Where We Live

Recently, the hubby interviewed for a job in Iowa.  Iowa?  I've seen it on the map but cannot remember ever driving through the state or even wanting to go there.  A co-worker told me of a friend who lived there once.  She said the woman wept when she saw a newspaper advertisement boasting that "Iowa has more hogs than people".  Wow!    I'm thinking the travel and tourism folks may consider leaving that gem out of their future brochures.  At any rate, I vascillate between hope and despair when I think about moving. 

I should mention that I live in Ohio--yet another non-descript four-letter state that likely fails to evoke images of advanced technology or cutting edge style.  In fact, as much as I'd like to make fun of THOSE mid-westerners, I should be more aware of our similiarities.  Cornfields?  Check!  Farms?  Check!  Flat land for as far as the eye can see?  Check!  Why, then, do I feel compelled to think so negatively of a place I've never been?  I'm certain there's a wife somewhere in Colorado listening to her husband talk of the charms of Ohio.  Yet if she could interact with the people and understand the charms of a simple state...

Ok, I'll give it a chance.  But they better have a TJ Maxx within a 10 mile radius!

Is this Real Life?

Ever have one of those days, weeks or years when you feel like you are sleeping walking through life?  Some how, reality feels obscure and you hope you are dreaming.  It's been that kind of a month for me.  In fact, if life threw any more curve balls my way, I might believe I've stepped up to the mound in some crazy baseball game.  What on earth happened?  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was ten--carefree and clueless?  Back then, I believed that playing by the rules would pay handsome dividends later on.  I believed everyone was kind and we would all hold hands and sing (like Pepsi commercials).  Then, somehow, you wake up and you are sitting in a traffic jam while some road rager is blaring his/her horn and shooting you the stink eye.  Oh, how I long for my utopian perspective of youth.  Perhaps that's why we have children?  They remind us of how we USED to be hopeful and oblivious to the naysayers.  Today, I embrace my inner child and say "When I grow up, I'm going to give homeless people flowers."