Bright lights, big city

I once toyed with the idea of living on a farm in the middle of nowhere. How precious would it be, I asked myself, to raise animals and babies with my husband? We’d be miles from civilization and only drive into town on special occassions.

WRONG!

I didn’t fully understand it until the past year, but I’ve learned that I am definitely a city girl.

This is one of those things that I didn’t understand until I experienced something different. When I was in high school, I wanted to move out of the South. After I actually visited other places, I realized how much I do love the southeastern United States. (To quote my friend Tara Leigh, “The more I travel, the more I love home.”) Same deal with the city.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2000), the county in which I was born has almost 700,000 residents. The city where I was raised is home to roughly one million people. When I moved to the Florida state capitol, I thought we were small time with 200,000 residents.

But then I moved to Alabama.

The city where I first resided houses just under 80,000. The city where I now receive my mail, however, clocks in at just under 20,000. You wanna talk small potatoes? Welcome home.

I just returned home from a visit to Nashville, Tenn. (home to half a million), which is what got my brain workin’ on this again. I love Nashville, and I would move there in a heartbeat, were I presented with the opportunity.

I love the big city feel that it offers. There’s SO much to do – I think you’d have to try pretty hard to get bored with the place. There’s music galore (always a perk in my book), tons of good coffee shops (great for yellowing my teeth! eek!) and perhaps best of all, a million honky tonks! What more could a girl want?

I’ve always said that Tuscaloosa is a great place for right now. Visiting Nashville – heck, even Birmingham – is a great way to remind me of that truth. Dear Lord, please provide me with a job in a big city!

(Speaking of jobs – I heard back from two more internships last week. :-/ Southern Progress and the Florida Times-Union are both out.)

0 thoughts on “Bright lights, big city

  1. I grew up in a town of under 2K and I can’t even been to fathom wanting to end up living in a town that small. Having a nice big theater close at hand is kind of nice. 🙂

  2. i totally agree. i’m loving being up north outside chicago for college, but i *will* move back down to the southeast. i had to come up here to appreciate it, though.

  3. Ah, sweet Sydney. Home to over 4 MILLION people! Of course, in the US we would be considered to be several cities that are close to each other. Of course I now live in Mangrove Mountain, outside of the city limits & with a population in the hundreds. We aren’t even a town really. I used to live very close to the centre of the city. I loved it, but I have come to appreciate the silence of the bush and the ability to walk outside & take a wiz just about anywhere without being arrested!

  4. In the town I grew up no one could step outside and wiz without everyone else noticing…but a friend of mine did it anyway..in broad daylight..(Carla, I know that you are thinking happy thoughts right now 😉 ) Your affinity for Nashville is not new though, haven’t you been talking about this place for a year now…maybe more?!?

  5. Carla Jean (is not my lover),

    I’m so honored to be mentioned in your blog! However, I can’t believe that you didn’t tell everyone about all the good times we had in Nashvegas: our enthralling talk of punctuation, the flawless picnic in the park (“Is that my muffin on your shirt?”), and good times in “the testosterone zone” that we call the studio. I also felt that this weblog entry was an appropriate place to retract a statement made in my song “I Prefer.” If you recall, the song talks about how I like the mountains more than the city. Since I moved to Nashville, that is no longer true. It’s just so freaking great here, and I’m glad you’re thinking of relocating!

  6. I can’t see myself living in a small town like Tuscaloosa forever either. My dream cities are NYC, Nashville, and LA (in that order)…they all have Billboard Magazine offices too 🙂

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