It’s all better now

Life on the East coast was so different from life any other place that I’ve lived, with the exception of So Cal, and we hated living there!   You’d think that in a big city you’d be close to things, but not so much.  If you want to visit a friend, it could easily take you 30-45 minutes.  Oftentimes, grocery stores were 10-20 minutes away.  Any major shopping was also 20-40, depending on traffic.  And everything out there depends on traffic.  A trip that might take you 20 minutes one day could take upwards of an hour another day!  Makes it REALLY difficult to plan for anything.  I have no idea how people ever get anywhere on time out there.  It WAS nice to be relatively closer to things like the National Zoo, the museums, larger shopping areas, etc.  It was always an adventure getting there and back, though.

DH had the misfortune of having a 1 hour and 40 minute one-way commute (yep, that’s almost 3.5 hours of commuting PER DAY) into the city.  He always complained about the bad air quality (not as bad as So Cal, but still bad).  He’d often come home with these weird headaches, partly from the bad air and partly from being cooped up in public transportation for 3.5 each day.  Last summer, I really wanted to be able to take the kiddies out to swim in their little pools on the hot days, but most of the time, there was a red alert for air quality.  As in, if you are young, old or pregnant, you should stay inside.  We fulfilled two of the three (young and pregnant), so we were “trapped” indoors for much of the summer.

Contrast that with the Midwest.  Yeah, it’s a bit hickish, but the air is fresh and clean, at least where we are it is.  DH’s commute is, let’s see, maybe 30 seconds=)  Working from home is working out like a dream.  He disappears into his office around 8 or 8:30 each day and resurfaces around 3:30 or 4 (depending on whether or not he stopped to have lunch with us).  The HUGE benefit here is that he gets to spend more time with the family AND he doesn’t have to deal with a long commute fraught with bad air.  I’m pretty sure he’s over the moon about that!

I’m over the moon about the fact that things here actually ARE close together.  So if I want to have a playdate, well, I have a friend who lives less than two miles away.  We could totally WALK there.  The grocery store is even closer.  It takes about 2 minutes to drive there and it’s six tenths of a mile away.  The dideo rental store, gas station, park, fast food and sit down restuarants . . . .all are less than two miles away.  I’m already dreaming of what I’m going to do with all of the extra time that I’m going to have, time that heretofore had been spent traveling from point A to point B.

Ahhhh, all better, now=)