It Was A Gecko

A little more than five years ago I moved from Kansas to Texas.  It wasn't a move that I was excited about at first but I've always been the kind of person to make the best of what life gave me.  I moved to a small town ouside of Waco and really didn't have a good plan established.  There's a story to that, but I'll save it for another time.

I moved in April 2001 and was disappointed to learn when I got to town that there were very very few rental properties that I could afford.  I ended up renting a horrible dirty old falling down farm house at the edge of town on a highway that was surrounded on three sides by fields.  It took a tremendous amount of cleaning to make that house liveable but it was the price I had to pay for a place that I could afford.  At least we had a roof and a place to sleep.  No air conditioning, but we wouldn't be there long because I had high hopes for finding a better place as soon as I could. 

This house had the worst case of giant flying roaches I have ever encountered.  And after a few weeks discovered that we also shared the house with geckos.  The people at the real estate office said "we have geckos in our garage - what's the problem?"  I was so freaked out about the geckos.  And they were baby geckos.  Nearly transparent - you could literally see their organs inside their teeny bodies as they scurried up the cabinet doors out of reach.  The children played with them.  GAH!  Eventually I got used to them but really - I'm telling you this house was awful.  We eventually discovered that a skunk family was living under the house.  The only made noise when they were mating.  Scared my son to death a few times with that kind of ruckos.

Not long after I moved in my mother decided to relocate to Texas.  She moved in to live with me for a few weeks while she searched for a house to buy in Waco.  The day she was supposed to arrive I went home at lunch from work to tidy up the room she would be staying in.  I reached down to pick up a piece of packing tape that had fallen from a recently unpacked box.... just to realize it was a snake skin.  A hugely long disgusting snake skin.  I told you this was a horrible house!!  I hated to tell her about it when she arrived but I felt like it was necessary.  She carried a golf club with her everywhere for at least a week, poking under beds and into the corners of closets, worrying that the snake was still there somewhere.  We guess that he went back out the way he came (most likely under the front screen door).  She had a few horrifying encounters with giant flying roaches.  But I really don't recall the geckos being too startling.

Mom was so helpful when she moved in - she helped organize things and kept me motivated to continue unpacking and sorting through boxes.  She kept the dishes washed and things were generally in tip top shape when she was staying with us.

One morning as I was getting ready for work I checked in on my email at the computer.  I chatted with then-boyfriend now-husband Jeff via Instant Message on AOL.  She poured a cup of coffee and came to lean against the bedroom doorway where I was on the computer.  She blew in the coffee to cool it.  And then looked down to take a tentative sip from the steaming cup. 

AAAACCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!  ACK! ACK! ACK!  GAAAAHHHH!!!!  A baby gecko, presumably poached, was belly up in her coffee!  I laughed and giggled and typed a message to Jeff telling him of the latest encounter with wildlife at our house.  Such a funny and memorable moment.  hehe

Then her cell phone rang.  She was busy dumping her cup and pouring new coffee so I signed off the computer and ran to answer her phone.  It was my brother Josh who is a truck driver and was phoning from his truck that morning.  Mom entered the living room as I walked out of her bedroom talking to Josh.  He just said, "Turn on the TV.  Any channel - TURN ON THE TV.  Something has happened in New York City and I don't know for sure what it is.  I think any channel.  I think an airplane has hit the World Trade Center."

Everyone's story is unique from that moment forward.  I think everyone I know cried all day long that day.  And we were also afraid.  We were seven miles from Crawford, Texas.  We were ducking down, not knowing what could possibly happen next as the day wore on.  I worked at a busy insurance office - the phone did not ring.  We sat in front of the TV crying at the office that day.  Our office manager went home because she lived in Crawford and her kids had been sent home from school.

At the end of that month I was layed off from my job at the insurance office.  Life took a dramatic turn economically in our community and in my life.  It was a long hard climb back to any kind of normalcy.  Difficulty had been my "normal" for quite some time - now the fairy tale of moving to a better place was over.  A lot of people have said to me that they had no idea that the events of September 11 had such a dramatic economic impact on America.  Wow.  I think that's because they had job security at the time - it was literally something that happened to someone else for them.  But it wasn't that way for everyone.  The auto industry took a hard hit - my dad is in the auto industry.  The aviation industry took a hard hit - wow - tens of thousands of people in Wichita (think Boeing, Cessna, Raytheon, LearJet) were layed off from jobs they expected to retire from.  If we hadn't moved when we did my ex husband probably would have been layed off from LearJet and then where would we be?  That's a question I can't answer but I've wondered about.  Support staff were reduced to the minimum everywhere - that was me.  And finding a new job took months.  MONTHS.  It was a hard hard time.

I have thought so much and with such sadness of the obvious events of September 11, 2001.  But the effect rippled across the country in ways that could never be imagined.  As we cried and worried and watched the towers fall on the TV that day we had no idea how something that happened in New York City and Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania on a beautiful clear morning would affect our own lives so dramatically.

Five years later  -  Wow again.  Five years ago I never dreamed what was waiting at the end of a five-year road.  I live in a beautiful home in a town I had never even visited five years ago.  I am married to a wonderful man and I have been blessed with two more children.  We're nine days away from another life-changing day, we hope.  At least we know this one is coming.  And we have very high hopes for happy results. 

SO!!!  That was my reflection of that day.  I'm glad that it's five years ago.  We won't forget.  But we will move forward with life.

Here's a sweet picture of Emeline with the flow-oh that a lady gave her from her flower bed a few evenings ago when we took a walk.  There's a family about four blocks from our house that keeps a brabbit in a little hutch in their back yard and Emeline loves to visit the brabbit.  This particular occasion she walked the entire way and received the flower about half way to the brabbit.  She insisted on carrying it herself and walking by herself all the way home.  Oh the joy of a two-year-old who is establishing limits and independence and blah blah blah.  So when we got the flow-oh home we put it in some wat-air.  Good thing it's a sturdy flow-oh.  It's gotta put up with a lot of attention-getting.

I did a bit more spinning on the grayish heathery tweedy yarn (need to come up with a shorter description) last night, and also decided it's time for a new yarn colorway.  I was inspired to create it by the friendship I have developed with sweet blogger Kelly of Celtic Caston.  This post is long enough and I won't go into more crazy long descriptions of how sweet I think Kelly is, but here's the yarn.  I've got two 100g skeins of 100% merino sock yarn for sale in this colorway - both from the same dye lot.  Kelly - do you like it?  If so, a skein is going in your package - let me know if you want merino wool or superwash, m'kay?  heh  Like how I ask you in a blog post?  heh  I heart you my dear Kelly.  :)

KELLY - variegated greens with splashes of violet and a few hints of light yellow.  Two skeins available in the SugarBunnyBlvd etsy shop.

"Kelly" would blend beautifully with "Grandmother's Lilacs" in any project calling for fingering weight yarn or would double well together for something slightly heavier.  These two yarns would be precious as a child's sweater like the BeesKnees patterns.  So adorable.  heh

Everybody have a wonderful day.  Nine days to court - and still seven pounds to lose.  I'm working on it.... I'm working on it!  :)

Comments

[Nancy]

Yes, this is a day for reflection. I was stuck in traffic when the news broke. It was just confusion on the radio - a small plane hit the tower, no it was a larger plane, but it was just an accident. Now they don't think it was an accident and it was a United Jet. A second plane hit the other tower... I walked into work and everyone was in the break room huddled around the TV and just as I walked in the room the 1st tower fell.

Thank you, also, for the reflection on what counts these days - little Emeline and her pretty flow-oh! Hug her for me, will you?

[margene]

9-11 is woven into the fabric of all our lives. What a remarkable story of where you were five years ago.
Kelly is such a sweety and that is beautiful yarn you have created for her. Spin on...you're doing so well!

[christine]

A very poignant post, making me reflect on life's valleys and hills. September 11 had a huge effect on our practice, huge. We're just coming up from the valley now, 5 years later. But, I think that we gain wisdom when the valley is deep, and the hills are far off in the distance.

I think that you, too, gained wisdom, compassion, and strength. ((((hugs))))

[Carole]

Okay, I know that today is a day of reflecting on the impact of 9/11 and you did a wonderful job recalling that day for you. But I can't help giggling about the poached baby gecko.

[Kelly]

LAURA!!!!
I'm like a blubbing idiot here! Do I like it????? I absolutely LOVE IT! And you named it after me???? *hugs* thank you soooo much!!!

[Miss Scarlett]

We were doing the same thing here. I was on my way to work and my friend at Starbucks told me about the 1st tower collapsing but I didn't understand her. Then I got to work and put MSN on the computer in time to see the 2nd tower fall. We spent the day and weeks to come glued to the television and crying.
Thank you for your lovely post - great to see the things that make life in this crazy world worth living!

[Chris]

Lovely thoughtful post... And what a wonderful colorway for Celtic Kelly!