Life in the Slow Lane

This weekend marks one full year in Georgia. (By the way, I can't even begin to believe that is has been 367 days since we left Virginia.) Here's what I have learned after a year of living in the deep South.

1. Grits are good. Especially if you lather them in cheese and garlic. They are even better with blackened fish.

2. There is no rat race and no one really worries about getting ahead. Life is about how many trips you can take to the beach. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with this when you live within an hour's drive of many great beaches.

3. All Georgians must have some innate desire to produce fire because there is ALWAYS a fire burning in this town. They even set their own yards on fire. They will tell you that it brings new growth to the yard and a much thicker turf. Maybe so, but Scott's Turf Builder will do just the same, and you don't have to worry with burning down your house in the process.

4. We can talk like Georgians now. Keagan has the Southern drawl, Evan has the misplaced object pronouns (them chickens), and I can proceed every sentence with "honey" and "darlin."

5. Muddin' is a popular past time in Georgia. I went muddin' one time. I was 17, and after a heavy rain, my car slipped and slid in the unpaved driveway of my parents' new house. It was not done intentionally and it was extremely annoying. But in Georgia, people atually LIKE to slip and slide in the mud - mess and all. They claim it is fun.

6. Georgians, for the most part, are very friendly. They will invite you to church, wave to you on the back roads, and invite you on a weekend fishing trip. If the fishing trip invite included a boat with a working motor, I might just consider it.

7. It is possible to survive without a Target within a 10 mile radius of your house. It took several months of withdrawls for me to adjust to the big change, and I still get very giddy when I walk into a Target store when I have been away for more than two weeks. However, I have learned you can buy just about all of the store on-line. Who knew it could be that easy?

I don't know how it could already be a year because it seems like just yesterday we were finding our way through this two street town. At the most, we have two years left. Evan is hoping for an assignment in Hawaii, Keagan is hoping for Texas, and I am hoping for anything that keeps us out of Louisiana. Until then, we will continue to enjoy life in the slow lane in the deep South.