December daily: New city

tevere prompts: What's life in your new city like? Is it very different from where you were before?

Well, I moved from a small Midwestern city to an even smaller Midwestern city, so compared to moving to an island or a desert or something, it's not a huge change. But there are some changes.

1. My skills at driving in snow, which I was proud of as only a born Southerner can be proud of such things, turn out only to apply in flat places. I'm having to re-learn how to drive a car on a slippery surface on hills. (I knew you could downshift even in my automatic-transmission car, but I had to get the owner's manual out to figure out how.)
   
   
2. Popcorn seems to be filling the same niche in office culture that doughnuts filled in Old City. About once a week a whisper will go around my office: "Pam went to Frank's! There's Frank's in the kitchen!" and then everybody goes in and comes out with a paper towel full of popcorn. I'm not complaining -- popcorn doesn't bother me, whereas the older I get the more I'm subject to Doughnut Stomach -- but it's kind of odd.
   
   
3. They call parking garages "ramps" and sledding "sleigh-riding."
   
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   I like it here, I really do, and I need to keep remembering that, instead of letting my entire life be dominated by the fact that I don't have a real job yet.