That 20 or 30 years ago if someone told me I'd be living in Iowa someday, I would have told them that they didn't know what they were talking about and yet here I am, for 14 years now. Don't get me wrong, I like Iowa, but it just wasn't one of me first choices of places to live.
I'm from the eastern part of the country, Pittsburgh, PA to be exact. Moving here was literally a culture shock to me, after living in the places I lived and being from where I was. But I think I've adjusted pretty well. I won't lie, I do miss the Burgh at times and I'll always consider it home in my mind, but this is home now. I do get to go back there to visit, so not all is lost, and according to some people, I still have my Pittsburgh accent, even though you couldn't prove that by me.
"How did you end up in Iowa," you might ask. Well, it all started back in 1978, when I married my husband, from here on in, to be known as Dave. He was in the Navy, so we moved around from one end of the country to the other, going from California and ending up in Virginia. After nine years for me and twelve for him of Navy life, we hit civilian life. From there and after several layoffs, he was offered a job here in Iowa, so here we moved and we've been here ever since, again, going from one end, but this time ending up in the middle.
We have two sons too. One lives here with us, the other lives with his fiance in Missouri. They both work full time and we're proud of each of them for their accomplishments, especially successfully furthering their education, something that was important to Dave and I. one graduated from high school in Virginia, the other here in Iowa, but they both graduated from college.
Since we've lived here, we have acquired four dogs, four cats, and three ponies, one of which passed away this past winter. She was the oldest of the three. The other two, geldings, we still have. You'll hear stories about them all, especially the dogs because they're always doing funny things. Their names are from oldest to youngest, Jake, Rolli, Angel, and Max. The cats' names are Oreo, a male and Peanut, Patches, and Pumpkin, all females. The ponies' names are Spots and War. The ironic thing about War's name is that he's so laid back. Oh, I forgot to tell you, we own a small farm, very small.
Well, that's the short version of a story some 32+ years long.
Sometimes I still can't believe I live in Iowa.
