Things I didn't know I missed.

Since our recent trip back to the Midwest for my sister-in-law's wedding, we've been thinking more and more about moving back there. There's so much there that we didn't know we missed living out here in the desert, until we were there. Here's a few things I missed, and a few I didn't.

Things I didn't know I missed


  1. Green Growing things
    2. New Mexico is basically a desert. Even in town, the color green is pretty rare.
    Unless you have a lot of money to spend on water to keep grass green and flowers growing, your yard is probably brown. Ours happens to be sand. Lots of sand. In the Midwest, there is green. Lots of green. Many shades of green. Things grow. And grow well.
  2. Cicadas
    3. The musical whirring of their song is the background music to so many of my summer time memories. I never noticed how oddly quiet it seems without them surrounding and covering us in their singing.
  3. Humid air
    4. The air in the desert is dry. Very dry. So dry at times that it seems that exhaling sucks all the moisture out of your body. Your lungs seem to be shriveling when you are outside in the heat. You have to keep water with you all the time so you don't die. In the Midwest, the air is heavy and wet. Breathing in seems to fill your body with life giving water, making your lungs feel more like full round fruit rather than dry, shriveled raisins.      
  4.  Water
    5. Water is a precious commodity in the desert. There is no standing water anywhere, except the reservoirs which are dirty and sandy. In the Midwest, there are rivers and streams everywhere. When it rains, there are puddles that will last for days. If you dig in your back yard, you can have a well. Precious, life giving water, everywhere!
Things I didn't know I didn't miss
  1. Green Growing things
    2. Things that grow produce pollen. Pollen is evil. My allergies are screaming for mercy. Often, when my eyes are swollen and my nose is so stuffed I can't breath, I think "Kill Me". Green things are evil.
  2. Cicadas
    3. Stupid bugs buzzing all the time. How can anyone think with all this racket? How did I ever sleep at night with these things whirring all the time? Shut up already!
  3. Humid air
    4. In the desert, when the sun goes down, it gets cool, fast. Humidity holds the heat forever. It can be 103 in the day and 103 in the dead of night. And you can't sweat! It just drenches you and never really cools you! How can humans live like this?
  4. Water
    5. Every bit of standing water is covered in mosquitoes. They cover your body like thousands of little vampires trying to suck the life out of you. And if you swat one, it explodes all over you leaving a nasty splatter of blood like something out of a Freddy Kruger movie. Yuck. Also, water makes the growing thing grow and contributes to the humid air, so generally speaking, water is probably the thing that I missed the least. Except that I'm very thirsty.
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