Big City, Small Town

I’ve spent most of my life living in big cities, but am transitioning into a small town for the first time. I was born in Houston, Texas, population nearing 6 million in 2010 [about 2 million when I was born there]. That’s just the county I grew up in. I’m about to move to a state where the whole population is just over 1 million, and the town we’re living in has less than 20,000. 

This is going to be a big shift.

I’ve had about a year and a half to prepare myself for this change. I’ve had lots of different thoughts coursing through my mind. Having spent several years expecting to spend my life in urban areas, there was the initial freak out. But once we really decided to make this commitment, I also started fantasizing about some of the more romantic aspects of small town life.

Not living in a big city, I know from past experience that I will actually miss freeways, skyscrapers, the white noise of traffic/trains/rapid transit/buses.

I am looking forward to being able to walk most places in town, being surrounded by old New England architecture, and nature making more noise than machines.

I think I might miss the freedom of anonymity, but love the familiarity of acquaintance.

I’ll miss the bustle and buzz of a big city, but look forward to simplicity and peace of a small town.

I will miss the breadth of dining and entertainment options. But I also look forward to actually being able to know every restaurant in town and not have a list hanging over my head of places I need to try. 

I will miss having so many choices for everything (shopping, schools, parks, grocery stores). I will love having less decisions to worry over.

I’m going to miss the ethnic diversity and internationality of big cities, but look forward to seeing more economic diversity amongst neighbors. 

We’ve been thinking lately about how both in inner cities and suburban neighborhoods, most people have to “get out” in order to work at good jobs. It creates this spatial disconnect between family and work. While I can see some advantages to having these things separated, I am looking forward to our children growing up in the same space where all the adults in their lives work. They’ll be able to see their parents’ offices and colleagues and get a sense for what having a career looks like on a more intimate level than maybe just a once/year “take your kid to work day.” 

Help me out, Lobsters. What are some of the other pros/cons of big cities and small towns? Here's one guy's research-based thoughts. What am I forgetting to miss and what do I not know to look forward to? What are some of the cons of small town life I should be preparing myself for?

And now, a short film...

So Eiley Thinks She Can Dance
Directed, Edited, and Written by Aunt Tab
Starring Eiley Grace and her baby straitjacket
Supervised by Emily Grace

happy birthday, zoe!

Happy birthday, Zoe! I can't believe we've been friends for almost a decade. I love you so much, and I'm uber thankful for our friendship. You are such a caring, generous, sagacious (I always call you wise, so I thought I'd go with a synonym today), beautiful, creative person. I hope that your day is filled with Manny, Sofi, and lots of Maine fun!


Lahve, Lurve, Loooove,
Emily


And now, a message from Eiley Grace:

Pranks.

I wish I was better at pranks. I think they're delightful. I also feel like a grandmother writing that out, but whatever. My grandmas are cool so I'll take the comparison. I haven't pulled many pranks in my life because I have trouble thinking of good ones that won't physically/emotionally harm the prankee, but here are a few:


1. Well, there was the turtlecall. Not sure if that counts though. You know, since I paid someone to do the actual pranking.
2. When I worked at Vanguard University, there were a couple of crazy guys in the Undergraduate Admissions Office. (I was in Graduate Admissions. Yes, that did make me superior, thanks for noticing.) They tended to tease me like I was their little sister (even though I was older than one of them), so I decided to get them back by writing on their cars. On one, I wrote "Follow me to the Ren Faire! Huzzah!" and on the other I wrote "Clay, you're MY American Idol!" I hope people judged them accordingly. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how that prank went since they were masters of pretending that nothing had happened.
3. The clock. This also doesn't really count since I feel like Jeff and Mikkele started it, but I have participated. Oh how I've participated. Here's the "short" version of the journey of the clock:

• I received clock as a gift. It was very loud (sounded like a dying frog), so I gave it to Mikkele when I moved out of our apartment.
• Jeff went to pick up some of my stuff from said apartment, and Mikkele insisted he take dying frog clock with him.
• Jeff took the clock with him...and left it outside on Mikkele's car.
• Mikkele brought the clock to me and Jeff's new apartment (Jeff's and my new apartment? mine and Jeff's? what is it, people?!) and secretly hid it in our bed.
• We mailed the clock to Mikkele's workplace.
• Mikkele baked the clock into a cake. (Still my personal favorite.)
• We asked a friend who worked at Mikkele's grocery to put the clock in her bag next time she shopped there. Our friend failed miserably, lost the clock, and when he found it just brought it to her apartment.
• Not knowing that our friend had failed miserably, we thought the clock was lost forever. Until it showed up in a random box of our stuff when we moved to Virginia.
• We mailed the clock to Chicago, where one of Mikkele's best friends gave it to her as a gift when she visited.
• Mikkele had a friend in Virginia put the clock in the prop box for one of Jeff's shows. Blew. Our. Minds.
• We had a friend put the clock on a shelf in the hostel where Mikkele was serving in Amsterdam. By this time, the clock was obviously in shambles, and this friend had the brilliant idea of reassembling it. Blew. Mikkele's. Mind.



Clock in a cake! Yum?

• Mikkele mailed it back to us in Virginia. (Please, someone comment on the lameness of the last return. Seriously. And feel free to email me with new ideas because I'm drawing a blank right now.)

Have any good pranks, Lobsters? Or any pranks that you tried that failed miserably?

happy birthday, mama lobster!

Happy birthday, Mama! Thank you again for visiting for so long and for being such a huge help and encouragement in the first couple weeks of Eiley. Thanks also for being an amazing Mama. I'm just starting to get a grasp on how much energy you must have put into being such a great mom - always willing to spend time with me and Sissy, always encouraging us, always making sure we knew how much you love us. 


I hope you have a perfect day with Daddy and Sweet Pea!


I love you and I'm proud of you,
Emily


Oh, Eiley wanted me to pass this along too...

Movie Review Monday #12: Two Sides

Two movies I am always in the mood for: Little Women and Gone with the Wind.

I find myself strongly identifying with both female leads. When it comes to Jo, that’s a lovely thing. But in regards to Scarlet, I feel quite uncomfortable about this connection.

Consumed with her own appearance, always after another woman’s man, entirely unappreciative of people who love and care for her, and greedy as all get out, Scarlet is a class-A-lady-I-shouldn’t-like. Jo on the other hand is described as having one beauty, her hair. But she is passionate, intelligent, talented, committed to her family in a sacrificial and affectionate way. She is able to say no to a man she knows she wouldn’t have an ideal marriage with, and instead marries a professor.  Yay for being married to professors!

I’ve come to feel like Scarlet is what I would look like if I’d never met Jesus. Maybe Jo is a character I identify with more now. And at the same time, Jo is “hopelessly flawed.” Both of these women have hubris to overcome, like any great hero in literature, harder to find in women of popular media though – so they’re special.

After years of loving these two movies/stories, it only just occurred to me that they paint two pictures on opposite sides of the civil war. Scarlet is the slave owning Southerner. Jo is part of a family who boycotts products and makes lifestyle choices according to the highest of ethical standards. But both are women fighting for survival in difficult times. Not to justify any evils, but I just find it interesting how these two movies illustrate through their tones how we look back on history based on the winners of wars. Losers must be wrong, and it must be as simple as that. But despite the way they serve as foils to each other, I find such comfort and inspiration in both.

I find my heart welling up with pride for Scarlet as she pulls herself together to face yet another challenge, I end the movie with a sense of hope that she might be able to redeem herself and impressed that she made it as far as she did – as underhandedly as she might have been in order to get there. And I find myself excited at Jo’s dream of creating her own school and I internalize her sense of triumph in finding her authentic voice as a writer.

I don’t know if I’m trying to make any big important point here, mostly and observation and trying to find an excuse to muse about two things I enjoy. Had you noticed this connection between these two very different movies?

Sabbath Sunday #12

Today I'm observing the Sabbath by going to church, which happens to be at the beach today, going out to lunch, and trying to nap!


How are you Sabbathing it up today, Lobsters?