Monday, August 15, 2005

Hannah started high school today! I believe she was actually ready three weeks (months, years?) ago, though. Clothes were laid out, the backpack was packed with all ancillary forms and doo-dads, and the child was set to go. Now the question is am I ready for all this?!

Saturday, August 6, 2005

There are worse places to be stuck in the rain than outside Jim Williams' house. Jim Williams, you may recall, was the protagonist of John Berendt's bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, known affectionately(?) here in Savannah as "The Book". This morning I was out for my Saturday morning walk, and I got as far as JW's elegant home, which fronts leafy Monterey Square, before the rain kicked into high gear.

Here I was, stuck in what I would call a peaceful thunderstorm, with Andrea Bocelli on the iPod and a wet U2 t-shirt, probably looking somewhat reminiscent of a giddy drowned rat. But what better place to be? As I walked the ten or so blocks back to the perpetual sunny disposition and high octane air conditioning of the Marshall House, I found myself playing a game of chicken with the water pouring out of the gutters and down the alleys, across the sidewalks, into the quiet morning streets, and thence into my Nike cross-trainers.

But it could be pouring buckets and I wouldn't mind. This place suits me wonderfully. If someone asked me to plan a city, I think this is how it would materialize. I am smitten with Savannah.

Y'all make sure to have a wonderful weekend.

Friday, August 5, 2005

This post is coming from the road -- Savannah, Georgia, to be exact. The library at the Marshall House offers wireless access and voila -- one can post freely! One thing that has become obvious to me in the last twenty-four hours is that many people have weddings here, and many of these folks have come from afar (read Up Nawth), as evidenced by the good-natured cacophony and abundance of ladies going places together in sundresses.

But what a nice place it is. Beautiful architecture abounds -- in fact, it is easy to take all these spendid buildings for granted, but I'm not letting that happen. We spent yesterday afternoon and evening strolling the area between our hotel and River Street, Savannah's waterfront playground, boasting tons of fun shops and restaurants, cozy bars and bistros, and some extremely decent street musicians. Today, we headed to Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island to see that the area around the city is like. Fort Pulaski makes a nice, quiet trip, and Tybee has that funky look so common to beach towns in the Southeast.

And so, again tonight we will stroll this Southern gem, keeping our eyes and ears open!