Miscellaneous in March

I’ve been missing England lately. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we’ll probably be moving again here soon and I’m nostalgic for a quieter time. But also because it’s still winter here and winter by the end of it, always bums me out. I’ve been annoyed by the “family” atmosphere of Utah. By the end of my time here, I may not like kids at all. I was telling K that I think if I’m going to be part of the village raising children I’d like to be asked, but instead everywhere I turn I see women out with a gaggle of children unable to control all of them so you’ve got to keep an eye out for children in peril of being hit by cars in the Target parking lot. It reminds me of something my friend B always used to say, “Never have more children than you have hands”. I don’t find it noble at all to continue to have children and expect others to contribute. I guess I don’t find it noble to have a bunch of children, full stop. H was telling me while we were cooking last weekend that he’d read a study from the UK that said that people lie about how fulfilling raising a family is to others. But here, it’s WONDERFUL. Everyone has a smile on their face when discussing children. A few weeks ago at work I was standing among a group of colleagues who were almost cooing about a co-worker who’d gone into labor that morning and was about to have her first baby. They were all in that how exciting and sweet state of mind when I added, “Well I guess we’re all having a better day today than she is”. I got a very puzzled look. Keep in mind this was three men and a woman who has no children, so they’ve never experienced the joy of childbirth. I prefer the cynical British view on family.


But then a colleague from England came to visit this week, bringing that shitty overcast weather with her. There were a few people I worked with in the UK that I would classify as embodying the British mentality and she was one of them, and by the time she left, I wasn’t missing the UK anymore, lol. My favorite comment she made was “I can’t decide if staring at these mountains all the time would be nice or depressing. I think they’d be depressing”. I had to tell her that when they weren’t bathed in fog and no sunshine like all of Britain they were quite stunning so she was quite wrong. Don’t make me get defensive for Utah!

I’m trying to get energized again about running. This week has been bad. For my birthday I decided I wanted a really good pair of running shoes. H and I went yesterday to a running store and the guy helping me had me roll up my pant legs and run on the store treadmill to look at the position of my foot and then suggest some shoes. All I could think was thank God I recently shaved my legs or that could have been super embarrassing. I got a great pair of shoes and I’m anxious to give those a try today. I’ve been getting blisters on the bottoms of my feet and he told me cotton socks were terrible to run in and I should try and swap those out.

Last, we’re contemplating buying a house so we visited the bank yesterday to get our paperwork squared away before looking at anything. We were amazed when they told us how much we qualified for that banks still are letting people who get approved for a loan spend beyond their means. We’ll probably buy something for less than half of what we’ve been approved for. Let the bargain shopping begin!