Five-Four-Three Things...

It has officially been 18 days since my last blog post. *Hangs head in shame.* I could make excuses: I've been moving, unpacking, etc. While they are all true, there's still no excuse. So, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things with a couple of blog posts, one in honor of the move and another about the christening of my new kitchen.

For those of you who didn't know already, my wife and I, two cats in tow, recently made the trek from Bangor, Maine to Blacksburg, Virginia. We moved from a nearly 1,000 square feet two-bedroom apartment to a 700 square feet one-bedroom. But hey, the neighbors are great:

That's right, we live across from sheep.
As anyone who has moved from region to region has experienced, crossing state lines means more than just changing gas prices; it means changing cultures. So, in honor of that, here are five things I'm going to miss about Maine and four things I will decidedly not miss about Maine (because, really, Maine is a nice place).

Five things I will miss about Maine...

1.) Fried haddock.
2.) Being called "dee-ah" by waitresses.
3.) Giving directions to my house with landmarks like Stephen King's house and the giant Paul Bunyan statue ("reputed to be the largest ... in the world").
4.) Dysart's.
5.) Acadia National Park.

Four things I will not miss about Maine...

1.) Complete and total darkness ... at 3:00 in the afternoon.
2.) Perpetually going "down" to get anywhere because there simply is nothing north.
3.) Slanted floors.
4.) Drivers stopping in the middle of the merge lane because they have no idea how to deal with "traffic."

And now, a couple of bonus lists:

Four things I have already enjoyed about Virginia...

1.) Oriental grocery stores.
2.) 24-hour grocery stores.
3.) Truckers helping me back out of a space and telling me that I'm well on my way to being a trucker (while reminiscing about their "first time").
4.) Southern food. I went to Ryan's and they had no less than fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, fried okra, and biscuits and gravy on the buffet.

Three ways Virginia is surprisingly like Maine...

1.) Shirtless, toothless yardsale peddlers.
2.) Everything is closed on Mondays.
3.) Vast stretches of nothingness on the Interstate.

Coming up soon: strawberry jam and the new kitchen!