Accepting Vegas

Next month, we'll have been Nevadans for a full two years. It seems like much much longer and much much shorter at the same time. On the long side, I can't imagine that Mia's only been in our family for 16 months. On the short side, it seems like we are still freshly arrived in this city, this city whose streets we only know a fraction of compared to Chicago's streets, shops, restaurants, and attractions. 

We had a very quick weekend trip to L.A. this weekend. It was awesome to visit somewhere we could walk to nice restaurants, grocery stores, and see the beautiful ocean. LA is awesome, and I really wish I had lived there at some point. On our drive home, B said that pretty soon, we wouldn't need our GPS to get us back to Las Vegas anymore, because we'd probably make this drive hundreds of times. I found myself agreeing, rather than secretly hoping we'd move there. No, we won't move to L.A., because... we don't want to. As much as I loved visiting, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief when we passed the first casinos in Primm Valley. 

But, two years seems to be enough time to settle in. To stop thinking of ourselves as transient, to stop thinking about other cities, and stop thinking that relocating (again) would be no big deal, since our roots are still so shallow. Because now, they aren't. We have a daycare that we are happy with, with a one year old teacher that our daughter loves. We [each] have favorite restaurants (mine: DW Bistro, B's: Amore), favorite local shops, favorite parks. And our favorites aren't what they were in Chicago. Our activities are... suburban and family-oriented. 

We may not fit in here, and we may never fit in here. We may be a very blue household in a predominantly red state. We may never accept that our closest and nicest movie theater is in a casino. We may never understand how to play craps. But, slowly but surely, we are adapting.

Activities are fewer for those of us who try to avoid the strip, but they're there. It's just a matter of taking advantage of what there is to offer. Just this morning, as I reviewed our East Coast friend's facebook pictures of apple picking, I found an orchard that exists in Las Vegas, an anomaly in the desert that exists thanks to some kind of spring that actually makes the soil productive in one small part of town. We'll do that just as soon as the weather dips below 90 degrees.

I predict that in two more years, my aversion to owning real estate will settle down, and we might even be in the market for one of these large and affordable homes.