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From Twitter 05-03-2010
May. 4th, 2010 03:09 amTweets copied by twittinesis.com
May. 4th, 2010
Writer's Block: Nirvana
May. 4th, 2010 08:28 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
The answer to this never fails to surprise me, though it's been the same answer for many years, if I look back. I suppose it's because I never truly THOUGHT about it until recently, when it became possible for me to step back, look at my life, and decide where I could live. Bryan does not have a geographical location that's important to him; he has stated many times that he could live anywhere with me and Ganon and be just fine. But me, I do have places I feel more comfortable.
I cannot live without certain types of trees, for example. I need a mixture of old growth, very tall trees, both deciduous and evergreen. Short or young trees won't do this. I need that feeling of time, the thick trunks, the opaque canopies.
Another thing I love: hills. When I look at the horizon and see the crest of a hill, covered thickly in green trees, touching the blue of the sky with clouds just peeking over--I feel entirely "safe".
Stone. I love the feeling of all kinds of stone. It's something else that has the feeling of time, of age.
While I want the feeling of time and age in things, I also like change. If things stayed constant all the time, I'd be bored within months. That's why I love living in a temperate climate, where each season has a certain amount of time and they are all defined and easily differentiated. I want all 4 seasons, and I want there to be a difference. Change is another reason I love big cities. Big cities are constantly changing. New things are springing up, new people moving in, new things happening. You can explore every day and find something new, not only because the place itself is large and would take a long time to explore, but because there's always someone doing something in it, changing the place so that it's different than it was before.
Hills, trees, stone, seasons, cities. Put all these together, and I'm actually in a really good state for the type of things I like. Because Arkansas has the Ozarks. <3!!! I was raised in the eastern part of Arkansas, in the flatlands, but there is something in me that's always adored the hills. Maybe it's genetic; my grandma Wanda was born & raised in the Ozarks and has since moved back after raising her family (including my dad) here in the Delta. What I do know is that even when I was very young, I waited impatiently for each summer when we'd go to the cabin in Hardy, on Spring River, and I'd be surrounded by the hills and the stone and the trees. I felt more at home there than I felt at home, and not just because we were on vacation. OneUp Studios had a couple of events in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at Deepwood House, and I felt like I could move into that house and be happy for the rest of my life. When we went to Hot Springs for Bryan's teaching conference in 2008, I wandered around the park and felt exactly the same things, even though I was in the middle of a city. City, yes, but the hills & trees & stone were there, so I was at home.
The Ozarks are not mountains (oooh, trivia for ya there!), but there is a lot of change in elevation. They're what happened when the ocean drained away from this state millions of years ago, leaving behind an ocean floor with both sedimentary & igneous rock. After all those years of rain, the sedementary rock eroded, leaving the igneous stone behind--giving us the hills. They're full of forests with thick canopies and thick trunks. Perhaps even more fitting, the Ozarks seem to attract the eccentric in my state. Which, of course, works for me. ^_^ Eureka Springs, Hot Springs, & Little Rock all have big populations of people who share my interests & leanings.
So all that to say why I'd like us to move to Little Rock. It's not that it's DEEP in the Ozarks, but, well, check out this elevation map:
When you look at the elevation on the east side of the state, well...it's not hard to get higher than that. I also prefer west Little Rock. Again, looking at the map, I wonder why? ^_^ I hadn't thought about it until this entry & this map, but it makes sense given everything else. The neighborhoods that Bryan & I have looked at on that side of town all have something in common: hills, huge trees, stone. And of course, with hills come those houses with basements that Bryan loves so much. I think maybe he's a hobbit. ^_^
As far as how often I visit or imagine being there: pretty much constantly. I always think of what I'd be doing if I lived in my Little Rock dream house, or how I'd feel if I looked out the window & saw hills. My computer desktops, when they're not Jeff Coffin or Dave Matthews Band, are usually photographs I've taken at Grandma's house in Mammoth Springs or some of my Fayetteville photos. I visit as often as I can, but Little Rock is 2 hours away & that's limiting. But I can & do take every excuse as an opportunity.
The answer to this never fails to surprise me, though it's been the same answer for many years, if I look back. I suppose it's because I never truly THOUGHT about it until recently, when it became possible for me to step back, look at my life, and decide where I could live. Bryan does not have a geographical location that's important to him; he has stated many times that he could live anywhere with me and Ganon and be just fine. But me, I do have places I feel more comfortable.
I cannot live without certain types of trees, for example. I need a mixture of old growth, very tall trees, both deciduous and evergreen. Short or young trees won't do this. I need that feeling of time, the thick trunks, the opaque canopies.
Another thing I love: hills. When I look at the horizon and see the crest of a hill, covered thickly in green trees, touching the blue of the sky with clouds just peeking over--I feel entirely "safe".
Stone. I love the feeling of all kinds of stone. It's something else that has the feeling of time, of age.
While I want the feeling of time and age in things, I also like change. If things stayed constant all the time, I'd be bored within months. That's why I love living in a temperate climate, where each season has a certain amount of time and they are all defined and easily differentiated. I want all 4 seasons, and I want there to be a difference. Change is another reason I love big cities. Big cities are constantly changing. New things are springing up, new people moving in, new things happening. You can explore every day and find something new, not only because the place itself is large and would take a long time to explore, but because there's always someone doing something in it, changing the place so that it's different than it was before.
Hills, trees, stone, seasons, cities. Put all these together, and I'm actually in a really good state for the type of things I like. Because Arkansas has the Ozarks. <3!!! I was raised in the eastern part of Arkansas, in the flatlands, but there is something in me that's always adored the hills. Maybe it's genetic; my grandma Wanda was born & raised in the Ozarks and has since moved back after raising her family (including my dad) here in the Delta. What I do know is that even when I was very young, I waited impatiently for each summer when we'd go to the cabin in Hardy, on Spring River, and I'd be surrounded by the hills and the stone and the trees. I felt more at home there than I felt at home, and not just because we were on vacation. OneUp Studios had a couple of events in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at Deepwood House, and I felt like I could move into that house and be happy for the rest of my life. When we went to Hot Springs for Bryan's teaching conference in 2008, I wandered around the park and felt exactly the same things, even though I was in the middle of a city. City, yes, but the hills & trees & stone were there, so I was at home.
The Ozarks are not mountains (oooh, trivia for ya there!), but there is a lot of change in elevation. They're what happened when the ocean drained away from this state millions of years ago, leaving behind an ocean floor with both sedimentary & igneous rock. After all those years of rain, the sedementary rock eroded, leaving the igneous stone behind--giving us the hills. They're full of forests with thick canopies and thick trunks. Perhaps even more fitting, the Ozarks seem to attract the eccentric in my state. Which, of course, works for me. ^_^ Eureka Springs, Hot Springs, & Little Rock all have big populations of people who share my interests & leanings.
So all that to say why I'd like us to move to Little Rock. It's not that it's DEEP in the Ozarks, but, well, check out this elevation map:
When you look at the elevation on the east side of the state, well...it's not hard to get higher than that. I also prefer west Little Rock. Again, looking at the map, I wonder why? ^_^ I hadn't thought about it until this entry & this map, but it makes sense given everything else. The neighborhoods that Bryan & I have looked at on that side of town all have something in common: hills, huge trees, stone. And of course, with hills come those houses with basements that Bryan loves so much. I think maybe he's a hobbit. ^_^
As far as how often I visit or imagine being there: pretty much constantly. I always think of what I'd be doing if I lived in my Little Rock dream house, or how I'd feel if I looked out the window & saw hills. My computer desktops, when they're not Jeff Coffin or Dave Matthews Band, are usually photographs I've taken at Grandma's house in Mammoth Springs or some of my Fayetteville photos. I visit as often as I can, but Little Rock is 2 hours away & that's limiting. But I can & do take every excuse as an opportunity.
