Moving…Along, Up, Forward....by Lisa

I’m moving soon, so I’ve got moving on the brain. I’m moving to a bigger space, and I’m really looking forward to it. Almost 2 years in 1000 sq feet has been pretty cramped and I can’t get my crafts out and leave them out; I’ve missed that. Can’t wait for the holidays so I can use those cookie molds to make some paper molds instead—fewer calories, less filling!  My place is currently an obstacle course of furniture that’s too big and boxes that are too numerous to count. I can’t wait for the view of the lake, and the sound of the fountain at night.

I’ve lived in this area for 27 years, having moved to Cincinnati right before my son was born. I was born in Pennsylvania, then lived in different parts of Indiana before going to Purdue, then moved to Cincinnati, and I’ve been here ever since. I feel like a native, know how the natives talk, but sometimes I am outed by someone from “The Region” who knows the dialect. I’ve lived near UC, in a 3^rd floor apartment full of old-world charm (translation: total dive) in a neighborhood full of diversity, and I’ve lived in a nice house in the mostly-white and boring suburbs. It’s nice here, a nice place to raise a family. My children were both born here, at the same hospital, 11 years apart.

Moving makes me think of fond memories of places I’ve lived before. Like the years in Pennsylvania when I was little, and we had a live Christmas tree, and the cat climbed the tree! That was hilarious, although I’m sure my parents didn’t think so at the time. At that house was the sandbox my dad built for me, and sometimes in the summer, when my younger sister had to go to bed earlier than me, I was allowed to put WATER in the sandbox. That was living! My dad would hold me up so I could see into the bird nest in the blue spruce tree he had planted in the yard. And I would take pictures with his old Brownie camera—I still have those pictures, maybe the album would be called “Fast times on Elizabeth Road,” lol. When we lived in Bluffton, we would walk “uptown” in the summer, and buy candy at the dime store. Is there such a thing as a dime store anymore? We learned to bait our own fishhooks with live worms, and catch nightcrawlers during a late night rainstorm. Have you ever done that? It’s pouring down rain, and you’re trying to hold an umbrella and a flashlight and grab the nightcrawler before he goes back down into the ground, and you have to squeeze him until he gives up the fight so you can pull him out and put him in your bucket. There was the spring when the window wells were filled with toads of all sizes, and the time the cat brought home a live baby rabbit. I remember my great-grandmother feeding a baby rabbit with a dropper at my grandparents home in upstate New York. We caught tadpoles from the creek in an empty pop can and put them in my aquarium, and let them go in the river when they became frogs. I sound like an outdoor girl, huh? I am at heart, I love the animals and plants, and creeks and rivers and oceans, and mountains and clouds and sky.  

So I’m moving again, moving my stuff around one more time, for a little more breathing room. In the meantime, I think I’ll go walk around the lake.