The delight of resurrected nerdiness

I love... I mean absolutely LOVE... being back in Davis, CA. There are MANY things I love about this town, but the one thing I love the most... our crazy, awesome friends.

Let me explain. In 2007, my husband got accepted to UC Davis to complete his undergraduate degree. He was a non-traditional student (older and married), so he didn't have the same undergrad experience that a lot of you have probably had. No dorm living, no late night binges, no all-nighters to cram for that mid-term... We lived quietly. I worked in one of the deans' offices. We made friends, but slowly.

One particular group of friends for me grew out of my place of work. The "cool kids," or the nerd-tastic kids however you want to label us, all sort of gravitated toward each other, and one day, on a whim, we started a book club. We kept up this club for over a year (!), added members, and even had a little blog for a while. We called ourselves the Finer Things Club, or FTC, after a similar group on The Office. We read all genres and then discussed what we loved or hated about the books over lunch and Futerama in the CRU basement office. (That's Computer Resources Unit, if you're wondering.)

In early 2010, N got a job offer in Connecticut, and we moved away. The FTC kept up their reading for a little while after I left... I'm not sure how long, but I AM sure they gave it a valiant effort. Eventually, though, people moved on to other things.

Connecticut was ... cold. It was dark... N worked long hours at a HIGHLY stressful job... and I became a (almost literal) hermit. We had very few friends there, but the ones we did make we valued greatly. Still, when the time came to decide what to do next, the obvious choice for us was to head West again. It was a no-brainer decision for me, moving back here... Davis is where our friends are... it's in CALIFORNIA (where, among other awesome things, there are no painfully snowy and cold winters, at least not in the Sacramento Valley)... and it's a great place for our next steps toward what we want.

Anyhow, here it is, October 2013, and we've been back in Davis for a month. And seriously y'all, the BEST THING EVER... the thing that is making me smile the most right now... is the way our friends here have opened their arms and welcomed us back. Leslie especially, and Lauren, and Debbie... and all my horse barn friends... I even had lunch with my dean's office friends the other week and the FTC was mentioned more than a few times.

But better than that, better than people just remembering me as the queen bee of our nerdy little book club... we're going to start it again! Our first book for the resurrected FTC is World War Z, by Max Brooks. Nothing could be more appropriate.

If any of you FTCers are reading this, I'm sending you a cyber hug and am looking forward to getting together to discuss the zombie apocalypse and the end of the world. FTC FTW!