413 Catherine Street

Well after a long drawn out process we finally closed on our home in September. I lost my enthusiasm for the blog due to an incredibly stressful waiting period until closing and our neighborhood hazing. Fortunately things seem to be settling down now after the holidays and I will attempt to update more frequently. The super quick update though is we moved into the house before closing, Madeline and I were robbed at gunpoint directly in front of the house less than a month after we moved in, we had more than one run in with the local crack addicts and were the victims of numerous minor thefts (the worst of which was the pots for my herb garden out back) finally closed on the house after numerous thoughts of backing out, we have completed painting the down stairs what I affectionately named Disintegration purple in honor of The Cure album, the stairwell what Dave calls Gargoyle grey and the upstairs hallway Communist (not Republican) Red. I’ll post some pictures soon. Dave and I got engaged (motivation to create a wedding blog) adopted the world's greatest dog,had great holidays (check out our Edward Gorey tree in the pic I think that might be the only one in the world :D) and I am one semester closer to finally being done with school.

We had a busy day. Madeline’s attends a private school and one of their big fund raisers is the annual Spring Fling. So thus is how the day began. It was a lot of fun and not nearly as draining as Chucky Cheese. The school had a Sponge Bob Moon Bounce, Jonathon the Juggler, a pseudo petting zoo (guinea pigs, and hamsters), face painting, a cakewalk, a visit from the police, who enjoyed handcuffing the little ones and for the grand finally the raffle. Madeline spent all of her money in an attempt to win a Baby Bratz doll in the raffle only to lose to her sometime friend sometime nemesis, Leah, the other diva in the third grade class. Dave and I hung out with the cool parents (Leah’s dad and Geoff, Lily and Ivy’s dad). So after being completly depleted of energy and forced to remain until the very end so we could be present for the raffle, we headed home where we met my friend Diane and her granddaughter Tiffany. The kids hung out in the apartment for a while but since most of the house is packed up, we decided to take a walk down to our new neighborhood park, Abner Clay. On the way out the door Lily called to see what Madeline was doing, because she too was on her way to Abner Clay Park. So we meet again. The kids had fun, despite a run in with some of the neighborhood bullies who thankfully focused most of their pestering on the adults. After a lesson on racism and our attempt to be friendly with them we went from being white b@%&*es to actually being referred to as “Miss Diane”. The struggle began when four young neighborhood kids (pre-teens) walked up to Diane and demanded the swing from her. Diane, who was going to give the child the swing, explained you couldn’t just walk up to someone and demand something. The child was not amused and the conversation quickly degenerated to physical threats from the child at this point the rest of us stepped in, not about to be bullied from kids. After a serious of questions from the kids, and a showing of Geoff’s battle wounds from when he was a young punk kid, we won some street credit with them, and made friends. It was an interesting experience, I could sympathize with the boys, who probably perceived the situation as a white woman in their neighborhood taking something they felt belonged to them. Jackson Ward historically is an African American community. Until recently when many Caucasians have moved into the neighborhood and begun restoring houses. Unfortunately as a result the property values have skyrocketed and many of the neighborhoods original inhabitants are being forced out due to the dramatic increase of property taxes creating much racial tension in the neighborhood. I can’t say I blame the kids. When I graduate I plan on teaching in inner city schools so overall the incident provided insight as to what I’ll be up against. We concluded our evening with a trip to Skate America, the kids had a great time and the adults were reminded we aren’t kids anymore!

Our official closing date is May 16th, thirty-three days and counting. We're so excited we have been dancing around the house celebrating our approval (unfortunately, not as gracefully as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson). This statue is located at the intersection of Leigh and Adams streets in Jackson Ward. Robinson lived with his grandmother in Jackson Ward until he left in hopes of pursuing a career in entertainment. Although Robinson resided in New York he frequently returned to his home in Jackson Ward and often performed at the Hippodrome on the Deuce (Second Street). When Robinson observed children dangerously crossing busy Leigh Street he donated money for the city to install a traffic light to ensure the neighborhood children had a safe place to cross. After Robinson's death the Bojangles statue was erected to honor Robinson’s generosity and concern for his neighborhood.