Patience, Grasshopper; or, Lost in the Supermarket

This past week, son number two learned that playing Monkey in the Middle, Frisbee Edition is not always safe---one black eye later, I don't think he's going to make it a playground staple.

And me?

I am learning patience.

Oh boy, am I ever and in so many ways.

There is television, then there is Gitmo television. We haven't opted for satellite yet---Back to the Future Cuba requires one of those huge 8 ft dishes from the 80s, and I just can't go there. So we have basic cable, which is mostly Armed Forces Network (and each station alternates between several networks, just to keep you on your toes). We don't have DVR here, so you get what you get, when you get it. I really only watch two shows, so a lack of US-comparable cable isn't too traumatic.

We did get HBO so I can watch Favorite Program Number One ("Game of Thrones").

To get Favorite Program Number Two ("Mad Men"), I have to download it on iTunes:

And this is what you get when you download an hour long program online---it can take days to download. I say, I say DAYS (in a Foghorn Leghorn voice).

Don Draper must wait.

Here's the funny part---once I've had a few days for a program to download, I find myself putting off watching it. What if it isn't that good? What if it is REALLY good and I want to watch the next episode immediately?

In addition to patience, I am learning to take my time before leaving anywhere to make sure I've taken care of business.

Work requires me to use a CAC, or Common Access Card, to use the computers. It was not required when I first got here, so it didn't bother me that it has what is possibly the worst ID photograph I've ever taken in my life. Now, anytime anyone gets near my desk they can see my wonderful CAC photograph. Not only that, but if I forget it and go to the other campus office, I have to drive all the way back and get it from the CAC reader. Okay, it's only 2 miles or so, but at 25 and then 15 mph, it takes forever. That doesn't include traffic jams caused by stubborn iguanas. If I am working in another room and need a computer (or even if I need another one in the same room), I have go retrieve my CAC.

"CAC" reminds me of the sound a cat makes coughing up a hairball. That's sort of what I think of the &%^!* thing---CAC! CAC!

I also get into the habit of carrying cash with me at all times, which is something I've never really done before. We don't really have a bank here---at least not one that gives you cash. We can get a cashier's check and cash it at the NEX, or we can use a Bank of America ATM (which, incidentally, talks to you with a British accent) or get cash when we use our debit cards. This has been a hard habit to get into, since I have never been one to carry around money. For the longest time, we could only pay cash for gas (which is still $4.09/gallon). A few eateries only take cash, as well. We've had this sign at McD's for a few weeks now:

I'm loving it!!! But only if I have cash.

When I moved to my college town of Hattiesburg at 18, I was completely and totally enthralled with a faster pace of life. I loved that there were four lanes of traffic and enough traffic to warrant all the roads and red lights. I came from a three red light town---and they all became flashing red lights at 10 pm (and sadly, my home town only has one now). I was completely in love with having dozens of television stations, including MTV (which actually used to play music). I loved being able to go grocery shopping at midnight, or the movies at 10 pm, and loved that I could go all over and be a completely anonymous person. If I wanted to get Krystal burgers at midnight in my pajamas, nobody would blink an eye. Nobody knew me, nobody knew my mama and daddy, nobody cared.

It was heaven.

As I've gotten older, I'm definitely a city (or at least big town) girl and I am all about fast-paced everything and convenient living. I love having a DVR and watching an entire season of a favorite show over a weekend. Until I moved, I regularly played soccer on an indoors 3X3 team that had games at 9 or 10 pm. I'd go to the grocery store on the way home, sweaty and looking dreadful, but the convenience (and relative anonymity) outweighed vanity. I loved having the option to play soccer in three leagues, to go shopping at several grocery stores, to have craft stores and hardware stores and several salons and restaurants.

And now. . . I'm struggling with some aspects of slowing back down. After all, I was ALWAYS going to be a city girl. This will sound ridiculous, but I think I was only seven or so when I knew that I would leave my small hometown when I grew up. That's the problem with starting out in one place (Greenville) that has everything a kid would want---movie theaters, parks and playgrounds, malls, and adventurous shopping (including the very first ever Steinmart---for my South MS people, until I was in high school, it was more like Hudson Salvage than a nice store), and then going back to visit often once you are old enough to really realize how much you are missing out on. We could watch barges on the Mississippi river or go to the levee on Lake Washington. My family went to church across the street from a synagogue. There was an Italian section of town, as well as a Chinese section. There was diversity everywhere---and then we moved to somewhere much smaller and less diverse.

When we started making regular trips to New Orleans when I was in middle school, I knew---I was going to live somewhere large, with lots of traffic and restaurants and shopping and where you could hear a different language on every aisle of a large and well-stocked 24 hour grocery store.

I didn't want much. My dream town was basically a Schwegmann's Grocery Store.

Unfortunately, Schwegmann's declared bankruptcy years ago, and I have since realized that as much as I love New Orleans, it just isn't where I want to live the rest of my life.

And now. . . I quite honestly feel sometimes like I did as a teenager---very antsy, and knowing that if I wait just long enough living here, the payoff will be I can get to a place big enough and with enough variety to contain my restlessness.

I do love that I have time here to do so much more with my family.  Just like my small home town, this place has so many of the plusses that come with everyone looking out for their neighbors, and everyone pitching in to keep an eye out on your kids. When the time comes,  I know that I will be more than ready to move on to a larger place.

That is, one with traffic and anonymity and (most importantly) big supermarkets.