Ok, so I’m home and I have been for the past couple weeks. This is the longest amount of time that I’ve spent in Jeffersonville since I decided to leave six years ago to live in the city. That’s right, the place is not actually called “Smalltown,” but is named Jeffersonville, or as the locals refer to it: Jeff.
As I’ve mentioned, I’ll be living above a funeral home for the next few months. It’s not like I’ve never stayed here before, but this time it’s for the long haul. I’ve also been here alone for the past two weeks since my Mom went on vacation. It can be a different place when you’re here alone and I’m not quite sure how my Mom deals with it… let me explain that.
Things are quiet here. Really quiet. The downstairs neighbors are pretty quiet, as they should be. New tenants come in and out, but never really stay that long. When they’re there they are usually… well, dead. The only time it gets noisy is when the dead tenants friends and family stop by to say goodbye. There is a service going on downstairs right now as I type. I can look out my window and see people coming and going. An attractive woman actually just pulled up and walked in. It’s probably not the right time to be checking out women… Have you seen the movie Wedding Crashers though? What if I were to start taking after Will Ferrell’s character in the movie? Ok, that’s wrong. This woman was attractive though.
I find it very awkward to walk down the back stairs and hop into my car while there is a service going on. The other day I was on my way to play golf and I had flip flops on and I was carrying a golf club in my hand. I just happened to walk past a few people that were obviously walking into the funeral home to pay their respects to a loved one… I of course couldn’t help but feel like a complete jackass as I practically skipped joyously across the pavement on my way to play 18 holes at the local golf course. Things got even worse when I started my car and the Bon Jovi song “It’s My Life” blared from my car speakers and just at the perfect time to hear the lyric, “I just want to live while I’m alive.” The perfect song and the perfect lyric for a group of people who are going into a funeral home to see a loved one who is no longer alive. I quickly turned the volume down and drove off mouthing the words “It’s my life” slowly, almost as if in protest to that group of people for thinking I was a terrible human being… how dare they?
When you’re alone and things are quiet, even the slightest noises seem to startle you. Sometimes the wind will blow a door shut and I’ll literally jump out of my chair to investigate. My Mom has a light in the back of the apartment that turns on when there is some kind of sound or noise in the room. My Mom will usually knock on the wall in order to turn the light on in that back room which is actually right next to the bedroom that I stay in. Last year I kept thinking that my Mom was knocking on my door to wake me up every time she would knock on the wall to turn on the light. Every time she knocked I would say, “Yeah.” Later that morning she asked me if I always talk in my sleep. I asked her if she always knocked on doors and then didn’t answer. Apparently she was so accustomed to turning on the light that way that she never even realized what she was doing. Now I’ve been side tracked… Anyway, this light scares the heck out of me. I’ll be sitting on the couch on the complete opposite side of the apartment and the light will just go on. I didn’t hear a noise, what the heck is turning on the light? It will do this ten to fifteen times a night. I’ll always think that someone is there, but nope it’s just the light playing with my head.
I’ve been having crazy dreams as well. Yeah, I know, I had crazy dreams when I first got to Denver as well. I don’t even know if you can call this first one a dream actually. A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night… at least I think I woke up. I looked across the room and could have swore that there was a woman standing in my room against the wall and reaching into one of my crates. I was so convinced that I almost yelled out “What the hell are you doing in my room?!?” I just sat there staring though and eventually the image of the woman slowly tranformed into a shadow that was being made by my guitar and the light that was shining through the window from outside. To be honest with you though… completely freaked me out. Then, later that night I woke up again (I think) but I didn’t open my eyes. I could have swore that a cat jumped up on the bed and walked slowly around my body as I lay in bed. It seemed completely normal until I remembered that my Mom’s cat was put to sleep a couple years ago. So, am I having weird dreams or is some crazy ghost playing tricks on me?
I’ve been looking for a job these past couple weeks. I finally found one at a golf course that I used to work at when I was home for the summer during college. I filled out an application today and then on the drive home couldn’t help but thinking, “Is this really what I want to do? What am I doing wasting my time and money living up here?” I’m sure that thought will cross my mind a couple hundred times this summer, but no matter what, I will stay here because this is the Summer of Andy.
This weekend I may be down in the city for a day and then I have to pick up my Mom at Newark airport on Sunday. Now that I’ve lived here for two weeks by myself, we’ll see what it’s like to live with my Mom. It should be an interesting summer…