Apples and Oranges

I don't know if it is really fair to compare Florida and Minnesota. They are such different states after all. Florida has the beach and sunshine and oranges. Minnesota has snow and skiing and apple orchards! Florida has one season: summer. Minnesota has two: summer and winter.

But I've now been a Floridian again for over two months. I feel it fair to accurately present what I think of returning to life in the Sunshine state. So here, are my current opinions.

Weather
So this section should be pretty obvious. The weather here is, glorious. Okay, so I should be fair. I have hesitated in saying this lest God come down and smite me (or as Bruce Almighty says: "Smite me thy mighty smiter") and send me back to Minnesota on a bolt of lightning. (That's a joke folks!) But, in all seriousness, I hesitated in admitting that, well, it IS hot. It's quite warm. Baking actually. However, I really do love it and would take the warm temperatures over the freezing ones everyday and any day. I will be able to go for a walk or a run 12 months a year. I don't know if everyone here will do that. They'll probably huddle in doors with hot chocolate when it drops to 60. But 60 is nothing in Minnesota. So John and I will make everyone think we are crazy jogging the neighborhood in the "dead of winter!"

People
I am aware, every single day, that while we have returned to Florida, we haven't returned to Fort Lauderdale. People in south Florida are just plain rude, mean, and cranky. Now not all people mind you, but the majority really are. I really don't know why this is true, but it is. I know New York has a bad rap for rude people, but I think Fort Lauderdale ties it nicely. Maybe this is because Fort Lauderdale is filled with folks who have retired from New York City. Now again, this is a generalization.

We have returned to the Bible belt -- the south. Southern hospitality is alive and well. I was praying that this would not be a part of the country that I had to be informed I was tall everywhere I went. Thankfully, it isn't! I very rarely here tall jokes or wise cracks and for that I am thankful. Drivers will wave you in in traffic. (In Fort Lauderdale, if they wave, they are waving only one finger!) It's a different part of the country. I can most compare it to Kentucky. It's most like the life I lived there. Good ol' southern folks.

It wouldn't be fair to compare without throwing Minnesota in. The people in Minnesota are ... nice. "Minnesota nice" as JB and I affectionately named it. Everyone is very pleasant, smiling, saying hello. However, they are really just doing that to be polite, because they are "Minnesota nice." Now please don't be offended if you are from Minnesota reading this. Not everyone is like this of course. Many Minnesotans are quite hospitable and not in the "Minnesota nice" category. But the majority of people just want to get to know you on a polite, surface level. They don't want to go deeper like the southerners. Does that make sense?

Convenience
One of the things that I miss most about Minnesota is the convenience of where we lived. I loved living downtown. I loved walking everywhere. I loved filling up our car with gas every other month. I loved the underground subway. I loved our Super Target and how close it was. I loved that I had figured out a way to get almost everywhere downtown through that underground subway. I had memorized every nook and cranny of that place. I loved that I walked three minutes to work. I loved that we lived in a condo requiring no upkeep. I loved being across the street from the gym. I loved all of our friends living so close, especially Dave and Les, just two floors up. (Awww man, that makes me sad just thinking about it.)

I do like living on base. I like having friends like Matt and Tiffany right around the block that I can borrow milk from. (Okay, so I haven't borrowed milk yet, but I would if I needed it.) I like that I am learning most of my neighbors' names and that kids play outside without a second thought. No one is really afraid for the safety of children on base and everyone truly seems to trust each other. People wave at passing cars. I like that there is a grocery store and BX (Kmart type store) right down the street from us. However, after that, the convenience ends. We are filling up our car a lot. Any restaurant, other than the few fast food places on base, require quite a hike. Nothing is very close. This is a bit inconvenient and Minnesota definitely wins in this category.

Friends
This is a tough section for me to write. Man do we miss our friends. I would say that we miss our families too, and we do. However, we have both been away from our families for over a decade so that has became pretty "usual" to us.

I remember when we left Kentucky. Leaving the Wilsons and Josh and Sarah was VERY hard. (It wasn't hard leaving Ron and Ebby because they came WITH us!) We LOVED living across the street from Josh and Sarah. It was awesome. We were at each other's homes all the time.

Leaving Minnesota was equally as hard. So many good friends left behind. It does comfort me slightly that many of them have dispersed (or will) as well. The Rays have relocated to North Carolina. Tara is in California. Ajit went to Arizona. The Yuans probably won't stay too long past their four year commitment if Kristen has anything to do with it. The Philips, likewise, will probably relocate. But then there are those people that have remained. Hans and Rachel! The Jones! The women in my support group! Coworkers and friends at church. The list goes on and on. Saying good bye to these people is so hard. We have already made some great friends here, and I am so blessed by that. But leaving behind friends in Minnesota is really tough on me to think about still.

Schedule
So I will try to keep this brief. Complaining doesn't help anyone. But JB's schedule has been very difficult for both of us. We are used to being around each other a lot. When we lived in Kentucky, I was a work-a-holic, but JB worked from home, and we saw each other all the time. When we were in Minnesota, he was in medical school, but we were always right downtown together, able to connect for a quick lunch or conversation. He was also home at more reasonable hours.

And then, there's Florida. Now granted, I've been told that JB started with two of the more time consuming rotations. But man oh man the guy is gone A LOT. It's a lot of hours, and a lot of hours away from each other. It isn't that I am bored (not at all) or even lonely (I have friends I feel like I could connect with at anytime.) It's more that I just miss my best friend. I miss having him around and seeing him and hanging out with him.

Last night we had a nice evening. John got home at 6:30 but brought food for dinner. We ate hummus and pitas and fruit and crackers and cheese by the bay -- our dinner only interrupted when Scrubs saw a family playing in the bay and decided to join them, diving straight into the water. We also had an interesting diversion when a man came by with his two labs who were so excited to see Scrubs that they pulled the man down the hill. Like, he fell on his but down the embankment! That meant JB had to give the pup a bath after his swim. We are wondering if this is going to bring an end to letting him off the leash at the bay. We can't bathe him every evening!

But I digress ...

I say all that to say that sometimes, we do get some nice, quality time together. But the moments aren't as frequent as either of us would like. John left at 5am this morning for Pensacola. He will be home on Sunday morning. If he didn't get an sleep, he'll sleep until mid-day Sunday leaving only a few hours before the start of another week rolls around. That's a bit frustrating. When your loved one is working twice as much as a "normal work week", you lose 40 hours a week of quality time together. I'm not quite used to that yet.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I have decided, that in all fairness, I can't say that Florida is hands down, the winner in the comparison between past and present homes. I also can't call Minnesota a loser just because it has the worst weather in America. It's apples and oranges I suppose. The secret is learning to be content, in all things, wherever you are, right now. That's all I know for sure.