On Living in a Smaller Town

I've lived in lots of different places in California. Some big, some small. You run into people you know quite often in the smaller places. I remember not liking that about the small town, and loving the anonymity that larger towns offer. I also like the fact that news doesn't spread as fast in larger towns (counting out your circle of friends), so your business is not everyone else's business by the next day. I think I am the only person I know who likes going to grocery stores in different areas. There's something to be said for shopping locally and knowing those who shop and work in the stores around you. However, if I needed something from Safeway, and I was 15 miles away, I'd just stop by the closest store to where I currently was instead of waiting to until I got home and heading towards my local Safeway. My husband thought I was a little odd for doing that, but for me it was just normal.

Now we're in Colorado. Land of only 5 million people. So unlike California. Land of 40 million people. I am running into the same people all the time around town. I talked with two women today that I talked to yesterday in the rec center. Their kids are in the same summer preschool class as Brandon. It's so odd. Today at MOPS they both came up to me and told me how nice it was to see me yesterday! I'd talked to one before at a previous MOPS meeting, but the other one I'd never met until yesterday. I took the night off last night and just went out on my own (Brian put the kids to bed and got to watch baseball without having to listen to me gripe about it). I was trying on shoes in a store 7 miles and two towns away, and recognized a woman from my local Wal-Mart. I don't even know her! But I see her a lot. Obviously I don't live in a large town anymore!

I've been reminded time and time again that we are living in a smaller area. While we have everything here we need, I can't always find what I want. I've been out of tahini (sesame paste) for some time now, since we had to eat through the fridge and freezer reserves before moving here. It's not common, but I haven't had a hard time finding it for the last 10 years or so. Here? I went to 4 different stores yesterday looking for tahini, since I've found 3 recipes that call for it, and I can't really make it on my own. I even went to Safeway. I shopped at Safeway all the time in the Bay Area. There weren't a lot of other options. Trader Joe's was number 1, then Safeway or Albertsons. There were a smattering of other smaller stores, but they were all quite a distance, and not worth it unless you were in their general area. I rarely shop at Safeway anymore. The Wal-Mart and Target Supercenters have cut my grocery bill down by about 35%. It's like shopping at Safeway during a sale, but all the time, and I don't have to stock up. However, if it's not common, it's not at Wal-Mart. Maybe at Target. Sometimes at King Soopers. But tahini? Nowhere to be found. They looked for it for me at King Soopers. They gave me the blank deer-in-the-headlines stare at Safeway. Today I found some at Wild Oats (think Whole Foods, but smaller, less expensive, and friendlier), along with some fennel for my roasted fennel and garlic mashed potatoes. I had to go to many many stores to find dry polenta also. We've gone backwards in food diversity moving here. At least I can find good Hispanic foods, but I don't cook Hispanic foods very often. Asian is okay. It's fairly easy to find the common ingredients. I am just now getting in the mood to cook again, and am getting more and more frustrated that I can't find stuff. Stuff I didn't have a hard time finding before. I miss Trader Joe's. I knew I would, but it's just catching up with me now. I even miss Andronico's and Draegers. Didn't shop there much, but I knew I could find the odd stuff at the gourmet shops. Maybe I'd have better luck in Boulder or Denver. The weird thing is that I can find bison meat at Wal-Mart. Go figure!