Elkmont, Alabama

I am in Alabama right now. I am in Elkmont, Alabama, sitting on a velvetish couch next to a marble statue of a horse and a glass case full of ethnically diverse Santa Clauses. My favorite is the Mexican one holding a guitar and wearing a sombrero. Elkmont is a charming town of about 300 people, all of whom seem blissfully unaware of themselves and in general, the world around them. I say blissfully because they are happy, and it has been nice to escape to this random corner of the world and remember how many different lives are being lived all over the world, and how self centered I can sometimes get.

I took a walk in the cold Alabama air this morning, was blinded by a brilliant sun, enchanted by people stopping to ask if I needed a ride into "town" and chased and bitten by a mangy mutt protecting a run down farmhouse. Unfortunately, the charm of the light and strangers did not overpower my fear of rabies, and my walk ended in a frightened and angry hop skip. But now I am showered, coffee'd up, and feeling better.

The woman who owns the couch and the Santa Clauses is my roommates grandmother. Aside from Santas, she also collects pictures of grotesquely overweight children from Enquirer Magazine. She then laminates them and puts them into a manila folder next to her cookie recipes. She showed her collection to us proudly within 10 minutes of our arrival. This morning after I came back a bit shaken up from my run in from with the dog, she called the neighbor to give him a piece of her mind, and then invited me to watch television preachers with her to make myself feel better. I accepted, and found myself pleasantly entertained. Don't judge me.