Top Ten

My top ten favorite things about living in Hickory & greater Western North Carolina. In no particular order.

1. I have a 15 minute commute to work. If I hit all green lights, it can be 10 minutes. And my work is on the other side of the town! There is NEVER TRAFFIC here. It rules.

2. Trivia Night @ JJ's. JJ's is a bar/discount movie theatre in Morganton. It's a truly fantastic combination. The owner loves me and Athan and we have come so close to winning twice but always get the final question wrong and end up losing our points (its Jeopardy style). We eat popcorn and drink beer and watch wrestling or football on the big screen. Also in the bathroom stalls there is a fold-up table where you can rest your drink. Genius.

3. Having a pool. It has been 90+ degrees every day for about a week, which means when I get home from work at noon I can go for a swim right away. It's so refreshing and its a good place to do a workout.

4. Live jazz on Sundays at the Hickory Tap Room. It brews all its own beers and has really good food and all the performers have been great too.

5. Lowes Foods. A fantastic grocery store. Also I love Harris Teeter but we had one at home.

6. Locally grown produce. There is an abundance, mostly located on roadside stands

7. Drive-thru japanese hibachi. Yes. There are like 5 just on the main road. It costs between $5 and $9 for something basic like teryaki steak or chicken and carrots and a ton of rice. Honestly it's almost the same quality as an expensive Japanese grille.

8. Kiss 95.1 MyPod lunch. I don't know if something similar exists on radio stations elsewhere, but even if it did, I doubt it is as good. From noon to one they play some of the most hilarious, random and nostalgic music ever and I love it.

9. Old Salem. I know people think historical reenactments are lame, but at Old Salem they have one of the best bakeries EVER. It's beautiful but also insane because Old Salem is so quaint, but when you come to the end of it you are standing in the shadows of Winston-Salem's monstrous downtown city buildings.

10. Directions are given by landmark, not by road. That is because Hickory is on a grid system and all the streets have names like "7th Ave St NW" or "18th Cir Pl SE." Personally I live on a St Cir NE. So when you get directions people say things like, "turn right at Sandy Ridge Baptist Church and left at the empty lot that used to be a bank." It might seem annoying but the landmarks are embedded in the minds of everyone in the city, and you can have an emotional connection with the person or the place right away. That never happens with plain street names.