6 for 6

In honor of being a city slicker for 6 whole months now, I thought I would list my 6 favorite things about living in Salt Lake, and my 6 least favorite.

Favorite

• We are so much closer to family! If I go a week without seeing Jessie it feels weird and we try to see each other, even if it's for a few min. It only takes 40 minutes to get to my parents house opposed to the 210 minutes it took from Cedar (I thought stating it in minutes would seem more dramatic).
• There really are so many store options. We used to plan all our bigger shopping trips in St. George around when we were going to go to the temple. Now we can just go, and be back within an hour.
• We have discovered 5 Smith's within 10 minutes of our house (the latest one was just discovered last week). We are so amazed every time we are driving down a new road and find yet another Smith's!
• 3300 South. It is just that awesome.
• Our apartment is so spacious! We lucked out finding this place and just love it! We can invite all our family over (since they are all so close!) and everyone fits! Plus we have an awesome deck with a spectacular view!
• Being here means that we are that much closer to Trav being done with school and me retiring (2 1/2 years!)

Biggest Complaints (and they are big)

• Traffic, traffic, traffic!! Where are all these people coming from and going?! We HATE that you have to plan the time of day you are leaving somewhere based on the traffic. The first time we drove to Nephi it took us just as long as it did from Cedar because we were big idiots and we thought leaving at 4:00 was early enough. A few times it's taken us that long to get back because of car wrecks in the exact same spot!
• The University of Utah is sooo big! Trav and I are at opposite ends of campus, so even by shuttle it takes about 20 min to get to each other's building. Nobody knows anybody else in all the departments, and they are so unhelpful! SUU spoiled me (and I still really really really really miss that job..... Just ask Trav. He listens about it every day).
• The air quality sucks. You can see so much smog as you look off of our awesome deck.
• I have become quite the paranoid person. I am always looking over my shoulder expecting some crazed homeless person to be chasing me down. (I hate to look down upon the homeless, but I have heard many stories of the homeless taking over our church building, my work building, and the forest by Trav's building. Hence, paranoia. Plus you never know who really needs help, and who is just being lazy).
• Bikers think they are cars here. They get in the lanes, cut off cars and buses, and then are mad when a car hits them. They annoy me so bad. Who even knows what their arm signals mean anyways?
• You have to pay everywhere you park, and yet there is no where to park. Parking on campus sucks and is so expensive! Which brings me to my love-hate relationship.

BONUS ROUND: Love-Hate Relationship

• I hate driving, especially in high populated areas, so it is really nice that I get to take the bus to work everyday. It picks me up relatively close to our house, and drops me off a few blocks away from my office (and it drops Trav off right in front of his building!). They give every student and U employee a free UTA bus pass, so we save money on parking and gas. It is nice to not have to worry about all the traffic (especially in the snow/rain).
• As much as I love the bus, I hate waiting for the bus! Especially when it is late! And sometimes you get passive drivers who get stuck at every light! Or you get the real jerky (not personality wise) stop and go drivers. Then you are sick. Oh well, I would rather be sick than have to pay for parking.