Ten Day Meme, Day Five

Six places.

1. My studio. With its paper lanterns and stacks of metaphysical books and faery trinkets and magenta sari curtains and bazillions of beads and barely organized chaos. I usually have a candle burning, a warm mug of tea, and a Noxman napping at my feet. It's a good place to be.

2. Sam's Bagels, Federal Hill. My first taste of pre-teen rebellion. I used to go to the church around the corner, but my Sunday school teacher had a tendency to send me to the pastor because I always had questions she couldn't answer. (If you lived on an island that had never heard of Jesus, would you still go to hell for not accepting Jesus as your savior? If so, why is God such an asshole so unfair?) So eventually I just stopped going to Sunday school and instead went to Sam's Bagels around the corner instead. I would meet up with my father at 11 for church, and he was none the wiser. Plus their Old Bay bagels are DELICIOUS.

3. Baltimore School for the Arts. The first place I realized where I wasn't just a nerd who deserved to get picked on for wanting to know things or bullied for not wearing this year's Nikes. The first place I belonged. The first place I felt real acceptance. The first place that treated me like a person with something to say and talents to contribute. The place where I escaped and realized that the person that I wanted to be was someone I could actually become.

4. The Outer Banks. I could sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in as the sun rises every day and not ever tire of it.

5. Gettysburg. A little town with a lot of history, both personal and historical. Going back every October feels a little bit like going home. I think I'm destined to live in a small town at some point in my life.

6. Faery. It might not be a physical place for most people, but when you're there, you know.