So I am taking two classes this semester, general Biology and organic Chemistry (blech!) And I drive about 30 minutes to an even smaller town (really--they exist) that is a little higher up in the mountains. I wasn't very excited about said chemistry class, and have questioned my sanity on multiple occasions for voluntarily signing up for it, but I finally decided to stick with it (because quite honestly--it is at a community college...on the rez...so it doesn't get much easier than that :) so when I got on the road Monday morning (and I was jamming out to some good tunes) This was what I saw.
Okay, so a little blurry, but it was so gorgeous it was worth slowing down, and later actually stopping, so that I could get some good pictures of these Happy Wild Sunflowers
Where I live the only thing that grows are weeds and ...more weeds. The view consists of dirt and tumbleweeds. So--this was such a pleasant surpise--and it wasn't that far away. The flower lined highway stretched for MILES!
It also brought up the much pondered question--of Why do so many more flowers grow on the side of the road? am I the only one who wonders that?? I have a few possible ideas (some more possible than others):
someone drove by and dropped seeds out of their car window?
The streets are graded so that the water drains off to both sides so obviously the ground right next to the road gets slightly more water than the rest of the ground. So maybe the seeds are everywhere, but they only grow here with that extra water??
When roads are built the ground just to the side of the road is cleared of trees and larger bushes, so maybe it allows better conditions for flowers that need a lot of light to grow??
I don't know what it is, but I mentioned this to my biology teacher and she approved it as my topic for a small presentation we have to do. So if anyone else is wondering...I will let you know what I find out.
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I even cut some flowers to take home because I wanted to enjoy it a little longer, and spread the happiness around.
However, there is a downside. This giddiness has led a certain fellow Chinle-hater, to be a little disgusted with me :) and I just want to clarify that It is not a "I LOVE THE REZ" attitude, but rather these flowers--and a few other things
(more on that later) have made Chinle
a little less sucky. And considering the current sucky status of Chinle--there is plenty of room for improvement before reaching a rating of LOVING it here. :)
The other few things that have been making me happier--is having more get-togethers with friends. Maybe it is everyone's timing, maybe it is because the dust storms have finally stopped and the weather is cooling down after summer so more of us are up for being outside--but I have totally enjoyed going on daily morning walks with friends, playing at the park, and it has motivated some of us to get together more often even if it is to 'do nothing.' Isn't it funny how when you first meet a new friend how you don't feel like you can invite them over to "do nothing." You feel like you could call--if you had a reason, maybe invite them to go to lunch, meet up somewhere, come watch a movie, etc--but when said town has nowhere fun to go for lunch, and no where to watch a move (and you have been denied from renting movies at the only video store left in town, and the brand new blockbuster video kiosk is always out of order) and the only "park" is a pitiful excuse for a park (no swings or any grass, just a few slides and some pavement) you have a hard time coming up with something fun to do. But I was out watering in the front yard one morning and saw two friends walk by pushing strollers, and I decided to join them. I had already walked that day, but saw an opportunity to hang out, so I took another walk. Then we began coordinating each day and going together, which led to us mingling at one of our houses for a little while afterwards. And now we seem to have passed that 'getting-to know you' stage and are fully capable of calling each other to "do nothing." Which we just did a few hours ago, after having a fun girls night out last night, and we have another one planned for tonight. I know--PARTY CITY Huh?!! :)
And I can't leave out my husband's sudden return to social life. Many of you who know us--know that Sam has a reclusive side to him
(it was his dream to live in the middle of nowhere that prompted this move, and he has dreams of building a compound in the wilderness of Southern Colorado and letting friends -by invitation only--come live by us.) So he isn't
always the most social person. But the
World Cup did something
AMAZING!!! Sam was very into the games, and started inviting his fellow dentist coworkers over to watch the games. But they wouldn't come over just to vedge in front of the tv--they would also make dinner. I would get a call at about 5:00 "Hey, do you have any plans for dinner?" (ha ha "No.") "Okay, the guys are coming over to watch the game and we are going to BBQ." sweet! And even more amazing--they would all go to the store and buy necessary ingredients and come home and cook it, in my kitchen, while I just sat at the compter blogging and facebooking. I kept my mouth quiet because I didn't want to jinx anything. But it was GLORIOUS! :) Then said World Cup ended, and I was very sad, it seemed to be a fluke and it seemed highly unlikely that the fun would continue. Thankfully, the coworker dinners have continued (and still require no effort on my part).
Lastly--this whole living in the same neighborhood with everyone who works at the same place has it's perks once you get used to it. So for the first year I was a little disappointed in how infrequently people got together around here. Partly it is because everyone goes out of town so much, and many times it is on opposite weekends, part of it was most people had been here for a while and had already made friends, but for whatever reason--as remote and boring as it is out here there really wasn't much in the way of social gatherings. But now that we have been here for 2 years, and have gradually met more neighbors and coworkers (who also happen to be neighbors) it has made for a fun situation. It my neighborhood in Chandler, I knew about 3 neighbors. Here we take Cali for an evening walk and
run into 5-6 different neighbors each night. Two nights ago we gradually added more friends to our group until we ended up at the part with 6-7 couples and all of our kids and let them play at the park until dark while we got to chat. In how many other neighborhoods does that happen?
Need to take your kid to the hospital? We know the ER doc, 6 different Pediatric Doctors, 5-6 of the family practice doctors, the OBGYN, some pharmacists....you get the idea. When Rachel had pink eye and I was sent to optometry--we got to play the "which friend do you think will get to look at your eye" game because we know all 4 optometrists.
So right now--life is Good. I have been so content here, that after being gone for 2 and a half weeks in July I haven't felt like leaving yet. I actually talked Sam
out of leaving last weekend. Wierd I know. But for now I am enjoying this feeling, because
who knows how long it will last.
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