The day after

[theatokos]

Christmas was mellow. I don't believe I left my building all day. The laundry machines in the building broke. Adam made cinnamon rolls. I had candles lit all day. I got an hour and a half nap (best Christmas gift ever!!). I made chicken broth from the leftover carcass and bones from the chicken I roasted on Tues. It was a productive AND a relaxing day - those sort do not come around much any more.

I have a cold though, so sleeping last night was not so good. This is doubly sad, because B slept for 6 hours straight for the first time months. Sigh.

Adam and I watched a silly movie, Blow Dry, with Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson and some bland, cute American ...oh yeah, Josh Hartnett. It was amusing. Adam and I gushed over how much we love the UK. It is the one place we both could enthusiastically move to. So..... while we are more likely to move to the Pacific Northwest, even more so if my sister and her girls move there, we have decided that the UK is next in line. If I decide to finish my degree we just might move to Wales. Would that be permanent? I don't know. Being so far away from our families would be difficult. But being some where we both want to be is important. It is possible that I could have some good scholarly opportunities over there.

We shall see.

Comments

[honeyrider.livejournal.com]

we were watching "blow dry" last night as well. :]

get well.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

On netflix watch instantly? :)

[honeyrider.livejournal.com]

it was on some cable movie channel at the in-laws house. i never heard of it before but if alan rickman is in it, it stays on.

[thekitchenvixen.livejournal.com]

I should just move away from my family, that way it will be much harder for them to disappoint me.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

No kidding. I'm struggling with that with my parents. I should really say "my sister and her kids".

[keypike.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a wonderful way to spend the day. Cinnamon rolls are like little swirls of joy.

I've never been to Wales, but I bet the weather would suit you a lot better than CA!

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, the uni I'm doing my program through is in this village in remote Wales and I LOVE IT. Amazing - beautiful, happy. But it's sooooo far from my nieces and we'd have to quarantine the cats. Eek.

Is the grass greener?

[chiv.livejournal.com]

One of the things I read quite often in your journal is how you lament how unfriendly things are in your local neighbourhood, how you miss your family and a close knit community.
It gets no better here, in fact I'd go as far as to say it's probably worse.
even something as simple as a friendly good morning can get you a dirty look, social responsabiity is dying off, everything is the governments fault or the local council's fault and it's their job to fix it while honest hard working Brits sit safely in their homes without having to worry about the dangers of other people.

Lampeter may seem nice and welcoming but wait for the friday and saturday nights when the boy racers are bombing along the roads with their horns blaring. Wait till the pubs kick out and the local lads and tarts are bawling at each other after any civilised person has gone to bed.
Then try to get anywhere. I'll conceed that Aberystwyth is nice, as is Carmarthen but you'll find that compared even with the wilds of Alaska, getting around Wales is a significant chore.

On the other hand, I'm more and more attracted to the idea of moving to a small town in Vermont, Washington, or central Ohio. The friendlyness, the sense of community I felt while I was there blew me away. True there were some quirks of, what a brit would think, 'political incorrectness' but often more than willing to discuss a disagreement and find some common ground to share with the person rather than just demonise them straight off.

Re: Is the grass greener?

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

This is good perspective. I know that I need to spend more time in the UK if we're to move there.

It;s not so much unfriendliness here in the Bay Area, for I find the people here to be far friendlier and welcoming than Seattlites. Community is important to me. But small town life in general makes me happy, as does a certain aesthetic and climate. But there is also just a certain.... je ne sais quoi? I don't know, intangible something that I can't quite put my finger on.

Re: Is the grass greener?

[chiv.livejournal.com]

That intangible something is your unfamiliarity with the place; you're separation from and ignorance of the local politics and cliques (e.g. how Tracey down the road really doesn't get on with Gwen and how you really shouldn't get involved with either of them because the each have their own 'courtiers'); not quite knowing your way around the native customs and etiquette.
You're not being dragged down by the banality of these factors because initially you still don't quite understand them and you can enjoy a certain amount of freedom by interacting with the community on a social level but not a political one.
You can still get away with being an outsider, all of your own little quirks are still unknown to them. Because they don't know you personally or culturally people in a small community are often a lot more patient with you and certainly take an interest. Their curiosity makes you feel wanted.

Re: Is the grass greener?

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Do you mean "one" or "you"? Because if you are deliberately using "you" to refer to me then you are making a great lot of assumptions that just aren't correct. I am well acquainted with the banalities of small town life, and don't mind them. Oh sure, it gets tedious sometimes. But city living, for its lack of knowledge of one's neighbors, isn't neccessarily better or more freeing. And there are politics and gossip here too- smaller community-within-community stuff, and much of it related to money.

The intangible I refer to is more like that a-ha moment - finding a place that speaks to me, that has a quality that can't be pinned down on paper.

Re: Is the grass greener?

[chiv.livejournal.com]

'one'.

[howilearned.livejournal.com]

certain wives and I might mightily enjoy your presence in the UK. though this may be already clear.