I spent a few days in Huntsville, Alabama with a lady named Jessica. Or, I guess, Dr. Jessica, because she has her PhD in poetry.
She teaches classes at the local university, but cause I was there in the summer, we just hung out. She'd just returned from two weeks in Victoria, Canada, and had moved into her home only two weeks before that. We spent some of our time together cleaning out rooms, moving furniture, and hanging pictures on walls. Here's the wall of her guest room, where we hung all of her poetry posters and souvenirs.
We also went to a concert, which was across the street from her house. It was a local band, and they did covers, and we sat near the front eating Whole Foods and watching all the adorable kids.
On Saturday, the day I arrived, we spent part of the day at a place called Lowe Mill. It's an old mill that they turned into space for artists to work and sell their art.
We ate amazing African-inspired fare from a food truck called Chef Will the Palate.
Jessica is vegan, and (obviously) a poet; she's also interesting and fun to listen to and smart and handy (She worked on her car engine when it didn't start—I stood by, held the tools, and took pictures:).
I had to leave after only one night to go pick up my sister in Atlanta (read: driving east) before we headed home (read: driving west). When I left Jessica's, I stopped at Taco Mama's and sat there and was super thankful. The fact that anything about this summer worked out is astounding to me, much less the fact that everything worked out. But more on that later!
Then I got some celebratory chocolate chips (more on that later also), took a picture of them in front of my amazing car (more on that later—a whole post!), and went home. Leaving fourteen new homes behind me, scattered around the country. What a privilege.
