A song to you...

Well, five days from today will be the one-year anniversary of our moving to Georgia.  It's been an interesting year, to say the least (doesn't everyone say that, to say the least?).  I think it would be fitting to look back on the year and try to come up with 50 Things I've Learned, Liked, Hated, and am Puzzled About Living in Statesboro, Georgia:  

1)  It's no lie: Georgia Southern University is a knock-out campus, very scenic and pedestrian-friendly, with all almost all the buildings looking new. 
2) Julia has a big, spacious office, and the library is really nice.  There's a wildlife center and botanical garden to show off to guests and visitors. 
3) People down here are crazy about football (the Georgia Bulldogs as well as GSU), but not in the insane, claustrophobic way they were in Columbus; it's not unpleasant to be around campus on Saturday. 
4) If you need to run a bunch of errands in town, you'll only be gone an hour or so. 
5) Why?  Because there's no Target, Kohl's, decent mall, decent bookstore, any places really worth lingering around in to kill time: There's Petco, TJ Maxx, and Walmart, Lowe's, and Office Depot, that's it. 
6) Restaurants?  Solid.  We have Cracker Barrel, Steak N'Shake, a frozen yogurt shop, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday, Panera, and Longhorn. 
7) There's plenty of produce stands (one of which has been disappointing) and a good meat market. 
8) The school Gabriel is in is good, and he loves his sweet teacher, Mrs. Evans. 
9) The gnats and bugs?  Annoying.
10) Every morning, half the year, you are guaranteed to be greeted to at least one dead roach or spider somewhere in the house.  Spray, spray, spray!  That still takes a while to get used to: so much chigger bugs and flying things.  BUGS!   

11) Everyone's allergies have been triggered down here.  I have had a recurring scratchy throat since I've been here.
12) We live in a ghost neighborhood.  Some of our neighbors are crazy, possibly dangerous. 
13) There was a scorpion in our house the other day! 
14) Dogs run all over the place and crap. 
15) It's a birder's dream.  In the past year, I've seen, just in our neighborhood, ospreys and red-tailed hawks, hundreds of cardinals, blue jays, bluebirds, mockingbirds, herons, hummingbirds, egrets.
16) I've gotten up-close to deer, foxes (relatively speaking), snapping turtles, snakes.
17) We were told it would be sunny two-thirds of the year here; it actually seems sunnier more often than that. 
18) It's easier to be bored here, but it's also easier to be in a good mood, largely because of the weather.  
19) Everything, and I mean everything, moves so much slower here.  I won't get into this! 
20) Our dog, Daisy, has made life incredibly more interesting.  It doesn't seem like people around here treat their pets particularly well, however. 

21) Julia and I aren't snobs, but sometimes when we're out and about, we feel like we have absolutely nothing in common with the people around us. 
22) Almost anyone dressed nicely or professional-looking must either work for the university or the hospital. 
23) When it rains or storms, there's a good chance the power will go out briefly. 
24) Downtown Statesboro, with its scenic courthouse, sounds better than it is.  There's almost nothing there. 
25) Most of the seasonal events - the Farmer's Market, Halloween on the Square, Easter Egg Hunt - are rinky-dink and shabby.
26) GSU has a good theater program and puts on quality productions. 
27) The movie theater in town sucks.  I mean, sucks.  In two of the three times I've been there, I've encountered issues I never have before.
28) I don't think I'll ever get a job at GSU, no matter how many jobs apply for, no matter what sort of connection I have.  I don't know who they hire and where all these unemployed, college-educated folks live.  All I ever see are hicks. 
29) Julia dreads the weekends because our neighborhood and town is so boring.  If it's during football or basketball season, I have something to look forward to.  If not, yeah, it's the pits. 
30) That's why we say the only thing to do in Statesboro is to go to Savannah. 

Savannah

31)  Despite its sketchy neighborhoods, Savannah is one fine town.
32) The Historical District is charming and ageless.
33) Oatland Island Wildlife Center, Tybee, Bonaventure Cemetery, the National Wildlife Refuge - all pleasurable.
34) Good places to eat in Savannah, but we almost never pass up on a trip to Five Guys.  Two Smart Cookies has sweets to die for.
35) Savannah has the good grocery stores, the good bulk-item stores.
36) We're only an hour-and-a-half from Beaufort and Hilton Head.  Hilton Head we visit for the outlet malls.  Beaufort, a beautiful city by the bay, provides plenty of walking enjoyment, good stores, a fine bagel joint, a good bookstore.
37) Atlanta, we can only visit two times a year, because it's three hours a way.  The Georgia Aquarium is magnificent, mid-town is great, the zoo is barrels of fun.  Good restaurants, good Guy Fieri joints.
38) St. Simons Island, down the coast, is a worthy place to spend a day or weekend.  There's Guy Fieri joints there too, along with a nice beachfront.
39) Brunswick, just inland from the Georgia Isles, is a nice old town whose downtown has been lovingly restored.
40) Charleston is only 2 and a half hours away.  A fantastic city.  Columbia's the same distance.

Augusta

41) Augusta is about 90 minutes,  We go every once in a while because we enjoy the bookstore 2nd and Charles and some of the shopping there.  We've even gone up there once just to get the hell of of Statesboro.
42) Julia and I can't figure out what students do here in town.  There are almost no bars, just the one crappy theater, no place to really walk to from campus, and this is a county that doesn't sell liquor.
43) There are no parks in this town except one.  One park in this whole town!  No wonder why Gabriel seems bored half the time.
44) If it wasn't for the waterpark Splash in the Boro, there would be absolutely nothing to do here in the summer.  We all love it - there's a lazy river, a couple of kiddie pools, etc.
45) The town is definitely expanding but not fast enough, considering how fast the university is growing - 20,000+ students.
46) Julia and I shudder to think what this town was like, say, five to seven years ago: all the newer restaurants and the waterpark, etc. - they're all relatively new.
47) There are no places around here to take a good walk.
48) This Bermuda grass in everyone's yards is strange.  Strands of it grow really high while the strands next to it hardly grow at all.
49) Fire ants!  Fire ants!  Fire ants!  Fire ants!
50) Thank God for Redbox.