First homes

I remember... My Mom was washing dishes and not saying much.

I shouted a quick "see ya later" and I carried the last load of my worldly possessions out to my car, and I was off to my first apartment. My wedding was still a few weeks away, but we were anxious to get settled in our new home.

It wasn't much of a first apartment, just one bedroom, a tiny kitchen and gold sculptured carpet. Oh yeah, it was a basement apartment because it was ten dollars a month less than the second and third floor units. Since between the two of us we were only making $60 a week, that extra ten bucks was a big consideration.

Mom & Dad gave us most of our furniture. I gave Robin a rocking chair for Christmas the year before. Then we bought a kitchen table and chairs. Robin wrote the check and dated it for the wrong year!. The furniture store called like they were trying to round up Bonnie & Clyde.

We lived on that $60 a week until I landed my first stage management job. That paid me $100 a week. We thought we were rich.

That first apartment was small, and we were broke, but we were adults now, free to make our own decisions and mistakes. Responsible for our own debts. We had to pay bills, and repair broken things, and buy groceries, and take out garbage. It was "our house" though and so we were excited. We didn't notice that our parents weren't talking much.

I found it pretty hard to talk last night. I ate dinner in relative silence. After dinner, I rounded up some boxes and gathered up some "essentials" for a new home. We talked about moving the furniture over the weekend. We're hoping it isn't raining or snowing.

I had to leave for a meeting at the church. When I came home, I went upstairs to the bedroom in the back of the house. It was empty except for some items that were not important enough to take yet. We'll get that stuff when we move the rest of the furniture.

It started snowing today. I called her at her office. She answered the phone very professionally. I said; "It 'nowing Mewissa". She laughed.

She won't come home from work tonight. She'll be going to her house instead. I know now, why my Mom didn't say much that day.