It's too quiet.

The wind is lightly blowing outside, making the day comfortably cool and our front door is open to let some of the fresh air in.

There is a mixed emotion in moments like these. It's nice to have the time to enjoy doing nothing, even if only for five minutes. Relaxation, as an adult, is hard to come by without some sort of artificial help. Since I've always been a square, I have to drink in these moments and appreciate them when I can.

However...

I am a city girl. I love noise. I miss everything about the city that we lack here. The traffic, the shopping, the hole-in-the-wall markets or shops, the CHOICE of where you would like to get coffee on a lazy Sunday and the people. There aren't very many people around here that I can relate to. Because of that, I have one local friend. One. Mary was an Army brat in her early life, but was raised here after that and is most definitely a local. But Tosha, Stacey and Alicia are not. Even Tabby (my surrogate daughter, if you will) is an Army brat. And all my military friends are going to be gone in less than a year.

Let me see if I can help my West Coast friends understand the people in Missouri. Or, at least, small towns in Missouri. Springfield and St. Louis definitely have their share of diversity. But people here in the Waynesville/St. Robert area are generally... emotionless. They don't get overly excited or upset about anything. It's like there are small amounts of thorazine in the water supply. And they seem to be foreign to the ways of sarcasm. Okay, there is a big thing for me. Sarcasm is basically my first language. So I am really awkward when trying to joke around these people.

Not to mention that this place is in the Northern tip of the Bible Belt. I have no issues with people celebrating their religion, but there are a lot of restrictions on how everyone else enjoys their entertainment. Don't get me wrong... there is a really skeezy strip club on the outskirts of St. Robert, but that's not really my thing. They control what movies play here. Sadly, that has meant lately than anything supposedly intelligent or independent has been cast aside for things like Jackass 3-D.

Jackass, ladies and gentlemen, is our nation's first step towards "Ow, My Balls". See Idiocracy if you were lost on that reference.

All this just adds up into a feeling of being caged. We go to the city as often as we can, but money is always a big issue in life, so it's not as often as either of us would like. Maybe one or both of us will get lucky in our chosen professions and have the available funding to move. I think Josh would really like Seattle.

And I really miss Seattle.