Getting ready to head back to Tuscaloosa for fall semester next week, I am initiating a list of some of our greatest amenities (to combat my growing dread that our new apartment will still be crawling with cockroaches when we get there). So, in no particular order

-Joe at PestPro Exterminators
-The Alcove
-Egan’s Bar
-The Black Warrior River
-The Arboretum
-Sokol Park
-The Bike Shop
-The U of Alabama Book Arts Program
-Hank Lazer and Creative Campus
-The Moody Art Gallery (Jasper Johns, Sally Mann, Robert Rauschenberg last year!)
-The Kentuck Arts and Crafts Center
-The Kentuck Festival
-OZ Music
-Little Italy Pizza
-Sitar (Great Indian food!)
-Ruan Thai
-Archibald’s BBQ
-Dreamland BBQ
-Maggie’s Diner
-Netflix (I recommend Laurel and Hardy.)
-JD’s
-BBQ nachos from the cart in JD’s parking lot
-Manna Foods
-Slash Pine’s 2010 Writer Hikes (Did someone say Slash Pine?)
-Claudia Keelan will be a visiting writer in residence at U of Alabama this spring!
-The Gorgas Library’s record collection
-Townes Van Zandt’s shout-out to T-town in “Waiting Around to Die”
-America’s Greatest Thrift Store
-Anne’s Tiques
-The Crimson Tide (Roll Tide! “It’s a tradition.”)
-Natty Ice is always on sale everywhere
-Fireworks are legal
-The St Paul United Methodist Church sign–it’s the most prophetic marquee in town (“We are too Blessed to Be Depressed”)
-Sometimes you can get a haircut and auto detailing in the same place
-Mockingbirds
-Magnolia trees
-Old train bridge in Northport
-Mary’s Cakes (Great croissants!)
-Bama Theatre
-Oliver Lock and Dam
-Cicadas
-Mule Day Chicken Fest (in Gordo)
-The Foundry (thrift store in Bessemer)
-Charlemagne Records (in Birmingham)
-The Bottle Tree (in Birmingham)
-Pie Lab (in Greensboro)
-Rural Studios (in and around Greensboro)
-Mustang Oil (in Greensboro)

*Special Note: Whiskey is way cheaper at ABC Beverages.

On my to-do list:
-Civil Rights Museum (in Birmingham)
-Hank Williams Museum (in Montgomery)
-William Faulkner’s house (in Oxford, Mississippi)
-Flannery O’Conner’s peacock farm (in Milledgeville, Georgia)

In the words of Robert Creeley, What do you do,/ what do you say,/ what do you think,/ what do you know.