HOME SWEET HOME

Whew! After more than 2 weeks on the road, I am finally HOME! Grady comes home this evening, and we are so looking forward to being home together with the kitties!

It's interesting - Grady and I both LOVE to travel. We thoroughly enjoy living in hotels and out of suitcases! We thrive on trying new beds and towels and exploring behind the closed doors of hotel meeting and ballrooms. Comparing the Executive Lounge offerings and the free hot breakfasts from each, and the room views, of course! Checking out the swimming pool and hopefully, the hot tub, and maybe hitting the gym, are things we look forward to!

But after about a week on the road, we begin to get weary. The excitement of bringing up all the bags, even on the bellhops dolly, soon becomes cumbersome, and expensive if the bellhop is helping. Repacking the bags and the car each morning - even every other morning, turns into a chore. And while we are still enjoying each new place to explore, and the familiarity of the hotels we have been to before, we long for the routine of our home, for the familiar smell of our favorite coffee brewing in the morning, the comfort of our cushy couch with the kitties snuggled up next to us.

I'm continuously amazed at how we can both love the change and adventure, and long for the familiar after such a short time. I am so thankful that we have such a comfortable place to return to! We are unbelievably blessed, and thank God every day for what he is doing is our lives!

Summer-night Light Show

It's almost midnight in Atlanta, and the summer night air is a balmy 75*. I was visiting a friend in Marietta tonight, and as I was leaving - I kept seeing flashes in the sky. Over and over and over. It seemed to have a consistent beat to it, so I assumed it was simply a beacon. Then I saw it from the opposite direction.... and she saw it too! Turns out - it's a summer-night lightning storm!

The show has been spectacular - I could see the flashes of light from behind the clouds on my way back to the hotel. Occasionally a bolt of lightening will pop through the clouds as it splits the sky! And not a drop of rain the entire way back to the hotel - which is a new phenomenon for me!

Now I am sitting at the window wall in our room on the 30th floor, thoroughly enjoying the evening light show! Most of the drama is behind the SunTrust Plaza building - which is another 30 or so stories higher than I am, so I can only see the sky light up around it. Every once in a while I get a bonus of seeing the bolt off in the distance hitting some rod somewhere. The last one I saw was red even! Don't think I've ever seen red lightning!

I am holding out hope that the Bank of America building - just a short mile almost directly in front of my window wall - will get hit on it's spire! Which I believe is what it is created for! That would be incredible! More flashes - still behind the SunTrust Plaza. I'll keep watching and trying to be patient. Lightning is one of the those fabulously unpredictable forces that hold me in reverent awe. Fire and ocean waves do as well. I can just imagine God creating art - setting into motion a fireworks display to rival any that man tries to create. Our God is so good - sharing with us His awesome creativity and beauty. How great Thou art!

Living high in the city

I would love to live in a high-rise. Depending on the city and the view – 30-45 stories up would be perfect; high enough to see both offices and homes – and still have a great view of the surrounding city. Yes, there is the hustle and bustle of the city (which suits me just fine). But there also is a tranquility and peacefulness in the fluidity of highway traffic – almost like a river. And at night – there is nothing that can compare (in my mind, anyway) to a luminous cityscape. Each building is lit differently, some with lights along the top, some with lights down the sides. Some have many different levels, and some are spires. Each is dazzling in its own uniqueness.

I’m writing this while sitting 30 stories above the sidewalk at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta. I moved the bedside armchair to look out the floor to ceiling north-facing widows, which allows for a fantastic view of “downtown” and Buckhead. I’ve angled my chair so that I am viewing the SunTrust Plaza – my all time favorite building in Atlanta (see the picture)! It has so many levels to it – makes me think of a child’s toy where you can take a bunch of square and rectangular columns in varying lengths and snap them together – build-a-skyscraper blocks! What a fun game that would be! Interstate Highway 75/85 zooms by on our right, and then snakes across and to the left of us just a few blocks ahead. The cars appear to be on tracks as they glide along the highway. Ambulances blare as they zoom to the hospital just ½ mile north of us, and even from 300 feet above ground, their siren sounds as if it was right next to us. Helicopters zip in and out of the skyscrapers as they scan for traffic snarls to report. I can see into the office building below when the sky gets dark, and I only wish I had remembered my binoculars!

Ok, I admit it. I’m a voyeur. I love to peek into peoples lives and see what is happening. Don’t you? If you think you don’t – you might want to think again. Do you watch TV? Isn’t that a form of voyeurism? You are watching someone else’s life… perhaps fictional, or perhaps reality, but it is definitely watching someone else’s life. The only difference is that on TV, the subject knows they are being observed. My thought is – if you live in a close-quarter situation and your curtains are open… someone is going to watch at some point… looks like an invite to me!

The SunTrust Plaza is so close I may need to get some binoculars while I’m here just so I can explore with my eyes the many lighted windows tonight – admiring plants and desks, nice chairs, and maybe, if I’m lucky, someone might be around – making late night copies, or finishing that report for the morning. Perhaps tomorrow morning I will see a 20-something sitting at her desk drinking her coffee and reading her emails from the weekend. And maybe at 5 o’clock, she will be primping before hitting the bar around the corner for the after work drink with friends. But I like to spice it up… I like to let my imagination go… perhaps that gal in the office touching up her lipstick is about to go the pub for a beer with her friend. Little does she know, that Mr. Taking-off-his-tie is about to exit the office building next door for his traditional long-day drink and catch the score of the game…. And tonight…. They might just finally meet. Will they like each other? With they just nod heads and move on? How many of us live in such close proximity but have no idea the other exists? It’s amazing really – these two in my mind could be frequenting the same places for years and never know. I like to imagine stories with the images I see – like people watching from 30 stories up!

It would seem that one day while I’m up close and personal through the binocs, I will see the equal staring back at me…. How fun will that be!? I wait for that day like a kid on Christmas Eve, but so far it hasn’t happened. And when it does – I know exactly what I will do! WAVE! :o) I might even jump up and down from excitement… like finding a kindred spirit – 1 in a million windows, and we see each other at the same time- it will be great!

If/when I get to live in a high-rise – I will not have binoculars only. I would like to have a telescope set up right by the window – for people-watching and sky-gazing – and hours of delight. We could even have window-watching dinner parties –a treasure hunt where you have to find certain items in the windows and whoever finds them all first wins! Hey – that is a fantastic idea!

I’m so excited to be here for another three nights – and LOTS more sitting by the window!