Suite: Home, a la Tami

A kid on the old block.

Getting used to life in a downtown. Fire engines, motorcycles, and loud drunks pass by all the time. I can hear what my neighbors are doing. My parallel parking skills have been honed.

The apartment itself is okay. Thanks to some friends' loaned furniture, it's very comfortable, if small. I don't have so much as a patio door, and I miss going outside a dozen times a day, if only to watch the dogs chase squirrels.

There goes a fire truck. Second of the morning.

The interesting thing about being here without someone waiting for me at home is that I have not been in a hurry for six weeks. I leave for work in plenty of time, enough of a cushion to listen to the Bob & Tom show a little longer on the radio in the parking lot. At the end of the day, I stall to try to get home after the parking meters are free. Late at night, I take the long route through neighborhoods as opposed to the highways, hanging my arm out the window and listening to music. I think living here will just be pockets of boredom punctuated by trips home.

My first real semester starts Monday, so now I'll have reading and homework to do. At least that will fill up some time. The remainder I fill by going to movies at the dollar theater or on base (still a bargain at $3.50). I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" Friday, which was spectacular, though probably more so in a theater than on a television. Though be warned; if you're a history neophyte who prefers NASCAR, you may agree with the gent in the t-shirt and beergut who told me, for no particular reason, "I diddint think it wuz that gewd." Plus there was a guy in his 50s three rows up from me drinking clear liquid out of a small hand sanitizer bottle who kept mumbling that he couldn't understand the dialogue. So at least I have some entertainment.