One year in

It occurred to me, as I drove home from work last night, that today marked a year since I arrived permanently in Iowa.

It seemed crazy to me, even as I put everything I owned on a truck and sent it toward the Midwest, that I was leaving D.C. I kept telling everyone how great it would be, but I was terrified. What if it didn’t work? What if I didn’t like it?

And then, just before I moved out here, Steve got in an accident, and everything focused down to a little pinpoint: would he be OK? He was, and is, and we went on to figure out how to merge our two art collections on the walls and how to plant a garden. There’s nothing like a challenge to help a couple rise to the occasion.

I didn’t plan an official celebration, but we did spend the better part of the day watching Iowa beat Iowa State. The game was here, at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, and apparently Steve and my friend Sarah made it onto ESPN as part of the color shots that framed the broadcast. They were the two people sitting on the pedestrian mall near the fountain in downtown Iowa City, if you are someone who notices these things.

We didn’t have tickets, but we have friends who live near the stadium, so we started at their house and went for a walk down by the stadium to check out the sights. People of Iowa? Your college-aged children (and some of their older fellow fans) know how to drink some beer.

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