I was away from Maine long enough to appreciate that it isn't just the miserably cold and lonely backwater I had believed it to be as a twenty-four-year-old.

In moving to Atlanta, I was able to see the beauty and specialness of the place I grew up.

I lived in Atlanta long enough to take it for granted. But then I was away long enough to miss its magic, too. Now that I'm back, I'm reveling in the mild weather, the diversity, the density, the tennis and the restaurants.

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Many a guitarist has been spellbound by U2’s 1984 tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., “Pride (In The Name Of Love).

And many a guitarist has wanted to throw their instrument at the wall in frustration after trying to replicate the song’s signature delay-soaked, strummy sixteenth-note riff, as played by U2’s guitarist, the Edge.

Basically, there’s no way you can do it unless you have a board full of effects pedals, plus an electric guitar and amp of sufficient quality. With the right gear, you have a chance at success; without them, you will not.

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The first time my nephew came to visit us in Maine, he kept count of the number of different boats he had been on.

By the end of the first day, he was up to four, including the two he had simply stepped onto for a little while when they were tied up at the dock.

“You’re becoming a boatman!” his grandmother said.

“Maybe I’m turning into a boy who likes boats instead of superheroes,” he said.

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When I purchased a 50mm lens for my Nikon camera, it was a relatively inexpensive way to make my photos look more professional.

I had been using the lens that ships with the camera, a 35mm telephoto lens that can shoot a landscape and then zoom in to capture specific details. Its versatility was nice. However, photos with the 50mm lens looked so much more refined. It was perfect for very shallow depth of field effects, meaning that there was only a limited distance from the camera that would be in focus, creating a nice blurry background or foreground.

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When I bought sheets to outfit our tiny apartment, I just knew that they had to be 100% cotton.

I’m a snob when it comes to sheets, and a cotton/poly blend wasn’t going to do it for me. Maybe I’m too sensitive, like the princess of "The Princess and the Pea,” but cotton/poly blend sheets makes me feel like I’m sleeping in a plastic bag. So I walked down the aisle of the local Wal-Mart until I found a few 100% cotton sheet sets and picked one.

But over the next few months, I felt that something was off. These sheets just felt so flimsy. They were so soft that they always felt dirty, even when they were perfectly clean. I realized that even though the softness of sheets is often a selling point, I didn’t like soft sheets. I longed for the thick, cool, crisp sheets I had had has a child. Where were those?

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