My New Life Begins

I've now slept in my sweet little house in Greencastle, Indiana, for two nights. From the outside, the house is shabby - in need of a fresh coat of paint, and with something apparently growing out of the gutters. Inside it is darling, just what I wanted: completely furnished, including five tall bookcases filled with books on Latin American politics and MANY pictures of Che Guevara (the guy who is subletting it to me is a radical leftie in the political science department, on sabbatical in Guatemala). The overall effect is homey and cozy.

The house is literally two blocks away from: a) my office in the philosophy department; b) the enticing Carnegie public library; c) the Gobin Memorial Methodist Church; and d) downtown Greencastle, built around the courthouse square, with a couple of charming eateries, a used book store, a Goodwill store (I already bought myself a new fall outfit), and a farmers' market on Saturday morning. It's a mile or two to the Kroger grocery store and to my other office, at the serenely beautiful Prindle Institute for Ethics, overlooking a nature park/wildlife refuge.

So far I've attended a barbecue with my new philosophy department colleagues (I loved them all), attended church, had lunch with dear former grad student Jen Everett (who is on the faculty here together with her husband Rich Cameron, also a former CU graduate student), explored the town by foot and by car, stocked up on groceries, bought myself a DePauw notebook at the bookstore, and figured out how to do my DePauw email account. Shortly I'll head off to a picnic to welcome international students. New faculty orientation is Wednesday and Thursday.

It's still hard for me to believe that this is where I LIVE now. This is my new world. This is where I'll establish the rhythm of my days. I brought so little with me: books and papers, clothes, computer, Ruby the jackrabbit puppet. That's it. Everything else is the stuff out of which I'll create this new life for myself, the new life I'm already living right now.