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January 14, 2006

Good Morning, Texas

Sitting at the island in my dad and Ginger's kitchen. One of their many televisions is tuned to CNN the anchors reporting live from Atlanta. Everyone is getting ready to go downtown to the Houston Marathon Expo.

This morning Mary Lee and I woke up and went to Meyer Park and ran three easy miles. When I was little, Meyer Park was where all the kids played soccer and where my mom would walk almost every day. Running around the curved paths, with my friend at my side, we passed several solo walkers. I thought about my mother, going there daily, part of her routine, walking alone. I thought about her, alone, raising a teenage daughter, her future laid out in front of her, unchanging.

In September she and David celebrated their 9th anniversary, so she has now been remarried longer than she was single, which is hard to believe. Those years seemed sad and long for me; I can't imagine how they must have stretched out for her.

Being here in my childhood home (though not in my childhood house), is always a strange experience. The stores and buildings are different, but the streets and places are the same. Houses look older; schools look smaller, but it's the same place it's always been. It's me that is different.

Posted by hannah at 11:47 AM