I made a new word today.

At least I think I made it up. I googled it, and it wasn’t on the first page of google for what I am using it for…

Oh the word, you ask.

Smad.

It means sad+mad. As in, I’m smad at you.

Clever, eh?

So an update on the small town move………

We recently moved from Urban West Seattle to a Small Town further East. I capitalize Small Town because that’s exactly what it is. Very small. And the mentality is the same.

In some ways, that is good, and in others, not so good.   It takes three minutes to get to the grocery store, another twenty to get to a Target. There are ups and downs to living out of the city.

We’ll start with some of the good:

It’s quiet out here. Seriously quiet. After living so close to the fire station in West Seattle (literally two blocks!) and hearing sirens non-stop, I’d forgotten what “quiet” actually is. I sleep better out here, and I don’t hear my neighbors very much.

Our place is much bigger. Instead of about 950 square feet, we’re in almost 1500 square feet. We still don’t have a place for everything, but that’s coming.

Once you pass the last city (when I say city, I mean, say something big enough to have it’s own Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.) you can go 70 miles an hour. So it doesn’t take that long to get back to civilization.

We have a very pretty, very private view. We used to look out at the Puget Sound – I do miss that – but now we look at the forest. It’s beautiful and tranquil.

Our dog LOVES it here. All of the trees, wildlife, grassy areas…he’s in doggie heaven.

Now for some of the bad:

Looking at the forest means lots of bugs. Spiders, ants, weird beetles, and more. I hate bugs. I fear bugs. I despise them.

It takes about 40-50 minutes to get to Seattle. So much of what we do is based in the city – I take a dance/fitness/yoga fusion class and it’s about 45-50 minutes out from our place. We play soccer very frequently in the SouthCenter area. We are staunch supporters of the Seattle Sounders and are going to Qwest all of the time.  I abhor filling my gas tank.

I’ve found that some of the people here have an odd small-town mentality. There is not a lot of diversity, which I find very odd, and it really makes me miss bigger cities.  All I can say about it though, is that it’s an experience, and we can all use more of those!

All in all, this has just shown me that I knew myself all along. I’m a city girl at heart. Pretty sure it’s going to be staying that way, even though it can be lovely out here. I miss the noise and bustle of California Avenue. And running downstairs to the deli. Or walking down the street to get an awesome steak. But as much as I love the city, this is good for now. And, it’s an adventure at the least!

@Ragingpandabear and I moved from an urban neighborhood to the middle of no where.

When we tell our friends we moved, they say, “Why?” – it’s about 40 minutes from the big city (there are a couple of small cities around us, but not what we’re used to) and I’m still commuting back and forth for school. I can’t tell you how glad I am that the quarter ends in two weeks! (I’ve always hated filling up my gas tank, but even more so now. Two to three times a week is just too much.)

We moved for work – my job took me from a friendly urban neighborhood to a huge sprawling community in a tiny town.  I’m a city girl at heart and this has been the strangest adjustment. I no longer hear sirens, instead I hear birds. I no longer have my choice of twenty restaurants…instead I have a choice of five. No more unique, amazing bakeries around the corner, but stunning views and wildlife.  (We’ve caught two mini frogs since we moved!) So we traded convenience for peace…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Just…well…different.

We need to take the time to check out the local hiking trails and walking trails…we haven’t done that yet. I know that Titan will love them, but I’m not much of a hiker, so I haven’t really pushed on that, yet. But we do need to do it, and we just might be doing it soon! Hopefully the PacNW will start clearing up so we can enjoy it. I hear there are a lot of great running trails, but I haven’t really explored enough to find them. I’m pushing myself to start running again, even though it’s been so rainy! (A neighboring city gets 104 inches of rain on average…)

Anyway, I’m going to be here a while, so I better make the most of it. Open mind, open heart, and it’ll be great…right?

I’m the youngest of three, and I love being the youngest.  There were a few drawbacks (hand-me-downs and having to share a room.) but for the most part, it was pretty awesome.  I was a daddy’s girl and could charm just about anything out of him, but I was super tight with my mom, too.

My older brother is almost six years older than me, and as a child, I swore he walked on water. (Not so much, there were some interesting incidents – one in particular with a flare gun, but that’s another blog post) He did take me under his wing and I know that he’ll always be there for me.  (I remember when I was probably about 4 and scared of the dark, he’d let me sleep in his room.) I also remember him being a jerk though…Like in this story:

“Crys, come play He-Man and GI Joe’s with me!” My brother says, setting up Skelator’s castle.

“No.” I headed for my Fisher-Price kitchen.
“C’mon. It’ll be fun. I’ll play kitchen with you, after,” He grabbed GI Joe and set him next to the castle.

I considered. At about 6 years old, that seemed like a pretty good deal. “Okay!”  So I played GI Joes and He-Man (I was She-Ra, naturally) and afterwards, when the good guys killed the bad guys, I said, “Let’s play kitchen!”

I’ll never, ever forget this… He said “Later. But I never said WHEN later! Ha!”   I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “But you PROMISED.”

“Yeah, yeah,” my brother smirked.

I looked at him…and took a deep breath. And screamed at the top of my lungs.
My dad came running, and by then, I’d worked up tears and he said, “What happened?!”  I cried pitifully…and my brother got in trouble.

Ah, the joys of being the youngest and Daddy’s girl…I think I came out on top in this fight!

Chinese New Year was on Valentine’s Day this year – 2/14/10.   In my humble opinion, I think that Valentine’s Day is overrated.  Who likes to be TOLD to appreciate your significant other.  I’d prefer to be shown on a random day, but that’s just me, and not what this post is about.

If possible, I like to go to my Auntie Nancy’s house for our Chinese New Year feast.  Because literally, this lady can cook, and she always makes a feast. If you like Chinese food, you should try to go somewhere to celebrate Chinese New Year and savor the food.  Thank you, Auntie Nancy!

As a child, my father didn’t teach me much in terms of Chinese Culture.  We exchanged red envelopes for Chinese New Year, and learned how to say “Gong hay fat choi” – (It doesn’t sound how it’s typed exactly, but that’s probably as close as I can type it.) which means Happy New Year!  I come from a bi-racial family, and always wanted learn more about the practices and culture than what was typically taught in our home.  (I still, to this day, badger my dad about teaching me the language.)

I wish I’d taken pictures of the meal, but I’ll try and find some of the delicious foods that I ate.

It was fun to hear about the culture and the idea about left overs – my uncle told me that the family would usually fry a fish the night before, leave it out on the table under a screen to prevent bugs from getting on it. Typically, a Chinese family didn’t have a lot of money in the past.  Here’s a quotation from the Boston Globe: “The tradition comes from Cantonese phrases associated with whole fish, that is, fish with heads and tails intact. They mean “happy endings and beginnings,” “everything is perfect , ” and there will be leftovers every year — a sign of prosperity.”    If you’d like to read the whole article: http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2007/02/14/chinese_welcome_new_year_in_a_whole_fish_way/

I didn’t know the fish tradition. In fact, I don’t know many traditions at all. But I love to learn them!
How about you? What kind of family traditions do you have?