“You’re rapidly becoming …”

” … a big underground success in this town!”

In 25 years, I’ll be able to shake Burns Hargis’s hand in broad daylight!

A year ago I frothed at the mouth over a rental house we found near campus, and now it’s official — we are set to close on a house out west of town in two weeks.

I have been feeling guilty about gushing over this rental house and then moving. Our current home is lovely. It has massive trees and it’s in a cool-looking old neighborhood that’s close to campus and I have a set of amazing neighbors. But there’s a busy street out front and no kids for Vivian to play with and no place to ride bikes. There are amazing … ly hard to keep clean hardwood floors throughout, outdated appliances, no room in the kitchen, two tiny bathrooms and a basement for laundry. Ol’Boy is tired of having to carry his drums up and down the basement steps and not having a garage.

In short, we had a wonderful time in this conveniently located house that’s full of character, and now we’re going to sell out and move to the suburbs. The new house is nothing spectacular from the outside — in fact, I’m never sure which one it is when we drive up. It’s a totally non-descript, cookie-cutter tan (I think?) brick house. But it has a two-car garage, wall-to-wall carpeting, a huge master and guest bath, and best of all it backs to a massive greenbelt and sits near a neighborhood pond. All of Vivian’s best school friends live in this neighborhood, and I know a bunch of people out there.

I am relieved at the idea that I can once again walk through my own home barefoot, that my dog will finally have a fenced yard, that my kid can play in the neighborhood with friends, that we can go fishing any time we want, that I can walk through the miles of woods behind my house, that I can sit on the new wooden deck at night and face nature. I will miss the big trees of University Street, the feeling that you can feel the pulse of the city because you’re so close to its heart.

I will miss The SuperRogers who live next door to me and who have redefined what it means to be a neighbor and a friend so many times over. I will miss them most of all.

The urge toward comfort aligns closely with conformity, I’ve learned. Now I just have to learn to be OK with that.