I Miss Washington

Hi, friends!

This post isn't going to be a very cheerful one. If you don't want to hear me complain about where I live, go ahead and close this tab. (However, if you want to feel better about where you currently live, carry on.)

When Jared was looking at potential jobs for after college, neither of us actually thought we'd end up here. This was the "haha, like we'd ever move there!" option. He liked the sound of the job itself, but when we learned it was in the middle of the desert, it got immediately moved to the back burner. I thought we'd end up in Wisconsin or maybe somewhere on the East Coast. We eventually realized that this job is the one that made the most sense financially. I'm happy that Jared has this job and for a lot of other reasons, but there are still some days when I cry about living here.

I miss experiencing seasons. I miss feeling the air turn colder in September. I miss getting a runny nose from being outside. I miss foggy mornings. I miss worrying about whether I would be warm enough in my Halloween costumes. I miss condensation on windows. I miss leaves dropping from trees and never crunching when I stepped on them. I miss sweaters and hoodies and gloves and scarves. I miss making cocoa with numb hands after sledding. I miss not having air conditioning and feeling miserably hot for one or two weeks every summer when it got up to 90 degrees. I miss shivering outside.

I miss the color green. I miss grass that only ever needed to be watered in the summer. I miss clovers and dandelions in my backyard. I miss the sound of cars driving by on the wet road. I miss gray skies and always wondering if it would rain today. I miss the view of Mount Rainier being obscured by evergreen trees. I miss the hems of my jeans getting soaked and making my ankles cold for hours. I miss having to put on different shoes than I wore earlier in the day because the first pair is still wet. I miss leaving umbrellas open to dry in the living room. I miss looking out my window and seeing rain illuminated by the streetlight. I miss hanging my jacket over the shower door to let it dry. I miss squirrels. I miss seeing seagulls in unexpected places. I miss hills and winding roads lined with ferns and trees. I miss going barefoot outside. I miss the way flowers and plants look when they've been rained on. I miss finding tiny frogs and snakes. I miss never using sunscreen. I miss thinking that nature was beautiful.

I miss suburbs. I miss Fred Meyer and Safeway and Target. I miss, "Oh, this store doesn't have any X. Let's try a different store!" I miss Southcenter Mall. I miss choosing which movie theater to go to. I miss seeing Starbucks stores everywhere. I miss Wendy's and Jamba Juice and Dairy Queen and Costco. I miss Fairwood Library. I miss all the schools having airbrushed mascot art done by Mr. Bogle. I miss Kent Station. I miss being painfully close to PAX West in Seattle without actually going to the convention. I miss everyone being annoyingly passionate about the Seahawks. I miss the guy that would spin the Little Caesears sign in Fairwood. I miss going to a grocery store and not hearing country music playing in the background. I miss the Renton Stake.

I miss walking along trails with my dad. I miss making freezer jam with my mom using the berries we grew in the backyard. I miss the cozy cabin-themed family room. I miss driving by the Pepto Bismol pink walls of my elementary school. I miss looking for the bullet casing in the rocky walls of my old church building. I miss getting lunch at IKEA with my mom. I miss playing baseball golf at my dad's work. I miss the tumbleweeds we found during a road trip and kept in our garage. I miss my front yard being covered in pink petals when the blossoms would start falling off of the big tree. I miss grabbing a pen or pencil from that drawer in our kitchen and seeing that it had the Boeing logo on it. I miss coming home to a house that smells like pumpkin pie on a random Tuesday in October. I miss squeezing past boxes of food storage to get into the car when we parked in the garage.

I miss my skin being normal. I miss not having to put lotion on at every opportunity. I miss not needing to smother my hands with moisturizer and cover them with gloves overnight. I miss the tap water being soft and safe to drink. I miss having thick hair. I miss using Chapstick for the fun smells instead of to prevent my lips from cracking open. I miss only having one or two pairs of shorts which barely ever got worn. I miss being able to have my hair down outside without worrying that the wind would tangle it or use it to drag lip gloss across my face. I miss being able to shop for clothes at stores other than Walmart. I miss keeping my phone in my jacket pocket for most of the year until it was finally too warm for an extra layer. I miss thinking WALL-E's little cockroach friend was cute because I'd never seen a real cockroach until I was 21.

I love my house. I love my church friends and my church "job." I love that Jared is happy with his work. I love the two little drive-through shops in town that sell milkshakes and sodas. I love having a Southern California Disneyland pass. In general, I love my life. I just wish this town wasn't the way that it is.

Love,
Lizzie