I Wonder How Long it Will Take me to Stop Writing 2006

Well I am happy to report that I have successfully survived another holiday season and another year. We made it back to Beantown yesterday afternoon after a delightful visit to the ATL. As always, the time really flew by. We got to spend adequate time with both of our families and got to see almost all of our friends. Although it seemed short because we were so busy, we sure got a lot of visiting done in the time we had there. It was nice to be back and to remember all of the things that I love and miss about Atlanta. For example, the weather cooperated, and it was so warm there that I didn't wear even one wool sweater. Also, I realized that I haven't even thought about traffic in at least two months. What a nice comfortable feeling it was to ride in Dave's Altima with him driving and me deejaying, just like old times. Plus, I finally got that Chik-Fil-A sandwich with cheese that I've been craving.

What is it about being away that makes you realize how much you took for granted while you were there? Around three years ago, when I first started planning to be a travel nurse, there was nothing I wanted more than to live anywhere else in the world besides Atlanta, Georgia. I hated the traffic, I hated the pollution, and I didn't really feel like there was anybody to stay around there for. I'm not gonna lie: In general, it was a pretty rough time in my life. I was single, looking for love in all the wrong places, and I had several close friends that were getting married that year. I pretty much felt like I was being abandoned by everyone. But.....

Then I met someone (guess who?) who throughout the last two years and eight months has influenced me in ways that have completely changed my outlook on life. Three years ago, I pretty much just figured that I wouldn't ever find anyone that would want to marry me or vice versa. I thought I would just travel around until I found a cool city and end up staying there. And I always imagined myself as being very independent and just doing my own thing all the time.

But somehow over the past few years, my life plan has become our life plan. And although I was pretty resistant to the idea at first, mostly due to my own insecurities, I have slowly but surely warmed up to, and become quite fond of, having a plan that includes somebody else. The cool thing is that throughout this process, we have developed a strong group of wonderful friends to have fun with and that we know we can count on no matter what happens. So maybe Atlanta is polluted, trafficky, spread out, and not near the water, but it's always going to be home. And home is where your peeps are, which is where I want to be ultimately.

So I am coming into the year 2007 with more and more realizations about who I am and where I want to be. It will be interesting to see what this year brings since we will have to work on getting re-established back in our old hood again. But for now, I'm just going to focus on enjoying my time here in Beantown, and getting everything out of this experience that I can. If I just sit around and miss Atlanta all the time, how am I ever going to have any fun up here? Not that I haven't been having fun, but I want to make sure that I'm aware of it if I start moping around. So here's to 2007.... I'm ready to live it up!