hometown

today, the hippie and i went out into the wide world of my hometown and wandered about. this has become something of a tradition for us. so much so that when we went into this little art gallery today, the owner said, "hey! you guys haven't been in here in what? a year? has it been a whole year? how are things in raleigh?" yeah. welcome to a small town. this town has a tiny population of about 5000 people--that's up about 2k from when i was a kid, too--so i guess it's no surprise that we are remembered. and the little gallery we were in is one of the two highlights of the yearly walk down main street. the other is an antique mall that always has different stuff to show me and where i have purchased everything from mccoy, roseville, and hull vases to a drawing of a cat to a pair of italian linen pillowcases to an eight-dollar teacup that turned out to be worth about two hundred dollars (a hand painted, bone china, fortune teller's cup). today i bought a cake plate. the little gallery, which is TINY, is packed full of beautiful high-end art and crafts from artists both local and far away. we have bought christmas presents there every year since we discovered the place. if i were still living here, i would probably be running something similar, or at the very least contributing to it. it's just strange. i come home and it makes me introspective. this is one of many roads not taken, and i am glad for that. but as i have gotten older, i realize that even had i taken this road, life need not have been as bad as i once thought it would be. i guess my point is--you carve out a place for yourself no matter where you go.