Techno-Purge

I am living like a caveperson. Our new house is about two miles from the largest shopping center in Iowa, arguably one of the ritziest, richest areas in the state. Now we are talking about Iowa here, not Beverly Hills, but still…I find it very difficult to comprehend that I am within walking distance of buying anything, ANYTHING I might want or need, yet can I make a simple call on my cell phone? No. Can I flip on the TV to watch the evening news? Nope. While we used to be smart consumers who hunted for the best deals on these services, we have been reduced to settling for whoever can actually provide to us the services we need.

I can’t remember the last time I went days without the television on. Or without a cell phone to distract me. While I will be glad to get all of this ironed out, part of me is glad to know that I can still exist apart from the technology that infests every second of our lives…and I survived!

On a brighter note, it was the easiest phone call ever to cancel our Mediacom service...instead of the usual bout of questions and relentless attempts to salvage your business, we simply said we were moving to a location where Mediacom wasn’t offered. Can’t really argue with that one…

Trick or Treat

I know it isn’t quite Halloween yet, but with the Big Move on the horizon, I’m not sure I will be able to post before then, so this is my official Happy Halloween post :) I have to admit, I love Halloween. Not as much the holiday I guess, but just the Fall season in general and things that are associated with Halloween: hot cider, hayrack rides, roasted hotdogs and marshmallows, pumpkin carving (the picture above is my carving from 2 or 3 years ago) crisp evenings (or this year, soggy cold everything), vividly colored leaves….while I am a summer girl at heart, I love Fall. In fact, it might be my favorite season if it weren’t for the impending doom that is winter.

Anyway, back to Halloween. Trick or treating – probably will be fun again with Brady now. But Halloween still reminds me too much of college days, where it was an excuse for teenage girls and young adults to dress as (excuse me language) sluttily and act as (excuse again) skanky as they like. And it was ok, because it was all masked in the festivities of Halloween. Where do we cross that line from Princess to French maid, from Dr. Doolittle to Naughty Nurse, from Little House on the Prairie to random mini skirt, high boots, and bra girl?

I have to admit, I (somewhat) fell victim to this holiday when in college. I paraded around in my hodgepodge little outfit that was some random semblance of whatever small clothing I owned, threw on a wig, and was someone else for a night. What is it about this kind of action that intrigues us, draws us in, entices us to play the part of someone else for a night? After discussing masks at Ignition last week, it got me thinking – Halloween is the one time we are allowed to be anyone we want to and not get made fun of, looked down on, or discriminated against for it. What if every day was Halloween, but instead of dressing up to be someone we aren’t, we were all just ourselves? What if instead of hiding behind more masks, we just shed the ones we wear every day? Maybe this year for Halloween, I’ll just be me :)

Home Sweet Home

Tomorrow we will be closing on our new house. I am excited to be closing one chapter of life and starting a new one as we move into our first single-residence home! It will be so nice to have a yard, an extra bedroom, non-shared walls, a basement for storage, and carpet. It won’t be as nice to mow, maintain the exterior of our house, clean more space, and attempt to keep Brady from falling down the stairs instead of climbing up them, but we take the small negatives with the huge positives. While the townhouse was a great starter home, this house truly feels like our own: we are the first owners, we will finish the basement however we choose, and we will be solely responsible for ensuring the house remains in good condition. Exciting…and a tad scary.