When Robert and I moved in together in August of 2005, we lived in an apartment that was above a bar in downtown Mobile. Needless to say, it got loud sometimes. In September of 2005 we moved into another apartment - an old, historic home that was built in 1901 and had been converted into two apartments - one upstairs and one downstairs. We were literally within spitting distance of Government Street - the main street through downtown Mobile, so needless to say we got used to hearing noise - cars, sirens, homeless people walking down the street with their grocery carts full of finds and mumbling to themselves - I think you get the picture. For two years this noise was constant and became somewhat of a white noise for us and the dogs.
Fastforward to July 2007, when we moved to Athens. While we only lived four miles from the University of Georgia, you would have thought we lived OUT IN THE COUNTRY. I remember our very first night in our new home when Robert and I both commented on the stillness, the quiet, the noises that we did hear were naturistic - crickets, birds, occasionally a neighbor dog barking. That quiet was so calm, so peaceful, so relaxing.
Fastforward to the present. We are living back in the exact same apartment we lived in for two years prior to moving to Athens. The noises are still here - the cars, the sirens and the unique Mobile homeless folks. It is almost like deja vu. Oddly enough, the noises are comforting. They give me a sense of the past, of where we began.
With Robert and the dogs sound asleep, I am awake. I hear the noises, but they do not bother me - they make me remember.
