Hot damn, Y’all! I’m here in one piece and after a minor panic attack where I thought I had lost the power cord to my computer (when, in actuality, I had just kept it in my car in the mythical “safe place” so that I wouldn’t lose it. Then, in entirely typical fashion, I promptly lost it) I am finally back online.
Dear God how I missed all of my made-up computer friends.
Ummm…what can I say? It’s weird here. The leaves are different colors. It isn’t nine million degrees and so humid that you get water up your nose everytime you breathe. It is, however, absolutely gorgeous. There is a constant cool breeze. It isn’t crisp yet, but I can feel it hovering just behind the wind. Of course, today there are “record breaking” temperatures of 90 degrees. But I have to say, 90 degrees with low humidity and a constant breeze is spec-freaking-tacular. Everyone around here is clearly suffering and they all look visibily wilted, but I’m more comfortable than I have been in months.
It isn’t cold at night yet, either. It’s cool, but not even enough to put an extra blanket on the bed. We’ve slept with the windows open every night, and you can hear the leaves rustling all night long. There aren’t sirens or horns or random people yelling right outside of my window at midnight. I can hear crickets chirping. I had forgotten how magnificent it is to live outside of a city.
I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of driving aimlessly, trying to memorize the roads. It’s somewhat hard to find landmarks when you are driving down endless stretches of curvy, wooded, New England road. Telling someone “I’m right next to the stone wall outside of the 18th century farmhouse with the cranberry bog” just about narrows it down to Massachusetts. I know I’ll get immune to the beauty eventually, because I did in Charleston, but at this point I’m still having to concentrate really hard to keep from running off the road while I crane my neck to see some perfect little cottage.
I did experience a moment of perfect familiarity today when I walked into a Target that was laid out exactly like the one in charleston. Aisle by aisle. It was kinda creepy, especially when I noticed everyone talking funny. It was like that episode of the twilight zone where that woman is having surgery to correct her deformity, and when they take off the bandages she’s a beautiful woman and all of her doctors are walking monstrosities. They all sound so weird! Can’t they hear themselves ? I was spoiled, because Pete’s parents have really light accents, and he and his sister don’t have any at all, but the rest of the people around here are like parodies. It is going to take a lot of getting used to for that to sound normal to my ears.
So far no one has commented on my accent, but I’m concentrating really hard on not letting any “oh mah god, y’alls!” out. It’s tough, I tell you! I did notice the woman behind me at the grocery store giving me the surprised stare when she heard me talking to the checkout girl, but I’m not sure if that was because of my accent or my staggering beauty (ha!).
We haven’t really done anything exciting or New Englandy yet, since Pete has been working and I’ve been spending all of my energy on memorizing the cable channels and sitting on the basement floor watching the new front-loading washer work (I wish I was kidding about this. It is mesmerizing). However, on Saturday his school is having a fall festival (cute!) and he has to sit in the dunking booth so you can bet your southern accents I’ll be there to see that. Those kids are going to destroy him. I imagine there will be much wholesomeness and fallish activity. We’re also going to a pumpkin patch to pick our jack o lanterns sometime next week, which is making me have fits of excitement.
(And as I was just writing that, Pete called to tell me that he would be home early. He was supposed to have a soccer game today [he coaches] but the game got cancelled because, are you ready for it, it was “too hot.” Oh dear mary mother of god that is funny. My stomach is cramping from laughing so hard.)
And now I need to go! Because I have to get ready for dinner. We’re going to to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my auspicious birth, which is today. I am one-quarter century old, and a new-found yankee.
