Rookie Mistake

Yesterday I washed my car in the middle of the day. It hadn't been washed since shortly after I moved here approximately 3 months ago. This has made me a little crazy because my car is white and I am always overly worried about having it vacuumed. However, the mud, muck, snow, sleet, ice, rain, whatever precipitation is happening that day covers the outside and inside of my car. And it is WAY too cold to be outside vacuuming. Obviously the sun isn't as prevalent here and I have taken heed to the advice of supplementing Vitamin D while living in Vermont. What this means is that when it IS sunny, I am fooled into believing that it is a really nice day outside. So, yesterday, in the midst of running errands midday, I went ahead and pulled into the carwash because the sun was glaring brightly at me. In my efforts to save a few bucks (I am always making efforts to do this and it always backfires) I figured I would wash the car myself. One minute into my washing session I had an entire SUV covered in spray soap that had frozen solid. I had no idea what to do and was praying that the people traveling the road of my small town would not recognize me standing in the carwash bay with a frozen-soap-covered vehicle. So I did what any intelligent young woman would do and I pushed the button for the powerful water spray and got to work spraying that frozen soap off my car. As my carwash timer ticked by and frozen soap chunks were flying at me (in my work clothes), I successfully resulted in a car only half-covered in frozen soap and now fully covered in frozen water. This is where my intelligence really kicked in. I decided it was time to just quit but immediately opened the driver side door. No way was I going to have my door freeze shut and be stuck in a carwash bay and need to call someone for help. Nope, that was not going to happen to me! So as I left the driver door open and the car running in an attempt to warm it up, I had to ice scrape my windows just to leave the carwash. As I pulled out I heard the computer lady of the automatic carwash next to my bay talking to a man about to enter the auto wash. He would have his car completely washed and dried before exiting the enclosed auto wash. At that moment I had a great dislike for that computer voice and that man. Jerks. Upon exiting I glanced at my dashboard thermometer to notice that it read 18 degrees. I continued my errands wondering if anyone noticed that I was the only car on the road that looked like a frozen bubble. I do need to take a moment to note that my parents DID teach me not to wash my car in freezing temperatures. I know better. But, to me, the 18 degree day (in comparison to all of the recent -18 degree days) felt like a 50 degree day which merited a carwash. I have realized that I am still a rookie in this game of Vermont life.

Title Page

The Vermonter. A creative title if I must say so myself. This title has been stolen straight off the tracks that whiz past my home on a daily basis allowing life to be "shaken up" a bit. A note about me: I grew up in the Midwest, moved to the South for a couple years while pursuing a graduate degree, and recently moved to the Northeast aka New England aka the tundra. This blog is being started so that I can capture the little nuances of this new place I call home. I am an Indiana girl through and through, but easily adapted to life in the South. The mild climate and grande lifestyle that comes along with being "southern" were all too easy for me to adjust to. I loved football, my new school LOVED football. I owned two snazzy pairs of cowboy boots and I was allowed to wear them every day. I live for country radio and The Highway would blare through my satellite radio which conveniently still hasn't cancelled nearly two years after the free trial. In the words of that country radio the South is where the "beer is colder and girls are hotter." I'm not a beer drinker, so I don't know about that, but I know for sure that the girls are never hotter than they are at Indiana University. Nonetheless, I'll take the phrase and run with it...straight south. Yes, Indiana is ME, the South was easy, and now here I am in Vermont where it. never. stops. snowing. God has brought me to this new place far from home, far from the greatest place ever (Bloomington, IN), and REALLY far from the southern sun and gas prices (20 degrees warmer and 20 cents cheaper). But I intend to do everything here that He has planned for me. And when I make that drive south on 89 where the skies open up to the view of Bolton Valley, Camel's Hump, and Stowe, every part of my being knows that God is here.