((((( POOF!! )))))
...and just like that I'm back.
It's been a while since I last updated. When I moved into my quaint house here in Kansas, I wanted to take a break from the internet for a bit, and start getting settled down in a new place and a new pace of life. These past two weeks living "country-style" have been an interesting experience for a southern California city girl like me...
I can't even begin to describe how small Independence, Kansas is!! It's sooo incredibly different from what I've been used to growing up on the west coast - big cities, busy lifestyle, lots of noise, the inevitable crowds and traffic jams, countless places to go and to see, a faster pace of life in general. Now every morning, I'm surprised to wake up to freezing weather (although this was a mild winter for Kansas - the lowest it got was the 30s), "Little House on the Prairie"-style homes complete with front porches and large yards, a flat landscape dotted with trees, lakes, and farmland, and absolutely no traffic in sight down the main road into town. Yes, indeed, I've landed myself smack in the country - where cows are plentiful, drivers are fucking slower than the cows, "ain't" is synonymous with good grammar, and it's not uncommon to have a huge delivery truck of hay (yes, hay) block your path in the intersection (it happened to me just the other day, haha). I feel like I've gone back in time like 50 years. Maybe I'm just fucking spoiled.
Most of the stores in downtown Independence closed down a while ago, and the empty storefronts and buildings are quiet, yet haunting reminders of a more bustling, thriving time. Businesses have come and gone through here like whispers. When the Super-Walmart moved into the area, it drove most of the locally-run (usually family operated) stores out of business in a hurry. Now only skeletons of the past are left. No Starbucks or Targets or huge commercial plazas or generic shopping malls in sight. Ohh, nooo. That would be too corporate America. The most "exciting" places here are the Big Cheese Pizza, the local bowling alley, Turbo's and couple of other bars known for toothless hick wonders, the Sonic burger drive-in, and the gigantic Walmart of death (oh wait, there is corporate America here in Nowheresville, USA - you just can't escape it, now can you?). Yep, that's about as exciting as it gets, folks. I'd have to drive about an hour to Tulsa or an hour and a half to Wichita if I wanted to visit a big city.
Wow, so many choices of fun... *note the sarcasm.* I feel so spoiled. I'm such a spoiled little city girl. I'm so used to modern conveniences. There's absolutely nothing to do here. How do people live here for as long as they do?? I can handle it, after all, it's nice to have some peace and quiet for a change, but I could never see myself staying here permenantly. Towns like this are too stagnant for my taste - I like being in more stimulating, bustling places, even if they are crowded and noisy. I feel like that's the pulse of progress and innovation. Towns like Indy don't seem to know the meaning of modernity. Wow, this is definitely a fucking change for me... a slow and simple experience. Maybe it'll do me some good to slow down for a while.
Now for the obligatory assault of pictures from Kansas!!
...and just like that I'm back.
It's been a while since I last updated. When I moved into my quaint house here in Kansas, I wanted to take a break from the internet for a bit, and start getting settled down in a new place and a new pace of life. These past two weeks living "country-style" have been an interesting experience for a southern California city girl like me...
I can't even begin to describe how small Independence, Kansas is!! It's sooo incredibly different from what I've been used to growing up on the west coast - big cities, busy lifestyle, lots of noise, the inevitable crowds and traffic jams, countless places to go and to see, a faster pace of life in general. Now every morning, I'm surprised to wake up to freezing weather (although this was a mild winter for Kansas - the lowest it got was the 30s), "Little House on the Prairie"-style homes complete with front porches and large yards, a flat landscape dotted with trees, lakes, and farmland, and absolutely no traffic in sight down the main road into town. Yes, indeed, I've landed myself smack in the country - where cows are plentiful, drivers are fucking slower than the cows, "ain't" is synonymous with good grammar, and it's not uncommon to have a huge delivery truck of hay (yes, hay) block your path in the intersection (it happened to me just the other day, haha). I feel like I've gone back in time like 50 years. Maybe I'm just fucking spoiled.
Most of the stores in downtown Independence closed down a while ago, and the empty storefronts and buildings are quiet, yet haunting reminders of a more bustling, thriving time. Businesses have come and gone through here like whispers. When the Super-Walmart moved into the area, it drove most of the locally-run (usually family operated) stores out of business in a hurry. Now only skeletons of the past are left. No Starbucks or Targets or huge commercial plazas or generic shopping malls in sight. Ohh, nooo. That would be too corporate America. The most "exciting" places here are the Big Cheese Pizza, the local bowling alley, Turbo's and couple of other bars known for toothless hick wonders, the Sonic burger drive-in, and the gigantic Walmart of death (oh wait, there is corporate America here in Nowheresville, USA - you just can't escape it, now can you?). Yep, that's about as exciting as it gets, folks. I'd have to drive about an hour to Tulsa or an hour and a half to Wichita if I wanted to visit a big city.
Wow, so many choices of fun... *note the sarcasm.* I feel so spoiled. I'm such a spoiled little city girl. I'm so used to modern conveniences. There's absolutely nothing to do here. How do people live here for as long as they do?? I can handle it, after all, it's nice to have some peace and quiet for a change, but I could never see myself staying here permenantly. Towns like this are too stagnant for my taste - I like being in more stimulating, bustling places, even if they are crowded and noisy. I feel like that's the pulse of progress and innovation. Towns like Indy don't seem to know the meaning of modernity. Wow, this is definitely a fucking change for me... a slow and simple experience. Maybe it'll do me some good to slow down for a while.
Now for the obligatory assault of pictures from Kansas!!
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
Yah, updates with photos even.
Cool, now you can be like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.
I actually would kind of a break like that. To live out in the middle of *nowhere* for a while. I would actually kind of like that.
I'd like to live either in a forest or on a island for a year or more.
No corporate stores huh? That's just like OB, only without the ocean or the hippies.
Well have a fun time out there. You got a big cheese pizza place *and* a bowling alley too? Damn, what more could you want?
but no worries, I shot 2 today and LORD ... so fucking weird and fun.