Southern Hospitality

If you are in Birmingham, I hope you can stay with friends as hospitable as Alyssa and Stephen. They have made a lovely life together in a cozy little house and friendly neighborhood. Staying with them on my way back to Tennessee from visiting the Chanceys was a very special treat. Alyssa and I met for lunch at Panera after I had been to my interview at Hoffman Media*. We stopped by the fairy tale house you saw in the previous post, and then drove back to her house where we made tea, visited, made supper, visited, waited for Stephen to get home, ate supper, visited, made brownies, ate them with a strawberry shake and coffee, visited, visited, visited, and finally went to bed. The next morning, my sweet friends prepared a lovely little breakfast of biscuits and jam and tea before sending me on my way at 8 AM.

Living Space

The Hearth of the Home

Stephen and Alyssa

Stephen is working on his Ph.D in medical research, seeking a cure for malaria. Alyssa is an accomplished musician and teaches violin and piano lessons to thirty students.

*I'm interested in interning with a magazine next summer, so I was thrilled that my trip south allowed me to go talk to the folks at Hoffman, publishers of Victoria and other magazines. I arranged to meet the the HR coordinator, Judy Brown, who graciously introduced me to one of the managing editors. Lorna Reeves is the editor of Taste of the South and was so kind. She told me about her experience in editing and gave me some tips on how I can work toward finding a niche in the field of editing.