And Then I Stepped in Gum . . .

Random Thoughts

I know how disappointing it is to go to blogs day after day and not see any new posts (hint, hint!), so even though I don't feel all that coherent right now, I thought I'd go ahead and post some observations I've made lately.

1) You don't realize why New Yorkers have a reputation for being rude until you leave New York. Everybody down here has been over-the-top friendly, from the guy who stopped his car next to mine while I was looking at a map so he could give me directions to the library, to the fence guy who just chatted with me for half an hour and gently corrected my pronunciation of local street names, to every cashier we've run into. Even the ATMs are friendlier down here.

2) The exception to observation #1 is the employees of the DMV. So now that we've established that the DMV is purgatory on Earth pretty much throughout the country, what I want to know is, is this a global phenomenon? Do motor vehicle registry bureaus in Australia, India, England, Germany, Sudan, etc. employ the same type of surly, grumpy, unhappy people who seem to take pleasure in telling you that you don't have the right forms and you have to wait for an hour even after you go home and get the right forms? And why is that?

3) SuperTarget (a combination Target and grocery store) seems like a fantastic idea -- until you spend $366 in one shopping trip because you've combined your grocery shopping with your Target shopping. Also, they've got to get bigger carts if they're going to do that -- I easily fill (or overfill) my cart both grocery shopping and Target shopping. Combining the two leads to dangerous hazards.

4) If I'm going to keep going to SuperTarget, I might as well just have Dave's paycheck directly deposited to them.

5) No home improvement project you do, no matter how carefully you plan, can ever be completed in fewer than 4 trips to Home Depot.

6) Since we've been here, it has thunderstormed once every single day. And we're talking deluges, with inches of water on the ground while it's raining. That's going to take some getting used to. Also, we've had two power outages in the last week.

7) Air conditioning is a blessing from the god or goddess of your choice.

8) I'm hoping that the "adjustment period" that my children are experiencing is finite. Or else I'm going to have to kill them.

9) CTTS from Katie -- a new take on an old classic. She was running around yesterday singing (at the top of her lungs, which is her only volume setting lately) "Super-fragi-calla-listic-makes-me-al-a-docious."

10) Moving, even to a cheaper area, is expensive. Oh, we're being reimbursed for the actual cost of the $10K move, but add in the $300 for registering the cars, the several hundred we're spending redecorating the bathrooms, the $1,000 in custom closets we wanted to put in, the $4,000 fence, the $5,000 spa, the new couch we'll be buying, and it's adding up to quite a pretty sum. What? You say all that stuff isn't necessarily part of moving? Oh . . .

The kids are up from their (simultaneous -- oh, the joy!) naps, and my mom's coming to visit tomorrow. There's only so much this-house-is-a-disaster blame I can place on the actual move, so I'd probably better at least rearrange the boxes more neatly and sweep the macaroni off the floor. Till next time . . .

posted by Jennifer Morgan, at 3:27 PM