Treasures & Happy Places

 

Part of how we cope with the upheavals of military life and adjust to new areas as quickly as possible is to find what we call "happy places", local businesses and spots we can go to while away a Saturday and feel connected to our new home. We haven't done much exploring since we got here in April, partly because Mr. Wonderful's work schedule is slightly insane, but mostly because we now live in an area that is overrun by tourists from May to the beginning of September. A lot of locals seem to hibernate during the summer and emerge once the tourists have gone home, which is what we ended up doing. So this past weekend was really our first opportunity to go out looking for our happy places. We were successful!

We found a couple of really neat antique shops, a packed-to-the-gills used book shop, a great old-fashioned diner, and for Mr. Wonderful, an awesome record store (Yes, vinyl records! Remember those?). We had such a fun day and came home with treasures: pottery, some old books and records, a few very pretty homemade dishcloths, some homemade fudge, a couple of prints by a local photographer, and a sparkly little pin for me. There's a lot more around here that needs exploring, but we're off to a strong start. We know the antique shop lady--and the shop cat--and the book shop guy by name now, and our list of happy places is growing. Unfortunately, there's no needlework shop anywhere near me, but I know I've been unusually blessed to have shops at our last two duty stations, so I'm not going to fuss about that too much. Most stitchers don't have an LNS, but we still manage to acquire stash, don't we?

So it was a good day. This has been a hard move, and a hard adjustment, in a hard year. All the more reason to seek out happy places and snuggle down into them and appreciate the good. Oh! One more triumph to share... I found a stylist! I hadn't had my hair cut since right before we moved in March, so I was beginning to look like a sheep in need of shearing. Y'all know how breaking in a new stylist can be. A bit nerve wracking, especially if your hair/hairstyle is out of the ordinary. I finally got up the nerve to tackle this yesterday and I'm both tickled and relieved to report that she nailed it on the first appointment. It took us about an hour to get there (I wear my hair shortish but there is *a lot* of it) but we did it, so I'm counting her and my new salon as a treasure and a happy place. Yay!

Treasures and happy places... may you find them when you need them.