the grass is always greener...in the desert

When I was a freshman in college, I spent part of my spring break in Atlanta, Georgia. This was my first trip into the Deep South and I was sorely disappointed not to find people with Southern accents. They all sounded like me.

However, the grass in Atlanta was violently green. Seriously, I have never in my life seen grass that green. I freaked out and cried out, "OMG! Look at that grass?"

"What about it?" my friend who was driving me somewhere asked.
"IT IS GREEN! Like vividly green! Like, florescent green!"
"Yeah? You're point?"
"Grass is not naturally that color! But its all that color here!"

My friend logically rolled her eyes at this point and ignored me, but I could not get over the bright green grass. It was even sort of soft. (Yes, at one point I had to touch some just to see.)

In Scotland, the grass was also bright green, but it was a different sort of bright green, it was not blinding, it was just GREEN! Thus, I never got truely excited about it, plus after six months, I was as numb to the constant green as I was to the lack of sunshine and frizz free hair.

I was walking the dog today and as I rounded the corner, violently green grass caught my eye in the world of shades of yellow. It is spring time in the dirt hole, so there are tiny bits of dull green color coming to the few lawns being watered for 12 hours a day. There are leaves coming back to the trees, buds appearing on other trees.

As I walked closer to the violent green color, I came to realize the trees in this yard were also brilliant green in color, as well as certain sections of the front lawn (the side yard and back yard look like the rest of the yards here....yellow and dead). I came to a stop and the dog sat down.

"Basil Dog, look at that yard. How the hell did it get to be green like that? It hasn't rained in years," I said.

The dog stared at me blankly.

"It looks like the grass in Atlanta!" I exclaimed.

The dog continued to stare at me.

I resisted the urge to go over and touch the grass to see if it felt like the grass in Atlanta. One, because it would have been strange and two, the dog was getting impatient with me to continue her walk.

So we walked on, but I still couldn't get that vivid green color out of my mind.