This is what the back of my car looked like early Monday morning right before my dad and I pulled out of Austin. We drove in separate cars to Shreveport, and at 7am on Tuesday I hugged him goodbye and started down I-20 like so many times before. Highlights of the drive? Not many. A man at a Chick-fil-a in Meridian, Mississippi, tried to hit on me with this line: "Honey, I do a lot of teachin' and preachin'." I knew I was back down South.
I write to you from my favorite coffee shop here in Athens, Georgia (Jittery Joe's at Five Points). It's summertime in a college town right now--everything is as slow as molasses. It's bloody hot, my legs hurt from walking everywhere again. Things look the same here. It's comforting and scary all at once. But I have felt the warmth of the arms of good friends around me. And we're catching up, settling in again. Last night I finished off a bottle of blueberry mead with my friends Kelli and Chelsea. Translation? I have no complaints.
School starts a week from tomorrow. I've got a huge office on the third floor of LeConte Hall that I need to fill with books and coffee cups. Updates to come on all of that. I cannot wait to meet my students.
In the meantime, you Austin folk, you know who you are...log on to Kayak.com and book yourself a plane ticket. It's nice here, and you should come see me.
xo
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