In Love With a City. And Feeling Like Myself Again.

Going to make this a quickie since I'm on a getaway with my hubby this weekend and I'd really like to squeeze in a nap (while he works out) before hitting up the city life.  So, you know what that is...right? A BULLET Post.  I know you love the bullets!

• We are in LOVE.  With a city.  Called Asheville, NC.  Was this place made just for us?  I think so.  So far from the 3 hours we've spent driving around with a realtor, this place fits everything we've ever described for our perfect place to live ever since we became us.  
• How did this random trip to Asheville, NC come to be?  Well, it is a long story really (for another day) but the best I can describe it would be : SERENDIPITY.  
• I haven't felt this way about a life moment since I drove to Oregon in 2000 on a whim (for an adventure) and ended up meeting the Love of my life...my best friend.  Much of this love story...a story of serendipity...can be found in this post:  The Minute I Heard My First Love Story, I Started Looking for You.    It is my favorite of all my life stories so far.  
• For the first time in weeks, I feel like Amanda again.  I've had an emotional last couple of days.  Weeks really.  During this time, I've done a lot of reflection and "work" with myself where I've been processing things that have come up....old things that I'd forgotten and new experiences that have be unexpectedly hard for me.  But it feels good to be back on course and have this weekend with my husband to explore this fantastic city.  
• This place is dangerous in that we love it so much.  If we move, it would only be a temporary thing...a year or so.  All of our family is in Oregon.  Family is the most important part of life and wouldn't be worth staying away from them.  Maybe we can get them to move too?  :)  
• Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your private e-mails, texts, and comments in response to my last post regarding my "off" feelings after Hood to Coast.  Your words means so much and  made me feel loved and heard.  And a freedom to be REAL on this blog, which as come to be a public but personal journal of sorts.
• To clarify, I didn't mean to bring so much negative focus to the social media usage on the trip but that topic seemed to strike a chord with many of you.   I surely wasn't judging even though this is a sensitive topic for me.   As I said, I was one of those people on my phone at many times.   A tricky situation since we were all Bloggers chosen to be on this team...we were doing the social networking and communicating that helps spread the word about our experiences....one of the reasons we were chosen.  Easy to get out of balance.  And we all found that it was acceptable to be absorbed in our social medias while with each other even though it would be terribly rude in real life.  Maybe it was terribly rude in blogger gathering world too?...definitely something to be more aware of...did our social media usage get in the way of forming friendships that might have been if only we'd saved our tweeting, facebooking, etc. for a specific chunk of (or less) time rather than a constant/unless phone dies or coverage is lost?  Quite possibly.  I think so.  But overall, I was just sharing my reflections and FEELINGS/REACTIONS to the situation.  Not saying that it was right or wrong.  I hope this is clear.  
• I may have come home from HTC feeling a bit of a disconnect with myself and not feeling like I was my best me (injury, feeling introverted, overwhelmed with not having enough time to dig deeper with people, etc.) but I had a great time and I am honored to have been chosen!  I hope I get a chance to do it again sometime when I am not injured!!  And when I know what to expect with such a large group of women bloggers.  
• In the meantime, I'm excited to spend a weekend exploring this beautiful city!

Happy Friday!
Amanda 

Follow Runninghood on Facebook or Twitter