Sunday, October 02, 2005

Is New England Warming Up??

I had a wonderful trip to New England. It was fun, refreshing and full of surprises!! For many reasons, T and I have chosen not to live in New England near my family and friends whom I miss dearly. While I would LOVE to live close to everyone, there have always been other issues that have kept us away, but times are a changin'!! I'm thinking now I might be persuaded to move home - it's T who will always be dragging his feet.

Top Ten Reasons to Move to New England - for me, anyway::

10. Family and Friends - now I made them #10, not because they aren't really, really important or the even the #1 reason I'd move back, because they are! But I have some new reasons to move back that I want to highlight..

9. Schools - I happen to think the public schools in New England are the best. Being an educator with a degree from a MA college and the daughter of 2 CT public school teachers, I think I have a little background for believing this. I guess I could be wrong, but I doubt it!

8. Churches - Back when I was growing up in CT, I don't remember any super churches, but now visiting there I'm seeing more and more really active, phenomenal churches. I'm excited for New England and really think that it would be fairly easy to find a church family there.

7. Diversity - T and I, being an interracial couple, have always been a little sensitive about the issue of diversity, especially when we have ever entertained the idea of moving out of Washington, DC, which is very culturally diverse. T used to tease me when we first met and I brought him home that CT was the "caucasian state", especially in Fairfield County. Things have certainly changed, and we have watched this gradual shift over the years. My mom said in her school this year there are many Asian students, even a majority in one class! How unusual, but very exciting for me. We have even noticed that people no longer talk so slowly to Tony. They understand he might actually speak English. If they only knew he ONLY speaks English! Still probably not enough to sway T, though...

6. Beaches - I grew up 10 minutes from public beaches (on the Long Island Sound - not the most exciting, but very kid friendly) and went to college on the North Shore of Boston. When I moved to Maryland I lived farther away from the beach (THREE HOURS!!!!) than I have ever lived before. After 13 years of this, I'm on serious beach withdrawal, not to mention that every Marylander thinks the ONLY beach in existence is Ocean City, MD and they all think it's right in their own back yard. I just don't even go there... literally AND figuratively!

5. No Passing on the Right - Just throwing this one in because I got teased about it relentlessly while going to Gordon. It's really a CT pet peeve, I think. You travel in the right or middle lane, pass in the left lane. If anyone passes you on the right in CT, consider it a slap in the hand (or worse!) and you better move over! To this day, I'm totally insulted when these crazy beltway drivers not only pass on the right but zig-zag, consistently cut off and speed through the few sane drivers left on the road. Today was the perfect illustration of that for me on my trip home, but I won't bore you with the details...

4. Four Way Stop Sign intersections - OK - since I did the "passing on the right" thingy I decided to throw this one in. Are New Englanders the only ones who learn in Driver's Ed how to proficiently tackle a four way stop sign intersection??? I crack up here in Maryland when I come to one, because everyone stops and no one seems to know who should go. Then everyone starts to go at the same time, gets mad at everyone else and we all end up sitting there for a very, very, very long time. Here's how you do it, Marylanders, if you come to a four way stop at the same time as another car, the person to YOUR right goes first, etc. ONE PERSON AT A TIME! And so on, and so on. It's really not a difficult concept, in fact, CT drivers are so proficient at these intersections, we just roll through them without stopping....

3. Christian Radio - YEAH!!!! Can't tell you how exciting it is to hear a Christian radio station in NYC!!!!! OK, so I'm overdoing it a bit on the cheering... In NYC, there are a gazillion radio stations and for the better part of my life NOT ONE of them was a Christian station. I found one finally and I think I could finally live up there with my Christian radio AND my 80's music any time I need it! On that Christian radio station today I heard an ad for a Christian Dance studio - what an awesome idea. Wish we had one of those in MD!

2. Cheaper Gas! Can you believe it?? My jaw actually hit the ground at the Mobil station around the corner from my mom's house today. When I left MD on Thursday, I ran up to my Texaco and begrudgingly paid $3.14/gallon - UGH!! All I could think was that if that was the price here, CT is going to be a bear! I might not even be able to afford to come home - poor T! So, I head down today and pull in to $2.89/gallon. WHAT??? Am I reading that correctly? Is this a typo??? Could gas possibly be .15 cheaper per gallon on the Gold Coast of New England?? Well, if that's the case, it's definitely time to move!!

And now, for the #1 reason I found this weekend to move back to Beautiful New England (drum roll, please)...
#1. Is it getting warmer in New England??? I mean, next week is Columbus Day weekend, a holiday still treasured in the great states of New England (we no longer recognize Columbus in Maryland!), and that has always and forever begun "peak week" for foliage freaks. Gordon tends to always have it's Homecoming that weekend and traveling and booking a hotel is impossible! With "peak week" only a week away I'm afraid to report that New England, from the shores of CT to the mountains of MA, is totally green!! I could count on one hand the number of trees that were a color other than green! Now, I've always thought global warming to be a farce, because in the 12 years of living in Maryland, it's only gotten colder and snowier. But after seeing all this green this weekend, could New England really be warming up??? Not to mention, we wore short sleeves today and were hot! IN OCTOBER!! Crazy!

Well, I hope I didn't bore you all too much! We had an awesome time at the Women of Faith conference this weekend, and sometime when I have a bit more time to process all the shards of wisdom I collected, I'll form them into some kind of presentable masterpiece! I particularly enjoyed Tammy Trent and her phenomenal testimony, Sandy Patti who has an amazing voice and Chondra Pierce who made me laugh so hard I cried, sobbed, and nearly wet my pants! It's been a really long time since I've laughed that hard and it was good for the soul. I had the unfortunate experience of leaving my credit card at the Yankee Candle flagship store - thanks to God, that's where it was! As we arrived back at my mom's last night, she realized she had left a bag with her Bible and a Beth Moore study book at the hotel. A future post: Why I Never Attempted to Not Be Like My Mother! You know, we just laughed all the more at our own stupidity and are so thankful these things didn't stop us from rejoicing in the Lord, for He Alone is Great and Worthy of our Praise!

I'm off to pack. I guess I should tell T that it's time to move to New England! :-)

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