Moving Forward

I am in So. Much. Pain.

UGH.

Why do I do this to myself? It's only been 2 months since my last workout and I'm officially back to sqaure one. I did Slim in 6 Tuesday morning and then a Tae Bo class that evening and now every part of my body aches! Tae Bo was like, an HOUR long and turned out to be a lot of identical moves to Slim in 6 so it really kicked my butt. I haven't been back to the gym yet, but I'm going to try to work out some of the pain with some cardio later. Maybe Chris and I can just go for a walk or something.... anyways. I'm dying. Nuff said.


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I'm tackling the kitchen today. It's fairly disgusting. I don't know how Bean manages to coat EVERYTHING in hair because he is a short haired cat! But it's stuck to the cabinet doors, it floating in corners, it miraculously lands in my curry sauce. I'm done! First I'm going to shave off all of Bean's fur and then I'm wiping, vacuuming, and mopping every crevice of that kitchen until it shines. Okay, so maybe not the shaving part, but the rest is on my To Do for the day. I want to start perfecting the art of cooking good tofu and I can't do it in that kitchen the way it is right now!

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I've been catching up with friends and it's been fun! No more restlessness. I still haven't met Karen's new baby, Isla, yet though so hopefully I'll see her soon. It's been so good to get out of the house every day and see smiling faces, old and new friends, and start to re-embrace Moranbah life.


It's always hard coming back into Moranbah after visiting my family in Texas. I'd come so far in accepting this town and it seems that every time I visit DFW I regress a bit, fully convincing myself that I hate and despise everything about rural Queensland. But, you know, that's not really true at all. I think the only thing I truly hate is how separated I am from friends in Mackay and, of course, family back in Texas. But I've also grown to love some things about Moranbah that you just can't duplicate anywhere else, so I will list them here in case I ever try to convince myself otherwise:



- I love the peace here. Every day is full of constant bird songs and it's always quiet enough to hear it. There's no distant roar of traffic, trains blowing their horns, ambulance or police sirens....it's just peaceful. The noisest noise I ever have to manage is children playing and, you know, I think I can get used to that too. This pic was taken off the highway on the way out of moranbah. It's not mine, but I think it captured the essence of this area beautifully. :)

- I love how so many women are stay-at-home moms. When I visted DFW I was taken aback for a moment when I realized that everyone would be working throughout every day and realized how spoiled I am that most of my friends here are available to go out for a coffee at 10am or to do lunch any given day, leaving the evenings for us to spend with our families. As much as I'd love a 9-5 job, I'd also miss being a part of that world where we can all just have morning tea on any given Tuesday, no worries.

- I love how you can go alone to the pub on a Friday night and know you'll run into at least a handful of people you know to have a drink or two with. No phone calls, no plans, and there's something so liberating about that. I know you might be able to duplicate that in the city if you frequent a certain bar often, but I don't think it's quite the same. People make fun of it so often, but I love the Moranbah Black Nugget in all it's understated overpriced glory. It's not a cocktail lounge by any means, but it's unapologetic simplicity is what I like about it. :) I also like that no one can smoke inside which is one of my pet peeves of bars in Fort Worth: you always leave with your freshly done hair and new shirt/dress/purse/jacket REEKING of smoke. I'll never be a fan of City pubs, (although The Flying Saucer in FW is digging a special place in my heart!)

- I love that there is NEVER traffic. I'd be willing to wager that I spent at least a cumulative 15-20 hours of my visit to DFW sitting in traffic. It reminded me how I was able to learn all the words to so many albums in the past and struggle to even know all the tracks on some of my favorites today, but I will NEVER miss wasting that much of my life sitting in a car. The Moranbah definition of "traffic" is having to wait more than 30 seconds to turn right onto Mills Ave. We don't have any traffic lights, and I think I've seen maybe 3 stop signs. Maybe. I love this. :)

- I love how approachable the people are. It seems like just about everyone is ready for a chat at any given time, whether you know them or not and that's a breath of fresh air. In DFW it seems that everyone is always in a hurry to get someplace or do something and no one in Moranbah has ever made me feel that way, friend or acquaintance or perfect stranger. That's nice!

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SO in case any of you have ever had an earful of all the things I hate about Moranbah, please know that, in spite of my City-Mouse-in-the-country venting, there are some things I truly love here, even more things I like and a lot of things that are starting to grow on me. It's an adjustment, yes, but I think it's becoming Home too. :)