Context

Good evening,

This is my first attempt at free-form into-the-ether internet communication, so bear with me. I hope to strike somewhere between the script for Steel Magnolias and Bill Bryson (with a uterus.) I have learned, however, that an audience must care about a speaker before they care about a speech, so if you've just stumbled accross this I'll give you some background.

I was born in Indianapolis but raised in Alabama as the middle child of a fiercely loving, yet somewhat repressed family.  At 18 I left home for college in nearby Tennessee and have not stopped travelling since. And since travel and the things I learn while doing it will be the main topic of my writing, I'll detail some of it--I guess it's all fair game.

Here are some of the towns I've hung my hat since 1996:
Henderson, TN
Banner Elk, NC
Lima, Peru
Cumbernauld, Scotland
Houston, TX
Ferndale, NY
Verviers, Belgium
Staunton, VA
Lyndhurst, VA
Florence, AL
Huntsville, AL


And even more fantastically, I have recently married an English-born Australian man, and together we're scouring Western Australia for entertainment and sustenance from our Viscount Aero Lite caravan. That adds to the list Kwinana, Rockingham, Gwellup, Safey Bay, Jurien Bay and Dawsville in Western Australia.

Other things you might like to know before continuing reading:  I'm an evangelical Christian and will write about it; I have two masters degrees in Shakespeare and no job (TRY to sound suprised); I have 32 first cousins on one side of my family and we're not even Catholic; I'm left handed; I'm a terrible speller; sometimes things that I think are profound are obvious; I'm new at a lot of things at the moment, which makes me uncomfortable and I will therefore bore you with the details of my failures and triumphs.  Be forewarned.