One thing I've learned from moving to Idaho is that being nice takes time. In Southern California, everything is "go, go, GO"! Very few people take the time to simply be nice. Horns are honked and "birds" are flipped during traffic. You can get your oil changed in 30 minutes or less. You barely have time to step up to the register before you are bombarded with "What'll ya have?"
Since moving to Idaho, I have found that everything takes a little bit longer to do. There is no "fast" food. It's simply "food". If someone takes a few extra beats at the light, there is no honking...just waiting. Even Starbucks takes longer than we're used to. Nobody's in a real hurry. Time has slowed way down.
A trip to our auto insurance guy took us over two hours. That wasn't because the paperwork took so long or we had to wait forever before he could see us. It was because our insurance guy was telling us about how his daughter got him off the couch and training for marathons, which helped him lose 30 pounds in the last couple of years. He was also explaining the best places to eat, shop, view scenery, hunt and whom to talk to about sighting in a gun (the last two items were for my husband).
When my husband accidentally misdialed a number he saw for driver's training for our son, the lady on the other end pleasantly apologized for not being able to tell us what the number was supposed to be even though we didn't ask her. She even called us back about a half an hour later to see if we were able to get in touch with the driver's training we had been looking for.
While looking for a job, evey place my husband went to gave him leads on other places that might be able to place him. He was never at a dead stop at ANY place he went to. They all wanted to help him find a job in his area of expertise.
Everyone here is so nice. I have found that being nice takes time. That's not a bad thing. That's just something you have to plan for, like traffic. When you need to go get something done, just plan on taking extra time because you will experience "nice" wherever you go. How lovely is that?! We can all learn a lesson from just taking time to be nice, can't we?
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