Missing MN

So I woke up in a Missing Minnesota kind of mood this morning. 'Course, that may be in part because I was dreaming a bunch of us were camping in tents at a convention and all hanging out and enjoying ourselves. I miss being around people who have known me and I have known them for years. There's just a different level of history, connection and comfort there. You guys know me flaws and all and yet I'm still invited to stuff.

Anyway, here are some things I miss about MN
(Not the bugs though! I love having no screens & no screen doors here!)

• Family Pumpkin started saying "Gramma Yori, Grampa Jm, Gramma Pet, and Grampa Kise" while were were there. Now she'll say one of their names (or Aunt Ruse, UnkaTom, Andoo, or Kistin) and then say "home." It's neat to know she's thinking of them, and more often than I'd have guessed she would.
• Friends Whenever I got to see any of you, it was like we'd never left. I miss hanging out with y'all.
• Triscuits I did bring some Wheat Thins back with me, but now I've got a Triscuit craving.
• Target Things are so dang nice and so dang cheap there! And they've got EVERYTHING I need. *sigh*
• Speaking of Target, I miss store brand contact solution. Ok, Target contact solution is like $3. Here, I can only get it at the pharmacy (drug store) and it's almost E20! That's $24. For one bottle!!! Even though my suitcases were rather full, I still picked some up and brough it back.
• Knowing where to go to get stuff Here, we decide we need something, like a small alarm clock, or contact paper, or padded envelopes, or coffee beans, (or something else that you can't get at Target 'cuz those are all the examples I can think of off the top of my head). Then we have to try to figure out what store might carry it. We have the hardest time with stuff we'd go to Best Buy for 'cuz the closest thing we've found here is more like a Radio Shack. Also, it took us months to find the two places in Cork that have whole coffee beans.
• A refrigerator that can fit more than 3 items in it Yes, I know, an exaggeration, but our frig measures 45" tall by 21 1/2" wide. That's the outside measurement. And it includes the freezer on top. That's right - less than 2'x4'. Go look at yours. A little larger, huh?
• Roads where I don't have to worry about the other lane coming in to mine to go around a parked car, going into the other lane myself to go around a parked car, how close I am to the hedge and/or stone wall on the side so the car doesn't get scratched or I lose a mirror, where the lane IS exactly since there's no middle line, etc., etc., etc.

I could go on, but that's enough pity party for me. If you actually read the whole thing, thanks. Either way, it was just nice to get it off my chest this morning. Whew. I feel better. Think I'll try to get something done while Pumpkin naps.