Yay for Kentucky! I'm taking the dogs with me to the Children's Hospital of Atlanta visit on the 13th then they are off for another adventure!!! I guess they felt like summering in Kentucky. Go see pics at the blog and read about where they went. Soudns like they had a great adventure with Anna, Sierra, Faitha! Thanks girls!!

I have not been around much, I know. I hate when blogs start like that, don't you? Like there are all these peole waiting around for when I write again. Yeah, uh huh. "Hi, Mom!" Anyway, I have thought about taking this down, maybe stopping. I don't write in it much and didn't feel like documenting my life lately. I have felt mostly like starting over, not being a blogger at all. The summer is over (thank you God, thank you baby Jesus, thank you Jewish God, thank you Tom Cruise with your witchcraft!) And on to other things. In the past month I have been to Savannah, and just got back from New Orleans. Might go to Charleston next and complete all the big southern cities. I am a northerner by birth, by definition, by defiance. (Having lived in Texas then Georgia, most northerners will claim this right proudly and fiercly even if it means getting smirked at, eyes rolled at, or being run down by confederate flag lovers, honey don't get mad and huff, I understand the argument, I do!) BUT, I said but, don't get all mad at me yet, southerners... First off I LOVE Atlanta with all her traffic and humidity in the summer and all, I do. And after visiting these two other southern cities I have to say I could might be a transplanted southerner. Gasp! I know! It's true! "What did that Yankee say?!" Now, I will never fully be accepted as a southerner I know, I will always be referred to as a Yankee by every other southerner, and that is just fine. I lOVE being from New Jersey and screw you all who make the jokes, it IS the Garden State and if you have ever eaten a Jersey Tomato you KNOW we can do vegetables right. But the south is starting to get at my heart. The traditions of the these old southern cities are wonderful. The stories, the music, the family. There is something so comforting about it all. Savannah was like going to visit a really old Great Aunt or Great Grandma that sits in her porch chair and sips on her gin and tonic (hey it's my story and I like a grandma that likes to catch a buzz!) and tells great old stories into the night. You can't get enough. You want to hear more and more stories, one more ghost tale, one more piece of gossip before you go. And so beautiful. You have to love a city that was completely in disrepair just 50 years ago and now is a breath-taking beauty of a town. Everywhere you look is something more beautiful to see than what you just saw. And the art in these cities? That is a whole other entry! (and this is all syrupy, so sorry - but DO remind me to tell you about how me and my partner in crime tried to jump the cemetary fence late at night to see the serial killer elephant boy's ghost - heh, it still is ME after all.)

Then there is New Orleans. Beautiful in her own way. When I told people i was going there you would have thought I said, "I'm going to see dead people." And i guess I understand that. But honestly, the French Quarter was not that damaged at all. Except for the few earie houses with X's on them still, you would not have known that devastation had struck the state just a year ago. (I mean in just the French Quarter, there is so much left to do in the state, I don't want it to sound like it is all repaired. I just visited the part of the state that got VERY lucky, Louisiana still needs so much help.) But what you do get, and why you KNOW Louisiana will come back, is the spirit of the people. It is in the air. Besides the constant ready to party attitude, this place is filled with a feeling of making the best out of any situation. It seems that all through it's past, New Orleans and its people are a people of resilience. Not just surviving it, but making a party out of it. Having fun no matter what your circumstances, enjoying life and not missing a beat no matter what. The harder the times, the more reason to play the music even louder. The spirit seems to be, that life goes on no matter how bad things get, so grab you a drink, sit down and listen to some great music! Laughter and music, that is what I felt while I was there. That life is about enjoying it, living it. It is not about getting what you want, waiting another day for what you want, but enjoying life every day that you are allowed to breath. The two things these cities had in common besides their love of story telling and perhaps very creative story telling and embellishment, was their love for LIVING. Every day. About making the most out of what you have and not wasting all day wishing for what you want or what you don't have. New Orleans is full of energy and living for today because you literally don't know if you will be here tomorrow, and Savannah is about living for today, because what's better than a sitting down sharing some stories and having a drink? I mean really? What are you in a hurry for? Work will wait, sit down and have a nice martini with me, dear and turn up the music. See? Isn't that better than sitting in front of that silly computer? People are so much more entertaining than surfing the web.

I am going to be traveling much more I think. I have found someone that loves it as much as me (or as much as I thought I would - I have never traveled before) and gets it as much as I do. The more people I meet, the more I love people. And I need to thank this person for taking me on these trips.Thank you, thank you, thank you... I feel like I am only beginning to get what is ahead of me. And I really, really like it.