lunabee34

and it makes me giggle hysterically every time I see you using it.

Ahem.

OMG this house is really sweet. It's bigger than the one we have now and has a two car garage and a huge walk-in closet in the master bedroom. The other dimensions of the houses are about equal. It doesn't come with washer and dryer but Andy and Crystal are giving us one of their sets since as a wedded unit, two of each would be a bit much. :) It has a lovely kitchen with a huge bay window for the dining area and the front yard and back yard are both huge and the back is fenced in for added Emma yayness. Our landlord also seems like he's reliable, dependable and fair which will be a treat after what we've dealt with here in Oxford. We had such a good landlord in Hattiesburg (really, mean the dude has probably the best karma of any human currently living) that when we got here and realized that our landlords were just, you know, average shitty landlords, it was like all WOE and AAACK.

The only thing that concerns me about living in Cochran is the racial tension. I've lived in the South all my life so racial tension is not something that is new to me. But in the circles I've run in, it's just largely absent. It's not something I really encountered as a grad student here (or even as a undergrad in Hattiesburg; I had a very racially diverse group of friends and never witnessed any racial discrimination; which is not to say it wasn't happening, but still) or even as a citizen of Oxford. Most of the people I work with at Security Check are African American and many of the care providers and children at Emma's daycare were African American and I am not saying that Oxford is the grand example of racial tolerance but just that this is a a town that houses lots of broad minded, educated people and I have just not been privy to many acts of overt racism.

Andy had mentioned to me that Cochran is racially tense and I kind of just shrugged it off and thought he meant like every town in the South is racially tense. Well, when we went to look at the house we're renting, there was a mom and three kids out in the yard across the street and my immediate thought was, "Yay! Kids for Emma to play with." When we asked the landlord about the neighborhood and safety, he first mentioned that there were "blacks" across the street (I wish I could textually render the way a Southern person can say that word with such disdain *sigh) but that he didn't think they'd be a problem. Mind, these are the people I'm hoping will be Emma's playmates. And then again at city hall, the woman behind the counter said that if we got to our house and the city trashcan wasn't there we should call and get another. She says, "Sometimes crazy, well, *you* know the kind of people will just take them," and then she cuts her eyes at an elderly African American woman customer talking to another clerk. This shit is going to make me fucking nuts, Exec. I mean, nuts. I've already got enough on my plate trying to make sure my child is a polite child who accepts racial and sexual orientation differences without people actively trying to destroy that for me. Which I know, they were already, but this is just the most blatant crappola of this nature that I have seen since I left highschool and the people I am going to work with are not at all like this so maybe will only mingle with college folks and eschew the town. *sigh*

I am so stoked to get this package. You always send a girl the best stuff! And TV!!!!!!!!!!!