Minnesota nice

Everybody heard of that?

Here's the first few sentences from the Wikipedia article (god I love Wikipedia).

Minnesota nice is the stereotypical behavior of Minnesota residents to provide hospitality and courtesy to others. In recent decades, many have said that Minnesota nice is not as prevalent as it once was (certainly among some people born after 1980, who chafe at the stereotype and defy it), although many visitors from outside the state still report that Minnesotans are generally nicer than others around the United States.

Well, I don't have it. Never really did, to be honest. When I was in college, a prof told me I had the soul of a New Yorker. She was FROM New York. And I took that as the highest compliment, which is how she meant it, mostly. LOL

Am I glad to be back in Minnesota? Well, yes. I LOVE my house. I really do. It's a little Cape Cod, 2,400 square feet, built in 1952. It has a sometimes leaky basement, and the floor plan is not ideal for me anymore, but I LOVE it. I'll post pix sometime soon.

And I have GREAT friends here. (Not to diss any of my lovely, wonderful friends in California, of course.) But these friendships were forged in the fire of being mothers to infants and toddlers, and those bonds are of a different sort. So I am grateful to be back amongst a group that literally has talked me down off ledges, taken care of my kids while I've been in the hospital having another baby, watched my kids for a little while so I would not commit murder, and loved my kids from their infancy as their own.

Rochester is a terrific town. It has grown a lot in the past 2 years, and I am not a fan of sprawl, so I have some issues with that. It is hard for me to see all the green areas in my lovely town that have been ripped up in the name of progress (which is ultimately nothing more than a chase of the almightly dollar), but progress has also brought my favorite coffee shop to a spot mere blocks from my house. Can I get an "Amen!"?

So yes, I am glad to be home. But California will always be a part of who I am now, and I will miss it deeply. For now, I am not feeling the adjustment or culture shock. I think I'm still too fixated on getting settled. Tomorrow, grocery shopping and more unpacking, and a trip to a friend's pool (hooray for friends with pools). Next week, or perhaps next month, I will whine and wax poetic about San Jose. And you can bet you'll hear about it when the snow flies here. That is a day I dread.

But for now, my kids are upstairs playing in their room, and I am in my scrap room geeking, and it's all good.