Home is Where the Heart Is: Jade Nicole is Back

Over the past few months, I've been all over the place! Literally.  You know the saying "you can take a girl out the country, but you can't take the country out the girl?" Well, you can take this girl outta Tuscaloosa, but you can't take Tuscaloosa outta me. So, I'm back!

What I've been up to is... Well... A lot! I moved to Prattville while working at Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery.  I left there for a position I thought would be a better fit in Kennesaw, GA. While the money was good, and I liked Kennesaw, honestly it was a bit too far from home.

Let me make this clear.  Here's what makes Tuscaloosa home:

1.  My family is here.  When I say "my family,"  I mean my brothers, my sister, my mom, and (most important) my child.  I had to leave my daughter here for whom my family cared while I was away during the week.  THAT was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. In addition to my immediate family, I have (I want to say "a whole slew," but that would just be TOO country) hundreds of aunts, uncles, and cousins here.  And if that's not enough, it is said that friends are the family that you choose. Those others, I had no control. But my friends? Yes, I consider you as family.

2.  There is no church like mine. I'm not saying it's the best church in the world, but I AM saying it's the best church FOR ME that I've attended.  I feel so passionately about this that while I was living 3 hours away, I still came to Tuscaloosa to church... And served!

3.  Tuscaloosa home-grown restaurants are nostalgic. No lie, before I left, I'd lost 30 lbs.  I found 20 of those, and I've only managed to get off 5.  How?  To be honest, I had a very sedentary job, and I snacked a lot. Then, I would come home on the weekend, and everything I wanted but couldn't get to during the week, I tried to fit into the weekend: Archibald and Woodrow's wings, Sunday dinner at KSV, pineapple delight or something like that they call it at Southland ("we" know it as dump cake), etc.  It's funny, but just last week, a friend asked me if I wanted to get some breakfast.  Of course my fat tail said yes, and when asked where I wanted to go, my preferences were either Rama Jama or Waysider, which is where we ended up going.

4.  There is no such thing as a back road during rush hour traffic in Georgia.  Most people know that I worked at UPS in Tuscaloosa for a few years.  So, there aren't many streets in Tuscaloosa that I don't know.  When I tell you that EVERY road in Cobb County is congested during rush hour....!!! It's not that I couldn't manage it.  Coming from and visiting Chicago regularly, an hour commute isn't so bad.  But when it takes an hour to go 15 miles, that's a problem.  And then when you try to take an alternate route, it seems that everybody has the same idea so it takes just as long! Can you say "over it?"

5.  I love the media.  I started working with newspapers while in high school and continued through college.  I interned at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center in the Medical Media Department. During that time (2003), I started at WTUG as an intern as well.  So, while I COULD do the work I was doing away from here and enjoyed it for the most part, it wasn't really my passion. Add to that the fact that my pastor taught a series on operating in your place of purpose, and it was time for me to make a move.

So, that's the deal.  I'm home and ready to serve my community.  If you have ANYTHING coming up of which you think the community should be aware, PLEASE let me know. I'm easy to reach. Simply click on my name at WTUG.com.