Damn Straight, Virginia is for Lovers!

I updated to beta.blogger.com. So far it seems to be a lot of snap/crackle/pop for little punch, but I won't give up on it yet.

I wanted to respond to a Comment that was made yesterday, but I had more to say than just a quick response. The comment said:

v said...

I was born in DC and grew up in Fairfax (which is now practically a suburb). I don't see many blogs from that area and yours makes me reminisce about the time I spent there.

Aside from the museums, monuments, and such, DC is in such close proximity to other greats sights. A few hours can get you to the mountains, the beach, or New York city. Besides being rife with history, tidewater Virginia is rife with culture, of all kinds: from the single professional (that you write about) to the mountain dwelling bluegrass folks and everything in between. It is one of the few states where cultures of the north and cultures of the south co-exist and make an interesting mix. Of course, DC is a creature all it’s own. But just beyond the beltway is a microcosm of American life.

The cherry blossom festival was always my favorite event. Thanks for reminding me.

7:02 PM

I love Virginia. I lived in Virginia for most of my life. When my family moved down there from the North, we all snickered about it. I was very young at the time and I thought Virginia was all farm country, nothing else. Then when we actually moved and started new schools, etc. I made a friend very early on whose father told me, "the outcome of the war has yet to be decided."

So in Virginia I learned that the Civil War is not over, that I should have saved my Confederate money, that the Virginia flag features some guy stepping on the body of another guy, and that the south will rise again. But aside from these fairly worrisome statements, I learned to love Virginia.

It's true, within an easy travel distance you can find the ocean. There are better beaches than Virginia Beach, but some ocean is better than none. You can also find many areas with beautiful mountains, great bed & breakfasts, little rivers, warm springs, and wild life abound. Virginia has the Blue Ridge mountains and the Skyline drive. The southern and northern culture do jar there in an interesting way. More and more people are moving from the north to Virginia, and they're staying.

And you can't beat the history. Go to Richmond (the old capital of the Confederacy), Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, or Appomattox. My brother, so broken up when we first moved to Virginia, now denies he was ever from the north (oh, it's one of his many quirks).

I want to leave myself open to the possibility of raising a family in another state, but when I think about all that Virginia has to offer (everything listed above plus a superb public school system and top universities), I just can't conceive of being anywhere else.

A few weeks ago, boyfriend, a friend, and myself when to the Eastern Market in DC. Boyfriend had been saying how great this place, the Market Deli, was for breakfast. I ordered my sausage and egg sandwich and asked for a side of grits.

"Grits!?" my friend said, "you really are a southern girl now, huh?"

I don't know what it means to be a southern girl. Especially in Virginia, it's such a mixed bag. But if it means a love of Virginia and everything is offers (everything down to the grits, but without the southern love of tobacco ) then I suppose he's correct.