Day 38: Reasons why I should move to Charleston, SC

Among the many reasons I should move to Charleston, SC are the following:

REASON #1:  THE PEOPLE.

In my two days (so far) in Charleston, practically every person I’ve met has looked and sounded remarkably relaxed, content, and happy.  People I’ve spoken to in Charleston — who have, without exception, been kind, courteous, friendly, and interesting — include  Chris Perot:

Chris was one of many people I spoke to yesterday who urged me to move to Charleston. Some of these Charleston Proselytizers became converted mid-life; others are native born.  Chris was one of the former:  he moved here from somewhere else. (Chris, if you’re reading this, I forgot to write down where you moved from, and my memory sucks!)

Chris is a musician and he also really enjoys his job at a Very Cool Hat Store, on the Very Cool King Street.

REASON #2: THEY HAVE VERY COOL HATS IN CHARLESTON.

REASON #3: MANY OF THE COOL STORES IN CHARLESTON HAVE COOL CATS WORKING THERE.

You may think this reason refers to Chris, above.  It doesn’t. It refers to actual felines, and I love cats.

The proof for Reason # 3 includes some hearsay;  that is, somebody who works at the Francis Marion Hotel — the great place I’m staying — told me that many stores have resident cats. However, this conclusion also involves my own inductive reasoning.  (In case you’re like me and  usually can’t remember the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning unless you Google it, inductive reasoning is when you go from the specific to the general.)

Here is the specific proof  from which I am generalizing — a cat named Sandy in yet another Cool Store on King Street:

Sandy was working in one of the two retail stores I went into yesterday. (I’m not a big shopper on vacations, obviously). So, based on my scientific experimentation yesterday (and I readily admit that my results are suspect because of the smallness of the sample size), approximately 50% of stores in Charleston have excellent working cats, like Sandy:

REASON #4:  THE CATS IN CHARLESTON ARE VERY WELL BEHAVED, AND WILL POSE READILY FOR STRANGE PHOTOGRAPHERS.

REASON #5:  CHARLESTON HAS GOOD GROCERY STORES WITH GOOD FOOD.

Also, the grocery stores have excellent, accessible hours:

And sometimes they offer free balloons:

REASON #6:  THERE IS APPROPRIATE RESPECT IN CHARLESTON FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF CHOCOLATE.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Here is the wonderful manager of this chocolatierre shop, with her husband.

They moved to Charleston from Detroit about five years ago.  I wrote down their names yesterday, but now I can’t find the piece of paper with that information. (See Reason #1, above, regarding the following topics:  (1) Friendly and Interesting People in Charleston, (2) People Who Have Moved Here, and (3) My Sucky Memory.)

I think their names are Russ and Nancy, and they (1)  had several reasons of their own why I should move to Charleston, (2) provided me with an incredibly delicious Meringuey-Chocolatey concoction, and (3) invited me  to a 3-hour Chocolate-Making Class that was taking place last night, with Christophe, THE Chocolate Artisan in Charleston (and perhaps a larger geographical territory, I can’t remember) and the owner of this establishment.

And I was tempted to go to this class (Russ and Nancy, if I’m right about their names, actually used the word “Adventure”– the magic word —  while trying to convince me to go).  And I  signed up, at first. (I mean, Duh! They used the word “Adventure” and it would have involved three hours of chocolate.) But after I thought more about it,  I changed my mind and  backed out before I left  the french chocolate cafe (whose official name is “Christophe Artisan Chocolatier — Patissier”).   I had some restful, stress-free plans for myself last night, and I realized that a 3-hour class just wouldn’t work for me.  And Russ and Nancy were perfectly gracious and understanding about this, as they were about all topics we discussed.

REASON # 7: I COULD GO TO THE CHOCOLATE-MAKING CLASS, WHICH IS AVAILABLE ONCE A MONTH.

So, dear reader,  I had many more Reasons Why I Should Move to Charleston, SC — with photographic proof — that I could have included in this blog post today.

However, I should probably end this post here, because there are some decisions I have to make, quite soon,  regarding a certain blizzard  that is about to hit Boston, which has all the weather media outlets (including those in Charleston) issuing dire and hysterical warnings for people who (1) live in Boston or (2) are flying there on Friday.  (By the way, see my blog post, on Day 33: Groundhog Day, for more about meteorologists and their dire and hysterical warnings: https://annkoplow.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/day-33-groundhog-day/)

Which leads me to the final entry, right here:

REASON #8:  NO BLIZZARDS IN CHARLESTON.

Thanks for reading, as always.