In Process...

from 5.17

Try selling a piece of property in this market lately? Exactly. It’s not really the right time. After 5 weeks of trying to sell the house, we had over 40 people take a look but no serious buyer. Then along came the Xia family....a gift from God. After realizing we were all Trojans (both husband and wife are PhD cancer research scientists at USC’s Norris Cancer Hospital) we became fast friends. Shortly after they made an offer we were signing papers and then they came to Easter’s church service with us! We’re so excited about our new friendship with the Xia family and their new home.
It was the biggest truck I’ve ever seen. We thought 5000 pounds was a lot but then learned we’d only be filling a tenth of the truck as it makes its rounds cross country picking up other families’ poundage along the way. Our load might’ve been heavier but we went on a garage-sale-Craig’s-list-selling-spree and were able to simplify our list of possessions by almost 50%. Another half of that will go to Long Island....we’re hoping the final 25% will fit in our Manhattan apt.
One last stop...USC’s graduation. Including our own, we’ve been to 6 commencements at Troy; so we had to get the perfect 7. Yaminah, Cy & Marie made us proud as they walked across those stages getting degrees in Engineering, Business & Communication.
Each step across campus was a heavy one as Arlene & I realized they’d be our last for a long time. Places have a way of becoming sacred; halls stuffed with nostalgia, classrooms that housed our maturation, grassy hills our kids slid down, tented patches of land our grill burned brightly into game night...The Galen was stout with pride. Taper Hall nestled in the shadows of each state’s tree from Founder’s. The intramural & practice fields were their annual home to the ceremonial class of grad day, an always welcome shift from cleats & tackles. Doheny’s flowers were in full bloom and Bovard stood like a light house, guiding us east. Today, however, not everything is the same. Sample is retired, the commons we knew are destroyed & reconstructed, and Pete has moved on. We are left to interpret the signals as encouragements for our own move, be it a bit bitter & some sweet.

We spent our last 2 nights with the Fuquas. Marty made is his famous mac-n-cheese and the kids helped walk Jack & Lucy through South Pas. Where would we be without them? Fact is, there is no “we” without them.