We have hit the abashed teenager portion of the evening, ha! I'm good with teenagers, so it's fun to hit the right balance of needling.

I really did, Kate! I have no doubt that we were well over the 200 mark. It was super fun, and it was really great for me to be able to meet the neighborhood a little bit. It would have been nice to meet more of the parents, what with all the car shadowing and all, but still, it feels good to be a part of this community.

That sounds awesome, Liese.

That's great, Liese!

Ok! I think it has finally quieted down.

Yeah, it was great, Jesse! Halloween might be an odd time to make this sort of a declaration, or maybe it's just a Buffista time, but I am approaching close to sarameg levels of love for my neighborhood.

It is super neighborhoody. I now have met all my neighbors for at least two doors down on each side and across the street. There's the car repairman, a songwriter, the family that's been here for fifty years, a couple of good ol' boys, an interracial couple with a Trump flag(!), a lady who just retired from the theater where she did costumes and puppetmaking for twenty years. Every single person I meet says, "everybody in this neighborhood looks out for each other." One took out my trash while I was on the road, one picked up a package for me off my porch. One mows my lawn, and I gave them my CSA share while I was gone.

All the houses sit back off the street a bit but everybody has porches or at least a front step. Nobody has garages, it's all carports and driveway parking, but the driveways are long, so it's not a hassle with street parking. I leave my porch light on all the time as a matter of principle, and I sit out there a good bit, and go visit with my neighbors when they're sitting on theirs a good bit, so I always know all the gossip, and I often have some of my own to report!

It feels a million miles away from city life, and yet, it's literally less than five miles to almost anything I need to get to: to Music Row, to downtown, to my post office, to all the venues, to the airport, to my boss' house. It's a bit longer if I need to head up to where most of my friends live, like where Kate is, or up to Opryland for shows, but honestly, I used to drive forty-five minutes to the grocery, so everything is super convenient. It's right off the major highways, but there's street level ways to get everywhere, so even though there is increasing traffic, it doesn't seem to really bother me unduly. I guess, particularly since I was considering LA!

It's just perfect for me, and the house is great, too. I really love it.

I'm happy for you, Liese. And amused I've become a standard of neighborhood carrots.

I'm so happy to read all that, Liese! And Halloween seems like the perfect time for it. So glad that neighborhood and house have turned out so well for you.

I think you are the platonic ideal of neighborhood carrots. My neighborhood literally likes carrots, with my bacon farmer and all!

It's not a perfect place. There's crime, which seems to be mostly kids breaking into sheds and cars. Pretty sure someone halfheartedly pulled at my shed door, but didn't challenge the little padlock. There's a good bit of racism. One of the local churches is building a village of tiny houses for the homeless, and the neighbors in that area are all up in arms against it, lawsuits and everything.

It's relatively poor, but doesn't seem to be gentrifying yet, so it's still super diverse, and I need to engage more with it in that way. My immediate neighbors are mostly white. I'm still looking for some stuff led by POC.

It's a really nice mix, though, it seems. A couple of my industry contacts turn out to live here, so that's also kinda fun, and makes me feel like it's the right place. I think people would be looking at me differently if I'd ended up in one of the big new high rises.

It's walkable to the gym and the library and the pharmacy and the coffee shop. Somebody has a little free library on the way.

But, yeah, I think it's super great. I landed right.

Landing stuck :)

My neighbor's car got stolen in the last couple days & we have our share of property crime for this city(which is higher than most.) So it's not Mayberry, but I feel like my neighbors are my community & I get that vibe back. There are lots of challenges, sure, but I feel like I can engage with them.

Happy Anniversary, Jilli and Pete!

I'm in Eureka Springs on vacation for Halloween. I was disappointed that all the events and partying seemed to have happened Saturday night, but at the last minute found out there was a seance/magic tricks dinner show at the Crescent Hotel and managed to get a ticket in the nick of time. I sat with a lovely former military family from Missouri, and had a wonderful evening.

I also actually got dressed up to go out for the holiday for the first time in years: [link]

Netflix has a wonderful British house-hunting show, Escape to the Country, where cityfolk are looking for houses in country villages. The British versions of these shows are very soothing.