Melody Warnick's Blog, page 2

Issue 25: I Am Sitting on My Front Porch

You don’t buy a lot and build a brand-new house without thinking for about a bajillion hours about the kind of place you’d like to have. For my husband and me, those bajillion hours distilled down to a few core principles rooted in everything I’ve ever learned about place attachment:

We wanted an infill lot in an existing neighborhood with trees We wanted to be in walking distance to stuff we cared about We wanted to be closer to downtown We wanted a front porch

Five months in, I stand by...

Issue 24: The $5 Love Where You Live Experiment

On the Friday that the ice cream shop Sugar Magnolia finally soft-launched in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia, traffic through the doors didn’t falter for eight hours. The tables were swamped when I wandered over. No matter. I ate my $3.50 coconut chip ice cream cone among the greeting card racks.

It’s the least I can do. Communities do well when their locally owned businesses are thriving. Businesses succeed when the communities they’re located in are humming along. It’s the ultimate circular...

Issue 23: One Word That Changes Everything

Right before my friend Cristina moved to my town a few years ago, someone gave her this advice: Say yes to everything you’re ever invited to do.

“Since you’re new in town, you’ll probably get invited to things. But you only get one chance, because if you say no, you probably won’t get invited again. So say yes.”

So Cristina said yes. Over and over. For six months after she landed here, saying yes was her personal mission in life. Would she go to lunch with a bunch of strangers? Sure! Did she...

Issue 22: Truth: Money CAN buy happiness. At least for you in your place.

I know, I know. Buying things doesn’t make you happy. Experiences do. But what about paying for gear that helps you have more meaningful experiences where you live? I have spent about 20 years of my adult life in places where it snows every winter, sometimes an awful lot. Utah. Maryland. Iowa. Virginia. And yet it was only last year that I finally bought myself a pair of snow bibs. Every other winter before this, I’d haul jeans on over my long johns to go sledding or build a snowman and be s...

Issue 21: Why You Need a City Bucket List

Fun fact: New York City residents do not visit the Statue of Liberty every day.

It seems like they should, right? About 60 million people visit NYC every year, and the number #1 thing they want to see is the Statue of Liberty. Don’t the locals who have daily access to her just count their lucky stars?

No. No, they don’t. Actually, some people believe that the #1 sign you’re a real New Yorker is your utter disinterest in Lady Liberty. That old thing? Meh. Tourist stuff.

The sad truth is that...

Issue 20: The Ultimate Buy Local Holiday Shopping Guide

Confession: I spent Black Friday at a mall in Roanoke, Virginia. From the lady who can’t shut up about buying local, that may strike you as just a titch hypocritical, never mind the extenuating circumstances that this was my daughter Ella’s requested birthday outing and that I repentantly spent a couple hours at an indie bookstore on Shop Small Saturday.

But let’s be real for a second. Everyone shops online, at chains, and at big box stores. It’s almost impossible not to. The steady stream o...

Issue 19: 11 Things I Learned at CityWorks (X)Po

Why do I blow off so many potentially life-changing conferences? Money. Time. Complicated carpooling schedules. Guilt-inducing children. Even attending the wonderful CityWorks Xpo conference in Roanoke, 45 minutes down the road from Blacksburg, required a herculean level of organization.

And yet, as my writer friend Kate Hanley points out, “Good things happen when you leave the house.” Like the fact that I learned complacency-shaking new ideas—and Ruby still made it home from tennis lessons....

Issue 18: Sometimes Football Is More Than Just Football

I don’t really like football. As confessions go, that’s not a very good one since I say it all the time, lest I be confused for someone who knows or cares what a fullback is.

The weird part is that I nevertheless love when Virginia Tech plays a home football game here in Blacksburg. Last week’s was a doozy, the biggest game of the season. Clemson (they’re good, apparently) and ESPN and rabid Hokie fans thronged the town, mingling under a beneficent blue sky. I put on my Virginia Tech t-shirt...

Issue 17: Your Place Is Not Just Your Place

The author Laura Vanderkam, who writes books about making the most of the time you have, shares a hot tip about using your weekends well: Plan your days off. That little tidbit sometimes rattles around my brain at 3 pm Saturday afternoon when the only thing I’ve done of note for the day is scrub a toilet. My father believed strongly that weekends were for outings (Disneyland! Universal Studios! The beach!). Why do I so often go to bed Saturday night suffused with regret about wasting my oppo...

When Bad Things Happen to Good Towns

If you live in Blacksburg, Virginia, you’re apparently obligated to hate Charlottesville, at least a little. Every team has its cross-town rival, and the University of Virginia is Virginia Tech’s, thus—and correct me if I’m wrong, because I know zero about sports—we are natural enemies. Giving a talk in Charlottesville a few months ago for the Virginia Festival of the Book, I nervously cracked a joke about being from Blacksburg, and someone said, “We’ll forgive you.”

In truth, we’re a bit je...