Thursday, August 13, 2015

Culture Shock by Lois Greiman



I’ve been culture shocked. 

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Romance Writers’ of America’s national conference in New York City. I’ve been there a couple of times before, hanging out in Times Square, stuffing myself with authentic New York cheesecake, getting claustrophobic in the crowds. You know, the usual. But this time the differences between MY reality and New York reality really hit me. 

I may have mentioned in an earlier blog post that I’m planning to move to a more rural setting, and it’s not as if we live in urbandale now. We have a cute little horse farm a few miles outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. But we’re planning on heading east…to 120 acres in Wisconsin…where the Amish are still slowing down the speed of life with their horse drawn buggies. Where, it seems, every other farm is selling fresh produce: brown eggs, clover honey, pasture fed beef. It’s where I was raised….only in a different state. And it’s beautiful, rolling hills, pastoral dairy farms…

But the nearer I get to the closing date the more jittery I’ve become. Maybe…just maybe I’ve gotten a little bit spoiled. Here, we’re minutes from theaters and shopping and just about every kind of restaurant known to mankind. We could eat out every day of the week for a month (cheesecake included) and never dine at the same café twice. And I loooove to eat. What happens when I’m tolling along behind an Amish buggy and suddenly have a craving for sushi? Okay, I don’t actually like sushi so that’s probably a bad example. But you know what I mean. 

Growing up in North Dakota we had to drive for an hour to get to the movie theater and I survived that horrendous hardship. (Can anyone say First World Problem?) But I don’t know, authentic New York style cheesecake versus Amish buggies… 

Which would you choose?

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Lois Greiman is the award-winner author of more than forty books. Romantic Times called her latest novel, Hearth Stone, “…a great book with a wonderful message.”

www.loisgreiman.com

www.facebook.com/lois.greiman

5 comments:

  1. Lois, I live in a small town, but have enjoyed my excursions to NYC and San Francisco this summer. I'm not sure I could manage to live in either of those cities, or how well I would fare if I were waaaay out in the country, an hour away from someone else's cooking. Good luck with your move. I have no doubt you will adapt with flair!

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  2. I'm a small town girl, myself. Cities are nice to visit, though. :)

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  3. What do you think is considered a small town these days, The closest town to where I grew up had less than a hundred people. I think most are going to agree that's little. :) But now I suppose anything under 10,000? 100,000??

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  4. I love the rural life. I lived in a town in MO with 4,000 people. We only had to drive about 45 minutes to the movies, and any real shopping was also that far away. It was heaven!

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  5. Lois, I want to visit your new house once you get settled in!

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