How Bizarre

I've been in Virginia now for about 5 1/2 weeks. First impressions? Some things are so weird here. I'm sure some of you think I'm exaggerating. I beg to differ. If you find yourself wondering, "What exactly is so different?", well, I'll tell you.

First of all, much to my annoyance grocery stores here don't sell cosmetics, medicine, or pens/ school supplies. What the heck?? I thought maybe it was just one particular store but no, it's happened to me three times. ALL I NEEDED WAS A GEL PEN FOR THANK YOU NOTES!! How does a grocery store not sell pens?? This is not communist Russia from back in the day. Pens are used WORLD-WIDE and should obviously be sold by anyone that also sells gum.

Second, people here look at me like I'm on crack when I sport my cowboy boots. We're not talking kicker-esque boots; we're talking cute and sassy ones that, when I'm Texas, almost always garner compliments (thanks for those, btw).

People here also don't bag their leaves after they rake their yards. This drove me CRA.ZY. for the first 3 weeks I was here because there were just HUGE mounds of leaves on the street next to the curb that only got bigger and bigger- at a lot of homes there was just enough room for one car to parallel park between them. Ugg-o. Then L and I saw signs around a neighborhood we have to drive through to get to most places we go (post office, grocery stores, restaurants, the Metro) and apparently the leaves get vacuumed up by a street cleaner of sorts. This fascinated me and I couldn't WAIT to see the vacuum truck in action on our street. Since I'm working from home at the moment, I knew I could make this happen. At long last, to my delight the truck came through YESTERDAY for the first time since I moved here (which was entirely too long if you ask me. Leaf piles should not sit there for 5 weeks through rain and snow. Sick.). Anyway, I was incredibly disappointed. It wasn't nearly as cool of a process as I had hoped for. This is the truck and the feet of the cleaning crew in action as the vacuum S-L-O-W-L-Y sucks up leaves:

And a close up of the feet and vacuum:

Like I said, totally anticlimatic.  I was expecting way more from a leaf vacuum.  Where's a giant composting Dyson when you need one?  By the way, if you don't have a Dyson, get one.  Totally worth the money.

Also, apparently I'm the only one that sees the flashing lights and signs for school zones. In Texas, you don't joke around in the school zones. There are cops everywhere. I got ONE ticket one time in college driving through an all-day school zone that doesn't have flashing lights and I freaking learned my lesson.  Here, people just whiz on through without even totally pausing.

In Texas, liquor stores are not open on Sundays.  Here, not only are the open 7 days a week but they stay open late on Sundays.  And apparently the state owns most or all of them? 

Lastly, people in Virginia LOOOOOOOOVE the personalized license plates.  Not even kidding.  They are everywhere.  In Texas, I hate to say it but most of the time I feel like you're kind of a d-bag if you actually get your own custom plates.  But they aren't THAT common so you just laugh when you see them because usually you can at least understand the "statement" the driver is trying to make to the world via their license plates.  For example, there's a Mormon family in the neighborhood I grew up in that has 10 kids.  What did the mom put on her car?  10 Kids.  Okay, I get it.  You're an anomally and it's kind of weird that you have 10 kids but you're turning the joke around and instead of letting people count for themselves and gawk at you, YOU'RE TELLING THE WORLD FIRST!  HA!!  Joke's on you, rude gawkers!  In Virginia, though, this is the kind of crap people pay to have on their cars:

Okay, I get it.  S/he is a massage therapist.  Who apparently doesn't mind calling him/herself a somewhat derogatory name in front of VA/DC/MD that implies that s/he gives happy endings.

This citizen is very concerned with public safety and feels the need to help spread the word: BUCKLE UP!  What I love is that apparently this driver is the 2nd person to want this on their plates.  Note the 2 at the end.

CSI-09 is on the case and ready to solve a mystery!

No idea what that means.  Maybe initials?  They also love the pretty leaf plates.

Obviously the best way to convince others for political change is through your license plate.

The next 7 pictures are a sampling of what I saw in ONE parking lot.  There were a few others that didn't turn out that well.

What the heck does that mean?

And again I'm left in the dark.  Is that like G-Nik?  Is the g silent? 

I can only assume this driver is the 8th person with these initials to request them on his or her plate.

Who's that driving that black Acura??  Oh, it's the Virginia Tech Cutie!  So clever.

Have pride in where you come from.

Apparently they have a mobile dog.

I can only guess they collect them.

The best, most devout Christians profess it on their plates.

Yes, it is winter.  Thank you.

What?

I feel like this is either vampire or baseball related.  Just can't quite figure it out one way or the other yet.

If you looked carefully you may have noticed that they are ALL Virginia drivers.  That might not seem that weird since that's where I am, but normally when you drive in VA, you see about 60% of cars from VA, 25% from MD, and 15% from D.C.  I've yet to see custom plates for D.C. and I rarely see them for MD. 

So those are my initial impressions and thoughts.  More to come later!

UPDATE: I just got the VAC8 license plate. Had to read it out loud again.  Sometimes I'm awesome.