Thursday, 8/4

There's no way it's been a decade and a half, has it?

As I stumbled out of bed this morning Loraine, about to leave for work, said “Happy 15^th anniversary” to me. And my brain, which as we all know does NOT function well early in the morning, started to wonder. It wasn't our 15^th wedding anniversary; that was at the end of last century. It wasn't the 15^th anniversary of our first trip to Europe, nor was it the 15^th anniversary of something like her “new” job.

Then she let me know—yesterday was the 15^th anniversary of the two of us moving into our current apartment.

My mind, still not functioning, was blown. 15 years in our current apartment? No way. Two years, sure. Three years, maybe. But 15 years. FIFTEEN YEARS?

Wow.

I mean, we both still have boxes of stuff in our closets that we need to unpack, boxes that we figured we'd get to when we had the time. You'd think that after a decade and a half we would've found the time, but nope. Fifteen years has (apparently) gone by, and we're still acting like we just moved into the place.

Sigh.

Another thing that blows my mind, perhaps even more than the fact that's it's been fifteen years, is that I have now lived in this apartment longer than I've lived anywhere else. When I was a kid, my parents kept upgrading our living facilities as our family grew, so I lived in three houses before I moved out on my own, and since then I've lived in (let me count here) eleven different apartments. In those fourteen total different houses and apartments the longest time I spent in one was a little under nine years at my parents' Fairway Drive house. Based on the way I kept moving I figured that would be the longest I ever lived in one place.

Shows what I know.

Our current apartment, while a little small, is in a great location and has great landlords, so I can't say I'm surprised that we haven't had the urge to move any time recently. Plus, the last time we moved (a decade and a half ago, apparently), Loraine and I joked to each other that we really didn't want to move again any time soon.

Guess it really wasn't a joke.

So here we are fifteen years later, living in the same apartment. If you had told me back in 2007 that we'd still be there in 2022 I probably wouldn't have believed you. But then, it doesn't seem like it's been fifteen years. It seems like, at the most, three. So ask me again in, say, 2037 if I'm surprised we're still there. By then it might actually feel like we've lived there for a decade.

Time. Who knew the passing of it could be so...unexpected? Right?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)