Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Calling all Utahns - from August 30, 2007

Okay...With the possibility of moving to Utah looming in the air sometime in this next year I am calling on all Utahns - or anyone that reads this to tell me that it isn't that bad. I didn't like Utah much growing up - because well they were our neighbors and Idaho HAD to be better. (I think I've seen the light...I think I would prefer Utah at this point)....but I still am having some major anxieties about life in Utah. It has been the plan for some time now to move back to the Utah area where we can be closer to family, and actually afford to buy a home. (Something cheaper than half a million dollars with more than 2 bedrooms and not in a ghetto sounds pretty appealing.) Now, when push is coming to shove and the decision is getting closer...I'm freaking out. I hate change, first off...so this is not good. I wonder if part of my hesitation to move to Utah is because I just don't want to budge or move anywhere. I hope that I don't have too many actually legitimate concerns about it.
I just can't picture it right now.....the idea of living somewhere where you aren't offered coffee or a martini at every turn is foreign to me now. The idea that people will actually know what Enrichment Night or Family Home Evening night is bizarre....and the fact that I can traipse the grocery aisles with my kid screaming "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" without getting odd looks from beer holding collegiates is.....different. Granted I think a lot of these are good things - in many ways being surrounded by more people that are familiar with your values is easier. It is just different. I just have to admit the whole Utah culture scares me a little. I hope it is isn't as bad as it sounds sometimes. Our ward here is totally ridden with fresh Utah BYU graduate transplants. (Think: every week our chapel and overflow is as big as Stake Conference - with 3 nursuries and almost 100 kids under the age of 5). We have been the anomoly because ...."You didn't go to BYU??? Why?....Holy cow...you went to Utah State?" That and the fact that we live in a condo with a garage instead of 700 square foot student housing. (not by choice, part time students aren't allowed there) but it has set us apart a bit.. It has given me a taste of what a mass rabbit breeding Utahn culture might be like... and actually...I love the people I've met from my ward, and I hope that it will be a lot like it...because they are great. It does give me a bit of comfort. I've just also grown to love the opportunities and the people I have met outside of the church. I have met so many wonderful people through my piano studio, and through my work with the San Diego Children's Choir, and through the Music Teacher's Association, and through my Stroller Strides fitness class. I have loved building friendships and connections with people outside of my ward, too. I spend the bulk of my time with these fantastic people. They aren't of my faith, but so many of them have the same values, and have been such a great support system. I've loved the variety of people I've come in contact with. I'm just hoping that I will be able to find the same variety in Utah. I'm sure the variety is there - its just a matter of coming up with the opportunities to meet different people that is scaring me. I like having a network of different people. Its great to have friends that don't think you are wacko when you say you'll take as many kids as you can get (easily said for me - cuz' I know it won't be very many) - and its great to have friends that don't think you are wacko because you don't cook dinner for your husband......not just don't cook...but don't want to....and are totally uninterested in cooking, gardening, changing diapers, scrapbooking, etc.... (I wish I were more interested in these things....they are very practical, and I love and admire people who are really great at them.) Its just nice to be able to find a variety of friends - similar and different from you.We'll see......I hope I didn't offend anyone with anything I said. I'm just a nervous, crazy, hormonally unbalanced pregnant lady speaking out. Everyone keeps telling me that Utah is a great place to live. All the people in my ward want to move back, and I have 2 friends that live in San Diego now who are not Mormon who lived in Salt Lake City previously and loved it.....I just hope I do, too. Heck (Utah lingo) - I've lived in Utah once and loved it, too. I hope that if we decide to move there again that I can come to love it just as much. Im just looking for some words of comfort about it all. I'm pretty convinced I just hate change. Period. No matter where we move, I"m sure that I'll complain about it a little, and worry about finding people that I can connect with. I freaked out when we moved here and I haven't regretted it at all. I've loved it so much. So much...I don't want to go.....I suppose all good things must come to an end, though...for now.

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