Winter Wonderland

"So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending". - JRR Tolkien

My house. At 6pm or so when I made it home on Friday night, it had been snowing for about 3 hours at that point. I know it's growing up in the South that makes each snowstorm a thrill... you never got enough of it to get tired of it.

My Town

"A little bit of Mayberry, a dash of 'Gone with the Wind' and a whole lot of Hazard County."

I don't know where I found that quote but I love it. It fits my little Georgia town perfectly. I'm sure it actually fits a lot of small southern towns. My little town is so great and the irony of my life is the things I love about this town are also the things I hate about it. Isn't that just dandy?

I love going places and always running into someone I know... I hate going places and always having to talk to everyone. One night, a big city friend of mine was with me at a restaurant and he watched in amazement as I literally greeted everyone in the room and introduced him to about half. Then he was shocked when our waiter greeted me by name and asked about my parents. I remember being amused at his surprise but my thoughts are more along the lines of "I grew up here and have lived here for five years of my adult life... what do you expect?"

In a town of about 15000* you're bound to run into the same people over and over again. Plus I work at my family's business so as I learned the hard way in high school, I may not recognize them but they know my daddy.

Another friend of mine grew up in Atlanta and moved out here to be closer to her parents and their farm about 7 years ago. She's like me and has lived in Athens and then moved back here a couple of times. She's met a lot of people and is very friendly and outgoing. But she still remains shocked everytime she meets someone new and then finds out that I already know them. And it's not that I know everyone well but between all the members of my family and my job, I'm bound to have run into them at least once before in my life.

Even one of my referral sources at the hospital asked me how I knew everyone... I had brought her lunch and we were sitting in the cafeteria. Multiple people stopped to speak to me and tell her to be sure to give me business, etc. It was funny because she's not the most outgoing person so by the end of the lunch, she was overwhelmed. And she asked how I knew everyone.

And my friends love to hear how my parents knew when I misbehaved in high school, usually before I had even done whatever it was that we were plotting. I'll never forget the night a friend of mine and I drove up in my driveway to find both of our dads standing there waiting on us. Fortunately we hadn't actually done anything wrong... my mom had just assumed we were up to no good. We definitely paused halfway and contemplated pulling back out into the street - our hearts were in our throats.

I guess it's just a novel idea to people who don't grow up in small towns but it's one of my favorite things about living here. In contrast, when I was NYC the other weekend, I spent the first day wondering where all those people came from and where they lived. I have gotten to the point of being slightly overwhelmed by crowds.

Of course, I get disgusted by the segregation, not being able to buy alcohol, the lack of open-mindness, the gossip, and all the other smallness of a small town. But I also get turned off by crazy traffic, honking horns, dirty streets and people pushing into me on the subway. You take the good with the bad in every situation.

I feel fortunate to know of other places, to travel and explore, knowing I have roots running deep and strong. A place which supports and comforts me as I go through life. Because this is HOME... it's a feeling I can't put into words without sounding cheesy. When I drive up 138 and the fields start getting larger and the roadside starts getting greener, I know I'm almost there. And I always sigh, knowing the trip's almost over and that I'm back where everyone knows my name (and will tell my daddy what I've been doing wrong!).

*Depends on who you talk to and where you define the boundaries.

A Home of My Own*

I've done it. I've bought a house, after talking about it for FIVE years. I did it.

I'm an extrovert - yes, I can talk to people easily - BUT that's not what that means, being an extrovert means I process my thoughts outloud, usually to others. Therefor, when I'm considering something, I have to talk about it (ALOT) before I'm able to do it. Rarely are people surprised by my actions. Mainly because I've been talking about it too much.

But enough about me. Here's my house. I close on the 12th so it's not officially mine yet but we're pretty darn close. So I'm getting really excited. The past couple of weeks, I've been really nervous but now, I'm excited and picking out paint colors.

It's a great old house with hardwood floors, crown moldings, and chair rails. It also has a 1970's laminate floor kitchen, an unfinished attic, and a back door that won't latch without a lock. And I love it.

This isn't all my pictures and I obviously have some work to do but I'm excited and I'm sure my posts will start to have a DIY home improvement vibe to them. But I promise, no Toolman Taylors around here.

*or to steal from a friend, "The Most Adult Thing I've Ever Done"

221 Boulevard

This is my house. I don't own it. I wish I did.... it's exactly what I want/need. But for now, I am a happy renter who doesn't want to move EVER AGAIN... Plus, now that I've been there a couple of months, I can finally sleep without the sounds of the house scaring me. (I have a vivid imagination... it goes into over drive when I'm alone and it's dark and the house creaks). The front porch makes me love the house alone, it's at least 10 feet deep - I didn't get a good picture that shows off the size of it but as my friend Alyssa said, this is a great party porch. It wraps around the side of the house into a screened porch which I can reach from my bedroom. When it was a little warmer, I'd eat breakfast out there. Great way to start your day. But it's been a little cold around here lately so no dining alfresco for me.

This is the view from my front door - does it do the porch justice? The yellow house across the street is from the same era so it also has 14 foot ceilings and a wrap around porch and rocking chairs - actually most of the houses on my street have these features. Did I mention I love the street I live on? It's one of the oldest streets in town - to give you an idea, my house was built in 1911 and it's one of the "young" ones. The houses were originally owned by the mill for their administrators. Mine has crown molding, coal fireplaces (in every room!), and heart of pine flooring. I love it!

My sisters were actually home when I moved over Labor Day (thanks to a hurricane) so they helped. Lauren, the artsy one, hung my family pictures in the hallway. Basically I gave them to her and said put these on this wall. And this is what I got. I wish I could take credit for it because everyone that comes into my house LOVES it. I do too. It's got pictures from the time I was around 3 years old until recently of my family. Family vacations, weddings, random pictures in the backyard, Mother's Day, etc. My favorites. I've actually got 2 empty frames that I need to find pictures for. A work in progress my friends.

**The picture on the table is the one that my ghost moves around alot... it travels up and down and turns around. I'm not crazy, I have a ghost and I bet if the ghosthunters came to my house, they would confirm this fact.**

And this is Sandy again, in her favorite spot on the front porch. This is where she is every night when I come home, unless I'm late - then she's waiting by the mailbox looking at her watch. But most days, especially when it wasn't dark at 5pm, she'd be chilling on the front porch, watching the street. She can see everything from that perch and she keeps the squirrels in line from there. She's such a funny puppy.

I was taking her picture through the screen door (which I love to let slam - I can HEAR my dad saying, "don't slam the door!"). But those weren't turning out so well because my camera was focusing on the screen instead of the dog so she turned when I opened the door. Don't you just love the "what are you doing now?" expression? She's constantly watching me with an expression of exasperation. Especially when I move from one end of the house to another, she'll get settled in one spot to watch over me and I'll take off to the other end and she'll follow, only to settle again by the time I take off again. She never complains, just gets up and follows me back again. She's a good dog.