{"id":481,"date":"2003-05-20T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2003-05-21T03:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=481"},"modified":"2003-05-20T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2003-05-21T03:32:00","slug":"end-of-an-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=481","title":{"rendered":"End of an Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, and have packed up the truck with their worldly belongings, and a goodly fraction of my worldly belongings, to go forth into the night. Faring off in to the sunset. moved in here to the phillips house, aka the frat house for geeks (as Mark my most recent ex called it), in may of 99. I was there, moving in with him from 1314 Wightman. It was only a summer sublet for me, but for him it was quite different. There is still a poster from that year, about good Elaine, and evil Elaine, and keeping things clean, and paying rent in a timely fashion to ward off the evil Elaine. Complete with illustrations. It’s really cute.<\/p>\n

He had an actual room that summer. Then he took the cave beneath the porch so he wouldn’t have to move. The next summer I took the basement room. Then left for chicago. The last time I was ever a rent paying resident. But after I got back from chicago, returning to the same officemate, 3 doors down from my old office, in a job within the same division, I became the 5th-and-a-half-th roommate. I help parties here. I crashed here nearly as often as I slept at home. I staid up to ungodly hours, welcomed into the home of these wonderful people. My desktop lived here, sharing their dsl connection. I have provided a rug, a recliner, a coffetable, and a computer desk to this place. Not to mention numerous pillows, parties, meals, and other, still less tangible things.<\/p>\n

This feels like goodbye in a big way. I know I’ll be back. And I know Nat, and Bryan, and even Chris and Mike (whom I don’t know as well), will welcome me in to their place. But Tom is the essential thread of the cord connecting me to this house. He will be living in the Bay Area, a cause for celebration, but at the same time, this household will never be the same. And it seems that Bryan and Chris are planning on abandoning it for the better places they can certainly now afford. And so, I mourn the loss of a gestalt I once called home. May a new place as happy and wonderful spring up in its place. May we also begin a new place as strange and great as what has gone before. I will keep my memories of what was, and take them out every once in awhile to warm myself by.<\/p>\n

Every place I’ve lived has memories associated with it that I cherish beyond words. And neither of these is an exception. They may well be the very incarnation of the rule. And now we are leaving. In a way, it’s like how we began. Came in together, leaving together. I in my mercurial bouncy way. Here, there, back behind, on top of, under, around, poking, embracing, and exploring. He in his hibernating bear sort of way. Unhappy to be moving, looking to settle, establishing himself as part of his environment, undeniably intertwined with his surroundings.<\/p>\n

And as for Ken. Well, it’s a shame that whackjob won’t be joining our reindeer games in the bay area, but I wish him every luck in his pursuit of happiness in LA. His insane machiavellian plots, his wild-eyed explanations, his ready laugh, and occasional loopy mispronunciations, his rampant silliness and the light it brings, all these things and more I will miss. Hopefully he will not be a stranger.<\/p>\n

As for me. As always when dealing with the things I have owned, memories have been stirred, like dust from an object long unused. It is at once sad and joyful. I have changed, but I am still who I was before. Just don’t be surprised if you see me and memories of days long past echo through my eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}