Six months!

We've been in Colorado for six months now.  There's things I miss, and there's things I've gained.

Food.  Brands vary from place to place.  I REALLY miss Utz brand potato chips and Trader Joe's sunflower seed butter.  (Fortunately they're building one in Boulder!)  I haven't really found replacements yet.

Restaurants.  I miss Don Pablo's and a few Northern Virginia locals, but they still have Little Caesar's and The Black Eyed Pea out here, as well as a bunch of nice locally owned places.

Traffic is MUCH lighter out here, and the speed limits are higher.  Improved gas mileage!  Less road rage, but a lot more people running red lights.  I think it's because you can SEE the light for so much longer that you still see it as green by the time you get there.  Or else the yellow lights are much shorter.

I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the WTOP and WNEW news radio stations.  There are no news radio stations out here, and you're lucky if you can even get the weather!    On the other hand, maybe that's why people are friendlier out here.  They get to listen to things like the Denver Comedy Station instead!

Less diversity.  I kind of miss Centreville's large Korean population and all the shop whose signs I couldn't read.  I REALLY miss being able to tune out other people's conversations in public because they weren't speaking in English.  It's annoying to have to listen to people blabber on in English!

The Redskins.  I have no interest in the Denver Broncos.  Football season is likely going to be mostly a game of finding a sports place that will air the game.

The view is AMAZING.  I was always excited to see that little bit of mountain at the overpass where 29 crosses 28, but here, the mountain is EVERYWHERE.  Lots of big empty areas, too.  And animals.  We'd have to drive for an hour or two to pass cows, chickens, or sheep.  Here, they're right down the street!  And prairie dogs.  We're still excited to spot one of those.  And then there's the cottontail rabbits that like to hang out in our backyard.

Sunshine.  I admit I miss the amount of rain we got in Virginia.  It's just been sun sun sun, and I'm going to have to invest in a new hat or two, I think.  I've gotten a tan, something I haven't had in years!  I'm so brown that I think my hands look weird.  (I'm not THAT tan, just enough to notice my skin is a different color!)

Interior Space.  I LOVE having closet space.  Stuff gets put away and stays out of sight, rather than being tucked into corners and then moved to different corners when that space is needed.  Having only one set of stairs instead of two is also nice.  As well as having the washer and dryer outside the master bedroom.

I miss our Centreville kitchen.  The gigantic sink, the high faucet with the built in sprayer, the layout which put everything right at hand . . . I didn't realize what a nice setup it was until attempting to maneuver in the new one.  The island is just totally in the wrong spot!

Having a yard is an awkward problem.  It's nice to not share walls, but there's a learning curve in figuring out how to keep stuff alive, and which stuff should be removed instead of encouraged.  I recognize dandelions, but it took me weeks to figure out that the other weird weeds are actually tree saplings!

So there's lots of changes going on, but some of them are most definitely an improvement.  I just need to control my food cravings . . .