And coffee at the Zeeb Road Mickey Ds and then the I94 18-wheel Clogway over to kzoo (no offense intended to the Knights and Ladies of the road). The purpose of the journey? To help my Mouse move the rest of her stuff out of her cute little apartment because the lease is up at the end of the month and since she is now a graduate and doesn’t plan to stay in kzoo, she doesn’t need living space there.

I know that Mouse had a hard time leaving it. And so did I. This is really Mouse’s story. It is up to her to tell her own story and she may not tell it on the Internet. Or anywhere else. But it intersects a bit with my own story, which I will try to tell without treading on hers too much. As Mouse’s junior year study abroad in Senegal was coming to a close, the off-campus housing plans she had made for the spring quarter fell through, as those kinds of things sometimes do. Being a moom, I was a little panicky. I did not want her to be living in a cardboard box in front of the theatre. Mouse was less panicky and sometimes little setbacks like that turn out to be the beginning of better things. Mouse found a few places online, including an old house on Pearl Street that had been chopped up into apartments. I think there are seven. I may be wrong.

The GG and I ended up driving over there on a very dreary (in a beautiful kind of way) February day and toured two places in the Pearl St. house plus another place. Click here to see what that day was like. We posted about a billion digital pictures on-line and Mouse chose an apartment from Africa. We signed the lease for her in absentia and when she returned from Africa, she added her own signature and moved in.

It has been a wonderful little place for Mouse. A very small one-bedroom. I remember the land-lady being nervous about whether Mouse would like the bathroom! The bathroom has a slanted wall that makes a modern tub and shower arrangement impossible so the landlords installed an old-fashioned tub instead with a handheld shower. I told her that since Mouse had been living in Africa for the last six months, she would probably be happy with just about any kind of American style bathroom and, if I have it right, one of the selling points on that apartment for Mouse *was* the bathroom.

We spent quite a few Sundays heading over to kzoo in time for breakfast, then hanging around with Mouse until it was time for her to get to the theatre for whatever play she was acting in or directing or costuming or whatever. I would hang out on the Internet, of course. The GG would take his morning nap in her rocking chair. If there was enough time we would walk around the neighborhood, a bit sketchy but beautiful with all of the vegetation and vintage houses.

I traveled early today and got over there in time to walk to the Crow’s Nest for breakfast, then I beat it out to a grocery store for oven cleaner while Mouse finished up packing. And make no mistake, my own Landfill oven is dirtier right now than Mouse’s was. The GG had already hauled the furniture home via rental truck a couple weeks ago and we packed up the remaining smaller bits of stuff into Plum Market grocery bags, which fit into our Honda Civics very well.

What’s next? That’s for Mouse to decide. She is a small aminal of many talents and she will have a successful career or, if she is lucky enough, a series of careers. The first step? Teaching at our own YAG summer theatre academy. The one that I bribed her to attend the summer she was between second and third grade. I walked her over there the first morning, the head director greeted her at the door of the elementary school, and that turned out to be one of those life-changing moments. For the whole family. And that’s enough for now. YAG is still a part of my story but whatever comes after that will belong to Mouse.

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