welcome

I want to welcome Peter and Annie back to the city. They had to relocate after K and have spent much of that time in Asheville, vending as artists where they could. Peter is a native New Orleanian and has extended family here and Annie found herself here about a decade ago. They met at a local art festival as fellow vendors and have been together since.

This is the type of news that means a great deal to those of us here in the day to day. Much like when George and Budd moved back from Kentucky, I feel as if the balance is a little more righted when our free thinkers and bohemians re-arrive to re-plant roots.
I have never had any less respect of those who had to leave; this is a informal city full of smart people with individual plans and lives. Since all that is respected here, if someone had to go to make a living or to right their mindset, well I just will wait for their return, knowing they will.
I think I believe that because my mother was a New Orleans refugee for 18 years, slogging through Ohio, bravely trying to understand their strange ways. When she returned to her city, she brought me with her and I learned what it means for someone come home. Like a new person she was, and yet, I am sure to her, like the June she really was inside all of those years...
When I left in my early 20s, I said goodbye to my mom and friends and told them I would return, and 14 years later, I did. Those 14 years away were amazing and wonderful and I wouldn't trade them away. Because in returning, like Peter and Annie now and George and Budd before them and thousands of others who stayed away, we are home with added experience and connections out there quite ready to rebuild our daily life in a city we love no matter where we are.