Happy October!

Today is October 1st. This date is significant to me in two life-altering ways:

1. On October 1st, 1999, I packed up the vast majority of my earthly belongings (and there weren't many of them) and left Ann Arbor, Michigan after spending 22 years there. My Dad and Stepmom picked me up from my Mom's house in my Dad's Ford F-150 in the morning (I believe it was a Friday morning) and headed west on I-94 to see what was to await me.

I definitely didn't think that I'd still be here 9 years later. And I definitely didn't think that I'd be raising a family in the neighborhood where we live now! I remember getting to the apartment building at 525 W. Deming Place and moving my stuff in and scrambling to get basics like:

• a shower curtain
• toilet paper
• paper towels
• a bed
• a couch
• food

So, headed west on Fullerton in search of a Target -- we had no idea where we were going and succumbed to asking random people on the street (although we might have called Emily at some point, I can't remember, my memory is getting foggy). We found that and then headed out to Ikea for furniture. That was much further than I thought it would be and it was almost impossible to figure out how to get into the place from the highway, being unfamiliar with the area.

Finally, with necessities and furniture to be assembled in the truck, we headed back to my apartment and proceeded to haul it all in and then assemble at least the bed and then forage for food in the jungles of Lincoln Park. We were exhausted and hungry. It had been a long day.

2. October 1st, 2001. A scant 2 years later, Chris & I started officially dating after a prolonged courtship in which it was clear that we both liked each other (as early as January of that year), but Chris had made a commitment to the Lord to not date until October. We tried valiantly to keep our feelings from overwhelming us in the intervening time with some success. On the night of September 30th, he took me to Kafeine (a coffee house in Evanston, which was much closer when we lived on the far north side) and we talked about our relationship and where we wanted to go. We stayed out until midnight and went back to his place where he had flowers (roses, I think) waiting for me and we were finally "official" even though it was well-known that we were together anyhow...

While we were in our courtship mode, we'd always say "Happy *insert month* " when the first of the month rolled around because we knew it was that much closer to October. And that has carried over to the rest of the relationship when we were waiting for our wedding (which was also the first day of a month), then when I was pregnant with Benjamin and then Caroline. But October 1st will always be a most special day.