My Trip

Okay, I want to blog about my trip to Atlanta a bit, because some interesting stuff happened while I was there. First of all, it was so nice to see all of my old friends. I really miss them. While there, I felt extremely fortunate to know that I have friends in different places, that I am welcomed in more than one city. My hosts, who are very close friends of mine, were absolutely wonderful. They made me feel incredibly comfortable and it was great to catch up with them and to get to sit and really spend time with them. They really care about others and it shines through. Friday night, an older woman who I have a real kesher with came for dinner. She is really such a special lady, and even with the separation of years between us, I feel we have a lot in common. It was interesting, she was widowed quite a few years ago, and she was talking about the fact that she would still like to find someone to share her life with, and how difficult that is, because people don't think about her as "single." She was saying that it would be nice to even have a single female friend that she could spend time with, because all of her friends are married and can't just get up and go without worrying about their spouses the way she can. What she was saying sounded very familiar to me. It is essentially why I left Atlanta in the first place, so I could really empathize with her. The other really interesting thing that happened was that my roommate from college came to see me. We had not seen in each other in over five years, and just recently got in touch with other after a very long interval of non-communication. We come from extremely different backgrounds. She grew up in a trailer in rural Alabama. Her family does value education very much, and she is currently working on her Master's degree. She lives in a trailer park with her two cats, she has a boyfriend who is in his 50's and she works for a fishing magazine. I am not sure if I realized in college how different the two of us are, but I realized it this time around. I could tell from things that she and her boyfriend said that our college years were ones that she looks back on with a lot of pride, while for me those years were the most miserable of my life and I have gone way uphill since then. She told me how much she wanted me to see her trailer and cats and her life in Montgomery. I responded honestly that I did not see it happening anytime soon, that the time I spend in Alabama these days is almost completely nonexistent. It was interesting to see how two people whose lives connected for a short period of time, could separate so much from each other. I have to say I am glad that I am in my shoes rather than hers.