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July 25, 2006
Live from STL
Tomorrow, we become home owners.
Due to the (actually serendipitous) misalignment of Noel's start date, the closing date of our house, and our moving date, I am taking a forced, midweek vacation from the whirlwind of packing and cleaning. Good Yoshi and I drove up this morning, and, after taking care of some permit business, he is meeting up with a friend while I people watch from inside a coffee shop on the University City Loop.
I've realized that when I people watch in Chattanooga -- and even more so when I'm back in Hawaii -- I see the passersby as pieces of a narrative. I know the setting well enough to set characters inside the frame, to conjure little stories for them to inhabit. I can recognize a mountain momma, imagine the contents of her Whole Foods grocery bags, and wonder if she is on her way to pick up her kids from horseback riding or mandolin lessons. I can list the eateries where the man with mustard-colored dreds is likely to frequent. I can tell a Covenant freshman from twenty feet away.
But, the people here aren't stories yet. They're sketches -- or sometimes polaroids -- little contextless bits, like the figures I cut out of magazines and layer into impossible collages. I'm realizing again how people and place weave together, changing each other; sitting and watching here will take, and give, more energy and interest.
I would never have planned, or allowed, for myself to quietly sit in my new neighborhood and city. If left to my own devices, I would have been speeding about immediately, figuring out where to go, how to get there, what to do, and how to do so quickly. God was kind to make me still for an afternoon.
I think -- now -- I am eager to learn this place.
Carefully Dramatized Life Accounts | By elissa | 06:38 PM
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Comments
I hope your new house has power! Enjoy the STL...
Posted by: justin at July 26, 2006 10:50 AM
i am eager to hear about this place from you. elissa, i think i hadn't fully thought out the implications of you not being in chattanooga. i miss you and noel already. and i will email you...thank you for your note on my xanga. i am comforted already knowing that someone whose opinion i value has struggled with this stuff too. love to you and your husband and your cat!
Posted by: hannah s. at July 26, 2006 01:02 PM
