Editors note: I Love Memphis has started to partner with awesome bloggers from around the region to share the best of what’s happening in our cities. Today, a post from Anna of Gritsandsoul.com. She's a Memphian-turned-Jacksonite (the Mississippi kind). Here, what she misses most about the Bluff City.

When I moved to Jackson, Mississippi in September 2004 to work for Malaco Records, I was moving into the great unknown to take my dream job. My rationale was that surely Jackson would more than make up for what I wouldn’t have in Memphis.  I was dead wrong.

Not that it Jackson doesn’t have its own merits - I just didn’t immediately fall in love with my new hometown. And I’m still not in love with it.  If you want to know the truth, it’s taken me these past seven years to finally start warming up to the place.

Memphis had my heart from the beginning.  Ask any of my friends - I have pined my heart out for Memphis. I have Stax and High Records compilations at the ready for any situation.  I have educated my poor Texan husband, bringing him up to speed with the Memphis Soul Classics CD and the Big Star albums so that he can properly identify artists, songs, locations, people and events (a proud moment). But it doesn’t stop there - at any given moment I can wax poetic about what I miss most about the city.

Here are a few  things that, if you decide to live elsewhere, you’d miss about Memphis just as much as I do:

Huey’s:  Huey’s may have made it to Southaven, but that’s as far south as they go.  Nowhere else can you aim your toothpick in your straw and blow at the ceiling, not disgusting other diners in the process, immortalize your memory on the wall in sharpie or get the biggest, baddest-battered onion rings in the South.

Music venues: Other cities may try, but Memphis has a contagious energy in its live music scene. I miss Kudzu’s, Neil’s, Otherlands Coffee, The New Daisy,  B.B. King’s, P & H, Hi-Tone, Young Avenue Deli.  I am dating myself here but I really miss The (original) Edge, too.

The changing lanes on Union Avenue (Not that they change any more):   Everyone else hated them.  You can call me crazy, because I was one of few who actually “got it” and didn’t drive head-on into rush hour traffic.  For some people it was just too much to think about.  I liked the challenge, though I did wish for turn lanes.

The Neon Sign above the Peabody Hotel:  One of my all-time favorite Nanci Griffith songs, “Love in a Memory,” opens with the lyrics, “She sleeps alone on the warm nights in Memphis/where the Peabody Hotel meets the velveteen sky/she sings like the waves in the cool Mississippi...”  The bright red sign and the song is synonymous with everything magical that is Downtown Memphis.

Hernando-DeSoto Bridge:  I sometimes drove across the Bridge really late at night, under the glow of yellow lights and headed across to the Arkansas side wondering how far I could make it by morning.  It helped inspire a song or two and my short film.  Memphis has a way of doing that.

Brother Junipers:  I will always get up early for breakfast at Brother Juniper’s. The first time I went was when a class was canceled and a classmate suggested grabbing breakfast.  We walked over to the restaurant, which wasn’t very busy at the time  (surprising in hindsight) and I ordered my very first Spanakopita omelet with a side of home fries.  I’ve been spreading the good news ever since.

South Main District Friday Trolley nights: I miss hopping the trolley for a free ride, meeting up for a friend’s art show, hearing music pour out of doors, and browsing the shops.  It’s amazing to see how this area has come alive.  This is the ultimate example of successful revitalization going on Downtown.

I’ve just barely gotten started - there are a dozen little things I miss about Memphis.

Anna Kline is a musician, filmmaker and freelance writer.   She attended the University of Memphis studying Music Business and Mass Media.  By day, she is a Special Projects Officer for Mississippi Development Authority, Division of Tourism in Film, Music and Heritage.   By night, Anna Kline and The Grits & Soul Band perform around the state (of Mississippi, that is, and will be in Memphis soon, too).  Her short narrative, “memphis, mississippi” will premiere this summer.  You can follow her adventures at Grits and Soul.