Overall, many things about this move have been so very good. I am with my person, we both have good jobs, and the weather is GLORIOUS. I know, I know, my time is coming, but right now, OMG! I open the patio door each morning and am greeted with a cool breeze that seems to say "I am glad you are alive, here is some fresh air". This is much nicer that the air in Texas in August that yells "Suffer for the sins of the world" while blasting heat non-stop, day and night. I will take this. Also very good are the neighborhood walks. We can both walk and drive to beautifully maintained trails that circle ponds and lakes and rivers. The flowers right now are insane and the wildlife is abundant. 
See? Pretty!
Also good was my dinner last Friday night. I do try to eat healthfully most of the week but it was a long week with back to school and all new work people and students and a treat was in order. Look at this plate! This is my dinner! Is that Cheez-Whiz squirted into a cup as a condiment? I think it was and I dipped each fry into and thought two things: processed cheese and yum. The Italian Beef Steak? Nothing healthy on there. White bread, red meat, salty and vinegary peppers. I may have cried a little each time I had a bite. So, so good. I was very proud of myself for not eating it all at once and finishing it for breakfast. All about the balance.
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| Thank you, Portillo's. |
Many new things to still try and see and do but I am really stuck a little on three things that remind me every day that I am not in Texas. First, driving. Everyone driving here is in a terrible rush. Got to go fast! And if you are not driving fast, or on two of four wheels, or dare to make a complete stop at a stop sign, the honks begin. I have been honked at more in the last two weeks than in the last ten years. No exaggeration. Traffic is always heavy here and I guess everyone is going so fast to make that one light, that one turn, in the hopes of getting just a tiny bit ahead. In Texas, they also drive fast but no one honks. They might flip you off or run you off the road but all without touching the horn.
Alongside driving is gas. Shoooooeeeee the cost of gas!! Is there not an oil reserve in one of the Great Lakes we could tap into up here and reduce the cost of gas? Also, all the signs at gas stations lie. You think you are paying the giant number displayed but you really pay the tiny number underneath it. The savings is for their members. The hell I am going to be a member of a gas station. I pledge my allegiance to whatever place means I don't have to change lanes or get across the street.
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| $4.29!!!! A gallon, not total. |
Next up on my "this is weird", people throw absolutely everything away in the dumpsters. I am used to Austin where it takes a signed letter from the governor and two donated pints of blood to put anything in a dumpster besides a bag of trash. As I moved in at the end of the month when people were moving out, the dumpster teemed with all kinds of furniture. Like furniture, furniture meaning entire couches, living room sets, etc. My absolute favorite day was when the piano made it to the trash pile. A piano!!! I was so tempted to roll it inside and proudly show my person that I got us a piano just to see his face. Imagine coming home to me playing Chariots of Fire on a piano that was not here when you left. (Chariots of Fire because I memorized it at age ten and can't unlearn it:DGABAF#.) Too much work for a moment of silliness, so I didn't. But a piano!!
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| Piano proof! |
The final thing that really almost has me in an uproar is that I cannot get a library card anywhere!! We apparently live in an unincorporated area that no library will claim. I am unsure what unincorporated means and keep waiting for Doc Holliday to stroll by saying, "I'm your huckleberry." (Actually, I am kind of always waiting for that.) I can get a card at the closest library to our apartment but because I am unincorporated trash, I have to pay a portion of one month's rent. It would be about $300 for something that should be free! I think that is usurious and I won't do it. If I was an e-reader it might not be that big of a deal. I like a real book though. I need to crack the spine and dog-ear the pages and hold it close to my face and smell the paper and glue and author's sweat and tears. So, don't tell me about the good books you are reading, send them to me so I can start my own library.
Big moves mean big changes; good and different and bad. I am really only putting the price of gas and no library card under bad though. I love the dumping dumpsters! What freedom! The end of the month is coming up and I am going to be on the lookout for treasures. And this time, if I find another piano, I will absolutely roll that thing in the house just to be funny.
