Raves and Reservations

Can I see myself living in Minnesota yet? I'm approaching the end of week 5 here and I've enjoyed myself so much that I wish it wouldn't end so soon! I feel like I'm in grade school, dreading the end of the summer because that means I have to go to school and do homework every day again...for nine months! Really, the only difference is that come the end of this summer, I have 9 months of school before I graduate from college with a BSN and don't have to stare at another school year unless I decide I want to get a master's degree. Nine months to weigh the pros and cons, to decide if Mayo is home. That's a big decision!

And for the first time in five weeks, I'm feeling the absence of things that I left in California. It's not the weather or the cities. No, it's a little deeper than that. I miss my church family and consistency of solid meat on the table and conversation is hearty. I miss the security of my brother's hugs. I miss my family. The pangs jab deeper still when I think of the implications of having fallen hard for Rochester and Mayo. I expected to miss these things, but I never seriously considered that Rochester would win me over. I mean, usually I'm stubbornly opposed to falling for the wily tricks that others fall prey to.

I've handled living 400 miles from my parents and brother for the past four years. It's been hard at times, but by and large bearable. I have found that I can be content with wherever the Lord has me because I will always be a stranger in a foreign land until I go Home. However, two thousand miles isn't as easy a trip to make, especially when I consider that all of my friends will probably stay in SoCal and my family is in NorCal. I don't like the idea of being this far away should my brother and sister-in-law start having kids. (If you guys are reading this, please don't feel pressured...It's just a thought that occurred to me!) And, here we go with it...I've been fully warned by a fellow San Franciscan who moved out here with her husband that if I meet my husband out here I might as well kiss ever moving back to the West Coast good-bye. Supposedly, the families out here stick together and the boys don't like moving far. Oh, and she said that it's hard to form deep relationships with people as an adult because everyone in town grew up together and they have history. Midwesterners are friendly acquaintances, per this coworker. Contrast that with the City (San Francisco)...Good night! I thought that it was hard to break into the California scene but apparently it's hard everywhere! (People amuse me!)


Last reservation, not that it's most important, but I think I'd miss the beautiful NorCal seasons. I hear that Minnesota winters are wickedly long, frigid with feet of snow. I like visiting snow, like Tahoe and Utah back when my grandparents lived there, but living in it is a ton of work and I'd probably get stir crazy, cabin fever, and every other kind of unsettled if I had to move to a climate that requires a whole new wardrobe! It's probably a good thing that I've always fancied fall clothing because you can layer more than during the summer. ;)