mom and i chilled out and unpacked the rest of the house yesterday... friday night we went out for "first night" which is a downtown gathering each first friday of the month. ate dinner at the stardust cafe, watched native american drum circle in the town square, listened to some live music, browsed around the little locally owned shops (which stay open late for the event). during a glass of wine at the "martini bar" (what everyone calls it... i still have no idea what its actual name is) we met some nice guys who suggested we go to the irish pub. what a night. met some great people for some great conversations and lots of laughs. everyone here is so friendly it absolutely kills me with delight! i can only hope i have more days/nights like that here...
and then came the snow... lots and lots of it. and it didn't stop. at first i thought nothing of it, if anything it was exciting. my first snow in my new home! for dinner i had planned on cooking a new paula deen shrimp florentine recipe for mom and i, so i bundled up and hopped in the car in the thick falling snow to pick up the ingredients. you can probably guess what happened next. after backing out into my little narrow road, i put my car in drive and attempted to go forward. not happening. the wheels spun out and the car proceeded to slide all over the road! fortunately i was able to get back into the driveway without crashing into the mailbox or the side of the house.
we planned on going to church this morning but at 11am it was still snowing. i commenced my bundle-up procedure and headed outside, stomping out into the road to look at the damage. the road definitely looked a little better since the neighbors had driven it a few times, but still not driveable by my 2 wheel drive sedan. since my street is several miles from town and not well traveled it apparently doesn't get salted or plowed. we were finally able to get out this afternoon around 4pm, albeit sliding around on the ice on my street. i felt like i was driving an ice skate. when we were out, i looked around at the vehicles on the road... it seems the large majority of folks around here drive trucks or SUVs. if it weren't bad enough not to have a truck where i live, i work about 30 miles away. hmph.
it's interesting getting used to the subtle differences around here. simplicity. chivalry. family. everyone knows everyone else and their uncle and brother and cousin's sister-in-law and great aunt's brother's cousin twice removed. camo everything...everywhere (i bought a camo flashlight today, and yesterday i bought flannel sheets featuring bears and wolves and deer running around in the woods). my hot shower water that eludes me after 5 minutes. wv pride (i like it). no places to go shopping....
::sigh:: shopping... which i've never been all that into anyway, but its still strange knowing that if i want to buy a new sweater or a pair of pants that i'd have to drive a couple hours away. while unpacking my bedroom today i realized that i have a pretty insane amount of clothes. far more than what is necessary for one human being in order to live in society. i find it pretty funny (and encouraging) that for the last 3 months i've been living off of less than 1/8 of my wardrobe (after moving from SF to wilmington i never unpacked most of my clothing boxes).
before i left SF, i gave away about half of my wardrobe (yeah, half). i can only imagine the amount of money i've wasted. i have a new perspective these days. although i appreciate fashion, one of my resolutions for the new year is to spend less time, money and energy on decorating myself. i know it will always be important for me to feel good in clothes, and i appreciate fashion (i suppose one could argue it's like art for the body), but i see myself devoting less time to personal aesthetics and more time on other interests. writing, journaling, reading, photography, art. learning new sports, studying philosophical and psychological theories for my new job, yoga, meditation, prayer. if i could cut out an hour of time a week i used to spend on clothing and put it toward one or all of these other interests i have a good feeling i would find myself a happier girl (and, i hope, a better person to boot).
2 comments:
The skidding and sliding sounds familiar to me (did a 360 on the highway the other week... fortunately, noone and nothing gut hurt...)
Great to read that you bumped into a bunch of nice people and also great for your Mom to help you get settled in. When I moved here, I also had my parents help me out and spend the first night. We all slept in my tiny living room - felt like a little cabin dorm or s.th. ;-)
I've come to understand that distances are measured at far a larger scale than around here - which I absolutely loved and love! I definitely need to find somewhere to live with plenty of more space than around here. Other than that, I get the perceived close proximity to everyone that you're talking about - it looks like people weren't all that different: It feels similar here, although I've stayed a stranger with most, if not all (even my neighbours, except the guy living upstairs from me).
Well, it's all promising by the looks and sounds - I so admire your clear vision as to what's become important or essential - in a very literal sense! - to you and how intend to go about this new experience. Seriously: I think that's grand and I think I'm about to make it into my daily routine to follow your blog/journal before starting the day.
Good luck with the truck purchase - take a guy with you (sounds discriminating, I know, but I'm afraid car salesmen are another example of "same everywhere"... and might try to trick you for being a) a woman b) new in town)
Keep us posted from "the middle of nowhere"-land ;-)
P.S.: Wishing you a good start on the new job!
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