A Surprise

I was just looking back through old blog posts because I'm narcissistic and don't want to study, and when I read references to Beulaville and Richlands, I actually felt nostalgic for them! Those are the towns I covered for work. This is a surprise because a) it feels SOOOOOOO much longer ago than it is. It's only been 2 months since my last day of work. And b) I kind of suspected I might love those towns but never thought it would manifest so clearly as affection so soon. Working there was grueling in certain ways, and I thought the preciousness of the people would take at least a year to overcome that in my memory. I did kinda have my eye on churches around there once I started thinkin' seminary. If I had me a hubby or some kind of friend posse, living in one of those places could be possibly maybe one day in some sense pretty sweet. This is coming from the person who foams at the mouth when New York is mentioned. Sometimes I think I should get excited about fewer things, for instance, come on, woman! Small towns or big cities, which is it? You can't love both! But then I'm like, watch me.

Speaking of friend posses, just so you know, I know exactly what I would do if I won the lottery: first, invest in a safe but relatively high-interest something while I plan. (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for teaching me right!) Then, buy a bunch of land and build sweet buildings on it, and then invite everyone I love to come and live there indefinitely. I just now thought it could also involve traveling together, hence the term "posse." Also we would go see The Book of Mormon, like, right now, because I'd suddenly be able to make that happen.

One time we were talking in Sunday School about paradise, and I think some people had it confused with "island paradise," because they kept referencing beaches and fruity drinks. But I said paradise is having everyone together. Being an adult these days means having different sets of friends; at the very least, people from childhood and people from now. At the most, those plus college friends plus work friends plus church friends plus grad school friends plus neighbors plus your kids' friends' parents plus your parents' friends' kids plus God knows who else. Hello. This usually comes in handy and keeps things stimulating, but sometimes it hurts when I realize that set A won't get much chance to meet set B even though they would loooove each other. Hence my master plan for lotto time. Everyone together. Good food, music, bonfires and s'mores every night in the summer, hot chocolate when it's cold, bike rides, art time, books, and pets. Just enjoying each other's company, breathing it in, and laughing and crying until we can't remember which we were doing first.