I Love Sunshine

I'm a Missouri girl. Through and through. Approximately 90% of my clothing actually says Missouri on it (Go Tigers!). I have a never-ending allegiance to the (baseball) Cardinals. When someone mentions Sheryl Crowe (or Brad Pitt or Walter Kronkite), I loudly shout, "They're from Missouri!" I know that Boulevard is the most delicious wheat beer around. I boo everytime I hear the word "Kansas." I talk to people in grocery store lines. I never feel more peaceful then when I'm sitting on a bluff, staring out at a lake/river, walking through the woods (not the forest) in the fall, playing in a corn maze, or eating barbecue on someone's deck.

I love Missouri.

But I think I may be having a completely salacious affair with Arizona.

Missouri is my first love. The sweet, loving, slightly crazy first love that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I've always been equally parts resigned to and afraid of the fact that I'll end up with when it's all said and done. I'm comfortable with Missouri. I even love Missouri.

But Arizona. Oh, Arizona.

It has captured my heart. I was driving back up from Phoenix the other day and it was so big and warm and sunny and vast and ruggedly gorgeous that I couldn't stop smiling.

Arizona makes me happy. Arizona makes me feel alive in ways that I haven't in a long time. It makes me feel young and adventurous. It takes me really fun places and challenges me to do things I've never done. And for the most part, I'm so busy and focused on Arizona that I don't even think of Missouri. It's like I've moved on.

And then I drive past a lake or I hear a song or I get an email from an old friend. And I remember everything I ever loved. Only the good parts.

Yep, I'm a Missouri girl. But I'm going to keep seeing Arizona, just in case it might be right.

Song of the Day: I Taught Myself to Grow by Ryan Adams (I really like the harmonica.)