Charleston, what a little tease you are.

Monday was a very good day for me.  And really, I didn't do a whole lot.  Of course, the normal housework was accomplished, but in the afternoon I decided to take a little trip to downtown Charleston.  I have kind of been avoiding downtown during my semester off, just to skip the annoyances of traffic and parking.  And honestly, there's not really much going on downtown that is relevant to my interests, and I didn't think I was missing out on much.  But anyway...

So I headed downtown for one purpose and one purpose only - to find this:

There are lots of these downtown, mostly on King Street.  They all say different things and I think I've got most of them that are there right now, but you know how graffiti comes and goes.  So anyway, someone told me where this one was and I was going to take a picture for my own personal nerdy collection.

After searching the Battery for 20 minutes or so trying to find a parking space, I finally stumbled upon one at the right time, and started on my little stroll.  Walked around the Battery, which is always pleasant - I love the wind coming in off the water; it smells like the ocean and it kills the humidity.  But once I stepped down onto East Bay Street, the humidity reared its ugly head and I resigned myself to being sweaty and nasty for the afternoon.  Gross.  However, E. Bay Street also introduced me to the smell of blooming magnolias and honeysuckles, which were crawling all over the trees.  It was a smell I'd kind of forgotten about, probably because I wasn't here to experience it last summer.  But I enjoyed it much and will definitely be returning to enjoy it soon.

From East Bay, I took a left on Broad taking in the air conditioning from the art galleries and law offices, and took a few minutes to pass through St. Michael's Churchyard.  Another place I haven't visited in two years or so, I was kind of happy to see that they are trying to repair a lot of the old gravestones.  Many of the stones here are old enough the it's nearly impossible to read them, but it's a beautiful little graveyard.  Here, look at old but not sooo old things:

After Broad, I headed down King Street and took pictures of at least 10 new little graffiti things that weren't there before or that I hadn't seen.  I got a lot of strange looks while I was squatting/kneeling on the sidewalk, but was worth it.

When I finished with all that fun stuff, it was time to head back home.  So I looped back around and I think I found my new favorite Charleston house, located in Rainbow Row on East Bay.  I've never been a fan of Rainbow Row, but this house just grabbed my attention today:

It's the blue house!  I guess you could call it blue.  Anyway, I like it.  And that's really all I saw and did downtown.

Even though I didn't really have some extraordinary experience downtown, it was enjoyable because it reminded me of the things that I do like about Charleston.  Although I'm still not extremely overjoyed about being stuck for for two more years or so, I think if I keep having little experiences like this, I could come to terms with it.  At least I hope so.  

Dear Charleston,

Even though you are boring and filled with rich, snobby people, sometimes you pull a little trick on me and I fall a little in love with you.  Now if only you could ditch your annoying habits and stop being generally lame.  I want to give you a chance.  Really, I do.  But every time I think that I love you, you do something unforgivable.  I mean, how can you expect me to stand loyally by your side when you bring Darius Rucker into the mix?  No idea?  Exactly.  I'll give you another chance, Charleston, but you'd better not fuck it up this time.

Love and ...benne wafers,

Courtney