I fell in love... WHATCHA WANNA DO THAT FOR?

If you grew up listening to country in the 80s, and especially if you grew up where I did (one channel on the radio, country all the time) you definitely rocked out to this brilliant piece of kitsch. Just watch that video! Amazing! Ridiculous! Fabulous!

I fell in love, WHATCHA WANNA DO THAT FOR?!!

I've talked to people from time to time who answered the question, "How did you end up living here?" and they say things like, "I came for a weekend in '76 and I never left." That's Floyd. I'm powerless to part with this town. It's just too good; it's just too right.

I had planned this year long extravaganza of exploring the country. I've decided to stay here, get a little chunk o' land with a creek and have an exploraganza every weekend, or whenever I'm not working. There's soooo much; within a four hour drive radius, there's basically a million things I've never seen and always wanted to, so why not make a home base, living in my camper, forming a community, the community of great people I've always wanted, while ALSO exploring.

It's like 4 hours to the ocean. THE ocean. I LOVE going there. It reminds me that I'm a teeny tiny piece of this world. It stretches out forever, and when the waves splash the beach, you feel its incredible power. I'm not going to pretend there are still little, affordable hippie communities on beaches. There's a LOT of us on this continent now and a lot of people wanting to be next to the beach, and I don't want to spend every ounce of my soul paying the rent.

So here's the plan: I found 6 acres of incredible land with Dodd Creek running through it. It's ready; all I need to do is pull my camper onto it, hook up and LAWD I'm home! Then I can invite awesome people to join me.  Carol, a woman who works at the Floyd Art Center, mentioned the idea of creating a community; like a little building in the middle so everyone can meet up and hang out, bring pot luck dishes to dinner and we could all eat and not make huge meals. I LOVE it. I love the idea that there could be some people like me, single people without families, some older people, widows, widowers, even a young family or two. And we can spread out on the land; we can have our space, but also, we can watch out for each other. If someone needs something, we just help 'em. If we don't see an older person at dinner, we go check on 'em. Small town communities are this way to some extent, but in my mind, if you find the right kind of happy people, this could be bliss.

If it's not, well, it's something to write about now isn't it? But this idea of creating your own family, and having people around, I just love it. I was in a small town; people looked out for me. Quite a lot. But I still had a lot of lonely in my life. Like, just having some people to have dinner with a few times a week could make the difference between feeling alone and feeling happy.

So why not? It's pretty much a thing out this way. Some consider themselves communes, some affiliated with certain religions, certain ideologies. I just want a few people who'd like to be in a community, so if they've "fallen and can't get up" they don't have to wear one of those ridiculous buttons around their neck and wait for some corporate thingie to show up or answer their call.

This idea screams bliss! The land is perfect; the creek is unreal, and I just want to sit next to it and listen to the water. A few miles south, Patrick County, where the covered bridges are. Just two minutes to the north: unreal, amazing Floyd. A town of just 425 which receives thousands of guests each year, farmer's markets each saturday, a bluegrass jam every sunday, and sooo many festivals. Floydfest is the biggest by far; Chantilly farm hosts a bunch too, including Cirque du Floyd, a circus themed festival, and then in Willis, there's a Yoga Jam fest. I've never done yoga, but always wanted to. There's tons of opportunities for it here; tomorrow there's a "pay if you're able" session at the June Bug Art Center. I think I'll go.

I went to Floyd Art Center two days ago and met Carol, and a few others who work there. Today I went back, asking for advice on jobs since they'd been so happy to sit around and talk. They said they'd had a meeting only an hour before I got there, decided they needed another person. So I'm applying. There may just never be a reason to leave Floyd.

It's about 87 in June; doesn't feel muggy like it does further south. I've never really been "yucky hot" since I've been here. Maybe I've been lucky. Hard to say. So I looked up how cold it gets; it does SNOW, and I hate that, but it doesn't get COLD like it does in Nebraska. Funny, this is further north. But the average is somewhere between 0-40 with a lot of 60 degree days. They say you'll need a couple of sweaters, but just a few. Now, if it doesn't get crazy hot or crazy cold, I'll put up with a tiny bit of snow here and there.

WELCOME HOME GIRL!!! Hope I get this job; certainly feels meant to be!