A day late and a dollar short.

Ok, I'm actually not a dollar short, thankfully, but I did miss January 1st on Teh Blog.  Truthfully, I know many of my Gentle Readers are on blog-reading hiatus as the holidays have us shifted into overdrive.  Trust me, I completelyyyyyy get that.

First off, I wanted to say thank you to every.single.one.of.you who commented and liked our engagement announcement.  It was a long wait for me (especially in social media time!) but it was so worth it.  It was nice to ring in 2017 knowing that we had the love and support of so many people, some of who we know in real life, some of who I know through the online world.  Yet, the world is a small place and friends are friends.  I'm blessed and thankful for every single person in my life.

This morning I am off of work and writing this in real time (uhh what?).  Yep, it's true.  I can still blog in real time.  I woke up grouchy at 0400 when Teh German's alarm went off at wayyy too loud and scared the life out of me (almost).  Then Phil needed to check on Teh German in the bathroom, which meant that the light of the sun was coming through the Phil-sized crack in the door (not small).  I was grumbly.  It was early.  I didn't want to be up.  I had stayed up over an hour later than I intended to because I fell down the pinterest hole looking for the wedding dress I've had my eye on since 2005 (that I'm pretty sure is no longer in production).  Then I went back to sleep.

I had a date with Roux's Mom this morning to hit up the city's rec center to work out at 0800 and when she texted to say, let's push it to 0830, I wasn't disappointed because I wasn't ready to get out of the bed.  I also wasn't ready to get out of the bed at 0821 when I accidentally fell back asleep, which meant that she waited in my driveway for 10 minutes because I'm a horrible friend.  Oops.  I brushed my teeth at least!

After our workout, we came home and we walked the dogs.  It's a delightfully wonderful 70°F with 100% humidity (ugh), but it was a good walk and we have tired dogs.  I took the time to water the flower graveyard (for the ones that are still hanging on!) and then came inside.  Before going up to shower, I decided to check the FBs because, ya know, addiction.

I'm scrolling through my feed and I see a post someone has liked about a Charleston hair dresser who worked with an autistic child to cut his hair.  It made me actually think about something Aunt P and I had talked about while she was here.  How "friendly" people are in America/the South.

I don't consider myself a friendly person or a people person, for the most part.  I can be polite(ish) and I know when to keep my mouth shut, even if often I don't practice that skill.  But maybe I'm wrong.  Throughout the years I've learned that a little kindness goes a long way.  For me, this often means saying the things that are on the tip of my tongue to strangers.  It took many years of development, but I'm a pretty positive person.  I often want to compliment people on something they are wearing or laugh with them at something I overheard (because that's what happens when you're talking on your cell phone or to someone else in public, other people can hear you and it's not eavesdropping) and for many, many years, I refrained from doing that.  Maybe it was shyness, maybe it was me not wanting to interrupt whatever was going on.  But at some point, I started acting on those feelings.  I started laughing and making a comment to them, or saying the nice thing.. or sometimes, even starting up a conversation just to make whatever was going on a little more bearable.

Aunt P had commented that Germans always felt like Americans were faking the friendliness.  That people weren't actually that friendly.  But I realized when we came back from Disney, maybe we are actually just that friendly.

When I was younger, I'm sure it was said of Child Megan that she could meet no stranger.  I talked to everyone.  In fact, I won "most talkative" in 4th, 5th, and possibly 6th grade.  While we were at Disney, I often chatted up co-riders on the bus as we made our way to or from the parks.  I've also been known to chat up my seat mates on the bus while being transported to/from races that I've run.  Honestly, I didn't think I was that person, but I often saw Teh Running Bestie chat up strangers and I never saw myself as that person.  She particularly likes chatting up kids, and I'm less good with that, but kids are easy.  Also, kids are the ticket to the parents, so hello, shoe in.

All of this brought me back to the Charleston thing.

I bitch and bitch and bitchhhhhh about Charleston and how hot it is and ugh Charleston traffic and nothing to do except eat and expensive rent and all the fucking bugs and on and on.  But I have a secret I'll share with you to start off 2017 right.  Obviously, I'm full of secrets.

I love Charleston.

There are few places that I've called home.  I'm quite proud to call Charleston home, even if it means I'm a South Carolina resident (that's taking the good with the bad, right there).  If you exclude the shitty drivers, the people in Charleston are awesome.  People are often friendly.  I even think back to the Emmanuel AME shooting and how there was only peaceful protests.  I'm not saying Charleston doesn't have it's problems.  We have race issues and homelessness is rampant, the class divide is strong.

Yet, I live on "International Drive" (our street has a lot of ex-pats from other countries) and our neighbors are some of the best.  Customer service isn't a bad experience every time.  And ya know, our roads rarely ice over and there is a depressing amount of snow, but I can wear short sleeves in January and I won't die of hypothermia.

All that to say, I love my life.

So today, this post comes from a grateful heart and a great life.  We have a support system so awesome, which is something I never dreamed of.  We live in a community where I'm actually happy about leaving my house to hang out with people.  We have a roof over our heads and family and friends that love us.  We even have Phil (with his bad breath) and Meri (with her bad habit of pooping in the guest rooms) who are never disappointed to see us.

I'm at a place in life that I always dreamed I'd be and maybe this is the pouring out of gratitude for all of that.  Also, this is me, writing this down for the next time some asshat cuts me off in traffic then brake checks me for flipping them off or when it's approximately the temperature of the sun in July or when wedding planning has me in hysterics because all the people and all the money and wtf why don't we just go to the courthouse already and pick up Willie Jewel's on the way home?

So again, thank you, Gentle Readers for being a part of this life.  For stopping by and keeping up with my life, even if it's just for the entertainment value, Lord knows, there's plenty of that.

Phil doesn't like to snuggle, so he gets his own picture.
Just the way he likes it.