HiJenx

I had my first birthday anywhere other than the Midwest or England yesterday. It came to my attention how many people asked me if we were going to do anything special. We didn’t do anything too different, but then, everything we are doing right now is new. Our lives have been chock full of novelty for well over a year really. I thought the peak of that would be traveling, and in some ways it was, but with all the new things we have to learn here, it hasn’t stopped. Every weekend, at the very least, we think of something else that needs setting up or figuring out.

Even though I have lived in the US before, when I was last here, I was still a student (an MA student, but a student nonetheless, living near campus with lots of student facilities), so there are a lot o things we need to set up that are normal parts of adult American life that I have never set up before and Chris certainly never has. For instance, two weeks ago, we had to pick a bank rather quickly. Before that, we had to try to buy everything to fill a house quickly and so on. Everyone we’re meeting is new to us. That may all sound obvious, but it is still constantly novelty and we are far from done.

At any rate, long story short, we stayed in, which involved eating on our lovely patio and then watching Doctor Who. I was happy with that though. I thought about it and I still have no desire to set foot in a restaurant. Eating home cooked food again regularly has been great. It’s not that we didn’t enjoy eating out on the road, but it will be a while before it feels like a treat again since we had to overdo it to make the thing work.

Also, something my sister-in-law said last Easter really stuck with me: if you like where you live, you won’t want to go out as much because you will enjoy being there. At that time, she’d just moved into a lovely house in Manchester with nice proper back garden (yard, Americans). We are feeling the same way. Our nice little balcony patio is nicer than most restaurant spaces, so I was happy with that.

Here is a short video:

One thing that was a slightly bizarre thought was that I realized that it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit warmer here in Chandler than it was in Wisconsin where my relatives live. Everyone focuses on how hot it gets in the summer, but it could easily be 90 in Wisconsin when it’s 115 here, which is different, but not anywhere near as big. The 70 degree difference, on the other hand, is just huge considering we are in the same hemisphere and it’s not like it’s Australian summer versus English winter. Also, looking at the temperature elsewhere, even nearby or warm places, Albuquerque was 30 degrees colder and so was Jacksonville, Florida. The valley of the sun was not an inappropriate name to give this place. We’ve already reached the point in the year where sunglasses are essential.