the bright side of the road

good parts of the past week: 

warm weather

Blind Pilot concert

found an Australia bakery near my house

finally got a hair cut

so many parties

worked at the atlanta marathon

bad parts of last week:

getting fired*

*and by "fired" i mean, the grant that funds my job ends in December so my job ends in December. i might try to find a new one. or i might be a really poor PhD student with more free time. 

A Real Text Message My Mother Just Sent Me

"oh, and Dad "loved" the music, too... NOT. Food was very good. now, we're on our way to 'hillsboro, N C'. love you, M"


*i love how she signs all her text, "M" or "Mom", just in case i wasn't sure who they were from

Dispatches from East Tennessee

I took this picture on my drive home last week. (Sam's Gap, TN)

Anyone who knows me at all knows I love the town where I grew up. I love the mountains, the accents, and the local food. I love that everyone wears orange on fall Saturdays and that the cashier at the grocery store always calls me honey. I love that people don't lock their doors* and wave to each other on the street. Most of all, I love how predictable it is. No matter how long I've been gone, everything is familiar. Somehow growing up in a place lets one intuitively understand how life there works. That sense of place becomes such a significant part of how we identify ourselves. I am grateful that my place turned out to be such a pleasant one.

*I have so many stories about unlocked doors in k-town. People leave their cars unlocked (sometimes with the keys inside!) on a daily basis all the time. I never locked my car in high school. Why? Because I didn't need to.

Political Protest Packing List

Surprising almost no one, I decided to check out Atlanta's version of the Occupy Wall Street protest this past Friday. I am not really the "sleeping in a park to send a political message" type, but I always enjoy a good march. And, let's be honest, any opportunity to make self-righteous/overly idealist signs. The ATL movement is just getting going so my co-worker and I didn't really know what to expect. I brought supplies for a variety of situations. 

This stuff:

went into this bag:

In the end we just sat around the park for 2 hours listening to idealists blather on about "the process", got bored, and left. I'm fairly certain they will eventually plan a march down the street to the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. Hopefully that will be more exciting.