Blahhgg #9: Q &A on The 'ville...What's it like?

I'm getting this question a lot and the short answer is nice...and not San Francisco.
"Duh" I'm hearing and you're right but no matter how much I nutted up for the move, there are several things I didn't expect:

1. Geography: I forgot how easy it is to live in many other places (and how cheap). The 'ville is pretty small geographically and it's not very densely populated. So almost everything is reasonably close and there's few lines for things and tons of parking which makes getting around much simpler and faster. In fact most people when queried reply "oh that's about 20 minutes from here." And it's true (unless you drive like me and then it's 10 minutes).

2. Beauty: The 'ville is located in what's called Middle Tennessee. It's verdant with rolling hills and very pretty rivers (Cumberland & Harpeth are two big ones right in the metro area). There are beautiful trees and flowers everywhere and lovely old homes (both restored and decrepit). It's the most suburban urban place I've ever lived in, even in the center of downtown: right behind the state capitol building is the farmer's market!

3. No one seems to be in a hurry. It's nice but weird. I find myself rushing off somewhere and I look around and think "What for the rush?" Makes me feel like an alien (the kind with an antenna).

3. Quantity & Quality: I think I might have mentioned this before but they really like drinking spirits, beer and wine. And all the best wine lists in town (and there are a bunch of them that are GREAT - broad and big) have a white Zinfandel by the glass up their next to their Chardonnays and white Bordeaux's. You drink it? They pour it. This attitude pervades the music scene too.

4. Christianity: The 'ville is known as "the buckle of the Bible belt" and that ain't mere braggadocio. There are churches of every stripe everywhere but I think this is actually world HQ for the Baptist Convention. They have a big hospital here and a big publishing house here for all their - stuff.

But the wide reach of this really hit home when Mike and I went to register our car. They must have 150 different kinds of license plates available with many of them financially supporting various non-profit organizations and causes. When you go to the website there are all kinds of plates but I was shocked when I came across this one:

Apparently some portion of the extra fee for this plate is "allocated to New Life Resources and shall be used exclusively for counseling and financial assistance including food, clothing, and medical assistance for pregnant women in Tennessee and will also be used to coordinate statewide awareness campaigns, a toll-free helpline and to reimburse social service providers who prepare adoptions throughout the state for services and programs targeting at-risk women and families."

I couldn't believe it. I looked up New Life Resources and it got worse: they are the "ministry materials distribution center of Campus Crusade for Christ" and right on their website is the invitation: "Darwin or Design: examine the evidence yourself". These guys manage to revolt me in two of the most key parts of my life: a woman's right to choose and the idiotic conflation of religion and science.

Oh well - at least we're not in Kansas.