Sweet Home Alabama

I always liked that song. It’s pretty catchy. But never, ever in a million years did I think I would live in the south. NEVER. Especially Alabama.

I have collard greens with Conecuh sausage and black eyed peas on the stove for New Year’s day. I say Y’all and I yell Roll Tide. February 2nd will be 16th anniversary of the drive from Dallas to, the neighborhood of Forest Park, Birmingham, Alabama. I have lived in three houses in the same neighborhood. And you will never, ever get me to leave. Unless I can buy a home on the coast of Northern California. But unfortunately, I don’t think that will ever be a reality.

I have never lived in any one city longer, I have never had roots deeper. I love it here, my soul feels happy and well nourished. This is where I have raised my kids, pushed them on the swings at Triangle Park, taken them to tot time at the library, watched my son play little league baseball for ten years at Avondale Park and my daughter be in the same Girl Scout troop since she was five.  This is where you run into old neighbors at Duckpin bowling or go to coffee with a mom you started tot time with. Where friends you made when your kids were in preschool still come over to watch the game. Only now,  you are just as avid an Alabama fan.   

When I turned 30 I wrote in my diary, (I have always had one), my top ten goals for my life. One of them was that I wanted to live in a place that either was a small town or felt like a small town, a place where you knew people, where you belonged. I had been living in Los Angles for 9 years and had  just moved to Houston. It would take another 8 years to get me to Birmingham.

 I did not methodically plan out my next 5 or ten years, I just put a mental wish out into the world. I wrote out loud what my heart was yearning for. I didn’t think I would ever have kids, let alone meet a husband within that first year.

At 38 years old, on January 22nd, just shy of my one year anniversary, I would met Dave. We worked in the same building. I had just bought and opened a franchise of a dating service after leaving HealthSouth within 4 months, the reason I was transferred here. But I owned a house. I had no where else to go. So I decided to do something crazy. And it transformed my life forever.

 I was dating guys ten years younger, drinking too much wine; a lost soul trying to find her place and Alabama rescued me.  She claimed me for one of her own. Northern roots and all. She gracefully provided me the fertile soil. A place to call home.