Small towns are my jam.

It took me living in a small town to moving to a big big town to moving to a ittybittyteenytiny town, back to a small town then again to a big town for a minute and a half and finally settling back in a small town to realize that small towns are my jam.  They just are.  For many big reasons but mostly small reasons.  Here are a few doh! moments I've had since moving to Steamboat.

There is a small organic market downtown, a Vitamin Cottage downtown and a Safeway + Wallgreens "across town".  I often find myself making plans to visit Safeway + Wallgreens really only once a week, if not once every two weeks because I want to avoid driving "across town".  Now when I say across town, what I really mean is that it isn't within the 5 block long, 2 block deep radius of the main drag I'm used to frequenting.  Safeway is probably a 6 minute drive from Vitamin Cottage, but I can't help but bitch and moan whenever I realize I have to go to that side of town.  The horror!!!

After starting at work here in Steamboat I was trying to explain to Hunter why I hated going home for lunches.  You spend half your lunch break driving to and from work so you really only get about 10-15 minutes to fix lunch, sit and enjoy it before you have to clean up your dishes, brush your teeth and get back in the car to drive 20+ minutes back to work.  You spend the entire break in your car!!!  Yeah....it takes me 6 minutes flat to get to/from work and home.

Last week, I needed to run an errand at my bank on my lunch break.  Per my description above, I've figured out how I can squeeze every second out of my lunch break relaxing at home and leaving exactly 6 minutes for my commute back to work.  Well this particular day, I had forgotten I absolutely had to get to the bank on my lunch break and as I was driving back making the 2nd turn of my commute to get to work it hits me I didn't get to the bank, nor did I account for the time it would take getting me to the bank/run my errand/back to work.  The thoughts in my head were racing of Well I really can't skip this errand, so I'll just be late for work, so I guess I can stay an extra 10-15 minutes tonight after work to make up for the time it'll take me to get to the bank, run my errand and drive back to work.  Yes ok.  That is what I'll do.  Go to the bank and just work late.  I pull up to the light, turn my head left and realized that my bank was quite literally one block away from where I was vs the treck across town to get to the bank, then the treck back to work that I was used to.  I ran my errand and still got to work with a few minutes to spare on my lunch break.

This!  This is my backyard.  My beautiful, uninterrupted, always quiet and forever serene backyard.

TGIF, sweet friends!