I hate you, Snow.

I hate snow. There, I've said it. Yes, it's pretty. And if I have nowhere to go and nothing to do (which describes my life on 0% of days) then fine. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. But since I have a life and a job and children and responsibilities then the arrival of snow means going out in the snow, which means cold and mess and slippery and slow and annoying. I drive a Prius, because I'm a Socialist Liberal Commie (and cheap) and it handles about as well in the snow as if someone gave me a sailboat and stuck it on I-15 for me to drive to work. So I feel like I am literally taking my life into my own hands every time I head to work. 

And I don't like that as soon as it snows I'm supposed to drop everything and run and go shovel my walk. And them shovel it again 4 hours later because it is STILL SNOWING!! Yesterday I refused to shovel, because I'm lazy, and so now I'm the trashy neighbor with the unshoveled driveway. And worse still my lovely neighbor actually shoveled my sidewalk for me and so now I'm the trashy and guilty-feeling neighbor. 

"Why don't you move to somewhere where there isn't snow," you say. Believe me, I've tried. I lived in Pasadena and Portland but Utah kept sucking me back in. In Portland when it snows, which it did one winter when we were there EVERYTHING in the city shuts down and all the news channels go to 24 hour coverage of the snow. No school, no grocery stores, no shopping. Nothing but sitting at home eating organic hemp seed bars, knitting beanies from local yak wool and praying for death. 

If you live in a snowy place, my prayers are with you. May you be blessed with no obligations and no reason to leave the house. And if you do have to leave the house, would you mind running a snow shovel over my driveway? I still haven't touched it. 

A Pretty Great State

I grew up in Utah. And I thought it was pretty lame. EVERYWHERE else must be so much more interesting and vibrant. And when I left Utah, I knew that I would never come back. Of course, I did come back, as so many people do. I was newly married and we wanted to have kids and be by Grandmas and Grandpas and so we knew we would never leave.

But then we did. And my job took us to Portland, Oregon. I fell in love with that place. It was breath-takingly beautiful, the people were nice, the politics were right up my alley and we put a bird on everything (which I still hartily endorse though now I am much more likely to put a woodland creature on it.) I proudly called myself and Oregonian and took up recycling, wearing clothes from Columbia and marveling at how green and gorgeous everything was with very little effort.

But life circumstances changed and we found ourselves back in Utah. This time, I really do (knock on wood) think we are here for good. I feel very settled and I'm so tired of moving every few years. And I suddenly feel like I am looking at this place through new eyes. This is literally the view from my back yard:

I saw views like that literally every single day of my life growing up and never gave them a second thought. But since moving back here a couple of years ago, I can't get over how beautiful it is. And the crazy snow storm that we had this week was the little reminder that I needed about what an inspiring place this is to live.

I'm not writing this to convince all of you to move to Utah. It's pretty, but the drivers are still terrible and it's still impossible to get into a movie on a Friday night unless you buy your tickets 19 hours ahead of time. But have you looked around the place you live lately? Have you noticed how beautiful it is? Or maybe it's really ugly, but you have great restaurants. Or the views are terrible, but you get free cookies each month (Where is that place? I'd live there.)  But I bet there is something. So find it. And apreciate it. And then move to another state and then you'll really appreciate it. That's what I did.