I'm from East Tennessee - Wartburg, to be exact. It's a little town -- blink twice while driving around the intersection of Hwy 27 & Hwy 62, and you'll miss it. It lies about halfway between Knoxville & Nashville, just off the edge of the Cumberland Plateau and yet close enough to East Tennessee that we've got mountains (small ones - not on the scope of the Smokey Mountains).
I lived in Tennessee most of my life -- up until January 2007, I'd only been away for the 5 years I spent in the US Air Force.
Since January 2007, I've been living in Eden Prairie, Minnesota -- a suburb of Minneapolis and a stone's throw from St. Paul.
It's been a big change in some ways, and not so big in others. Minneapolis has 6 months of winter the way TN had 6 monts of summer. That's a change I can live with. There are rolling, low hills instead of mountains (I'm not thrilled with that particular change). The suburbs of Minneapolis run together to the point that I don't know where one ends and one begins.
Up until March 2007, I was single. That's been an even bigger change, but one I'm very happy about. Learning to live with someone else, especially someone who, like me, had never married has been a challenge -- but we're both old enough that we don't sweat the small stuff too much.
One of the biggest things I miss is living in the country where I could have lots of animals, and they could pretty much come and go as they please.
I miss Dulcie & Coatie. I miss Callie, Boo & Eli. I miss my Aunt Grace.
Anton, my tiger-striped Tennessee cat, made the move with me. He's mostly resigned to being an indoor cat, especially since he has free reign of the deck in warmer weather and we take him out to climb the occasional tree and to the dog park as well, where he sullenly consents to walk with us on a leash.
We also have Jet now, who is a border collie / lab mix. He has the face of a lab, but the size and markings of a border collie. I am the barely-acceptable source of food and the occasional tosser of his bone, but he has eyes only for 'Daddy'.
I'm currently working about 25 miles from where I live, away from the big city. I'm an office manager at a promotional health & beauty care manufacturer -- and I'm insanely busy at work all the time.
I like to roleplay and write (DUH!). I also love to read. Half of what I've packed up in preparation for the move is books that I can't stand to get rid of just yet. Mystery, horror, fantasy, historical novels ... My first love is probably short stories of the horror genre, followed closely by fantasy and mysteries.
After a several year hiatus, I'm also playing table-top D&D again, every other Saturday. Sometimes I run (mostly Ravenloft), sometimes I play. Always I cook for the group, and they seem to be happy about it most of the time.
