Things I miss

This may only hit home with some random people sparsed throughout the United States. I know you shouldn't look back to and long for things of the past but I had to go there today. Come back tomorrow if you aren't up for the nostalgia today. These are a few of my favorite and most treasured things......

-Saturdays in Marietta when dad used to open up the back doors and the windows. He would put 96.1 on the radio throughout the house and cut the grass. The smell of grass and the sound of the outdoors and the breeze blowing through the house are enough to make me never want to leave home. Of course a few years later my family moved North and I don't know until I have my own home that I'll feel that way again.

-I'll warn you...I may not make it through this one as I can feel my eyes starting to water.....my grandad has never said too much but he has never had to. He could say a few things and either have us laughing hysterically or we'd end up in a big hug (around his sculpted belly). It's not that he is a true comic or could even tell a good joke -it's just that everything he seemed to say was well-thought out and delivered just perfectly. You'd think he wasn't thinking a thing...just happily reading a book or the paper and then he'd pipe in and it always surprised anyone in the room. More so, he wouldn't let you walk by without a big-belly hug. We used to play with all of his trinkets and toys in the basement on Mark Avenue where they lived for decades. In the past few years dimensia has started to take a toll on his youthful mind and though he still adds more flavor to a conversation than anyone in the room -I don't know that it purely intentional. Granted, he still recognizes me for the most part -(aside from the few times I was mistaken for one of my brothers girlfriends) it is obvious that he can't possibly enjoy the things he used to to the fullest. But then again, the peacefulness that he brings to any setting would make you think he is fully content and it is just the rest of us running around scared of this disease. I do miss having grandad (or Punky as my Nana calls him) set the tone for any Christmas gathering or for any fictitional game we tried to play in the basement or for the yearly Easter Egg hunts and even for the many weeks at Orange Beach over the years. He taught me how to bait my own hook when we fished from the dock and though he never actually made me (the only girl grandchild for a while) do it - he atleast wanted me to know the basics. I hope he knows how treasured he is for so many memories.

-Athens on a game day. I am admittdly a little odd. I have always seemed to be a few years ahead of everyone else in terms of interest and maturity. I think this comes from being the oldest child and a bossy oldest child at that. Every Saturday during home games in Athens I would wake up early (or early for most) around 7 and head out for a mega-run. There is something about Athens on a game day, especially when you call Athens home, that truly can not be described. Really, it has nothing to do with football and alot to do with the simplicity of life. It's the traditions and the family's gathering and the energy and the band practicing on the practive field hours before game time. It's all the best of anyone's cooking open to any and everyone. It's the way the wind always seems to blow easily on game days and the sun is radiant but usually never too hot. It's boys in red pants and girls in big hats. But for me it was getting up and scouting out the town on a never ending run before ayone else would think of getting out of bed. You could smell anything from barbeque to gumbo to grilled burgers even at 8 and 9 in the morning. And, yes, many people were already taking in their first bourbon and coke at this hour - nonetheless, everyone felt it -everyone feels Athens on a game day.
I still try to go back to most of the games and these Saturday trips are still incomparable to any other weekend activity but it will never be the same. I felt like I owned the goodness of Athens on a Saturday and I was a part of the reason it was so pleasant.

-I am a self-proclaimed runner. Self proclaimed because my body tells me I am not a runner. the doctors tell me I am not a runner. My dad once even told me I did not have a runner's body and most of the family weren't runners. That's okay. I crave long runs. The runs where the goal is to get lost and then know you gotta get home eventually. One of my most treasured things when I travel is getting up to run and explore my new place. Last year my body won and I can no longer run due to years of extensive high-impact wear and tear on my knees. I have since tried to walk Atlanta 53 times over but it is not the same. Ask my friends, I walk like I am going to pick my heel up any second and start running again. I try to pump my arms and do everything I can to result in that beautiful high that only comes from running. I miss running! I miss when I lived in Marietta by the square and about 4:45 in the afternoon I would park at the visitors center and start on the 3 mile trek towards the other side of the mountain. This part was all preparation. Then, on the way back it always worked out perfectly to where the sun would start to set beyond the mountain and on a normal day I may only pass one other runner. It was like that hour and that place were made specifically for me and my indulgement. Once I got back I would then hike up to the top of the mountain. Just 1 mile up and on most afternoons you can see all the way to Stone Mountain one way and to Tennessee the other but more so, on any day you feel completely at peace and completely in touch with the Creator. I CRAVE these runs. I crave the feeling of fully exerting your body in a way you didnt know could be done. I am not quite sure why my body decided to start falling apart last year so early but I do know there has to be reason behind it all. I am waiting patiently (and plumply) for the answers.

-Friday night highschool football games. Just writing that makes my heart beat faster. Friday night football games at Northcutt stadium were magical. Yes, I was a cheerleader and yes for most of my varsity experience I dated the QB so things were good. But in Marietta there is a little more flavor than any other typical Friday night football game. The whole town has been coming to the football games, whether or not they knew a player on the team or even had a child in highschool, for years and years. The whole town (atleast when I was there) bled blue starting Thursday afternoons. I think the excitement when you are on the field (and believing you are a part of the action though I will admit the cheerleaders were there for pure comedy) is the closest thing to utopia that I can think of. Had I known then how easy things were and how those Friday nights could be some of the most precious -pure, atuthentic moments of exhileration I might have savored them a little more.

-Charleston afternoons sitting on smelly couch at 205 GhettoFabulous. I lived with 5 other of my most favorite people on earth one summer. We all worked 4-5 jobs during the day and then gathered as often as we could on smelly couch on the porch of our typical row style, Charelstonian home. We faced the water and faced the sun setting. We regularly bought the William Sonoma margarita mix and whether we added anything to it or not - we didn't care....we could sit and laugh and tell stories and tell secrets and talk about anything under the sun. I don't know that I'll ever cherish a time in life the way I cherished that summer and those friends.....Ashley, Mic, Fran, Rachel, Katie Lee, Leah....our many visitors.....'Toothy' the scary woman, The rickshaw boys....'Willy' our homeless lover, our pot-smoking neighbors next door....I think we met everyone in Charleston that summer and made a lasting impression on each one of them. Not because who we are but because we were on a mission. It was our divine mission to share God's love with anyone that summer. I can really smell the water as we sat on our deck and would watch the storms come in in the afternoon.

And a few more of note:

-Watching Monday night football and eating homemade gumbo or jumbalaya and not paying attention at all to the hours wasted.
-Walking around camp Greystone my summer as a counselor and feeling the presence of God in every step I took.
-Sleeping in mama's bed during the weekdays when dad would travel. Sometime we'd pile 3 or 4 of us in there.
-Jacuzzi nights during a rain storm.
- Family dinner every single night at 6pm. Never earlier and never later. Mary eats only noodles, Carter will eat anything, Mom never seems to sit down and wanted to know our high's and lows of the day. I never ever thought that I would miss being forced to sit at a table until all of my lima beans were gone. Mom - little secret - bathroom trips during dinner meant beans down the toilet.
-Snuggling in Charlsie's bed with her Husband, chocolate chip cookies and solving the worlds problems. (her Husband is her beloved pillow)
-Fighting with my brothers over who got the toy in the cereal box. Matt was sneaky and would open the box for the first time and dig it out. I would act like I didnt care but secretly I was livid.
-Feeling like the luckiest girl in the world b/c I was smitten beyond recognition and didn't care at all....


Okay, the world seems a whole lot more pleasant now. I will turn off the cheese and get to work.
Here's to tomorrow!