Welcome new residents

It was difficult for those in Green Acres who knew Dorothy Spencer to accept the fact that her health was failing and that it was time for her to sell her home and move closer to her daughter in Mooresville where she could get more care and attention on a daily basis from her family.

But now that the transition has taken place we are so pleased that Phil and Noriko chose Dorothy’s house in Green Acres Neighborhood as their place to settle in Monroe County.

It was Indiana University that brought Phil and Noriko to Bloomington. Phil came in 1989 to earn his B.A. and stayed on for the laid-back lifestyle. Noriko arrived in 1994 and eventually earned a Ph.D. After post-doc work at UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she returned to work for the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) beginning in 2001. Phil says that the two met by providence in 2002. They were married in Bloomington in June 2004 and went to Kauai for their honeymoon.

Noriko teaches information science courses in SLIS and conducts research in the area of social informatics, which is the study of how computerization influences society. “My work keeps me busy,”she says, “but when I have time, I like to watch movies and work out at the gym, especially the kick-bo class.”

This summer they plan to build a brick porch onto the back of their house. It will provide a nice place to relax in the evening or to hang out with friends and have cook-outs.

Phil works as a reference assistant for the Monroe County Public Library in addition to teaching three classes at the IU library school. He’s an avid reader of science fiction, a semi-skilled musician, a fan of IU basketball (He’s been going to games since 1975), and he actually enjoys mowing the yard and trimming hedges. He,too, is looking forward to working on the new porch project.

The story of how “Ole Fat Bellers”, their cat, became part of the family is an interesting one...

Phil worked at Little Zagreb for four years before attending library school. One of the servers had allergies that were getting worse as she got older, and she asked Phil if he’d be interested in one of her cats. You could say that it was love at first sight. Ole Fat Bellers was two at the time and about 6 pounds lighter. He'll be nine in October and has settled comfortably into the new neighborhood at a steady weight of 15 pounds.

When asked what they like about Green Acres Neighborhood Noriko replied. “The original reason I decided to live in this neighborhood was because it's so close to where I work. I try to ride my bike as much as possible when the weather is nice. The lots here are bigger than newer developed sub-divisions, and people are willing to work to make the neighborhood better.” She also likes the fact that each house has it’s own character, unlike many newer neighborhoods where they all look so much alike.

Phil says, “I like being close to downtown Bloomington and IU. I can ride my bike to work or to grab a bite to eat (you've probably seen me tooling around the neighborhood on an old Little 500 bike). I also like the fact that the neighborhood association is so active. I was very excited to learn that there was a forum via which I could meet my neighbors and discuss issues of concern and interests relevant to the neighborhood and its place in the Bloomington community.”
Originally Posted by Melody