule of thumb is you must drive an hour to anything).

We walked through the picturesque campus, drove through the small, but lovely downtown area, let Lizzie play at the park, her old stomping grounds. I resisted urge to ask my mom to drive by our old apartment building. (God forbid I get spotted by someone I know and feel forced to stop and talk.)

After graduation, we had left so quickly I feel like I didn't quite have time to "mourn" the loss of the town where I had really grown up, having spent the five most formative years of my life. I mean, this was the town where a huge experience, college, started and ended for me. This was the town where my daughter was born and where her first home is located. This is the town where DOH and I returned to after we got married. That town is where I made some new friends, was a "usual" at the local coffee shop (where they had my order memorized and got free drinks), and had the local used bookstore guy pulling his car over to tell me they "had that book you're looking for" in.

As much as I complained this past spring about having to live there (more specifically, having to live at our apartment), I truly love that town. I always said that if I could just take the town and place it closer to our families and a lake, it would be the perfect place to live (though the real estate would probably be even farther out of our price range).

So, I'm taking this moment to truly appreciate what we've left behind, the place that will always feel a bit like home to our family.

I miss being a townie...just a bit.

Top Ten Reasons I Can't WAIT to Move, I Hate My Neighbors Edition

1.  I'd like to be able to open a window without worrying about the following: overhearing the neighbors, smelling cigarette smoke, or worrying about the cat getting out.
2. Having grass would be nice.  
3. Being able to use the laundry room without having weird neighbors up your ass, taking your laundry out of the dryer before it's dry, and hogging the machines. 
4. On the same note as number four: not having to hoard quarters. 
5. Not having to smell pot smoke wafting down from upstairs.
6. Not having our upstairs neighbors.
7. Not having neighbors. Period. 
8. Being able to spread out and leave our crap everywhere. 
9. Not being chased (literally chased) down the road by the random religious folk bearing fliers who appear in the downtown a few times a year. 
10. Being able to shower without a kid tapping on the window to say, "Hi!"