Ignorant Historian

Sir Walter Raleigh, our city's namesake

For the last few weeks now, I’ve enjoyed travelling all over the blogosphere with the BlogTrotters. It’s like a really cool virtual tour group.

Today I’m happy to be hosting you Blog Trotters in Raleigh, North Carolina! I’ve been a resident of the Raleigh area for almost 5 years now. What I meant to be a temporary move (for school) has happily become permanent.

As far as places go, Raleigh is definitely underrated.  When people think of North Carolina, they often think of the mountains, the Outer Banks, or Charlotte (all great places).  But Raleigh holds it’s own in North Carolina, not only because it’s the state capitol and centrally located, but also because it has it’s own unique features.

It's hard to get a good view of downtown with all the hills

Raleigh itself only has about 400K people, but it’s only one corner of the Triangle (which also includes Durham and Chapel Hill).   The Triangle got its name from the trio of top-notch research schools located within 30 minutes of each other: UNC, Duke, and NC State.

These schools in turn have drawn techie computer and pharmaceutical companies, which not only makes Raleigh one of the fastest growing places in the US, but brings in a lot of Yankees.  I love not being the odd-one-out…you’re more likely to meet a recent Raleigh transplant than a lifelong resident.

This also makes Raleigh quite diverse and educated.  Love that, too.

The acorn statue downtown

As far as climate, Raleigh is definitely in the South, muggy and warm.  It can get cold too (especially this past winter!).  Neither the heat or the cold is as extreme here as what I was used to growing up in Kansas, though.

The big differences from Kansas, though are the hills and the trees.  Especially the trees…which are everywhere.  Gotta love the neon-green pollen in the spring and the brilliant foliage in the fall.  Raleigh is actually called “The City of Oaks”…and we drop an acorn instead of a ball on New Year’s Eve.  Classy, right?

While visitors to Raleigh are much more likely to be here for business than pleasure, there are cultural things to do here.  So I’m told.  But you just might have to ask someone else about that…I just know that it’s a great place to live.

Photos by bobistraveling, pamocampo, and jamieca

Another Snowy Saturday and I’ll Scream

Yesterday went smoothly, though it was pleasantly exhausting.  I love my job…have I mentioned that before?  Seeing the joy in someone’s face as they know they won’t have to pay as much as $500 to get their money back is priceless.  I also have had several returning clients get so excited to find out that I’m still here as they want me to do their taxes again!  Makes your day to be wanted like that.

This’ll be a short week as tomorrow night I’ll be flying out of here (barring snow!…though it’s not in the forecast).  The last two times I’ve tried to leave the state, the weather has changed my plans.  On top of that, it thundered here on Sunday, and people here in North Carolina say that means that it’ll snow in 7 days.  Have you heard that saying?  I haven’t, and neither had my friend who’s from Pennsylvania.  Is it just a North Carolina thing or have you heard of it, too?

I’m looking forward to this trip as almost all my extended family will be there.  While obviously my brother Riley and Amanda will be in focus as the groom and bride (I know that we don’t say it that way usually, but if I say it the other way, it’ll look like I’m calling my brother the bride!), we’ll also get some good family time in, too.  I took good notes on how to be a good Maid of Honor at my last wedding, so I hope I’m up to snuff!

I have now lived in North Carolina for 4 years.

Note to stalkers - I no longer have a KS tag

For the life of me, I can’t exactly remember what day I moved here, or the timeline of that move.  My parents and brother helped drive me and my belongings out here: my dad and mom in the Budget truck, Riley in my parents’ Explorer, and I in my week-old Toyota Camry.  We took 3 days to get here, stopping by Mammoth Cave and generally enjoying the miles and miles of construction zones…without a single construction worker.  We never quite figured out why there was no one working in any of these places, when it was not a normal weekday during normal hours.

Unlike my first blind move (to go to school in Oklahoma), I knew this time that I had hard times ahead of me.  I had an apartment (with roommates I had never met) and a school that I would be attending in the fall, but that was all I knew about my future life.  Sure, I had already applied for the job that would soon be mind, but I had no idea at the time that that would be the case.

I moved to North Carolina in order to attend seminary.  My thought at the time was to get a seminary education, and then head up a women’s or children’s ministry somewhere in the West (my top choices were Phoenix, Salt Lake, and Portland). Instead, I’m happily staying in North Carolina, working with the children at church as a layman, and working a secular, non-profit job in a field I had no prior experience in.

Little did I know that day 4 years ago that God was bringing me home.  Sure, my real home is in heaven, but that heaven-on-earth, my church family, was right here.

This post is a part of 20SB’s Looking Back Blog Carnival, and Ben & Jerry’s is awarding free ice cream to lucky bloggers and readers!

Trying to choose a blog post from my first two months blogging has been difficult…they’re all so bad!  It makes me very thankful that I’ve grown as a blogger in the last 3 years, but it’s still a bit painful to look back.

I decided to choose “Two Homes Away from My Home Away from Home” because it’s fairly representative of where I started out as a blogger, basically using the blog as an online journal.  It was originally published June 2, 2006.  I couldn’t help but include some commentary as well.  Enjoy…if you can!

It’s been 11 months since I moved out here. I know that’s not a big marker, but it feels like it to me. [For whatever reason, 11 months was a really big deal, but 1 year wasn't as much.] So much has changed in these 11 months; it seems like yesterday when I was crying over leaving behind dorms, friends, BSU, car, church. [Oh yeah, this was the summer that I studied rhetorical devices.  This one, omission of a conjuction, is called asyndeton.]

Lately I’ve been blessed with deeper friendships with a few different people here in NC. It’s a total answer to prayer! Just last week I was praying for more gospel-centered relationships. I don’t want to merely exchange pleasantries with the believers around me…

This week I’ll be housesitting for two different houses. At the one I simply will be caring for the cats, but at the other I will be caring for a dog, 2 finches, and some plants while I stay there. It’ll be nice to have a little mini-vacation right in Wake Forest. [It was nice to get "away"...but that dog was a bit of a pill!]

What did I tell you…fairly boring!  As a cherry on top of the ice cream, here’s a picture from that time:

See, I was embracing the Tarheels early in my North Carolina life.

Go Tarheels!

As I approach my 4 year mark of living among Tarheels, I’ve become one of them. Sure, I’ll still be a Kansas girl at heart, but my love for the state of North Carolina has grown and grown. I finally broke down and bought a Tarheel t-shirt.

I suppose I still could have been North Carolinian if I had bought a Duke, NC State, or Wake Forest shirt, but I always have gravitated towards UNC. When I was in high school, I remember seeing Carolina Blue and thinking it was the best color for a school. Then, I found out that UNC had a basketball tradition, and that was certainly something I could respect. After Roy Williams moved back there, I was basically a goner. Once I moved to North Carolina, I was sold.  I still root for my Sooners and my Jayhawks first, but I was pretty pleased to see UNC win the Final Four.

Purse

For those of you who aren’t sports fanatics, I bought a cute new purse the same time I bought the shirt.  It’s functional, allowing me to hide the book that I always carry with me, as I’ve gotten some negative feedback lately.  I think it just might be the title of the book I was carrying around, Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Don’t worry, it’s a novel.

Okay, okay, okay.  I now recycle.  I took in all those plastic bags on Saturday.  I wish I had taken a picture…they really were quite a sight.  I think we’ve been collecting them since before we moved to this apartment almost a year ago.  I’m going to make it my goal not to get any more.  (This reminds me of the time a Walmart assistant manager MADE me take a bag to put my two items in…so annoying!  What happened to, “The customer is always right?”)  I now have room to start collecting all my Diet Dr. Pepper cans…

Now, onto your further questions:

Julie asked, “How do you like NC?”

Oh, this is a loaded question.  I had NO idea when I came here for school that I’d stick.  I didn’t really like the place: the cloudier summer weather gave me a bit of seasonal depression, it’s full of Southerners (many of whom have accents), half the roads aren’t labeled (and most of them also change names several times), there’s trees and hills everywhere, and there’s the East Coast Supremacy Disorder.

But then I found a church, a church that I can be a part of, a church that loves me, a church that I can serve in.  Really, the only reason I’m still here is because of this church.  I don’t want to leave unless/until I’m sent out from the church.

Since my early days, parts of NC have grown on me.  I love the beach, so I like having handy access (about a 2 1/2 hour drive).  I like basketball, and as you know, NC has some good basketball.  Raleigh has some definite perks: good swimming pools, good libraries, and a highly-educated population.  And as Southern as North Carolina is (while I recognize that it’s not the Deep South, my previous exposure to Southerners were just Oklahomans and Texans), there are many fellow transplants as well, so I don’t feel as excluded.

So, I guess the end answer is I like it here, and have decided to make it my home, until I’m called elsewhere.

Along the same vein, Liz asked, “I know you like where you’re living now, but is there another state that you would like to live in someday?”

Before moving to North Carolina, I thought I’d come here for school and then move out west.  I wanted to live and minister in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, or Portland.  Now, I realize that Portland is not for me weatherwise–if I couldn’t handle the additional cloudiness of NC, how could I handle the Northwest?–though I still think I could minister to those people.  On the other hand, I LOVE Phoenix’s weather, and that would be my number one choice if I had to move somewhere else.  So I guess the answer to your question is Arizona.

I also would love to live in a big city, somewhere I wouldn’t have to drive.  Though I like driving, I love getting to take covenient public transportation and getting to read on the commute rather than stress.  Still, I’ve been longing for a garden, so those things are a bit incompatible.

Thanks for your questions…more answers tomorrow.  If you still haven’t asked, feel free to jump in and ask away!

Today the NCAA basketball tournament begins!  I think it’s kinda like the holidays for sports…even those who don’t observe their fanhood during the rest of the year still decorate (themselves) with their team’s gear and show up to watch the game (if only on TV).

As always, I’m rooting for the Kansas Jayhawks (remember, I’m from there) and some for the Oklahoma Sooners (as they’re my alma mater).  I also root a little for North Carolina, but if they completely fall apart in their game today, I’ll laugh.  Though I picked them to win the tournament, so I might not laugh that hard.  But I’m in good company…Obama picked them to win, too.

I definitely picked fewer upsets than I have in years past, mainly because I didn’t have the time to research the teams like I have previously.  My Final 4 consists of KU, Pitt, UNC, and UConn.  If you did a bracket, who did you pick?

Jacki asked, “So have you had nightmares yet about unfinished homework?? I went through withdrawal symptoms, and would wake up thinking I had to finish homework.”

Nope, not at all.  I had a two different dreams last night about taking a pair of church kids with me on a trip without their parents’ permission (they were begging me to go, I wasn’t kidnapping them!), but no dreams whatsoever about school or homework.

Brenda said, “Speaking of Enchanted…that is one of our favorites around here too. However, my oldest brother was appalled when the chipmunk pooped! He said Walt would roll over in his grave! I laughed so hard!”

I think it worked fine, but I appreciate more the humor in the dialogue.

Elizabeth, born and raised in NC, said, “Be careful! People in North Carolina generally drive crazy on a day when the sun is out and the road is dry much less cloudy with snow!”

Very good point.

Jennifer commented on my Valentine’s Day post, “This was wonderful. What I hate about Valentine’s Day is what I hate about all holidays – the commercialism (how very Charlie Brown of me). Even for the not so single girl it has become a day of obligation for husbands and boyfriends and a day to “prove” something.

I like your take on the holiday so much more. A focus on Christ enriches EVERYTHING. Makes it what it should be.”

And finally, Khadra is like me: “I used to play the same way as a kid. I would love to do taxes as a career. I have told my husband this before and he thinks I am insane lol!!”

I prefer the term “special.”

Have a great weekend, everyone!  It’s gorgeous here today…I’m about to go on a walk without a coat or jacket!

I’m back.  After time in Chicago, IL, Wichita, KS, and Denison, TX, I’m back in good ole Raleigh, NC.  I love to travel, but really enjoy coming home, too.  Now if everything would just unpack itself…

The return trip was rather uneventful.  Neither of my flights were particularly full.  In fact, I had no one sitting next to me either way.  I have a knack for sitting next to no one, even on a almost-full flight, but it has been a while since I’ve been on a flight that was less than full.  As I was waiting to leave Wichita, I realized that it was incredibly quiet in the terminal, even though there were other people around.  Even the gate agents were whispering to each other.  It was so much different in Chicago!

I could go into the details about everything that I did over the last 10 days, but I don’t want to bore you.  My time at my parents’ primarily consisted of putting together puzzles, sleeping, eating, and watching movies.  My time in Texas consisted of playing with a little girl and getting some good time talking with Dana.  I sure do miss living with her, even though we haven’t in over 3 years.  We would regularly stay up until 2 in the morning talking in our beds.  As much as I did enjoy that time, I don’t think I would ever want to go back to a dorm setting.  I enjoy the quiet of my own bedroom with only one other person in the apartment!

If I continued this post, it would just get rambly.  Actually, it’s already gotten rambly, so I’m going to end it here.  Don’t forget to enter the $50 Target gift card giveaway if you haven’t done so already!