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Random musings on a Sunday night
Jan. 3rd, 2010 11:34 pm1. We woke up to snow today, and church was put on an abbreviated schedule, with my presence as organist optional. We decided to try it, and made it okay. I like playing organ, although I was glad the rest of the meetings were canceled--I was supposed to substitute for the four-year-olds' class, and hadn't had a lot of time to prepare. Now, it looks like school will be canceled tomorrow, too. The kids will be glad! And we will be glad to sleep in a bit, too. There isn't that much snow (2 inches?) but when you have hills and no one plows or salts the roads at all and the temperatures hover around freezing, you get some melting in the day and everything freezes to solid ice at night. Not good.
2. Have you ever noticed that people look different in different parts of the US? Partly it's genetic (a predominance of one ethnic group over another, depending on who settled there), and partly it's lifestyle choices/availabilities. I am always fascinated by the student population in general at all the universities we've been to. At BYU, students tended to be on the healthy side (a combination of the fact that all the parking is outside of campus, so everyone has to walk a lot, plus there's no tobacco or alcohol, plus there is a ton of outdoor activities at any given time of the year). Also, a high percentage were blond, thanks to a high Scandinavian-descended population. And there are a lot of hispanics to balance that out. Not so many African-Americans. They were pretty healthy in Charleston, SC, too, because well, there's the beach right there, and it's mostly warm all the time, and again, you just have more opportunity to be outside. Most people there are either blond, or black. Very few Asians! In Illinois you were either Korean-American or Polish, and the non-Koreans of any type tended to be heavier than anywhere else, plus have sort of bad skin. A by-product of long winters, nothing to do outside, and the only event in town drinking at bars. Or sitting and studying. Well, Arkansawans have a certain look, too. The Ozarks was initially settled by Cherokee kicked out of the Carolinas, and Scots-Irish farmers from the Appalacians, but there has to be another group, too, because there's this really noticeable face style here that looks more Danish than anything to me. Kind of a square face (so, even the women have a square jaw), and heavily-lidded eyes. Blondish-brown hair. It doesn't matter how in shape you are or not, it's a certain look. Oh, and people are shorter here than in other places. A lot of guys have this look: shortish, square, bristly dark blond/brown hair, maybe a scruff on their chin, and an air that says, I played football in my high school!
3. Even though I know you aren't supposed to look at real estate just because you had some interviews, I always find it fun to see what different parts of the country look like, neighborhoodwise, with each year's job search. In one town, they apparently don't like interior wall paint, because every house I looked at had either scary wallpaper, or wood paneling. Like people's looks, people have different styles of yards, too. Michigan doesn't do fences around houses. California has 6-foot high privacy fences around every back yard. Arkansas and Charleston have some chain-link fences, but there's a lot of vegetation so you don't feel like you need to build in privacy.
4. I'm not moving there anytime soon, but--Charleston real estate. If I ever had a few million dollars that I didn't know what to do with and HAD to buy a house, I'd buy 29 E. Battery in Charleston. It's the house I imagine my character Simon Rivers living in, for anyone who read Heron.
So, what do people look like where you live? And where would you live if you could pick anywhere?
2. Have you ever noticed that people look different in different parts of the US? Partly it's genetic (a predominance of one ethnic group over another, depending on who settled there), and partly it's lifestyle choices/availabilities. I am always fascinated by the student population in general at all the universities we've been to. At BYU, students tended to be on the healthy side (a combination of the fact that all the parking is outside of campus, so everyone has to walk a lot, plus there's no tobacco or alcohol, plus there is a ton of outdoor activities at any given time of the year). Also, a high percentage were blond, thanks to a high Scandinavian-descended population. And there are a lot of hispanics to balance that out. Not so many African-Americans. They were pretty healthy in Charleston, SC, too, because well, there's the beach right there, and it's mostly warm all the time, and again, you just have more opportunity to be outside. Most people there are either blond, or black. Very few Asians! In Illinois you were either Korean-American or Polish, and the non-Koreans of any type tended to be heavier than anywhere else, plus have sort of bad skin. A by-product of long winters, nothing to do outside, and the only event in town drinking at bars. Or sitting and studying. Well, Arkansawans have a certain look, too. The Ozarks was initially settled by Cherokee kicked out of the Carolinas, and Scots-Irish farmers from the Appalacians, but there has to be another group, too, because there's this really noticeable face style here that looks more Danish than anything to me. Kind of a square face (so, even the women have a square jaw), and heavily-lidded eyes. Blondish-brown hair. It doesn't matter how in shape you are or not, it's a certain look. Oh, and people are shorter here than in other places. A lot of guys have this look: shortish, square, bristly dark blond/brown hair, maybe a scruff on their chin, and an air that says, I played football in my high school!
3. Even though I know you aren't supposed to look at real estate just because you had some interviews, I always find it fun to see what different parts of the country look like, neighborhoodwise, with each year's job search. In one town, they apparently don't like interior wall paint, because every house I looked at had either scary wallpaper, or wood paneling. Like people's looks, people have different styles of yards, too. Michigan doesn't do fences around houses. California has 6-foot high privacy fences around every back yard. Arkansas and Charleston have some chain-link fences, but there's a lot of vegetation so you don't feel like you need to build in privacy.
4. I'm not moving there anytime soon, but--Charleston real estate. If I ever had a few million dollars that I didn't know what to do with and HAD to buy a house, I'd buy 29 E. Battery in Charleston. It's the house I imagine my character Simon Rivers living in, for anyone who read Heron.
So, what do people look like where you live? And where would you live if you could pick anywhere?
