Blessings, Bliss, and Bailey: A Tale of Three Trash Cans and other Rules...

It has been almost one month that we have been in Iowa. People call me all the time and ask me what it is like... I can honestly say, it's all the same. I mean, same stores, same stuff. The only differences are more about function. For instance, I will say that living in Iowa is definitely much easier. By easier, I mean - getting around, finding things, and understanding things. Moving to a new city is NUTS! You don't understand anything, rules are different, laws are different, and the way things work is just plain different!
Our first WTH encounter was the first Friday we were here... trash day. We have already met our neighbors and they are awesome - we really only have 1 neighbor - our house is set back really far and they are really the only people we can actually see. They had come by earlier that week to introduce themselves and bring us a bottle of wine. They mentioned that trash collection was on Friday's which was nice to know since we had an entire landfill of moving trash! So, Thursday night, Christian and I began hauling the trash down the driveway.
That is an ENTIRE story itself! Our driveway is 200 yards long and winds up a hill - taking out the trash is CRUCIAL! Our neighbors use a golf cart... jealous. Anyhow, we had one big green trash bin in the garage in which we filled up and had 20+ bags set on the curb next to it. Well, Friday came and went and our trash was still there! I was totally confused, but later that evening our neighbor came and knocked on the door. "Bad news" he says. "They aren't going to take your trash" What?!? Why?!? Well, in Iowa, people take trash seriously. Apparently, everyone gets 3 bins. One for "trash" but only if it is tied in a bag and the lid must shut completely - if not, they won't take it. If you have extra bags that don't fit in the trash can, you must go to the grocery store and buy a "tag"for it. They are $1.50 extra per bag. Seriously. The second is a yard waste/composting can. The third is recycling. Well, we only had the yard waste one so my job Monday would be to call the city for the other 2.
Second surprise - I was dreading calling the city because having been in Atlanta for the last 8 years, I was prepared to talk to some total idiot. To my surprise, a very nice woman answered. I explained that we had moved here and were not formally educated on the waste collection and she apologized that we had been left in the dark! She said she would have them drop off our other cans but to leave the bags and trash out there and she would send someone by that day to collect them - for free!!! I could not believe it... my imagination goes wild thinking how differently this scenario would have played out in Atlanta!
Well, within 15 minutes the collection people were here and they were super nice! He came to the door, introduced himself and quickly took all of our stuff! I was shocked!
The real shock came Thursday when they delivered our other 2 bins. The recycling bin was HUGE - the trash bin was tiny - like, literally can only fit 3 bags of trash... for a week! This is new to me...
Well, Christian and I quickly realized what was happening... Iowa really pushes recycling. You are supposed to return all your glass for a nickel back and they give you huge recycling bins! There are lots of rules to recycling - en entire pamphlet to be exact. Well, it's been only a couple weeks and I am totally into it! It has totally changed the way I live! It is like a contest, to see how little* trash I can create during the week... I compost most kitchen waste, recycle everything, and return all my empty wine bottles :)
As for other changes... all the roads here are monitored by electronic speeding devices. You get a ticket for driving 5 miles over the speed limit! If you know me... you know this is going to be a problem.
I had to make a visit to the social security office because Bailey still did not have a number - we only had a tax id which was going to expire soon. This was another task I was NOT looking forward to. All government offices are frustrating and full of crazy people... so I thought. I panned my entire day around going knowing that I would be there all day. I walked in with a file 4 inches thick of adoption paperwork knowing that they would want to see everything. I get in there and there is only one person sitting there waiting! I get a "number" and within 2 minutes get called to the counter. Within 5 minutes, I was out! I was SHOCKED! I would recommend anyone needing any government paperwork go to a smaller city to do it... so much easier!
Bailey is learning a few new rules as well - but that is mostly because she is in the middle of her TERRIBLE twos which are "underrated" if you ask me. Sometimes I feel as if Christian and I are sharing a compound with a 24 pound terrorist!
Overall, we are loving it here but miss all of our friends... Luckily we were able to do our Fantasy draft last weekend and had the opportunity to connect with everyone at one time virtually - very cool :)

xoxo