My lova'

I fell in love this weekend. I can hardly believe it myself. I’ve heard the stories; I’ve seen the movies, but I never knew that a love affair could start like this.

I’m in love with Savannah, Georgia.

People told me that Savannah was beautiful, but that simple word couldn’t describe it. It is the most beautiful. It is so rich and gorgeous and full of history. People there talk about things that happened a hundred years ago in the first person. “We built that building in 18-such and such.” The people who live there are a part of the city.

We walked down an aisle of rose petals in Forsyth Park. On Saturday, we saw four separate brides getting ready for their weddings on the squares. It is the kind of city that makes you want to take pictures of every corner. Of little apartments. Of amazing trees. Of the people who live there. The entire city is a warm, inviting postcard.

If you haven't been, I would highly recommend a visit. If you have been, then I bet you, me and Savannah are going to have a little love triangle going on. I can't imagine going there and not falling in love.

Birthday Girl

I started a new birthday tradition this year. Instead of celebrating my birthday, on my birthday (which is tomorrow, by the way), I decided to celebrate slowly, elaborately, painstakingly over three weeks.

I started two weekends ago with a houseful of guests to watch the Florida v LSU game (remember that I live in a shoebox, so it doesn’t take much to constitute a “houseful”). I went to dinner at this swanky Greek place down the street with a table-ful of friends – my nearest and dearest even down to my very first friend in Florida, who drove two hours to eat with me. I drank some enormous, vertigo-inducing shot from the server and shouted “Opa!” as waiters around the place lit things on fire.

Last weekend, I went to dinner then a play with a friend and his parents (you know I love parents). We saw Dracula which is very appropriate for my Halloween birthday. (Did I mention that my birthday is tomorrow?) I spent the morning shopping for discount books at the Friends of the Library Book Sale. You can’t ask for more than that – books and the theater – all in one day.

This weekend, Mom and I went to Savannah (aka – my new love). We had fantastic weather and an amazing time. I can see myself going back there again and again. I want to know that city like the back of my hand. I want to name the squares and have a favorite. I want to sit on park benches there reading a book or sketching (poorly, since I’m not an artist) on a pad. I want that to be my place.

Tomorrow, I’m going to the Melting Pot with another handful of friends. We’ll eat some cheese and chocolate and have a grand time. It’ll wrap up a nice three-week birthday celebration. Thank you to everyone that has made this birthday really wonderful.

I may have to organize some post-birthday events just so that I can let myself down easy after all this merry making.

Wilson

**This picture is a wanna-be Wilson, not the actual Wilson, but very similar.

I got a pet. Shocked, aren’t you? I have to admit that I’m a little shocked too. Those who know me well know that, while I don’t hate animals, I’m not animals’ biggest fan either.

When I went skiing a few years ago, we had such a long drive that we amused ourselves with car games for the entire ride. While I don’t remember all the rules for one specific game (Not the butt game – I remember ALL the rules for the butt game), I do know that it involved listing your favorites. Someone asked what my favorite animal was, and I had to say, “I don’t have a favorite animal. I’m not really all that into animals.”

Do you know what people do when you tell them that you aren’t that into animals? They go silent and look at you as if you just admitted you eat babies.

Like I said, I don’t hate animals. I am allergic to most of the fuzzy ones, and I’m a little scared of all the others.

But now I have a pet.

He is better than a lizard living under my couch or a possum in my laundry room. I actually claimed and feed him (instead of just naming him like I did the lizard, Stanley, and the possum, Oliver).

I am now the proud owner (or “momma,” as you pet owners like to say) of the cutest, tiniest, most adorable little turtle you’ve ever seen. Juleanne found the little guy hanging out in her parking lot at work, and she scooped him up to be mine forever. He is smaller than a quarter (amazing that Jules spotted him at all) and feisty. He’s grown stronger (if not bigger) since I got him last week. When I pick him up, he pushes against my fingers with his little claw-paws.

I was a little worried that I would kill him, but now that I’ve seen him eat, I am much more confident in my turtle rearing skills. I think we may have bonded over mealtime. When I open the top of his tank, he gazes expectantly up at me, waiting for his ReptoMin Baby floating food sticks.

Wilson Tyrone lives on the sunny corner of my desk at work. Attention is showered upon him by all the ladies at work (who, while they think he is adorable are too squeamish to hold him). I think I’ll take him home over the weekend, and back to work on Mondays. I get better light at work, and I’m here more than at home. I don’t want him to get lonely. Have you ever seen a lonely turtle? Not pretty.

I wanted to name him Tyrone, but my friends told me that he’d never be able to live up to the name of a large black man. I thought that was what made the name funny. Juleanne told me that I should call him Wilson. Since I live alone, he could be my reptilian version of Tom Hanks’ volleyball in Castaway. So Wilson Tyrone was christened.

When we’re joking around, he is Willie T. When he gets in trouble, I bust out both names and chastise him with a stern, motherly “Wilson Tyrone.” When we’re at work in the Tech Comm building, he is Tech Comm Willie. One of the girls downstairs calls him Turty.

So now I am responsible for another living thing. I’m a pet owner, a turtle caretaker, and reptile Momma…and a proud one at that.