Small Town Sunday #10 - Big City Shopping

One of the downsides to living in a small town, especially my small town, is having to drive to a larger city to do major shopping. Unfortunately, my small town is almost 100 miles from a city large enough to have any major shopping.  This does, however, make shopping an experience, one that can be a lot of fun if you go with the right person(s).

My mother and I made a "quick" trip to the city to buy a new faucet for my leaky sink after I got off work on Friday. I had looked all around our small town and couldn't find the type of faucet I wanted, and I knew Lowe's would have one. Normally, I would buy it online and not need to drive an hour and a half one-way to buy a faucet, but I had someone coming to my house the next day to install it, so...

One thing that seems to never fail when going to "the big city" to shop, is running into someone from our small town. At Lowe's we ran into my best friends' in-laws (yes, that was an intentional plural possessive. Two of my besties are married to brothers and have the same in-laws) I hadn't seen them in awhile because we no longer go to the same church. It was nice to catch up.

After finding the faucet, we went across the road to Target so I could look for a present for my niece (what I had ordered on line was NOTHING like I expected, but that's another story). As we were leaving target (without the present), who did we see but our neighbor and her little girls. 

It is so weird to be in a huge store, in a big city and look over and see someone from your small town. You just have to go over and say "hi".  It is like looking at a Where's Waldo and actually finding Waldo in your first glance at the page. Maybe it's more like winning the find-a-friend-among-400,000-people lottery.  Either way, it's always a little shock...even though it happens every time I go to the "big city".

So even in a big city, there is still a little small town feel. It reminds me of the song, "It's a Small World After All."  Sometimes the big city can be like a small town. Of course, there are people out there who would consider a town with just under half a million in population to BE a small town. I would completely disagree. Probably because my town has under 3,000 people.  Now THAT'S a small town!

Are We Really This Old?

I went to my 15 year reunion last night. It was fun. I liked that it was low-key because we were just meeting up and hanging out at the homecoming game. I got to see friends that I haven't seen in years! There were a few key people missing that I wish could have (would have) made it. There were also a few surprises... Especially one of the guys from our class who showed up in chains and face paint (white face with black markings)...creepy!

For the most part everyone seemed the same, just a little older. It was funny because those that were there were still forming the old cliques. In high school there was a large group of us that hung out together, but within that group, there were smaller groups of "besties". It all felt familiar and surreal at the same time.

Can't wait for the 20th!