The West vs. the East

Tonight my friend started a blog. I went to comment on it and saw that my last post has now been officially OVER A YEAR AGO.

How embarrassing.

Not that it hasn’t been an eventful, busy year. I mean….we did move FIVE STATES AWAY from our previous residence.  (Yes, I got a map out and counted.) This isn’t really a meaningful measure to me, because I moved from the west….to the east. (We love it here, by the way.)

But since it’s on my mind, I’m here to tell you about a few differences between the west and the east, at least in my experience.

1. States in the east are roughly the size of what the west calls “counties.” When you compare my home state to Ohio, you could fit at least 3 of the states over here into one Montana. For this reason, saying you drove across three states in one day to people over there sounds pretty darned impressive. They know how big a “state” is! 🙂

2. Everyone seems to think Ohio and Indiana are “The Midwest.” PSH. Maybe in 1800.

3. The east has no Taco Johns. It has WhiteCastle. This is not a straight-across trade.

4. I planted my garden mid-May in Ohio. On June 20, I harvested a full-grown cucumber. This wouldn’t happen in Montana in a million years. (Also, we’ve grown some prize-winning dandelions this year. To be fair, that could happen anywhere.)

(Look closely for the quarter.)

5.  I realize now that when you hear somebody say, “but it’s a DRY heat…..” it actually means something.  I miss my dry heat….however, in these wet-heat places, central air in a home is pretty much a given.  I do enjoy my around-the-clock AC.

6.  I am in easy driving distance of THREE (or more) JoAnn Fabrics locations.  Knowing there are also 5 Home Depots I could spit to from my backyard makes me feel drunk with power.  The downside is that no two locations are the same.  And that lamp you saw on clearance that you kind of liked….forget about randomly remembering which location had it.  It’s gone forever.

7.  Stuff you never thought you’d see because you didn’t have the vacation time or the money to travel across the country from Montana, suddenly seems possible.  Disney World?  We can do that.  New York City?  Why not…at least once!  Paducah for AQS Quilt Week….sign me up!  A weekend in Nashville?  YESSSSSSSS!  And as it turns out, people over here still fly to Vegas on the cheap.  (But with this much going on….why would ya?)  Not long ago, we made a relatively short drive and saw a Great Lake!   These are all things that don’t seem that novel to the locals, it’s just a function of being in altogether new surroundings.  With the vast, forested mountain ranges and abundance of wildlife on display, Montana has PLENTY of “novel” of its own (complete with high odds of death by stupidity).

Yep….that’s a whole bunch of water.

I will say that “the east” and “the west” are simplified descriptions when I’m really just comparing central Montana to southwestern Ohio.  To Jordan, this area reminds him a lot of his (even further west) home of Portland, Oregon.

All in all, we are really enjoying our time in this part of the country.  The people we’ve met have been very welcoming to us, and I’m thankful to be surrounded by such kindness.  The workforce picked me back up surprisingly quickly, and I already feel like part of the Dayton quilting community.  We’ve spent time with all of our neighbors and feel blessed to have found such a great place to live, albeit far from both of our families.

While I haven’t posted much lately, I promise I’ve been thinking of posts.  And starting posts.  (Hey, that sounds like my approach to quilting!)  Speaking of which, you can expect more quilting-related pontification soon.  For now, I’m just happy to say hello again!  🙂  I’ve missed y’all.