Durham, North Carolina

Home of My Heart

I have recently relocated to Durham, North Carolina – the Bull City, home of the Durham Bulls and Duke University. I first moved to Durham in order to attend Duke as an undergrad in 1988, and stayed until 1993 before moving back to Annapolis, Maryland. I was going through some tough times in those days, as were my parents, who were separated and soon to be divorced. I moved back to Annapolis to try to understand what was going on in my family and to try to straighten out my life. It took some time, but thanks to a lot of help from friends and guidance from God, I am in a much happier place now. I was able to move back to Durham a few months ago, and am enjoying learning about this town from a more mature perspective.

Durham is an interesting melting pot of a town. There is extreme poverty and extreme wealth, extreme liberalism and extreme conservatism, a lot of segregation between the white and black populations, and in the past nine years of my absence, an explosion in the Latin American population and accompanying culture. The Duke Medical Center is world-renowned, and one of Durham’s identities is The City of Medicine. Yet the town’s history is mainly tobacco-oriented, and the remnants of the tobacco warehouses dominate the downtown architecture. Crime, homelessness and drug trafficking have plagued this town more than other areas of the Triangle, and the downtown areas have become vacant and even structurally unsound. Yet there is a burgeoning art community occupying a group of downtown lofts, and the city is poised to make sweeping changes and renovations to the downtown areas in order to increase consumer spending and business development in the area.

I have also found a wonderful church here: St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, right on Main Street downtown. This is the most integrated church I have found in the area, although it is still predominantly white. This group of people cares about their environs, from supporting the local homeless shelter and soup kitchen that is on the same block, to making an effort to raise parishioners’ consciousness about environmental issues and plans for the development of Durham. This church believes in this town, and is proud of its downtown location, right next to a known drug corner. St. Philipians’ belief in the ability to change and rejuvenate this town is the basis for our slogan, “Faith in the City”. I feel truly blessed to have found such a marvelous, open-minded and hard-working group in the area.

My Apartment

I am fortunate enough to live in one of the newly renovated downtown apartments. My apartment building was once a tobacco warehouse, and has high ceilings, wood floors, enormous windows, and a beautiful view of downtown Durham. The picture above was taken from my windows, as were many of the pictures below. Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger picture.

	The Durham skyline in summer, as seen from my window. We’re looking over the top of the Cooper Building, another renovated warehouse. In the distance, you can see the large glass Durham Convention Center tower. The CCB building is hiding behind the window strut, but the Marriott is visible. At night, the skyline is alive with lights.		Here’s a better look at the Cooper Building, and the Cooper Shop below that was once a garage but is now an Italian restaurant called Tosca.
	This is a better view of Tosca, with the patio tables they set out when the weather is pleasant, which is a lot of the time. It’s all too convenient to have such a yummy restaurant right across the courtyard.		These are my two windows, which face southeast and allow a lot of morning light into the apartment. This is particularly wonderful, as I am somewhat seasonally affected, and need light in order to stay cheerful. This is an ideal apartment for me in that way.
	Here’s light streaming into the central part of my living/dining area. The sun goes over the building around noon, so it doesn’t get too hot in here in the summer, but it helps keep the place warm in the winter.		Here’s the rest of the living room, with the windows off to the right of the picture. The entire place is aligned with the windows, and the lovely view, as the focal point. I have several mobiles to accent the high ceilings, one of which you can see in this picture.
	Here are the lovely hardwood floors, with my cat Chester off to the right, basking in the sun. I’ve tried to leave a good deal of free space here so that I can do my aerobics unhindered.		The dining room area holds sundry other items, such as my piano, aquarium, plants, CDs and DVDs.
	Here is the kitchen area and breakfast bar, which unfortunately is usually just used for collecting junk and not actual eating. But it’s a spacious and modern kitchen.		This view shows the hall closet and the foyer all the way to the door. On the right side of the picture you see one of the windows to the master bedroom, and further on the right is a step up to the bedrooms and bathrooms, which are not shown.
	The windows have a wide window seat which is large enough to hold cushions. Zut, one of my two female cats, enjoys spending time here. Her name is pronounced “zoot” like zoot suit, but her name is actually from a Monty Python movie (“Bad, wicked, naughty Zut!”), as well as a mild French epithet.		Chester, my other kitty, posing on an old computer box that is uniquely suited to her coloration. Chester is a Durham native, as I acquired her before I moved in 1993. She is nearly 10 years old.
	One of my two aquariums, with several fish – Maggie the red velvet swordtail, Sunny the golden angelfish, and White Eye Guy, another angelfish off to the lower left. I have another tank as well, with some golden and neon tetras. This photo was taken when the angelfish were juvenile.		Here is White Eye Guy, basking in the sun. The sun is good for the live aquarium plants, but can be dangerous for overheating. In my case, I was lucky this was where I placed the tank. I have never had a problem with overheating, and I believe it helped my fish survive the ice storm. (See link below for abundant details.)