A Lil" Bit Country

Eighteen months or so ago I moved to the “country”. I live in a town which has approximately 70,000 folks in it.

There are downsides to living in the outskirts of the big city. For instance our Wal-Mart does not believe that it needs to keep up with the times. It was built when our town had a population of 20,000 or so. The buyers for our Wal-Mart must have been kept in the dark about the steady increase of population; as a result our Wal-Mart shelves are bare. Our mall, if you can call it that; is a sad little mall just doing it’s best to help residents with their shopping needs. (The mall’s motto is: Please we beg you; don’t have a lot of needs, because we can’t help you, and we feel really bad about that!) As for our dining choices they are limited, and if you do find a restaurant- eat early, because most close before sunset. I would not say I live in a hick town. I would say I live in a town that has not grown up yet.

Having slammed my new town; I want to share the many perks of living here:

First and foremost there are THREE Starbucks within one mile of my home. If there was nothing else positive to say about my town; this fact alone would make it heads-and-shoulders above anywhere else. (They built the third one just after my arrival. My reputation preceded me. I think Starbuck’s is following me. Bo-Yah!)

Besides the Starbucks thing the other best thing about my town is the fact that traffic is very light. There is no such thing as bumper-to-bumper, or rush hour. We just mosey along in our cars; taking for granted how well we have it. When David and I moved here we were shocked by the lack of traffic; it was heaven. But as time went on we too have become blasé, and the lack of traffic has become common and inconsequential

Our retail shopping is the heart of the city, and the residential area branches out around it. Most residents can walk to Starbucks, shopping, drugstores, and other important necessities.

Sometimes we are forced out of our small town bubble to either go shopping or to visit family. (I don’t understand why our family won’t move out here with us. After all there is so much golfing. Yes this statement was directed straight at you guys. You know who you are!)

Now I would be the first to admit that I love shopping in the city. The city has all the cool stores. What Sears isn’t cool enough for me? When I am shopping at the cool stores in the city what I would like to know is:Where did all these other shoppers come from? Is everybody out shopping today? Why are these lines so long?
“HELLO, can anyone open another register? This is ridiculous! Do you see this? This is an outrage! Where is the manager? For goodness sakes go to Sears; Lord knows they need the business.” I am testy because back at home we have no lines!

Then there is walking through the mall. I have to navigate; because either I am bumping into other people’s shoulders or trying not to step on someone’s wondering child. (I will have you know that my record for knocking over toddlers is: four.)

Then there is the traffic! Holy Cow! I know I used to sit in this very traffic for an hour to go to work, but what I want to know is: Why did I do that? As you know I can not drive, but you know what is worse than driving in grid-lock? Being with a pissed-off-because-we-are-not-moving passenger in grid-lock!
“Why are the so many people on the roads? I thought they were all in the mall! How come it takes us three green lights before we can actually make our left turn? How do people live like this?”

To calm me down David suggests we grab a bite. Great idea! Let’s pick one of our old favourites that we can’t get at home. We get to the restaurant around 8pm. It is fab to be able to eat late! We notice there is a large group of people standing outside the restaurant. (This is not a good sign.) We make our way to the door and up to the hostess desk. We are advised that is it going to be a three hour wait. The good news is that the restaurant is open late, so they will have no trouble accommodating us! (Of course we will not need a starter course because we will have gnawed off our arms waiting for a table.)

We decide to screw it and go home, as we make our way home through the I-want-to-pull-out-my-hair-traffic, past the entire fine dining establishments with each of them having line-ups, past the huge mall with all the chic shops. It is at that very moment I decide that on-line shopping is the way to go, and maybe just maybe hometown cooking at 6:00pm isn’t so bad after all. The things that I wanted like the shopping and dining came at too high of a price, which was my time.

So as I write this entry I am sipping my coffee from Starbucks, and waiting on the UPS guy to bring me the shops that I couldn’t live without. (Let that dude suffer through traffic. I am going to stay in my bubble thank you very much.) The only downer to living here is the absence of family. For them and only them I will endure bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I am going to sign off so I can go and visit my neighbour. Yes it is true I do know all my neighbours names!