According to the Internets, It’s Blog Reader Appreciation Day. Since the Internets are never wrong, I salute you, fair reader. Thanks for stopping by this little corner of the information super highway and reading. Perhaps, you even subscribe. If so, you’re a GFTS superstar!

Officially a full-time Chattanoogan again. Getting used to that will take some time.

Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. (after 4 hours of sleep) and left Montgomery County about an hour later. Next time I make the drive to DC, I’ll have to remember to leave super early. By noon, I was already back in Tennessee and able to drive over 65 mph. (Hate Virginia’s speed limit!)

Last week, a co-worker and I were joking that packing is little more than 3-D Tetris (Hi Justin!). Ummm…packing my car with essentials was a work of art. There was literally just enough space for me to sit. When I pulled into the driveway at the Parental’s abode, they were shocked at the amount of stuff crammed in my car and raced to get the camera. I doubt that I could have squeezed a tube of toothpaste in my Accord.

It’s incredibly odd to be back in my parents’ house. I’ve been on my own for so long that it’ll be interesting. However, I’m grateful for this opportunity since I’ll be able to save for a down payment much faster. The Chattanooga housing market doesn’t even compare to DC. You can buy a condo here for under $80,000! No, I’m not missing any digits in front of that. The cheapest condos that I ever found in DC were around $200,000 for a studio. Not only is housing more affordable, but there’s no income tax in Chattanooga!!!!! Just by moving here, I got a raise.

This morning, I attended services at Lookout Mountain Pres and then headed over to Embrace. I’ve followed the church plant for so long that it was awesome to attend. I was blown away. The leadership team has done an amazing job with few resources. However, the best part is seeing the dreams of Beka and Dana come true. Count this as the first of many plugs for Embrace. If you’re looking for a new church home in Chattanooga, come by for visit. At the very least, you’ll get a free breakfast and meet GFTS.

Embrace meets at Loose Cannon Art Gallery on the Southside. Another reason I love Chattanooga–urban renewal. Why did no one mention CreateHere to me? What a great concept! It almost makes me wish I had gone to art school like I planned for most of my life instead of pursuing communications and politics. Well, maybe not. I was never that good and a steady paycheck makes me happy. The field of watercolors isn’t that profitable. (Neither is politics but at least you win some campaigns).

Tomorrow, my career transitions from social media diva to nonprofit fundraising and communications. There’s still some social media involved, but I’ll be returning more to my communication roots. I may even need to pull out my AP Styleguide! Time to change from public health policy to bleeding-heart nonprofit. Anyone willing to pull out their checkbooks?

Well, technically it’s Montgomery County. It’s my last post as a DC blogger so bear with me.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow ends my two-year excursion in our Nation’s Capital. I’ve thought about this post a lot, and there are so many things that I could say.

DC has been an incredible adventure. For me, this city will always be where I grew up and finally became an adult. Here, I fell into an awesome career and specialized in an emerging field. Learned how to survive completely on my own for the first time. Spent many sleepless nights earning a graduate degree. Realized that all the time I spent on Facebook and blogging could be used professionally. Met a group of incredible friends who became my urban family. Made some of the worst decisions of my life and some of the best. Learned how to survive the pain of having your heart broken and how that makes you a stronger, better person. Made a few people angry and/or laugh with this blog. Most importantly, however, I grew tremendously in my faith and started to understand that sometimes faith requires huge, blind leaps, such as this move.

While riding home on my last Metro ride on Wednesday, I thought back to when I first moved here, right before grad school (amazing how grad school completely changes you, isn’t it?). I was so happy to be in the District of Columbia. I mean, I was living in the same city as the President! and those awesome people that we elect to Congress! who are there to serve the good people of this country! Ok, maybe I wasn’t that naive, but I was so excited to be here.

On one of my first Metro rides, I looked around at all the bleak people on riding in the car. I couldn’t understand why they had such weary expressions. Wasn’t it just grand to be here!? I quickly tried to wear a world-weary expression in order to blend in. I didn’t want anyone to confuse me for a tourist or an intern.

At some point, that expression no longer took practice. It started coming naturally. That’s the point when I realized that I needed to move. Last spring, I remember having talking about “DC moments” with a few friends from grad school. We decided that you weren’t a jaded Washingtonian until you no longer felt awe or inspiration when gazing upon the Capitol Building or the White House. Treasure those moments. The daily grind eventually gets to you.

I admire the people who can live here decades without heeding the call to return home to be closer to family, roots or your community. These people can maintain their zest for living here. I am not one of those people. When God made me, he made a homebody who desperately loves Tennessee. It just took two years of living away from my hometown to realize that.

As sad as I am to leave my urban family here, I’m excited about the future. When you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to do, that knowledge trumps everything else.

So long DC. It’s been fun. I’ll be back soon. I promise.

About a month ago, the DC Roomie adopted a second dog from the Washington Animal Rescue League. Little Zeke is a pure-breed Jack Russell Terrier that was rescued from a puppy mill (she get’s Oprah’s seal of approval). Little Zeke has settled in great and is on the calm side for JRTs. His big sister, Miss Daisy acts like a bratty older sister but secretly adores him.

While discussing getting Zeke, we joked about starting a dog blog. It was meant to be a satire on baby blogs. I love seeing cute pictures of babies, but some people go way over the top with details about poop, throw-up or breast feeding. I want to remain ignorant of the gross details until I have kids. (For the record, I think Vol Abroad does a great job writing about Buddy).

DC Roomie started www.DaisyandZeke.com and began covering all of Zeke’s “firsts.” We thought it was hilarious. Everyone else just thought DC Roomie was a crazy dog owner. Then she found out that WARL is giving the link to new pet owners. It’s gotten slightly more educational now but then not everyone gets satires.

Longtime readers may remember that Daisy and Zeke are hardly the first ones to dogblog. Coco, the dog from the South, briefly had a blog several years ago in order to obtain a gmail account. (Amazing isn’t it, that a dog needed email?) However, like most things that Border Collies do, he quickly lost interest. He also found it hard to type without opposable thumbs.

According to the calendar, I roll out of DC one week from today.

I’ve been contemplating this move for so long that hasn’t felt real. Well, reality is starting to hit me…and I’m excited.

It’s not that I hate DC, or my life here is horrible. Quite the opposite in fact. However, I’m really excited about my new job and getting to do a lot of everything in communications. As much as I love social media, I have gotten too specialized the last few years.

I’m also excited to take part in the day-to-day existence of those that I love. It’s hard to keep up important relationships from a distance.

I’m not leaving DC forever. There’s a good chance that I’ll move back in a few years to pursue my PhD. In fact, moving back to Chattanooga will help me accomplish that. If I end up not moving back, DC is always a great place for vacations. I promise to be a model tourist and not stand on the left side of Metro escalators.

It is getting harder to say goodbye to friends. Last week, Pastor Chris at NCC prayed for me, and I just wanted to cry. Leaving my church family is the hardest thing about leaving DC. NCC has been an incredible experience.

The best part of this move is that I know 110 percent that this is what I’m supposed to do. That’s an awesome feeling.

I’m sure that after the reality of (temporarily) moving back into my parents’ house and the realization hits that everyone in Chattanooga over the age of 23 is married or engaged, I’ll have a few more things to say. As of right now, I’m excited for a new adventure in my old hometown.

Last Friday, the DC Roomie and I stopped by Giant to pick up a cookie cake for my going-away party. (We’ve been having random adventures lately). While waiting for them to personalize it, we had the opportunity to observe some of their creations. Camera phones are really dangerous in my hands.

I was scared, but you be the judge.

We started out by noticing this odd elephant. Something about it looks malicious. Discussion of the elephant led to all of these pictures.

I’m not sure what this is. Is it a cat? A bear? A devil? A devilish cat?

I think this is Blue from Blue’s Clues. Keep in mind that dark-colored icing stains your teeth. That’s a lot of blue icing.

The lion is kinda cute.

Not sure about this clown.

Then we turned around and saw these cookies, which look, well…umm… Now, I have an idea about what to serve at the next bachelorette party that I host. I’m still not sure what they’re supposed to be.

But this was the best cookie of them all!

Last night, I got free tickets to a Washington Wizards game. I’d never been to a NBA game, so I invited the DC Roomie and her boyfriend to the event.

First of all, I’m not the biggest basketball fan. I like free tickets, and I like sports. However, to me sports=football. Nothing else really exists. Thanks to the rigors of Berean Academy physical education classes, I at least graduated from high school understanding the basics of all major sports.

I’m not sure that I watched much of the game. There’s so much other stuff going on at NBA games that it was hard to focus. Must give props to the Verizon Center’s corporate sponsorship department. There’s hardly a surface in the arena without a corporate logo. Most of the game, I watched in fascination as ads changed on the jumbotron and the two projectors that lined the concourses. At some points, I was convinced that I’d have a seizure like those cartoons triggered on kids in Japan.

Then there was the dance squad. When the DC Roomie and I are together, we usually sit and mock the things around us. The dance squad was an easy target. Over the course of the night they went from the dance team to the dance ‘hos to the whore corps.

First, they came out with these 60s style unitards and white go-go boots. It wasn’t the worst dance team costume ever. The Roomie, a former dancer, noted that most of them were off count. We attributed that to dancing in those go-go boots.

Then, we wondered what they were called. Most teams call their dancers some feminine form of the team name. However the feminine form of “wizards” would be “witches.” Unless this was quidditch and we were playing at Hogwarts, that probably wouldn’t fly. I noticed today on the website that they’re just called “dance team.” Rather boring and unoriginal.

We then contemplated the pros and cons of the DC Roomie trying out for the dance team next year. What are the benefits of being a Washington Wizards’ dancer? Do you get free tickets to Verizon Center events? Her boyfriend didn’t really seem thrilled with the concept. There also might be some ramifications with your professional career if your employer found out you moonlighted as a scantily-clad dancer for a professional basketball team.

Which leads to my next question. In a town like DC, where 50% of the population has college degrees and 25% graduate, who tries out for things like the Washington Wizards dance team? It just doesn’t seem to fit the image of the typical DC power woman.

Then they emerged in the second-half wearing costumes that must have come from a sale at a strip joint. The short black and white striped skirts were predictable. However, the full abdomen-revealing shirts emblazoned with “I can’t feel my face,” were a bit over the top. I think that’s the point that “whore corps” were used. When the G-man came out to launch t-shirts*, the dance team proceeded to act out strip teases with the t-shirts. It didn’t really help their image.

I don’t want this to turn into a feminist “I can do anything I want with my body including turning it into a sex object” discussion, but there is sexy dancing and then there’s raunchy. The Washington Wizards dance team was definitely on the raunchy side. Was the “I can’t feel my face.” t-shirt necessary? It seems so unprofessional, especially when most of the audience were families with young kids.

It’s also a bummer that the Wizards lost as the buzzer went off. The adorable two-year-old sitting in front of us, who was wearing a miniature Wizards track suit, was disappointed.

*I really want a t-shirt launching gun. I’m guessing that it works similar to a potato gun, but I’m not sure. Sadly, I got rid of all those t-shirts that I used to have, or I would have had a justification for buying one.

Saturday, the roomie threw a going-away party and many of the SOC kids came over. Thanks to Karin’s paparazzi photog skills, almost every moment of the party is documented on Facebook.

Karin was kind enough to include this pix of the mount o’ stuff currently stashed in the living room. There was some talk of using it as a backdrop to take portrait pixs. That was abandoned, thankfully.

What you can’t see is the pet gate around it to keep the dogs from investigating the mount ‘o stuff. Also note all the empty boxes in the front. I saved all my boxes from my previous move and seem to have extras. I take this to mean that I have less stuff now.

This is about 75% of what I own. My closet, bathroom and furniture haven’t made it to the pile yet. The roomie also agrees that this is significantly less stuff than I had when I moved into the Apartment Brought To You by IKEA. I guess I’m at step 6 or 7 of Pack Rats Anonymous.

Moving in 11 more days…

While blissfully thumbing through the latest edition of InStyle (Oh Renee! Please change your hair!) on the tarmac of Logan Airport in Boston, I found myself gagging.

In the middle of an article on the hot dresses of the summer was an ad for this.

I literally gagged. This isn’t Adrienne exaggerating the details in order to write something pithy. The horror of a high-heeled Croc hit me and my gag reflex went off.

It’s not like the bastard child of the Ugg and the Croc was bad enough. Now they have ugly, plastic shoes that make you taller and masquerade as “tasteful.”

There is also a wedge version. Somewhere on earth a beautiful Louboutin or Ferragamo died for these shoes.

It seems that I heard rumors of these shoes. However, I blocked it out, like I block out other awful concepts, such as the Vols losing or Obama winning the presidency.

The ad* is awful. Aside from having three types of fonts, they use the word “anti-microbial” as a selling point. Shoes are on your feet. They’re going to get dirty. Dirt carries germs. Trying to have germ-free shoes is a losing battle.

Someone please make them go away. Send them to anti-microbial hell. Please.

*The ad isn’t online, so I’ll try to scan it in and post.

I’m tempted to do an American version of this. It would be a simple blog:

1. Buy food
2. Prepare it
3. Take pictures of the packaging and the food
4. Compare the food to the packaging
5. Eat the food

There’s probably some political point about how giant corporations mislead innocent consumers for fructose industry profits by using pictures of fake or altered food on labels to make highly processed and unhealthy food seem appealing to grocery shoppers, who being tired and hungry, are incapable of making reasoned decisions about their food purchases, thereby sentencing millions of Americans to a lifetime of obesity and disease.

I just think it would fun to compare the two.

H/T Boing Boing