I have, over the past decade, made several trips to and through Charlottesville, Virginia.  Although I have not spent any considerable amount of time here it always has an air of familiarity.  While I often denounce the East as being a barren wasteland of concrete and busybodies, this town serves as a reminder that I am frequently wrong.  The Blueridge Mountains are magnificent.  I just learned that the “blue” hue is due to isoprene released by flora into the atmosphere, where it reacts with ozone.  There is an apparent dulling of the blue occurring because of the ever-decreasing ozone layer.  So the moral is twofold: reduce your emissions and see it while you can!

This trip has proven to be surprisingly fun, despite my already high expectation that it would be.  The interview dinner was absurdly delicious.  I ordered an Old Fashioned and a BBQ platter– when in Rome!  The interview itself was really cool in that there were only three of us so things went smoothly and quickly.  The downside is that I paraded all over town in my stilettos.  I now know that I am capable of basically anything.  Having decided to stay another day, I lived it up and went out for a night on the town with the residents.  A childhood friend who is now a resident here took me and his ladyfriend on a vineyard tour of the surrounding Nelson county, which was very cool yet left me feeling toasty.  We followed it with dinner (shrimp n’ grits) and pub crawl of the downtown mall accompanied by a whole slew of residents.  It was a lot of fun– probably too much fun.

This morning I begrudgingly got in the car and cruised over to a Charlottesville staple, Bodo’s Bagels.  I used to rock a t-shirt from this establishment years ago!  So I had the best bagel money could by and took off for Monticello.  The first time I’ve been back since I went with George on the Freedom Tour years ago.  This town has a funny way of reminding me of Old George, and I hope life is treating him kindly.  More than once I wished he were here to take an afternoon jog with me.  Ah life.

So I headed to Monticello by myself.  I parked at the bottom of the mountain and took a 2.5 mile stroll to Jefferson’s house.  I will never stop being blown away by the beauty of this country and by the wisdom and foresight of Thomas Jefferson.  His estate is something to see.  I have decided that no human should own a home larger than Monticello.  It is estimated at 11,000 square feet, and sadly through my previous work I have been in larger homes.  If the father of independence can constrain himself to a mere 11,000 then so can you!  I rant.

I also enjoyed the graveyard… in fact I have picked out headstones for Joey and myself (front image).  I also thought it would be super funny to have myself cremated and tossed into the graveyard at Monticello.  Think about it.

Anyway, beautiful times in blue Virginia.  It most definitely is for lovers. (Hint to Joe- come with me next time!)