**"Build a bridge and get over it!"**-----Shrimp Boy
This move has been a huge culture shock for me. I have lived with my girl friend and her three kids before. And know that with her comes the mother in law. She never lives very many miles away. BUT for the last year, I have lived states away by myself in a motel. Almost a box of a home it was so small. I was in the middle of Wyoming in a very small town. Shopping mainly consisted of Wally World and K mart, or the tourist trapy extra expensive shops downtown. It was bitterly cold all winter. No bus service. Town population of about 22,000 if you also count sheep. Their is just enough people in the town to have a Star Bucks.
Flash forward if you will, to the 20th of December. I moved back to Washington state. Bellingham, WA to be exact if you have your maps with you. The towns population is about 90,000 people. So their are about eight Star Bucks. This is in the heart of the great north west, so their are also many other great coffee joints to choose from! The town has a nice bus system, that even hits outlying towns and several routes that run every fifteen minutes. Temperatures compared are very mild, you just have to get used to continual rain. We saw rain drops and clouds most of Christmas instead of a comforting white blanket of snow.
I am in a three bedroom townhouse with all the perks a little extra income can provide. Including laundry machines in home. But I am sharing it with my beautiful girlfriend and her three great kids. We have lived together before, but it has been awhile. For a crash course, the second night I was in town, three extra girls slept over. It went much calmer than I would have ever thought. I was beforehand asking people to send me ear plugs in the mail! Although it was very late before everyone decided sleep was a good thing. For added fun, we woke the kids up about 8 am. Maybe because evil is my middle name.
This town is very close to the boarder and the Canadians come here to shop and save money in droves, aye! The town welcomes them with both hands and every type of retail shopping choice around. We made the mistake of going to the mall yesterday and mostly just stared at the products we wanted through an endless crowd of shoppers. It was a mad house. Wall to wall people with the occasional pause when someone got ran over by a shopping cart. I believe more people were in the mall than live in the small village in Wyoming. I wanted a shopping cart for defence.
Not that I don't love people around me, well these people. But in the last year I have become used to space. I forgot that things you want to keep nice, need to be put up high or stored. That the sticky ness on the lap top is probably edible. How hard it is to find a quit spot. I am typing this in the middle of the living room, while the rest of the house sleeps. But already have answered the phone three times. No one called me in the box. Possibly because very few people had my phone number.
I wouldn't give it all up for anything though. The perks are more than worth the lil bit of griping. Being around kids at Christmas time is the best high. I have four individuals that love and somewhat depend on me. And their is always someone around that wants to play a game or be my hike partner. Luckily with Nana living so close, we also have amazingly reasonable childcare. For a 30 pack of beer *the cheap, cat pee tasting brand*, we can get all of the kids out of the house for a weekend. **It has been a year since I have been around my girlfriend..... No one can find that kind of a deal for watching three kids.
Change of all kinds happens all the time. Without it most of us would be mind numbing bored. And probably a heck of a lot richer. If nothing ever changes for you have someone check your pulse you might possibly be dead! If you are afraid of change, I quote the youngster in this house. "Build a bridge and get over it!" One day I was overly annoyed about evil chickens or something. "Shrimp boy" crawled on my lap-- said that to me and ran off. At the time he was four. I was instantly stunned, than started laughing, than stole the phrase.
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