Happy Birthday, America!

There's nothing like a major holiday weekend to teach you everything you need to know about the new town you've moved into. Last Sunday, I learned that just about everything here is closed. (Presumably because everyone's at church in the morning and family barbeques in the evening.) THIS Sunday, July 4, I discovered some things: #1. The WalMart down the street is 24/7 and is only closed on Christmas Day (because we have to celebrate Jesus, ya know); #2. In September of 2009, Starkville began selling alcohol on Sundays, from 11am to 10pm; #3. In Mississippi, beer is sold in grocery stores and convenience stores. If you put all this together, you figure out that despite the fact that it's the Fourth, I was able to go into my local WalMart and purchase this:

After damn near killing myself this morning as I drove around Mississippi State University and the town of Starkville, hanging my head and my camera out the window (photos below), I thought it might be a nice, quiet, refreshing way to celebrate Independence Day in my new (temporary) home. Inside, of course, because it's 92 degrees out there and I'm just not used to that yet.

This Morning's Endeavor: "Moving Photography"
(and yes, I was actually driving for most of these shots)

Drive up to the Wise Center, where MSU-CVM is housed

Downtown Starkville (the old part). Thank god it was a holiday or I'd have killed somebody.

Pretty houses in the older section

Talk about pride! Even the water tower roots for the Bulldogs.

I think this sign is hysterical on so many levels.

That, in a nutshell, is the town as I see it. The vet school, the pretty southern stuff, football, and barbeque. And really, to a point, that's been my experience this week. Who knows what's to come?

(I was going to try to come up with something witty to close this one, but the photos took so long to load I'm halfway through the second Mike's and about ready for a nap. See ya!)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm sitting here in my new room, listening to Jack Johnson and watching the cats take over my tiny bed. I've talked to Pat 3 times and my dad twice. I made dinner, did dishes, had a glass of wine and read 10 pages of immunology (class hasn't even started yet). It didn't occur to me how much I became used to a certain way of life with certain people in certain places until those things all came out of the equation, one way or another. Life feels different. Not bad, but not the same. Definitely going to take some getting used to. That said, I'd rather everything get shaken up at once than just get settled down and turned upside down again. I miss Pat, and Bailey and Lucas and Obe and Bella. I miss my mom so much it actually HURTS when I breathe sometimes. I wish she could have seen me getting coated and been proud that I was doing the thing I've always dreamed of doing. I wish she could have seen me yesterday, flying down a zipline after shouting my nickname, "Petunia zipping!" It's going to be hard remembering that I can't call her; my fingers know the way so well. But - and there's always a but - life moves forward. No matter how much I'd like for time to stand still, just for a little while, I can be sure that it won't. Grief is a funny thing. It comes and goes, washing over you in waves. Sometimes it makes you a little shaky and other times it just bowls you over. But you have to keep moving, because you know in your heart that if you slow down, or stop, you'll sink in and never be able to climb out. Which is why I'm here, in Mississippi, doing this vet school thing, and trying to keep moving.