Things I'm learning about my new state

Zip codes and city names are merely suggestions here. I know 4 towns that share a portion of a zip code. And one location who's address can be listed as being in 3 different towns. Confused? Yeah, me too. (I work in Ogden, South Ogden, and Washington Terrace...all at the same time!)

No CRV!!! Whoo hoo! In California, every time you buy something in a plastic, glass, or aluminum container (water, soda, etc.) you get charged a CRV fee. The idea is that when you take it to a recycling place, you'll get that CRV back. Except recycling is so wide-spread in California that no one bothers to take bottles to a facility, choosing instead to throw them in their recycling bin that gets picked up with the trash. So you never get any of that back, and that really throws off your budgeting when you buy a case of water bottles and, Surprise! There's an additional $2 in CRV fees added.

No one in Northern Utah recycles. It's not available to homes in at least Davis and Weber counties, that I know of. I never considered myself a tree-hugger recycling nut, but throwing away water bottles, the most obvious of recycling items, is hard. I carried around about 10 bottles in my car (making it look like a dumpster) for a couple weeks before I caved and trashed them. Sad.

Fry sauce is awesome.

When purchasing food inside a fast-food restaurant, they ask, "Is this to stay?" It took me almost a month to not have to stop everything, ask them to repeat themselves, and then when I finally actually understood what they were saying, to not burst into giggles. (Thanks, Dad...) For those of you still confused, in California (and everywhere else I've ever been) the question is "Is this for here or to go..."

The verb "to come" is not conjugated the same here as it is everywhere else. When telling a story in the past tense, one must say, "She come back from the store..." Not, "she came back from the store". You might occasionally here the correct conjugation, but the more intense and/or hilarious and/or ridiculous the story is meant to be, the more it is required to say "she come".

Policemen are really nice here. (I got pulled over my first week here because I thought the speed limit was 35 mph but was really 30mph.) They apparently don't ticket as often. Very gracious of them considering my California driver's license and plates. (And I'm being super careful considering those CA plates, because in Washington and Oregon, that's a magnet for tickets, just because.)

Obama is a bad word here. (I work in the health insurance industry and every time I explain an insurance plan quirk I get asked, "Is that because of Obama???" No, it's just because.)

Maternity coverage in the state of Utah is almost non-existent. And no, not because of Obama, but because Utah has the highest birth rate in the nation and the insurance companies can't afford to pay for everyone.

You might get paid a little less here in salary, but everything else is sooo much cheaper you actually end up earning more. (Gas is currently $3.37)

You can buy 85 octane here. And for some unknown reason I'm getting 34-37 mpg in my 11 year old Saturn. Low gas prices and better gas mileage?! Sign me up!

I have a lot of awesome family members in this state.

Sadly, you can't buy good strawberries in this state.

Winco, which carries the Western Family store brand, has almost as good Mint Chip ice cream as Thrifty's does. (Tears of joy on this one...)

Everyone has a "fruit room" and some pretty impressive food storage. I am very inspired, especially since it's common sense stuff you can use every day and rotate into your normal recipes. (The food storage I'd seen before was something you bought and never used...and probably wouldn't know how to use if you had to, making me discouraged.)

When a new person moves into a ward, they announce where they're living. "They just moved in to the old Johnson house." And since wards are no more than a mile across, everyone knows exactly where your address is.

Despite what I thought, temples are NOT located on every street corner. (Chapels are, though.) With the Ogden temple closed, we have to drive to south to Bountiful (40 minutes) or north to Logan (1 hour).

Drivers here are the most impatient, entitled people I've ever experienced. I've only witnessed one flipping-off but there's a LOT of tailing and cutting off. (I'm not the only one saying this...even Utahns say this.)

You always have to dial the area code (801 or 435) with a phone number, no matter if it's local or long distance. 801- used to be for the entire state. But then they introduced the 435 area code which does not coincide with a certain geographic area.

The weather here is AMAZING! I've been told that all this rain is uncommon for this time of year. But man these storms are beautiful! I love Weather with a capital W.

Words are pronounced differently, although I'm not sure how to categorize it. (But this is pretty much true whenever you go to a different geographic location...Washington pronounces "bag" as "baig", etc.) The town of Hooper is pronounced Huper. The "u" is sounded like the "u" in "put". Hurricane (the town) is pronounced "Hurr-ih-ken" with the emphasis on the Hurr. You don't prounounce the "t" in "Layton" either. But this one I already knew (and got praised for, randomly...)

That's it for now (that I can think of). I'll keep you posted!