Well, it has been a while hasn't it? I think most of you know everything that we have had going on in the last few months, so I don't have to explain why my updates are few and far between. But we are settled now (ok, almost settled)in Rhode Island and although I can't promise I will ever be good at daily updates, I think I should be a little bit better than once every 2 months.
I have to admit, I didn't think I would ever live in New England. I'm a fair weather type. San Diego is more my speed. So, when we found out that we'd be moving to Rhode Island in the middle of the winter, I was a little apprehensive - but what choice did we have? Of course I will make the most of my time here - already have the New England Fodors dog-eared. But, I can't help but laugh sometimes....when I was a kid, I had a car game. This game was a piece of cardboard that listed all the states in the U.S. It had a little orange sliding window over each state abbreviation. When you spotted a license plate from a state, you slide the orange window over. Of course I saw my share of mid-Atlantic and southern state plates, and living in a high military concentration area, Alaska and Hawaii weren't too unusual either. But, there were a few states that you hardly ever saw....Montana, Wyoming...you get the picture. But, as elusive as these "cattle drive" states were, there was one state that I never saw....Rhode Island. In fact, as crazy as this sounds, I remember the first RI plate I saw. It belonged to a friend of Matt's that I met out in Monterey. I've seen a handful since then, but crossing the border on 95 from Connecticut to Rhode Island last Sunday night, it put a smile on my face when I looked around and saw almost nothing but Rhode Island plates!
In the quick week I have lived in New England, I have realized that things are different here...or maybe it's me that's different. I think I'm a wimp...infact, I'd say that most all of us from the mid-Atlantic are wimps. Mid-Atlantic....MIDdle of the road weather. It's not too cold, not too hot. Of course we complain about freezing temps and snow, but we have nothing on the northeast and mid-west. Yeah, it's hot and humid in the summer, but the poor souls in Florida must have to chuckle when they hear us complain. I guess that deep down I knew this already (of course didn't want to admit it)but I didn't think I wore my wimpiness on the outside, until this weekend. On Saturday night, we had snow. It was a couple inches, even I'd say it wasn't much. But, when we went out to the Commissary, I wore my boots....my over the jeans, giant, blue with anchors printed on it, rubber boots. I didn't want to bottom of my jeans to get wet. Afterall, it was a couple inches. Well, let me tell you, I didn't see a single other pair of boots...and I even saw one pair of Crocs. It was at that point that I realized how different we are...me and the New Englanders. But, again, it made me chuckle, and I decided to embrace this 6 months and create memories that I will never forget. And, what better way to do that than to poke fun at myself and the "NE's" as I will begin to call them in a special little section of my blog that I'm going to call "New England or Bust".
So, on the heels of my boot embarrassment, let's stick with snow for crazy New England thing #1. When it snows, they have something called "Parking Bans". From what I can tell, these are areas that you cannot park during the snow, due to plows, snow removal, etc. These "Parking Bans" are announced on the bottom of the TV screen during your regularly scheduled programming, similar to school closures. But, as weird as these parking bans are, and even weirder that they flash across the bottom of the screen....the craziest part is that they can be there because THERE ARE NO OTHER CLOSURES!!!!! I pitty these kids...must suck to have hardly any snow days!
Well, I know most of you want updates on the kids and pics of the house. I will get them up this week....promise! But, for now...I'm just laughing too hard about Rhode Island licenses plates and parking bans to put them up! Stay tuned...I'm sure it will just get better as we travel more!
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