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Welcome to the Land of the Free April 29, 2008

Posted by Emily in : Daily Life, Family, Islands, My Handsome Husband, Princess Hannah , trackback

We went to our storage unit the other day. I wish we filmed the event, because let me tell you, it was an exciting event! David, Daniel, and I started searching through our stuff to find some items (like clothing, and shoes) that we needed. Let me just say that we have stuff, and a lot of of it. We saw things in the storage unit that we didn’t remember owning, and we found clothing that neither one of us remembers purchasing. I’m sure everything is ours, we are just amazed at how our memories had faded over the past two and half years. It was like Christmas to see all our stuff. No, it was BETTER than Christmas! Because EVERYTHING we saw was ours, and it was free, and it was all our style, and in the right size. AND THERE WAS SO MUCH MORE THAN WE REMEMBERED. And we both have clothes. Lots of them. That are nice, stylish, and comfortable. We could actually burn all of our worn out, nasty, crappy, Saba clothing, and have plenty to wear. Mmmm, I might just do that . . .

I would like to take a deep breath now and thank myself for buying great clothes. I owe myself BIG TIME for NOT scrimping on purchasing clothing when it came to quantity or quality. And, for purchasing so many shoes, because unfortunately, my shoes are the only thing that fit me right now. David was so thoughtful to point this out to me as I was hyperventilating over the boxes and boxes labeled “Emily’s clothing” I found. Apparently, he wanted me to have a reality check to save some time and have me NOT inspect EVERY article of clothing I own.

But still, on behalf of the clothing abundance, I would like to take a moment of silence.

Hannah thought she hit the shoe jackpot when I opened up a box full of evening wear shoes. “SHOES!”, “SHOES!”, “SHOES!” was all she could say over and over again. She was quite entertained and tried on EVERY pair and walked up and down the corridor of the storage unit in her new high heel “SHOES!”

I would like to point out that I was not the only one excited to see real clothing. David was very excited to see his suits, and ties. Which are like BRAND NEW, since we bought them just before we moved. He was also pleasantly surprised to find that he owns more than 100 pairs of Allen Edmonds shoes, which he LOVES more than any other shoe on the planet. Okay, so he doesn’t own 100 pairs, but he owns quite a few, which makes me happy because we DO NOT NEED TO BUY HIM NEW SHOES. Instead, that money can buy Hannah LOTS of shoes. And really, Hannah gets WAY MORE excited about new shoes than David.

A few days ago, we went to Walmart. I would like to mention that David has not stepped into Walmart, or any other major superstore in over 28 months. To say that his eyes were HUGE when we walked in, would be an understatement. He looked over at the produce section and said, “HOLY COW! Look at all that fruit! And look! There are TONS of bananas and grapes! ON A FRIDAY NIGHT!” Yes, this was VERY exciting to us, to be able to buy whatever we wanted, when we wanted. We had grown so accustomed to only buying groceries on Wednesday morning (that is when the grocery boat comes to Saba), and picking from such a TINY selection.  It was a bit overwhelming to see so much abundance.

It really is great to be back in the land of the free. There are so many choices, it is going to take us a few more days to get used to all the options around us. Take is from me, AMERICA IS WEALTHY. Go live IN ANY OTHER COUNTY (especially a tiny island in the Caribbean) and you will agree.

Comments»

1. Cristina - April 29, 2008

I know what you mean about wanting to burn your island clothes. I’m not planning on bringing back too much island clothing. On one hand it feels old and disgusting by now. On the other hand, I think it’d give me a sense of freedom from all I’m leaving behind, sort of like a snake leaving its old skin behind. Haha, sorry I mentioned a snake.

So how about posting your grocery shopping list for us islanders to dream about? I’m only half joking, that’s how desperate I am for a real grocery store with a produce section twice the size of JR’s. I got a brief taste of it in St. Maarten last week but it obviously wasn’t enough. :)

Enjoy the US! And send all the complainers down to Saba to gain some perspective.