I just got back from Huntsville, Alabama.

And I’ve noticed that lately, every time I go there, I’m acutally glad to be there.

Well aside from the fact that I went out to the club on Saturday night and if that was the normal club scene I’d have to kill myself if I lived there.

Either that or become a Buddhist.

I also realized that it’s entirely possible to walk out the house with some turqoise boxer briefs and a tie wrapped around your head with some Birkenstocks on and be completely over dressed for the club. I’m not saying that was me, but I really could have got into this club with a “dress code” dressed like Jesus.

With the halo.

Of course, at least I’m down South so the women look good, but nothing quite annoys me more than niggas trying to hit on two of my sisters with me sitting there telling me they don’t want no trouble cuz they’re on “papers.”

When they’re like 6′5″ and 280 pounds.

Which I am not. Just feels patronizing, ya know? I mean I have feelings. Almost felt like a challenge.

Hmm, to take it even further. I never have to drink to have a good time. For the first time, I had to drink to have a good time. A lot. Fortunately for me, my sisters are a riot.

Slight caveat, when I say sisters up there, I’m speaking of one actual sister of mine and one adopted sister, sort of. But the weird thing is, if it wasn’t for the law, neither would be related to me at all. Seriously, they could do a study on my family and it would take years to break down how I happen to have a brother and 6 sisters and only one of them is blood.

But we’re family like the Jacksons.

Either way, I have come to appreciate being in Huntsville. I’ve realized that I love open space a whole lot. And greenspace. I like peace and quiet at night and the ability to drive out of the city into just open roads and quiet and crickets and dark roads and stuff. Backroads and the like. I’ve always wanted to buy a house in the city and a house out in the sticks where not too many people could find me.

I like the country a lot as well. I like walking around barefoot without worrying about catching HIV from the sidewalk.

Though I’ll never live in Huntsville for long periods of time, I might buy me a house or something there. Kind of my getaway for when I move back to Atlanta.

Oh, and by the way, there is like zero depth whatever to anything I’m writing today. I’m just sharing because sharing is caring.

But the real reason I wanted to write this post is because I need to do a formal congratulations to one of my boys, The Great. I think I will now have to change his name from The Great, to The Doc. My boy, at age 27, has received his Ph.D. in Biology and Biomedical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

That’s Georgia Tech for those that just don’t know.

I’m so proud of that dude I don’t even know what to do with myself. Luckily we’ll be in Miami this weekend at a friends wedding so we can kick of the festivities something proper. Then again in August in the A.

To my boy, who occasionally reads here, congratulations. You know, I need to say this here, and forgive me if it sounds a little gloatish, but I’m really proud of my group of friends. I don’t know if it’s just luck or what have you, but I got a group of friends from Morehouse that all managed to graduate in 4 years, together, which at Morehouse is an accomplishment worthy of an award.

All of us have managed to get some type of advanced degree in some random field. We’ve got lawyers, educators, economists, policy analysts, scientists.

And we all can get as ignant as the next man.

And I appreciate that.

I think I shall change our motto to, “we do big shit.”

Anyway, to my boy, The Artists Now Known as The Doc and formerly known as The Great, the first Ph.D. in the group, good damn job homeboy.

Good damn job.