7.29.2009

Random things from Wisconsin

• I have a hard time buying national brands of cheese here in Wisconsin. It seems weird. Why buy a brand that I have no clue where it came from, when there's all those Wisconsin brands next to it? And I'm totally drawn to all the crazy cheeses in the giant cheese case like havarti with black olives. I'll bet that's some good cheese.

• I felt like the country mouse visiting the big city last night at the grocery store. I kept wanting to say things like, "Oh my stars would you look at that!" The variety! The new products! The prices! THE CHEESE! There's a sushi counter. A salad bar. There's a small post office. And they're adding an express care clinic & pharmacy. It's across the street from Panera.

• We have a lot of stuff. Still so much unpacking to do.

• I can't master the speed limits here. Streets that I'm used to being marked 40 are 25. It's hard to drive 25 sometimes. But I will learn, what with all the hiding cops.

• It's strange to move. You have to find all new things. For example, today I have to go find a post office. I'm still working on the best grocery store for me. At least gas station brand is easy. Apparently Kwik Trip is headquartered here. Kwik Trip here is like Starbucks in Seattle. One on every corner. It's taken me a while to locate the free wifi (which was the deciding factor on allegiance to Starbucks or Caribou - Starbucks, I may love your chai, but Caribou has tea fusion coolers and loves me back with the wifi).

• Wisconsin has done some funky things with road names. One road might be an alternate to I-90, one highway in one section, then a different highway farther north. The same road. And all the county roads are letters. County road JJ. Or County road OS.

• There's a beautiful stretch of highway leaving La Crosse that takes you past some Amish farms. Imagine Ella's surprise to hear that they CHOOSE to live without TV. It was beyond foreign to her.

• Just because we're living in a duplex now, it doesn't mean Ella has found her "inside voice." Natalie is still a homebody. And yet, they're also more adaptable than we've probably been.

2 comments:

Libby Design said...

Definitely stick with the "Fancy" brand cheese...that's made up in Alpha, WI right next to my old stompin' ground. The. Best. Cheese. EVER!!!

gretchen said...

I know it's really hard to just up and move someplace totally new and different. But it's kind of an adventure too. And it sounds like a lovely place to live. I'd take cheese and Amish people over LA traffic and buzzing helicopters any day!