Friday, July 12, 2013

Party like it's 1949


I feel like I stepped back to the 1950’s. A time when clothes hang out on the clothes lines, children roam freely around neighborhoods and parks without living in fear of abduction, postmen ride bikes to deliver mail to actual mailboxes, common courtesy is everywhere and I even have a windowsill just perfect for cooling off pies. It’s all Mayberry up in here. I always dreamed of letting my kids have the childhood I did, one filled with forts in the woods, homemade bike ramps, tree climbing and maybe the occasional mass execution of grasshoppers, and I think we may have found that here. Nothing makes me happier than a bathtub full of dirty water at the end of the day. Sure, some things are hard to adjust to, like the hand vac attached to a stick that has replaced my Dyson. Or the dryer that runs for an hour, drenches the entire laundry room with water since there is no outside vent (note taken, open the window when drying clothes), and then the clothes are still damp so I have to drape them all over the room until we look like we live in a Chinese Laundromat. Laundry has become such an ordeal that I have now declared the two stain rule: if it has one stain it goes back in the drawer, two or more and I’ll consider washing it. Or the insane grocery prices. I spent my first real shopping trip picking my jaw up off the floor, I mean $4.59 for a can of refried beans, the audacity! And $7 cans of generic hairspray is a hard pill to swallow for a hairspray junkie like myself. Or the garbage cans a quarter of the size that only get picked up every other week (and apparently the one we put out today was too full so they didn’t even take it and now we’ll be stuck with a month’s worth of trash!). Or the fact that I’m always cold. Instead of central heat they have a heat pump which is a wall heater that only heats the main room of the house. After letting it run for a few hours in the morning we are finally unthawed, but you’re SOL if you have to put on a pair of cold damp jeans from the Chinese Laundromat. Arizona is my home, always will be, I miss my friends and just being able to pick up the phone and talk to them and family. I miss the comfort, convenience and familiarity of my old life, I get a hankering for Costa Vida at least twice a day and I never thought I would admit to this (Chelsea), but I really do miss me a good cheap Wal-mart trip. And $8/night movie rentals make me miss Redbox something fierce, and I regret ever getting mad at them for upping the rates $.10. But on the flip side, Jason is home by 5:30 and we actually have dinner together as a family every night, which never happened before. We’ve kind of become scrabble junkies and have our nightly scrabble and ice-cream (in a pinch cold cereal will do) parties with the kids before bed. My kids have played (and fought) more than they ever have. I lose my temper on a regular basis, but I’m also spending way more time with them than I ever did before. All we have is each other, and I like that. That first day here I thought we had made a serious mistake, but I’m quickly learning that you can’t judge a place by the quality of their motels. Or their lack of Costcos.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

You are a brave woman! You know how I feel about laundry. I will pray for you! After 2weeks camping, I have a new theory on laundry. They can sleep in what they will wear the next morning to play in. When they are really dirty, we wash the kids and their clothes and redress them. Hide the clothes you don't feel like washing. It only works for summer time but it feels good to simplify. You don't have anyone to impress there so I wouldn't worry much about appearances. Oh, and there are steam washer/dryer, all-in-one units. Can you find one? There might be some Western families leaving there that are selling. I once heard a mom of 7 say she was lucky enough to find a full size set once while living abroad and it was an answer to prayers. Miss you!

Janessa said...

What a wonderful slice of heaven. Minus the laundry situation. I like your new two stain rule. Sounds good:) Oh, and ouch on the groceries and hair spray. I have a feeling the grocery list will be shortened before the hairspray junkie lightens up on the hairspray though. It's all about priorities, right? Three meals a day is so overrated:) I love all the together time! I love that it's not perfect, but that it's together. And that is perfect:)

Michelle Y. said...

I'm so glad that I can read your blog and live through you :). I hope you are having a great time. We miss you!

Chelsea said...

Holy moly, its all so different! Why no dryer vents? An obsessive vacuum line girl with no vaccuum? And I'm dying over the price of beans. What do you guys eat?! And the trash thing. So what the heck did they expect you to do with your trash? what did you do? ok this post is leaving me with way too many questions, we need to talk :) and if it weren't for those last few sentences, I'd be worried ;) YOU CAN DO IT.

Marcee Foster said...

Agh! You are missing us, I knew it!! :) it wouldn't be as adventurous without all the challenges, right? I have to admit though-- I'm DYING about the laundry and vacuum and trash. Laundry is the bane of my existence as it is. You know! Mondays! And not having a real, powerful vacuum? The trash? That actually made me laugh out loud. But seriously. What did you do??