5.29.2014

it's a love hate relationship

Well, you should know by now that I live in Arizona. If you've never been to AZ, let me tell you what its like. During the winter, it feels like what the rest of the country feels like in the spring. If you want to know what it feels like during the summer, walk into your kitchen, turn on the oven, and go ahead and crawl inside. It's a desert, so its very brown and dry and not very pretty.
When the theme for March's Ten Favorite Things was "The Place You Call Home," I had a really hard time coming up with ten things about Arizona that I loved. Or even liked. I thought it was ugly, boring, hot, and all around just a terrible place. I never understood why people would choose to live here. I had it in my mind that I would be out of here as soon as possible. Especially being in Germany where everything was green and pretty- I realized that I wanted to wake up everyday, look out my window, and see pretty green grass and have a nice view, not rock and cacti.

But as graduation gets closer, and DJ and I get closer to spending our lives together, I think about living in Arizona more and more. We're going to move back to Phoenix once DJ is out of the Air Force, and at first, I wasn't happy about it. I knew we had to, because that's where we both needed to go for school and we want to be around our families once we start our own family, but I still didn't like the idea.

I must say, though. It's growing on me. Being in Montana, I've realized how much I belong in a big city. There isn't much to do here. There's a ton of outdoorsy things to do, but you have to drive far and the weather has to be nice. So it makes it tricky to just get up and go without planning. So basically almost every day can be pretty boring. DJ and I have fun together because, well, we're together. But I definitely couldn't imagine living here forever. There's a mall with like 4 stores. We go to the same few restaurants. THERE'S NO IN N OUT. Its so fun being here with him, but I'm very excited for us to move home so we have more to do.

Plus, my friends are back home. I have a total of one friend in Great Falls. I have a total of two friends at home so its definitely better there. Ha, just kidding I have a few more friends than that, but anyway. I know that DJ misses his friends terribly, and I know that when I move here at the end of the year I'm going to miss mine too. We dream about the day we can invite all of our friends over for a barbecue and see them (and our family) whenever we want.

Phoenix is really a great city. Sure, its ugly. Its hot. There's too many homeless people and really bad traffic. But its also huge and there are so many opportunities. There's plenty of opportunity for us to find jobs once we move back here. ASU (boo) is there so we have a place to go to school. I'll still be a Wildcat at heart though, don't worry. There are so many cute restaurants and things to do for date night. It's a great place to raise kids. There are some really nice neighborhoods, and some amazing people. We have every professional sport, tons of good concerts, and some really fun places to go out.

I really have a love hate relationship with this place I call home. Some days I'm so beyond excited to live there again. Some days I tell DJ we have to move to Colorado or something. But in all seriousness, I'm lucky that I'm from such a great city.

Do you love the place you call home?
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14 comments:

  1. We live in Florida but St. Louis, Missouri is our home. It's where we both grew up, where most of our friends are, where our families are and boy do we miss it! I miss it more than Nick but this was all his decision to up and move. I happened to fall in love with him and thus it took me away. I miss home so badly and am always counting down until my next trip back :) And I cannot wait until we can retire back there!!!

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  2. Colorado is so pretty-- you should definitely move there someday! I don't really like being in Kentucky, but this is where I'm stuck. I would rather be in Colorado Springs or Charleston SC.

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  3. I love the idea that you're warming up (no pun intended) to your home state. Especially cause now that we're friends I can't have you being long distance forever.

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  4. Those pictures are so pretty!

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  5. I live in Philadelphia right now so I guess I'm currently calling it home, but after living in New York City I don't know if I'll ever be more at place and more comfortable than when I am living there. Unless it's in France.
    xx

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  6. I live in Vancouver, BC and it's a gorgeous city but at the rate of how expensive things are, I'm considering leave Vancouver and moving else where. That's probably the only downside of Vancouver - you REALLY need a good paying job to live comfortable here and actually enjoy the city. I wouldn't mind visiting (or even moving) to Arizona!

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  7. Isn't it weird how things grow on you? I use to live in Upstate, New York and sometimes I really miss it. The small town feel with big cities near by. Knowing that if I drove 6 hours in any direction I could be somewhere completely different and even into another country. But then I think about the long, harsh winters and realize I would never want to be there again.

    -Jackie
    http://ournashvillelife.com

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  8. YES I love the place I call home.
    I hope you can find a place to live that you love! And that has an In-n-Out, obviously.

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  9. Hey, not ALL of Arizona is hot and ugly! ;)

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  10. I've from Phoenix! I've lived in San Diego for the past three years, and I thought I would love it, but living here is a lot different than visiting! Of course, the weather is the best in the world all year round. We chose recruiting orders in Tennessee, mostly because we want to have a big green back yard for once! We will probably end up moving back to AZ one day, but I'm dreading the weather already..

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  11. You're hot, so I guess living in AZ fits you ;)

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  12. i am definitely a big city girl. i grew up in a veeeery small town with nothing to do. i moved to a big city for college and will never live in a small city ever again!

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  13. For the record, be happy you're not here right now. There was a "heat wave warning" today until 7:00 which basically meant it was 109 today until after 7. DYING. Anyways, I never felt strongly one way or another for Arizona but in the last 6 months it's really grown on me. I really think it has nothing to do with Arizona though and everything to do with the people here (including Jon). Jon always says he could live anywhere as long as it's with me, which is basically a really cheesy way of saying it's the people not the place. haha.

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  14. I'm not exactly a fan of the place I call home....I moved around a lot when I was younger so home was where I was the longest, but I doubt I'll be going back. I love to visit, just wouldn't particularly want to live there!!
    -Marley
    http://www.afandlove.blogspot.com/

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