Getting that “are you smoking crack?” look

Yesterday, I was having a wonderful conversation with a born & raised local dad from my son’s baseball team. He was asking where we had lived, grew up, gone to college and how we ended up here.
* When I told him we had lived all over the US and knew we would end up in the South – he understood that.
* When I told him this is paradise for a civil engineer – he understood that.
* When I told him that we didn’t have any family connections here – I got a strange look.
* When I told him we thought this was a great place to raise children – he understood that.
* When I told him we could have lived anywhere and CHOSE to live here – I got the “are you smoking crack?” look!

Yep – and we love it! This is our forever home. All we need is some house updating done (know anyone?) & we are all set! Let’s put this in idiot terms – EVERY place has issues. There is no perfect place- there are some things that may make a place more desirable – but no place is perfect. I have enjoyed my time in so many “armpits” of the United States. This is not an armpit – it is paradise! Encourage and welcome newcomers who can become productive citizens and plant roots here! Send out the dang “Welcome Wagon” Louisiana!
(c/p at NOLA.com)