It is official as of about two weeks ago. The University of Oklahoma is shutting down the Parkview Apartments complex and, thusly, giving us the cordial boot. This means we will have lived in our first shared home for a mere eight months before they rip her to shreds. The university claims the military-base, pill-box buildings are much too old and have outgrown their use. Considering the number of new apartment complexes the university has thrown together and is throwing together as of late, I believe the issue is rather that they have discovered how much money they could be raking in from upscale apartments.

Unfortunately, this trend (hinted at by the destruction of Yorkshire and confirmed by the upcoming destruction of Parkview) is leaving students with fewer low-cost living accommodations. There is a substantial amount of foreign families living amongst us here at Parkview. Yorkshire was synonymous with foreign student housing. These people are running out of friendly (financially and socially) abodes. It appears that as universities grow to function more and more as big businesses, they tend to function more and more as big businesses.

And, of course, the cockroaches... Who will lend a compassionate ear to the plight of the soon-to-be homeless cockroaches?

Nonetheless, we figured we should pay homage to our first home and give the new blog some fodder at the same time. It saw us laugh and cry. It witnessed me graduating from college. It has seen Nicole undertake and make bold strides in the hobbies of cooking and sewing. Its smoke alarm would trigger when we would use the oven, but it reminded us of the safety it provided. It allowed us to smell the rankest of odors from the fish sauce used in our Asian neighbors' food, and it allowed us to hear our other neighbors' bedroom activities. It granted us [an all-bills-paid] grace to crank up the air conditioning and leave it running in manners that would drive most fathers out of their minds. Above all, it gave us T-1 internet access.