Homey...homie?

I actually like Atlanta a lot more than I thought I would. It's not the concrete jungle that I pictured before coming here; there are actual trees and pockets of cute neighborhoods where the shops are all dog friendly and leave bowls of water outside. But being here makes me really miss Virginia. What's that cheesy Counting Crow song say? "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone?" Sounds about right.

At times I can see myself living here. And other times... not so much. I hate driving here. Not only is the traffic a bitch but the drivers are terrible. They don't follow speed limits or the general rules of the road; the few times I've gone on the highway have really stressed me out.

Not an actual picture but pretty accurate of how I feel. via the Chive

I've continued to volunteer at the therapeutic riding barn, but it becomes more and more painful to help give lessons and not be able to ride myself. I think it's generally a bad sign when I start to really envy the kids that I'm volunteering with... but finding cheap lessons anywhere near me is looking like a major impossibility. The overall barn we work at charges $60 per lesson; the results of an internet search show that to be the average going rate. And really going anywhere outside the city, with a car ride of 45 minutes or more, seems to defeat the purpose when you consider gas prices/my hatred of driving down here.

In addition, it's really sad to see that the horses don't have grass here. This is an extremely ritzy barn, probably costs an upward of $1000 a month to board a horse here, and there are no pastures. When you turn a horse out, it's to this small dirt paddock a little bigger than the size of my room. Even if you don't like horses you have to admit that's pitiful. This doesn't bode well for someone who jokingly/semi-seriously has asked for a horse every year for Christmas.

Basically it all comes down to this: how do I make Atlanta feel more like home? As a friend pointed out, I think it will do a lot for my psyche if I don't treat this as a temporary pitstop on the road of life (even though it may be, I have no way of knowing where I'm going to end up). I'm a creature of habit; I like to feel comfortable and settled in my surroundings. I've really started to like Emory and the public health program that I'm in. So how do I make this (temporary) home more homey, like an old homie?