As I write this I'm sitting on the floor in what has been my (most consistent) bedroom for the last 11 years. My parents are selling the house in West Orange and are under contract to close mid-August. Joscelyn and I just loaded up a rented Budget Truck destined for Rhode Island with the few real pieces of furniture that are mine, including my bed (read: mattresses) and (garbage picked) desk. Thus the floor. I'll probably only be back here one more time before they move. I've moved around an extraordinary amount since my family moved from Glen Ridge to West Orange shortly after I graduated from High School. I've occupied for significant periods of time more than 20 bedrooms during my 20s - that's no exaggeration. Despite the fact that this is my family's house of longest occupancy since I was born, I've never felt the same attachment to this place as I have other houses we've lived in (i.e., Sunny Lane in Ballston Spa and Belleville Ave in Glen Ridge). But nonetheless it is with substantial pause that I reflect on the experiences had under this roof... my parents without exception open door policy; life's milestones marked with parties of so many family and friends; my mother's late evening dinners; Christmas mornings with my grandparents; getting to know my sister's husband Spencer; BBQs on the back deck or patio; Yankee games and Rutgers games on the couch with my father; bunkering down during Sandy; Sunday parties; the in-between post-college suburban doldrums; all-night studies during my master's; love had; love lost; love found again.
This place, not by design, has emerged as the place where many of the pivotal events of my post-adolescent lagged maturity have taken place. Where I entered as a boy and leave a hesitant adult. A cocoon of sorts - not to be missed, but not to be under appreciated either.
Looking forward now. My weekly mileage has been up to about 12 miles. Until this passed week where I really slacked. Granted I did a little rock climbing and a little surfing, but I did not get out and put shoes to pavement to the degree I know I should. It is with a ever-so-slight ping of urgency that I want to get back on track. And therefore a commitment made before the strange public place that is the internet - starting today, I'll run a 5k each day for the next five days. This will culminate with Sarah and I running a sanctioned road race in Rhode Island on Friday. I'll post my results once official.
In 2009 and 2010 during some personally trying times, I ran from this house with regularity. All the way along Pleasant Valley Way, passed West Orange High School, through the Jewish neighborhoods often smiling or excusing myself as I ran passed folks on their way to temple on the narrow sidewalks. Past Eagle Rock Avenue and finally all the way down to Verona Park where I would touch the lamp post on Bloomfield Avenue and turn around.
Time to lace 'em up one more time...
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