the first trip home…
• I’d take 98º birmingham day over an 89º D.C. day… anyday. It’s SO much different. Not that i would change my new home city, but it’s just freakin’ humid. And in alabama, it’s dryer. 15 times dryer.
• I don’t like driving anymore… and when I say driving, I mean driving in a different car than my own and on roadways that aren’t streets or avenues. Basically, if it’s not a diagonal or a grid, I don’t like it. In less than 2 months, i’ve become totally addicted to public transportation.
• I feel like I’m visiting a foreign country (which consequently I’ve never done, but for endearment, it’s an expression) going back to the south. Whether it is the fact that the cultures are so incredibly different, or I’ve just moved on, or if it is a fact of life, my old home doesn’t seem so familiar. Isn’t that what home is supposed to be? My old room literally got turned into an office, and I sleep in a guest bedroom. I’m a stranger in my own town.
• Give me a weekend brunch over dinner any day. Yeah, yeah, I’ve become the end-all-be-all of D.C. culture and fallen right in. But there are some amazing omelettes being made around the city by every restaurant conceivable… In Alabama, you’re good if you can get it at 1 out of 100 restaurants, but maybe (hopefully) I’m wrong.
• Southern hospitality is fabulous, but the boundaries end when you leave the South. Don’t be fooled… I tried to be nice and polite and all in D.C., and you get pushed around. The only problem is when you become so accustomed to being brash in the city, and it translates into a beast when you hit up the South again. And yes, I’m guilty… but, tourists need to learn that I’ve got deadlines to make and they’re hogging up space on the escalator. And yes, that 15 seconds really does matter. 
• If I get generalized into the racist bigot category one more time because of my accent, or I’m told that racism is the worst in the South than anywhere else, I could possibly give myself a coronary. And from now on, it’s gonna start getting ugly because I’m not taking it anymore.
• I’m a workaholic. I was one here, too, according to southern terms, and it has only gotten worse by moving. I love it… it keeps me busy, and I feel no stress from it. I think it’s the salary plus paid overtime that keeps me scrambling; those paychecks are beautiful things. 
• If I’m on a plane going to birmingham, don’t look at me like i’m crazy for being unhappy to go. Don’t get me wrong, I love the people that I see and don’t get to see. But, Birmingham and I, we’re through… or at least on a break. It just doesn’t have what I need in a relationship… we’re at totally different places in our lives. That, and compared to the food, events, and culture I’ve gotten to experience in D.C., sometimes home seems so bland. But, there’s something to say for the people… they are irreplaceable in my book.
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