Favorites things are right here

So, I'm buying a house. It's in the neighborhood I had picked out as perfect right after moving here, and it's in the style I most associate with Wisconsin, and it's the only one I ever looked at, and it's perfect and a dream and it should be mine, touch wood, all things willing, by the end of this week.

I was describing its location to my cousin when she was visiting recently, and mentioning that I wasn't sure how I would give people directions to it when they were coming to see me. And she recommended that I direct them from a major north-south artery that runs the length of town to the closest side street, and just drive across, and that way they would avoid having to drive down College Avenue, which is the main drag of downtown. And when she said this my heart went, No! Because that drive down those last few blocks of College Ave., past the Art Center and City Center and the Starbucks and all the other cafe's, and the place I used to get my hair cut and the museum, and toward the University campus, that's one of my favorite drives in the whole world. Other people take the highway to get to where I'm living now but I always drive down College Ave., all the way, just so I can drive down those few blocks. Why would anyone ever drive so as to avoid them, when I go out of my way to experience them? And so I realized that those few blocks of College Ave. are in fact one of my favorite drives in the world, and guess what, they are right here, in this town. And close to my house! Or will be, as soon as it becomes my house.

When I was thinking about putting an offer in, I talked to a friend who lives in a house with his girlfriend, and when they were looking they viewed upwards of 50 properties, so the girlfriend knows the real estate ins and outs of every neighborhood in town. I asked him what they thought about the location and he mentioned the noise from the trains. The tracks run diagonally pretty much right through the center of town, right on the surface there at the same level as the roads. And the trains by law have to blow their whistle before every intersection. And those tracks run about two blocks away from the dream home, so I will hear those whistles, maybe in the middle of the night, maybe every night. But the sound of a train whistle is one of my favorite sounds on earth. I may have even mentioned it here. I can hear them faintly in my current place, and every time I hear that high lonesome sound it reminds me that I am back in the Midwest of my youth, and of my people, and it fills my heart with warmth. Train whistle sounds are one of my favorite sounds on earth, so it's not going to be any problem at all that I can hear them well, all the time, from my new house. As soon as it becomes my house.