An addendum of my thoughts on Maryland and a debate-

Ever since I wrote that last post, I've had so many other things come up that I wish I would have included. So here's my addendum to my last post. Here's a few more differences between Maryland and Utah.

The have "wet umbrella" bags at Walmart and other grocery stores. When it's raining the security guards standing at the doors even hand them out. (That's another thing that's different. Security guards at grocery stores. A lot of times they check your receipt like they do at Costco, but at Walmart)

A few other things about driving here...You have to drive so aggressive here. All I want is for someone to let me in the other lane when my blinker is on. That NEVER happens. You have to MAKE room for your car, because no one else is going to. It's almost like if they see my blinker on they PURPOSELY are staying really close together so I can't get in. I'm just sick of having to drive aggressively. I just want someone to be kind and let me in!

You know how I previously said there are hardly any right turn only lanes? Well I realized something else. There'z often no right turn lanes AND left turns lanes. SO it's kind of like Center St in Provo. If you need to turn left, all the cars behind you that are going straight just have to wait for you to turn left before they can go. Or if you're on like a street that is 40 mph, and you have to slow down to turn right, all the cars behind you have to too, because there's not a right turn only lane, or even a shoulder to get out of their way. Doesn't help with the traffic. I think if they made their streets less crazy, the traffic and drivers would be less crazy too.

Here's one positive thing about living here. You know the game where you tap somebody's forehead and tell them to name 10 candy bars, or gas stations, or whatever? I have a whole new slew of gas stations from out here. They're all different than in the west. So I'm gonna rock at that game.

EVERYONE here as a dog. But there are hardly any big dogs. They're all small non-shedding dogs, which is like a paradise for me because I like small dogs. It's probably because no one has yards, and if they do, they're not fenced, so there's no where to keep a big dog. There's those little poop/doggy bag little station thingys all over the place. And I've stepped dog poop TWICE since living here, which I don't think I've ever done in Utah. And I spent a lot more time on grass in Utah than I do here. So obviously people need to utilize those baggies more.

The streets here are SO dark at night. I guess there's just no street lights. And even when there are streetlights, it's just SO dark!! I can't really figure it out, all I know is that when it's dark outside, it's REALLY dark. Even like the freeways are way dark. There's no lights on the freeway even, except the ones that light up the signs. If I remember correctly, the freeways in Utah have like...stadium status lights on them.

I can't remember if I've talked about this already one here. But I know I've told a lot of people this, so many of you probably already know how I feel. But there's SO many creepy crawlies here. I'm petrified of ticks. I mostly avoid going outside or being in nature for too long. And when I am, I promptly go home and check myself for ticks. When I first got here I wore bug spray like it was perfume.

And it's SO loud here at night. All types of bugs are making SO MUCH NOISE at night. One night we camped on our deck and I could hardly fall asleep because it was so loud from all the crickets and bugs and who knows what else! It's because there's SO many trees! Who knows what could be lurking in there!!! And I've seen several rodents run across the road that I can't even identify. Just like...bigger than a squirrel, smaller than a raccoon, but furry like a raccoon. There was a brown one and a black one. And that just creeps me out--a rodent that I've never seen before?!?! But surprisingly I haven't seen a lot of spiders inside our house, so that's kind of nice. But like...our deck and underneath our deck, I HATE going out there because I'm so scared of all the creepy crawlies.

And there lot's of frogs here. Some BIG huge frogs, which I've almost stepped on several times and it freaks me out, and then some cute small ones. The cute small ones used to hang out on our windows at night (we'd have like 4 of them on our kitchen window at a time), but they stopped doing that. I think it was because I got rid of the mosquito larvae bucket on our deck. You can read about that experience here. Anyways, the point of this big paragraph is to tell you that sometimes, actually all the time when I'm driving at night on the very dark streets, leaves blowing around look like frogs jumping! And I never know if it's a really a frog trying to get out of the way, or if it's a leaf. Strangely they look A LOT a like when the wind is blowing and a leaf  is bouncing around on the road. So I never know if I should swerve out of the way because I don't want to hit the frog, but then it's kind of dangerous to swerve, especially when there's other cars around. and mostly likely it's a leaf....so probably not worth the risk? I dunno. It's a dilemma in my life.

Oh! And wild turtles!! What?!?!? Me and Sam were just pulling out of our house one day and this big old giant turtle was crossing the road! What?!?! Who knew?!?! You Marylanders- is that really a thing? Or was it someone's lost pet?

There's a lot of one-way streets in downtown Baltimore and DC and I don't do well with one-way streets. I used to get stressed driving in downtown Salt Lake with the few one-way streets there! I don't know why, but I don't do well with them. (Don't tell Sam, but the other day I actually turned down a one-way street going the wrong way. Luckily it was like 9 at night and there was only one car- who, in true Baltimore fashion honked much more than was needed- and luckily I just flipped a U turn and all was okay.

There are no "push to walk" buttons on crosswalks. I guess just because there's ALWAYS people needing to cross the streets, so they put the little white "walk" guy up every time. In Utah it's not like that. If you want that little white "walk" guy, you HAVE to push the button.

Also people here just cross the street whenever. I was talking to a native Baltimorean the other day, and she said it was a rule: If there isn't a car directly behind another car, you can cross. And then she moved to Idaho and tried doing that and people were like "uhhhh you can't do that here.You have to wait for the cross walk to change." But really though, people just cross the street whenever and wherever, as long as there's a break in the cars.

Which brings me to another point. Things like...jay-walking and speeding aren't even a thing here. I mean, I haven't seen the police reports, but I would assume that there's just SO MUCH other crime here, they don't have time to deal with menial crimes like speeding. I have almost no fear of getting pulled over here.

That leads me to another point. This is the WORLD guys. The great and spacious building in all its glory. When I started this job and am regularly sitting in college campuses everyday, I feel like I just got thrown into...literally the great and spacious building.

One day a few days ago, I was just overwhelmed with all the yuck that was immediately around me. I was driving to work, and heard on the radio that there were FIVE murders in the Baltimore/DC area the night before. FIVE!!! And one of them was this horrific story about a husband AND wife who were BOTH having an affair with this lady, so they let her move into their basement. Then some type of drama happened and the wife got mad and hired her 13 year old daughter's 18 year old boyfriend, to murder the husband and girlfriend.

Just read that again....

Doesn't that make you SICK???? So many things wrong with that story, even BEFORE they got killed. And that happened like 30 minutes from where I live!!!

Okay, so back to that day. So I hear on the radio about all these murders, then I go to a college class that was all about the LGBT community and the issues that come with "coming out". But the perspective of it all was like, WAY different than what would be discussed in a college classroom in Utah. AND this girl in the class, said that her babysitter when she was growing up (who was a girl) decided to go through a sex change, and took lots of testosterone medication and had like a full on beard and could have totally passed for a man. Like no one would have ever known he was once a girl. And this man decides he wants to have a baby, so he gets pregnant! Because he/she still has eggs and ovaries inside!  So imagine walking down the street and seeing a pregnant man?!?! But he can't nurse the baby because he's doesn't have boobs anymore?? I dunno. Don't ask me about the science.

Oh my gosh I'm getting overwhelmed again just typing this.

Not to mention on these college campuses I've talked to and seen more cross-dressers and atheists that I think I ever have in my life.

Then I go to another class that's about health insurance stuff, and they said that when medicaid paid for abortions, they had more abortions than live births in Maryland. They've since changed it so the State no longer covers abortions, but STILL!!! I had no idea people got that many abortions!

And THEN, to top it all off, I go to an art class that I'm working in, and it turns out they're having a nude model next class. Oh boy.

Like....I can't even think of the words to express how I feel about all of this. Here's a list from a thesaurus:

shocked, overwhelmed, aghast, appalled, dismayed, stunned, astonished, offended, upset, alarmed, anxious, apprehensive, suspicious, terrified, terror-stricken, timid, trembling, worried, daunted, discouraged, disheartened, distressed, disturbed, faint-hearted, frightened, frozen, horrified, changed, panic-stricken, perplexed, perturbed, rattled, scared, startled, impaired, grieved, troubled, concerned.....

YEAH. ALL OF THE ABOVE. (insert emoji of the girl raising her hand here)

Gosh that happened like a week ago and I kind of forgot about it all, but now I'm all worked up again after typing all that! After that day, and after right now, all I want to do is go to the temple and just feel the peace and security that comes with the gospel!

This world is CRAZY!!!

Okay I honestly was not planning on this post being this long! I thought it was going to be a few short lines! Geeze. I have a lot to say about Maryland. But here's the big question- the debate I promised in the title--

The debate:

Is the East Coast or West Coast more spread out??

I can't figure it out.

When I first moved out here, I totally thought the west was much more spread out. Which, I still do agree with that for the most part. Because like...land is so much more valuable here. No one has big houses and big yards, because there just isn't enough open space! The roads don't have shoulders and right turn lanes because they ran out of space! And I don't know how to explain it, but there's just a TON. more. people. and roads. And when I think of the east coast, I just think of crowded busy chaos. And the west is just like wide open roads and space. And land is cheaper and everyone has bigger houses and yards than they do on the east. Do you get where I'm going with this? Do you agree?

(Side note-I think on the west, particularly in Utah, the status symbol of choice is houses. But I feel like in Maryland the size of your house doesn't mean as much. Here, the status symbol of choice is cars.)

But then on the other hand- Sam thinks the east is more spread out. We've had this debate since we first moved here. But now I'm starting to see his point too. Because like I said before, I have to drive SO much here! Everything is so far away! But then....it's really close in the fact that like...everything I could possibly ever need is within an hour of me, but then I have to drive at least 30 minutes to get to anything! So I can't decide. And I've heard other people make comments that go along with Sam's theory, like they'll say "The west is so crowded! Everyone's houses are so close and in these crowded subdivisions" or things like "the west is so claustrophic!" Which is how I feel about the east! I guess I can see the thing about the subdivisions...but here, hardly anyone even has a yard because most people live in apartments and townhouses (but maybe that's just the neighborhood I live in) But then people who do have yards, they have very big yards it seems like. I dunno?? I just can't figure it out.

And I've tried to google things like...does Utah have more people than Maryland? But stuff like that doesn't really work because Utah is so much bigger than Maryland. So you'd need to take like...Maryland, and a portion of Utah that is same size of square miles as Maryland, and do a comparison that way? I dunno. I can see both sides. It seems like people from the west think the west is more spread out, and people from the east think the east is more spread out. But then Sam is on the easterner's side...so maybe that's not an accurate statement.

I just can't figure it out. So I want your opinions.

If you got this far in my post, I'm  proud of you. Sam has gotten sick of me telling all of this to him over and over again. The differences between the east and the west are basically all I ever talk about. Maybe I'm a bit obsessive. So sue me.