For this post, I thought it would be fun to have a little
friendly competition between states.
Two very different states, yet both hold a place in my
heart.
I won’t miss them. Whew! Glad I got that off my chest.
One of the things I certainly DO miss about NC is all the
beautiful trees. When my dad came here he said it looked like Hawaii! I
couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place. That’s NC for you. When I first moved
here I seriously felt like I was camping every day. But then again there were
not the beautiful mountains like there are in Utah. My dad told me before I
left that I would miss the mountains, and I wasn’t sure I believed him. His prediction
didn’t come true until December when I came home for Christmas. I was out to
lunch at with a friend & I looked out the window and BAM!! I noticed the
beauty of the mountains more than I ever had before. So truth be told, I never
really thought “Man I miss the mountains” But as soon as I seen them while
staring out that window I thought “Man I have missed those mountains without
realizing it.” I guess part of me not
“missing” the mountains was not really being able to tell they weren’t there
because of all the trees. The new house we moved into has even more trees than
the first. There are constantly squirrels running around and don’t be surprised
if you see a deer or two.
Do you have a prescription you need filled? Well look no
further than North Carolina. I felt like they were taking over!! Rite-Aid,
Walgreens, you name it there is one close by.
We all know the joke
there is an LDS church on every corner in Utah. Well in NC there are just about
as many churches as in Utah, except they are all churches of different faiths.
Guess that’s what you get when you live in the Bible belt.
Let’s make some small talk. How’s the weather? Well, frankly
my dears, I prefer NC’s weather over Utah. Mostly because of the Winter. I used
to love the snow… before I had to drive in it. Now it’s not my favorite.
Luckily it only snowed 1 time in NC and it was barely enough to cover the
ground. & when it does snow everything shuts down. Other than that the weather never got below
60ish during the day. It was fantastic. I used to always call my mom & brag
how warm it was. As far as humidity during the summer, I was kind of afraid of
it at first because everyone had made it out to be so bad. When summer finally
came I was quite surprised. It wasn’t bad at all. Plus, I didn’t even have to
put on lotion. BONUS! I guess living a
few hours from the coast line helps as far as that goes. I also decided that I
prefer the humidity over the dry heat like you would get in Arizona. Oh &
one more thing… I loved loved loved the afternoon thunder storms. You could
count on them just about every night during the summer. They would roll in and
the dark clouds would shade us from the hot summer sun & the rain would
pour on the roof for a while and then it would gracefully go away. It was
beautiful. That’s my weather small talk.
Next item of business, accents. I love me a good southern
accent. Not the redneck deep south one, just a little twang here and there. I
used to love when Liz said the word “Orange” just the way she said it made me
happy inside. Sadly, other than that one word, I got used to the way they
talked and couldn’t hear the accent any longer. Happily, apparently I have
adopted a bit of an accent. Sadly again, I’m sure it won’t last long now that
I’m back in boring Utah Culture.
Like I mentioned before, I was not a huge fan of the driving
arrangements there in NC. Another major factor in this was that instead of a
somewhat understandable number street name system, their roads were all named.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think saying I live on Bayberry Creek Circle sounds a
heck of a lot cuter than saying I live on 800 N. But when you’re like me and
you already struggle with directions, street names sure don’t help. How the
heck are you supposed to know that Bayberry Creek comes after Kemp Road?
Whereas with the number system the numbers at least give you a clue as to what
road is going to come next; am I making any sense?
So say you do find the road you’re supposed to be on. I must
say if you are in NC, chances are the houses are a lot prettier than if you are
in Utah. I know it is just a matter of opinion and that a lot of the houses in
Utah are indeed lovely, but those gorgeous southern houses just hit a chord
with me. Here is an example, my favorite house on Bayberry Creek Circle…
Let’s move on to food. Good ol’ southern food that did not
make me any skinnier while I lived there. These people love their fried food,
mac n cheese and sweet tea. I felt so much more at home drinking tea there than
I do in Utah. But one thing NC is missing out on…. Cinnamon Bears! Cinnamon
Bears are non-existent in NC. Sad isn’t it. My dear sister in law made me a few
delicious bags of chocolate covered cinnamon bears to eat while I was away from
home, but when I go to offer some to the Waller’s, they wondered what the heck
cinnamon bears were. I had to explain this joy in life to them. Will everyone
please have a moment in silence for the poor Carolinians who do not know what
cinnamon bears are. Thank you.
I have been fortunate enough in life to not be allergic to
anything. Until I moved to North Carolina and spring came. Instead of the weird
balls of cotton you see floating in the air during the spring in Utah, you get
yellow chalk powder (I literally thought it was chalk the first few times I
seen it) that coats EVERYTHING. I remember going down the slide outside in the
yard and my butt would be coated in it when I got up. There would be a thick
layer of it coating the roofs of the cars. It would be all over the front
porch. Literally everywhere. & I was allergic to it. Seeing that I never
had allergies before in my life, I thought I was majorly sick. When Liz said it
could just be allergies I thought “No Way” not this bad. But it was allergies. I pity all those who have ever suffered from
allergies, I now understand your pain. This is a picture I found on line that accurately
shows how much of this stuff there is.
Are you still there? Good. Just a few more topics to
discuss.
Next on the list, Pine needles. This was one of the things
that stood out to me the most when I first moved. Basically, the way us
Utahan’s would use rock, wood chips etc. in our flower beds, they use old pine
needles. Cool huh? Way to recycle.
Yup. Those are pine needles in the flower beds.
Just for fun, here are the top 3 restaurants I am going to
miss/ missed from each state:
Utah.
1.
Café Rio
2.
A
3.
Farr’s fresh
North Carolina
1.
Field of Greens
2.
Rice Fun
3.
Panera Bread
So this is probably my favorite difference between the two,
but also the one I found out about most recently when I was in a local grocery
store and I overheard a worker call a cart “Buggy” Bahahaha! Was that as funny
to you as it was to me? So I went home and asked the Waller’s if they really
call carts buggies & sure enough, THEY DO!! He he he.
And now for the judges final scores in the Utah vs NC
competition.
UTAH WINS!!! Not because its better, but because it’s where
my family is. & where my family is
my heart is also.
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