Livin' It Up at 21

If you're like me, you remember your 21st birthday. Oh, wait, maybe you were drunk. I wasn't, but I did go buy a beer because I could.

Anyhow, so much life had been lived by then - or so it felt. Endless years of childhood, toiling through the teen years, getting a decent part of college under the belt, whatever the heck that means.

Today marks the 21st anniversary of when I signed the papers on, and moved into, my house. The house is much older than 21 - nearly 100 years old - but man, that went quick.

The neighborhood has changed - we have a new taproom opening imminently, a new restaurant and bar that opened a couple of weeks ago, plus all the businesses that opened in the past 8 years or so that are all within a few blocks - the cupcake shop, the bike shop, the taproom/brewpub, two restaurants, a gift shop, a fly fishing shop (yes, we live in THAT neighborhood).  There's now light rail. We still have the same number of bakeries and barbershops (2 each), the hardware store, the old-timey sporting goods store, and the scary Bill's Chinese Garden takeout place.

We still have the debate about what to do about Lake Hiawatha's shoreline (natural restoration, or crappy gross beach?), but now are debating what to do about the sinking golf course. The outdoor hockey rink boards have been delivered to the park, but the skating season gets shorter and less good each year and the sound of the puck hitting the boards is less prominent. 

Neighbors have come and gone, but the good ones stayed in touch.

I didn't realize when I moved in just how much I would appreciate the lake and park being so close, or how much I would come to appreciate my neighborhood's bikeability. I didn't know how much this place and my circumstances, just by happenstance, would shape me.

There are things about my house and neighborhood that stink, don't get me wrong, but I maybe would be different if they were different. So today I'm appreciative that I was able to scrape together some cash back in the day and get this place. Even if it doesn't - still - have a fireplace.