Sunday, March 25, 2012

What I don't like about Eastern Kansas

Ticks
Chiggers
Humid summers
Lack of mountains*
A lower concentration of great friends than it had 7 years ago
My super-cool jogging stroller is par for the course here
I don't have a job here.

I had to remind myself of the above list as we drove into Lawrence yesterday
and it felt like we were driving into spring personified. Flowering trees! Green grass! Buds! Kids in shorts! People drinking on patios!

I have lived in some very beautiful places in my life. Non-Kansas friends are surprised when I rank Lawrence very high on the places-I-would-like-to-live list. Anyone surprised by this did not live through Lawrence today. Heck, the place even smells fabulous with the Korean Spice Viburnums and crabapples in full flower.
And I was going to comment upon the perfect place for today even before the happy mob that descended upon downtown tonight.

Alas. Western Oklahoma has some nice wind farms.

*Shared with my current home.

5 comments:

salsis said...
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salsis said...

That happy mob came out to celebrate you being in town. Welcome back they said! They even dressed like you.

Erin said...

I still miss Lawrence, too, even though I live in a place with mountains and a nice spring. I wonder if I really miss Lawrence, or Lawrence with all of the people I knew that don't live there anymore...I tell myself it is the latter but am not sure!

Sparkling Squirrel said...

Erin, it's both for me as well. Lawrence is a better fit as a town than my current home, but I also know that if I lived there again, it would be very different than the magical years when so many people I now consider good friends were there at one time.

Heather York said...

5 years gone, and I still miss Lawrence terribly. I have similar responses from people thinking I must be nuts to long for Kansas, or, around here, that it could possibly be different from Nebraska. (Oh, how it's different from Nebraska!)