Randomness - Super Mini Vacation

Going back home for the fair felt like it had been 20 years since I’d gone back. It’s actually 10 years. I had a heck of a time getting around because EVERYTHING changed. Nearly every street had lane closures. I had no points of reference and a lot of the main streets did not have street signs. Every block, every corner looked different. I had trouble finding the hotel, one I’ve stayed at many times. Everything around it was new and different and traffic barrels everywhere.

The muffler shop that I worked at, my first job, is now an Enterprise Car Rental location. AC/Delco where my Dad worked for 30 years is now a Meijer that my sister works at. I didn’t even recognize the entrance to the subdivision where I grew up. The trees were huge and full. The house I grew up in, the outside changed again with the new owners, a lesbian couple. Beautiful landscaping in the front and backyard, and a deck with a canopy and lots of plants and flowers. 

I’m pretty sure my transition to being my Mom is near complete. I no longer fear running into people I know. I chatted up the hotel front desk staff at check in and check out. I chatted up the CVS pharmacist who came to my rescue with a needle for my insulin pen. I’ve never been away from home since needing insulin and I completely forgot about bringing a needle. At the fair I walked up to a woman sitting on the bench around the tree that I took photos of the kids every time I took them to the fair and asked her if she could move so I could snap a few photos and I told her how I’d been taking a photo at that spot since my kids were toddlers.

Friday the house I grew up in was having a garage sale. I chatted up new owners, told them my Dad had the house built and that I grew up there. I got all the dirt on the neighborhood. Turns out my former drunken neighbor who was always trying to pick fist fights with my Dad is a hater. I know! Shocking! They’ve been having run ins with him on the regular. He making false accusations to the police about loud parties and the ladies calling the police because he still has that habit of working on cars until past midnight, revving the engines. They also had hate crime incidents. He threatened to kill the women in front of their 2 young children. They had to install a privacy fence because whenever he saw them outside he would yell nasty things at them. He was always a real piece of work. I guess things are just getting worse. She also told me about the feral cat poisonings. I already knew about that from the neighbor across the street who bought her parent’s house, who I am Facebook friends with. We talked for over half an hour. I didn’t get an indoor tour, but they did have company sitting under the canopy on the deck. And...they were holding a garage sale.

Thinking back to my 20’s I would never have chit chatted with service people (not that there is anything wrong with that, just because I was so incredibly shy and introverted, and I certainly would never have started a conversation with a stranger, let alone someone who was living in the house I grew up in, or me asking someone to move to snap some photos. This me, now...talking to these people is totally my Mom.

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