I Wish I Had a River So Long. I Would Teach My Feet to Fly.

My roommate Jill and some friends and I in the first apartment I lived in in Iowa City.

 Here is a quaint little Christmas time story for you, just to demonstrate how much happier I am in my mid fifties than I was in my late teens...Again:

Once upon a time, this time of year in 1983, I moved to Iowa City for the first time. I went to the University of Northern Iowa my first semester. I thought I would be a walk-on for track and cross country, but when I realized I couldn't take 17 hours of classes and do all of the practices and miss way too many classes for meets, I decided to go to the University of Iowa instead. UNI is a VERY small town school and while I made many fun friends, it just wasn't really my scene.

So, I moved in with a friend of mine in Iowa City, who used to date my brother for a very short time in high school. The dorms were full and they put me on a wait list, but I don't trust fate, so when my friend, Jill's roommate went to London for a study abroad program for that Spring, I jumped in and sublet her place for the semester.

It was my first Christmas as an adult. On Thanksgiving, I went back to my aunt and uncle's house. Basically, the minute I got there, my aunt put a vacuum in my hand and I cleaned her house the whole long weekend. I didn't know how to drive and they lived in the country, so I was trapped. I made sure not to make that mistake again at Christmas.

My brother and my sister and I were heading to Arizona to visit my other sister for the holiday. So, I did go back to my aunt and uncle's house for some kind of Christmas dealie before that. My brother lived in Iowa City and he had a gigantic 1975 Caprice Classic to drive us to Otummwa for a very short period, and I was guaranteed not to be stuck there this time. Whew!

Before we went to O-town, my brother and I went to K-Mart to look for a present for my aunt. We were being bitchy and ironic when we picked out the horse head jello mold. She, of course, loved the gift, which made us laugh and laugh later on. At the time of our shopping trip, we weren't finding anything very amusing. K-Mart was full of stressed-out, poor people, yelling at their kids. I remember after we left the store, my brother was so depressed about the whole experience, that I suggested we just go get ice cream. As always, in my world, food is love. Of course, it helped. Ice cream always seems to help.

We drove down to Ottumwa where I wasn't trapped, but I wasn't super happy to be there either. I started wearing my hair in its more natural, very curly, state, and my uncle told me that I looked like a Jamaican hippie, ( a Rasta?) and he definitely didn't say it like it was a good thing.

After that trip, I decided that I was 18 years old and I didn't have to spend my time around people who wanted to make me do all of their housework and/or disparage me about how I looked. My siblings and I went to Arizona and I came back to Iowa City to start my first semester. I was making decisions about how I wanted my life to go for the first time, and that meant that I didn't go back to my aunt and uncle's house for many, many years.