Utah Perks

I arrived home last night and have been noticing things I love about here that we just don't have in Virginia. 65 mph speed limits!! No more 55. It's just sooooo slow.

Family. My family is here and it's nice to be with them. Familiar roads. Roads I've driven my entire life. Stores that are the old faithfuls. Billboards. The Utah freeways are littered with gaudy billboards shouting messages at you. Virginia has zero billboards. It makes the drives more relaxing if that makes sense. No trees. It is a desert afterall. You can see for miles and miles and miles here. In Virginia, you can see about as far as the next curve in the road for all the trees. And finally, a memory surfaced as I drove to the hospital to visit the new Arveseth twins last night just after sunset. I was headed from West Valley to Murray and realized how absolutely amazing and beautiful the mountains are. I love the familiar snow capped peaks and valleys I grew up with. In Virginia I live in a dungeon. At least that's what I call it. A beautiful dungeon with lush, tall, green foliage and trees, but I'm at the bottom of a big hill with huge trees that make the TV signal weak and cell phone reception sometimes disappear in my home. Growing up on the "West Side" of the Salt Lake Valley in Kearns I had this image, whether it was true or false, I always thought of the East Side as the rich part of town where you lived if you had tons of money, nice houses and fancy cars. The reverse stereo type also existed regarding West Siders. We were the poor people. For six years during junior high and high school I was bussed across the valley every day. I got to watch the sun rise over the beautiful Wasatch mountains, then drive to school and watch it rise again. It was sort of novel and cool to watch the sunrise twice each day. I also enjoyed just looking at the mountains on our daily drive. They are gorgeous. My favorite time is in the spring when the mountainside is green with snow capped peaks. On my drive yesterday I reflected how silly it was for me to always wish I was an East Sider. I would have missed the amazing expansive view of the mountains. I love the view from my childhood home. It was perfect. So, once again, like we did on occasion in junior high school, I'm holding up three fingers in the shape of a "W" and saying "WEST SIDE PRIDE" baby!