Southern Girl in the City

Greetings, all!  It has been awhile since I’ve written a post.  Honestly, I feel that blogs are becoming outdated.  (Maybe I’m wrong. More about this in a minute.) But also, as you know, I haven’t had a lot of time because of graduate school.  Well, I have great news!  I’m officially done!!! I graduate next weekend, and to say that I’m ecstatic is an understatement!  Southern Dad flies here in a week. (Can I just say that getting him here and trying to convince him that flying is the best is SO hard?!?!  And these recent plane crashes have not helped!) For those of you that pray, please pray that he has a safe flight and that we have a fun week while he’s here!

So, back to my thinking that blogs are becoming outdated….I think that more folks are using media in new ways to create news and express themselves. The latest way to do that? Podcasts!  I think I started listening to podcasts a few months ago, and I have a small list of ones that I listen to regularly.  I listen to them mainly for entertainment purposes.  After listening to a few, I thought, “Elle, you should have a podcast, too!” But then I thought that maybe I wasn’t interesting enough by myself to have one (which lightweight isn’t true since I have cultivated a great community with my readers).  In order to have different perspectives, I recruited two of friends to join me!  We are currently in the VERY early stages of production.  So far, we have a name (that took some work), logo, a consultant, a part-time producer, and we have a few recordings under our belt.  I can’t wait until we begin releasing episodes!  I believe we have a strong, solid concept and I think you will like the voice that we have created for ourselves.

With Mother’s Day coming up, it’s made me think a little more about my relationship with Southern Mom.  I miss her everyday, but when Mother’s Day, her birthday, and the holidays roll around, she’s on my mind even more.  A friend shared on Facebook that she and some friends are visiting a medium on Sunday.  She did something similar before and talked about the positive experience that was had with other people.  For a split second, I thought going.  But then I hesitated. One, because I don’t fully believe in psychics or the like. Two, if this “reading” is real and Southern Mom “speaks” to me, I don’t think I would be emotionally able to handle it.  Although she’s been gone for 4 1/2 years, it still feels like yesterday.  Three, the “reading” is NOWHERE near DC.  And if you know me you know how I feel about driving too far out of the Beltway. Four, it’s also a grip.  And since I’ve planning for graduation (and my upcoming trip), my disposable income is almost spent.  Maybe one day I’ll be in a space where I can do it; but that day is not today.

After Southern Mom died and definitely after I started graduate school, I no longer kept my rotation.  Who knows why… but I am happy to say that that feeling has finally left!  I am currently speaking with/talking to two guys (with a possible third) and it’s a great feeling!  I started seeing a therapist a few months back (whom I love) and she definitely encouraged me to have fun and not take everything so seriously (I’m still working on that). So far, I have no complaints.  We’ll see what ends up happening.

Now that I’m done with school, you may be asking what’s next.  Honestly, I don’t know.  I can tell you what’s NOT next-a PhD.  Though most of my friends have hinted (loudly) that I should continue on, I’m good (for now).  I did say that I would re-assess my life in 10 years to see where I am and I may reconsider.  The first week after my classes were over I did feel that I should be reading a book or writing a paper but that feeling is starting to subside.  I have decided to be more social, so I’m going out more and traveling more.   I have two trips planned at the end of the month, one trip planned for June (although it’s for work), July, and October/November!  And some fun things in the DMV are sprinkled in for good measure!  I may even start updating the What’s Happening page again! We’ll see!

In any event, I hope you have appreciated my little life update.  I should probably start keeping up with pop culture and news for real so I can go back to having topics to discuss!

Until next time, I’m just a Southern girl…in the city!