I’ve been to Atlanta, but never Savannah. I wanted to name Abigail Savannah, call her Savvy for short. But Phil refused, insisting it was a stripper name. I also wanted to give her the middle name Brave, but again, we make concessions in our lives… then smile, shrug, and twitch our noses, adding, "Compromise," as if the word alone explains everything a person ever needs to know.

I’ve always had a love/love relationship with the South. I visited Lea there, when she was attending College of Charleston, and made my way through the town, crossing "must-eat" stops off a must-do list. Elderly African American men, took off their hats, shuffled to the gutter, and bowed to us. It’s something I’ll never forget. It was so disturbing. "The War of Northern Aggression" or "That Unpleasantness" still has a mark on the land and lives there.

I have a friend, whom I met through this blog, who told me all about Claxton, GA (home to the Claxton Fruit Cake). And now I feel something drawing me there. I’m fascinated by the Gullah culture, by the mix of people and cultures. I need to go visit. Soon. I’d love to go with the family, just for a quickie. So often we make time to visit Europe, take road trips to factory outlets, but we never visit America. I know visiting isn’t the same as living.

Speaking of which… I’m beginning to really like it here in Austin. People ask that often, how I’m liking it, how it compares to life in New York. The thing is, it’s not just comparing New York City to Austin, I’m comparing a life. Comparing my life as a single woman in Manhattan who was working full-time in advertising shooting red carpet events, to a wife and mother of twins living (and working from home) in the suburbs of Texas. It was a whole bunch of changes at once.

And I feel myself, right now, changing. I feel myself being more comfortable, more happy. Loving my new friends Lacey, Natalie, Wendy, Terri, Leslie, Letty, Tobie, Marcy, Jessica, Addie, Tiffany, Katherine, Caroline, Sandy… I’m loving the new friendships, getting more involved in Country Club life, more involved in volunteering, more involved with book clubs and with moms who don’t live for their children (that is, they can talk about other things, aside from parenting). I love having more people over for dinner, couples to our home for evenings of getting porch drunk. I’m just beginning to really love Austin (which means I’ll probably have to move to LA… cause that’s so the way life works).

A YEAR AGO: Fruitless Labor
2 YEARS AGO: Mother’s Day Gifts
3 YEARS AGO: Verbal Tennis
5 YEARS AGO: Silent Thunder