One thing that has struck me repeatedly as I've been settling into the new place is the weird connection I'm having with the former owners. It's not like I'm feeling it's not my place; actually, even though I'm still partly in boxes and getting things where I want them, I'm actually finding myself "at home" pretty quickly.
It's kind of a "ghostly" feeling, for lack of any other way of describing it. This couple... I sat across a table from them for barely over an hour. It seems very likely to me that this is the only time I will ever see them in my life. Yet here I am, sharing this bizarre "tangiential intimacy" with them through this space they lived in.
The marks their furniture made in the carpet are still here.
The short black little hairs from their dog are probably going to be here even longer.
I don't know if most people have any thoughts along these lines when they move into a formerly occupied place. I certainly didn't when I moved into my apartment before this, or into any of the houses I shared with roommates before that. Is this a quirk of ownership?
Or am I just not finding enough distractions with my cable TV not getting hooked up until Thursday?
2 comments:
Sounds like we may have the first ever case of "TV withdrawal psychosis" I can hear psych grad majors stampeding to your house to take notes as I write this.
I think it must be the lack of TV. I also met the couple who owned my house, and I've never felt any ghostly connections to them at all. (Although for some reason, I've suddenly gotten several pieces of mail for them in the last month -- well over 4 years since they left! Now that's weird.)
Try painting the bathroom. Maybe that's what severed the connection for me.
Post a Comment