A Trip to Pleasantville

I have returned home from our head-spinning 4 day weekend in Birmingham. As usual,the time flew by. Our intent this weekend was to identify some housing options, spend time with friends, identify church options, and a visit for me at Cumberland.

On Friday, we fought the terrible weather (heavy rain and wind) from Easley to just inside of Alabama. We stopped in Anniston to eat lunch, picked up an apartment guide and I got down to making a list. We knew that some of the offices were not open on the weekends (what is up with an apartment complex with no weekend hours?), so we knew we had to go to those first. This is where the afternoon turns into a blur. There were some that we went into and many that a drive around the complex was enough for us (I think that one we may have even turned in and immediately made a U-turn). We found one to put on the "possible" list. We decided to go into English Village, a nice area of Mt. Brook, and get a coffee. At Joe Muggs, Jeff checked in with Allen, who quickly told him that our "possible" should be a "no way!" It truly is a blessing to have friends in the area. After our coffee, we decided to go into Mt. Brook and check out parking options for the 5K we would run on Saturday morning and hit Starbucks for the coffee. Now, Mt. Brook and the Crestline Village is an area well-known to both of us. We run there every Saturday we are in town for football and love it. As we entered Mt. Brook, we began to see something we had not noticed in the Fall - For Sale signs everywhere! Apparently, the economy has struck Mt. Brook. We drove through our favorite area and had to see about 20 homes for sale and a few for rent. We were excited, but knew that it was quite possible they were out of our law school budget. These homes are older and we thought that would be in our favor. As we had our coffee on the deck of Starbucks, we read through the paper and just took in the area. Everyone walks, even to the grocery store, and everyone seems to know each other. What is this foreign concept of people coming together? Oh yeah, a community, a neighborhood. It was here that Crestline Village will forever be known as Pleasantville to us. We walked around the village and decided to have dinner there. We found many local eateries and settled in at an italian restaurant. Great food and great service. We both hated to leave that evening, but were excited to get back to the hotel and look up the real estate. We stopped at the gas station in town (this is the station I've previously mentioned in my blog that is Full-Service and leaves out water for all the runners in the area) and saw the most precious little girl, about a year and a half to two years old, in a cute blue dress, blue ribbon in her hair and white mary janes, eating a Fudgesicle. I rolled down the window and told her mother how cute she was. The mother responded with "It looks good doesn't it?" I think I said something like "Yes, I'm sure it is" and she then said, "I have the rest in this bag. Would you like one?" What?!! A stranger offered me a Fudgesicle and not in a weird way. That blew us away. So, we get back to the hotel and get blown away again.... the average home cost in the area is... wait for it.... okay, $499,000. Yeah, so that's not only out of law school budget, but out of our real life budget as well. Maybe the lottery will hit...

Saturday morning, we woke up early and got ready to go shake it at the Inagural Rumpshaker 5K in Mt. Brook. As we walked out of the hotel, it was pouring rain. We got there early to find parking and sat in the car until just before the race. Thankfully, it the torrential downpour stopped just before the start. We were disappointed that our friend Christy didn't make it, but understood from some of her training buddies that she may be sick. The run took us through Pleasantville and I don't know if it was the way the place makes me feel or I was just pumped up, but I felt so good and pushed it. This was one of the best 5Ks I've ever had. After the race, we decided to walk through Pleasantville (talk about self-torture!). As Jeff put it, let's see if Pleasantville may be the Amityville Horror. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and we found the people to be incredibly nice and wonderful. Maybe if we hit the lottery, we can afford to live there. Afterward, we checked out a few more apartments and found two "possibles", but the rooms in both were small and I'm just not keen on apartment living. We did get to have dinner with Dave, Mary Ellen, Allen and Linda. Wonderful people and we had a great time at a Mediterrian Restaurant, Costa's.

On Sunday, we started our day at the Church at Brook Hills, recommended by one of our youth ministers, Davey Blackburn. It was not long into the service that we realized this was not the church for us. We went to eat at the Village Tavern, where Simeon Castille (former Alabama, current Cincinnati Bengal player) sat behind us. I overheard the waiter and the party with Simeon talking about the Church of the Highlands, the other church recommended by Davey. They had the same passion about it as we do NewSpring so we asked about it. Rave reviews and we decided to check out the 6:00 pm service that night. Off to look at more apartment and here is where it happened... I had a complete meltdown, tears included. I just struggle with the apartment issue and have worked so hard for what we have. Yes, I know that is materialistic and I don't mean for it to be. Most of the apartments we looked at would be great if I were single and not in law school. I could suddenly imagine the noise of someone being either above me or below me; the radios loud; the heavy footsteps; the parties; and God knows what other noises. I've realized that the older I get, the more I appreciate quiet and my privacy. I know that not only will I lose my furniture, but also my privacy and quiet. I also have a hard time sinking so much money into something that is not ours. We went south in an attempt to look at some townhomes Dave and Mary Ellen mentioned to us. We found it, but Jeff didn't care for it. I told him that I'd rather live there than in any apartment we had looked at. We drove around a lot and on the way back, we saw what appeared to be a little village in McCalla. We got off the exit and decided to check it out. It turned out to be a subdivision of cottages and townhouses. We went through the Open Houses and they are very cute and may be a good price point for us. We are definitely keeping them on the list. We drove back to Birmingham and went to the Church at the Highlands. As soon as we walked in, we saw the resemblance to NewSpring. We enjoyed the worship band and the service. So, here goes God's sense of humor. It was the same text, the same message and Communion as the earlier service. It was almost as if God said, "If you want to compare, I'm going to give you apples to apples". Obviously, the message was brought in two completely ways and we knew that we found where we will worship while in law school. So, if nothing else, we found a church and you know what? I think that's what we were supposed to find first and now everything else is going to fall into place.

Monday, I sat in on a class (Civil Procedure) at Cumberland, paid my seat deposit which is due on Wednesday, turned in all my forms, and hit the bookstore. Still waiting for the state school decisions, but at this point, I am convinced that it is a rejection from all 3. We drove back and then Jeff had to turn right back around and drive to Savannah. I know that it's hard on him and am blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive, loving husband.

So there you go. I never intended to type so much and you have most every detail of our trip to Pleasantville. We know that we'll visit often and we'll always have our memories and Fudgesicles and little girls in blue dresses.