Tuesday that feels like Monday

It's hot.  Not just a little hot that makes you sweat a little.  Or hot that makes you want to grill out and sit outside with a cold beer.  But hot that makes you want to sit in the air with your ice cold beer and blog about how hot it is out there and pity those without air conditioning.  This place has heat like I've never seen.  It's like mid-August, sticky, nasty Cleveland humid hot every day since I've been here except for 2.  Miserable.  But, in an effort to be a little cheery about it, I don't have to shovel snow and I don't have to worry about the humidity making my hair curl.  What a lucky girl am I!

There is this interesting phenomenon that I am finding quite interesting and am having trouble coming to terms with.  As I learn more and more about the people that I work with, I learn more about the local dating/marriage culture.  So C'ville has an abnormally high divorce rate.  I think it's somewhere near 70 % or upwards.  They say the people here are really friendly - too friendly, in my opinion!  Apparently some people are married, but only 'kind of married'.  So by definition, at least to my understanding, is that they are married by law and wear the jewelry to go with it but are date on the side.  Some spouses even consent to this.  And it's not just a couple people.  I've ran into a disturbing amount of people where this is true.  What I don't understand is with this degree of openness and honesty, shouldn't the divorce rate be higher?  And with 60 some churches around here, you'd think someone would try to wrangle them up somehow.  Perhaps it's just me and my naivety.  After all, I'm the equivalent to the town spinstress!

Been spending a lot of time thinking about my life in Cleveland.  Not having all the things that you hold close to your heart really makes you think.  I get sad when I think about my beautiful house on my quiet little street in the Heights.  About the hours that my dad spent with me putting in tile or fixing something that I no doubt broke because I knew that he could fix it if did break.  About the many friends and family that I left behind.  Or even the ease of a life in a town that I knew like the back of my hand, where I could find anything and always had somewhere to go....the safety of knowing, of being a native, of having connections.  Here I'm out on a limb, exposed to the elements.  Here I'm looked at funny if I wear a blouse instead of a tshirt or have stretch marks from the freshman 15 (cough cough ;) ) and not having a gagillion children by the time I was old enough to buy beer.  It's hard to be away from a place where I felt and was accepted and loved.  I had a very good life, a great life in fact.  And I still do.  It just looks different and will take some time to get used to. Who knows, maybe I will grow into this place but deep down I know that it's not big enough for me here.  I crave the people, the culture, the diversity and the depth that only a city has.  And for as much as people knock Cleveland, it has all of those things.

On the work front, I've started to sink my teeth into some projects.  Need to get used to having assistants who support our team.  Such a change for me.  There's such a get-it-done attitude that I almost feel bad scheduling their time or giving them more tasks, but they expect it as well.  Everyone chips in and puts in the long hours together.  It's certainly a team environment which I suspect only strengthens as we head into our seasonal peak season.  

In other news, my Lady Liberty name will live with me forever I suspect.  I'm now addressed as such at our morning production meetings.  At least I got a free Halloween costume from it!  Pics to come, I promise.