mmanzone's blog

Reading Sunstein's article reminded me of how I discovered what would eventually become a huge part of my life. People who know me know that Lifehouse has been my favorite band for a solid six years, but they don't know that I discovered this band totally by accident.  My dad subscribed to a radio station and would receive monthly CDs with wide ranges of music.  He normally requested not to have them sent, but this particular month he forgot and we received it. My sister and I were bored several months later and figured we might as well listen to it. We weren't really into it until "Whatever it Takes" came on and we both loved it.  We immediately searched for other songs by Lifehouse and eventually found a small community of fans who were accepting of everyone and genuinely some of the nicest people I've ever met.  Had I not stumbled across Lifehouse completely by accident I would never have met some of the people I think of as my closest friends or become as close as I am with my sister.

Photo from: http://www.gpsmagazine.com/assets/review-ln740/routing_engine.jpg

To understand what the city means to me you first have to know that I grew up in a very small agricultural town.  There are family farms whose land come from grants dating back to when William Penn first settled the area.  There are no police or fire departments and the most exciting thing to happen in quite a few years was when Hurricane Irene hit and the bridges were too flooded to cross.   My town is small enough that I know my neighbors, have a regular table at a small restaurant every Thursday, and have babysat for one of our Township Supervisors, our equivalent to a mayor.  I drive down the roads and I see cows and horses and signs for home farmed eggs and milk.  We have one traffic light at the intersection of a veterinary hospital, family-run hardware store, post office and elementary school.  My town is the quintessential small town.

I'm one of those people who is pretty much silent until you get to know them, and then I won't shut up.  Because of this I figured I'd start out with a really simple username and, if I want to later, I'll change it. I've lived in Pennsylvania my whole life. For the last 15 years I have lived in a small agricultural town called Unionville.  There are many farms all over and a few years ago one of the fields near my house was full of sunflowers.  I am really interested in nature photography and I went to take some pictures when I found this birdhouse on which  someone had drawn a heart. I love Unionville and felt that the birdhouse summed up my feelings for my quirky home town perfectly.  Of all the pictures I took that day this is, by far, my favorite.