Alicia Chenaux issued a little mini blogging challenge with topics for today, Wednesday, and Friday this week, and I decided I wanted to play along. Somehow the day has completely gotten away from me, but today’s topic actually kind of fits in with something I’ve wanted to talk about for a while, so I’m going to squeeze in a post anyway.

Here’s the prompt from Alicia:

Second Life is a huge place, but we all have our favorite place where we seem to visit often just to look it, to hang out, to take friends, or just be alone and think. Where is your place, how did you find it, and what keeps you going back? Go there and take a picture! And no, it cannot be your own home! Ok ok, it can be your home. LOL

There are lots of beautiful sims that came to mind when I first read this, but honestly, the ones that are my favorite places are both technically home for me – Ivy Falls and Winterfell Sonnet. And that’s how this prompt overlaps with something I’ve wanted to blog about anyway. I joke about being a dual-sim citizen in SL, and lately some people have asked me about that. Why do I have an openspace sim of my own and yet still have a castle that I rent in Ivy Falls? To be honest, it’s something I’ve wondered about too. All I can tell you is that I wouldn’t give up either place for anything. In Winterfell, I have space to decorate and play with building and doing all kinds of different things, and then in Ivy Falls, the castle is just the perfect hang-out. Friends hang out with me there as we put together outfits or just chat, and it’s a fun place to “hide” and watch people who are shopping.

I stumbled into Winterfell for the first time about a year ago and then moved in to Winterfell Ebonshire a few months later in December. I never would have guessed that I’d end up working with Serra there and helping to post notices and run events and just do what I can to lighten her load a bit. It’s been quite a journey, and all of that has brought Winterfell to a special place in my heart.

Then there’s Ivy Falls, which is the sim I want to focus on for Alicia’s challenge topic. I feel like I’ve been there since the beginning of the sim. Well, I guess I have been. I remember Kavar setting up his sky island and hanging out up there before the sim was officially opened, and I remember the excitement of the grand opening weekend. Unlike Winterfell where the place grabbed me first and then I developed friendships with the people there, Ivy Falls became my home because the people I care about most in SL created it and called it home first. My best friends live and work there, and Kere keeps creating the absolute coolest little hidden nooks to explore. There’s so much to do there from shopping to concerts to exploring to the various special events. Ivy Falls is the place where a whole new phase of SL began for me, and I’ll always love it for that.

So if home is where the heart is, then I have twice the heart in SL. They each fulfill different needs and wants for me, and I’ll keep being a dual-sim citizen as long as Winterfell and Ivy Falls will put up with me. IM me some time if you want a tour of either of them. I love bragging on them and showing them off.