first impressions of home

As Americans, we are fat.

And I live in a modern-day hick town.

I didn't realize this before.

I knew in my head that the United States was an overweight nation, but it didn't really sink in until I walked to Fred Meyers my first full day back home and saw 98% of the people over 30 yrs. old at least 20-30 lbs overweight. Of the people under 30 yrs. half were just as overweight and the other half were very fit and fashion conscious. They were almost too bright to look at.

In Italy you're fighting for space to dash between pedestrians, but in my home town I was one of three people walking on our very large sidewalks during my entire afternoon excursion.

Of course three hours of the excursion was set gaping up and down Fred Meyers aisles, wondering how there could be so many brightly colored options of the same item, but only one of the gazillion choices matching the exact criteria I was looking for. Two quotes kept running through my head: one my dear friend Kate shared, "your malls are temples to bullshit!" and the other, a line Diane Keaton tells Queen Latifah in the movie "Mad Money" when Latifah tries to convince Keaton that they've stolen enough money, to quit while they're ahead and that Latifah has enough stuff to make her happy. Aghast, Keaton retorts, "Are you AMERICAN??"

My sentiments are somewhere in between. I'm horrified at the demanding buy-buy-buy society...but at the same time some of the things are so pretty...

Oh yes, and I live in friendly hickville. It looks modern enough--cars and people and Fred Meyer and such. But a lady started a conversation with me from her car (while her husband drove and her teenage daughter relaxed in the back) as I waited to cross the street. People wore t-shirts and jeans. I didn't see any women wearing heels for pain and fashion's sake. It explained so much about who I was when I arrived in Italy, and who I'm gently starting to ease back into (not that the "new me" knows heaps about fashion, but now I understand why it exists). Hopefully I'll take the best of both worlds and work to stay somewhere in the happy middle.