I miss my peeps. :(

Poor Jay's Hooptie Ride has pooped out on him. It's been hesitating a lot in the past few months, lost it's air conditioning abilities, and one day left him doing 25 miles an hour on Interstate 64. ZOIKS. We've had the AC charged, and had some work done to try to fix the hesitating problem, but no luck. It needs to spend some quality time with Pops and get a work over. In the meantime, Jay needs reliable transportation to get to and from C'ville every day. So my Dad, quite generously, loaned Jay one of his other cars.

You need to know Pops to fully appreciate this gesture. I drove one of his cars from one side of a parking lot to another once to pick up the Ya-Ya and my Dad (somehow?) found out about it and yelled at me. There isn't enough room in cyberspace for me to explain the affinity - the obsession - the love affair Pops has for his cars. As my friend Gina would say, "It aint right." But he did it - he put the keys in Jay's hand and explained that he BETTER take care of the car. Now poor Jay is having heart palpitations every time he gets in it. He breaks out into a cold sweat when other cars try to pass him on the interstate. So in order to save Jay from an ulcer, and to save Pop's car from possible door dings or other calamities, Jay and I decided to purchase him some new wheels. Of course, the fact that Hootpie gets 19 miles to the gallon and our gas bill was $600 last month had a lot to do with it, too. Jay's new (to him) Saturn Ion gets 34 miles to the gallon.

So - the point of this whole post is that last night we went to Saturn in Midlothian to finalize the big (or not so big) purchase. The guy that did our paperwork for us was rude. Maybe rude isn't the right word. He was dismissive. Cold. Uninterested. We were just somebody buying a used car to him. Not Jay and Catherine with a 8 month old who live in a basement in Salisbury. In November of last year we bought our Pacifica in Roanoke and had a completely opposite experience. By the time the purchase was finalized, we had been invited to a club that night to hear our sales guy's band play. They knew we had a kid in the NICU at the hospital. They knew why we were buying a new car. They knew I was slightly nutty and Jay had to keep me on a short leash or I'd run my mouth too much. They were nice. Welcoming. Warm. They were my kind of people.

I'm feeling so totally out of my element here. I had what we like to a call a "moment" last night. As I'm not one to show weakness, in the privacy of my own home, in a dark room, with my man in close proximity, I sometimes just lose my stuff for a few minutes. I miss that sweet little town in the mountains so much. Jay thinks it's because I was "famous" (and we use that term VERY loosely here) that I miss it. But that's not it at all. I felt like Christiansburg knew me. Christiansburg liked me. Christiansburg accepted me. Here in Richmond, I feel like everyone is flashier, faster, colder. And I feel dull, anonymous, and unwelcome. I feel like a fish out of water.

We went out for pizza the other night, and as Jay was getting the bean out of the back seat, the man who was parked next to us was waiting to get into his car. We apologized, and he came back with some funny quip. He had the best southern drawl - and I just wanted to shout, "I know YOU!" Of course, I didn't know him from Adam, but we were related. I swear, we knew each other. That guy had no more business living in Richmond than I do.

What a big giant pity party this is. I know I've only been here for 3 weeks. And I'm a stay at home Mom, which can be a lonely job. And I know that I will find my niche here in Richmond. But I just wonder if I will ever love this place like I love Christiansburg. Will I ever find people here like my peeps in Christiansburg? Will Richmond ever like me?

And just because it wouldn't be right to not post a picture of the bean on her own blog, I give you this lovely shot from yesterday morning. Thanks MS - the bag of toys were so fun to go through - and Lois loves Mr. Octopus here. See? She's trying to eat him. That's love.