Things I Love About My New Home:
1. The sounds. There are crickets that live near every window, apparently, and the evening is full of their chirping. There are coyotes who roam the open space behind me, and I relish their yipping and howling. Admittedly, the first night I heard it, I was kind of freaked out - it sounded less animal than adolescent, and I was convinced that there was a rabid pack of 13 year old girls roaming the trail in the dark causing mischief. When the barking became more identifiable, I was actually relieved that it was coyotes instead. When storms come in or through, the leaves on the trees of my patio rustle and shush insistently. These are just a few.
2. My windows are always open. The weather permits home airiness that I missed in Michigan, where the muggy air was too heavy to breeze even with all the windows and doors open.
3. I love eating outside, and there are near limitless opportunities to do that here, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
4. People really do seem happy and relaxed here. Now first let me preface this by saying I'm not one of those people who thinks that people in other parts of the country are rude or rushed. I have found nice people everywhere - when I left my wallet at a phone booth in Penn Station, the woman who found it tracked me down through my college rather than calling the home address on my license because she feared that my parents would be mad at me! In Tucson, strangers stopped their car to help my (then)boyfriend carry our couch up stairs so I wouldn't have to, an act of chivalry I chose not to contest on feminist grounds.
That said, this is that to the nth degree. I entered a parking lot not long ago that had one row of spots on either side to pull in to. Just as I started to turn in from the street, a car in the left hand row started to back out, so I was forced to stop, kind of hanging out into the road. I hate when that happens, and I'd be lying if I said I always responded gracefully or tactfully to such affronts. I resisted the urge to glare, swear or grimace, and miraculously, the car returned to its spot, letting me pull through, which I did, and proceeded to park in a vacancy a few spots further down. As I got out and shut my door, the aforementioned vehicle rolled up behind me and stopped, perpendicular to my own car, and the driver's side window crept down slowly. For real. The Jersey girl in me was bracing myself for an argument, or at least a pointed refusal to acknowledge said lout, or fierce show of indignation - was he seriously about to accuse me of being in the wrong for wanting to get out of a busy road? The gall!
Instead, he waved, almost sheepishly (and I should add, that the driver was not a man who's likely referred to as sheepish often - his neck was the size of one of my thighs, he had guages in his ears, and a heavy brow and high forehead that one usually associates with Bond villains) and called out,"Sorry! I didn't see you coming in - I'm so sorry..." An actual apology for a road violation? Is this Colorado or Valhalla?
5. The sky. There really aren't any words.
6. They know how to make a great margarita here. I haven't had a bad one yet.
7. My cats are happy.
Things I Don't Love About My New Home:
1. Apparently, there are snakes here. I saw one dead on the road the other day, and I was warned about keeping my eyes on the ground when I hike the trails.
That's all I got for the second list so far.
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