You Know You're In Utah When...

... you're at Barnes and Nobles and they have an entire section called "Latter Day Saints." I found this interesting, because I hadn't noticed this in any other national chain bookstores. Sure, most stores have "Religion" and "Christianity" sections... but I don't believe I've ever seen Latter Day Saints.

I must admit, there are more LDS bookstores than any other bookstore in town. That being said, I often wonder if there were other options in the past, but due to the rise of purchasing books online some of the other bookstores (Christian and such) went by the wayside. Deseret Bookstores are in every neighborhood here and I often find myself wanting to venture in just to see if they too read the cheesy novels about faith and love... all resulting in a happy-ever-after ending (only if the main character is a Godly person).

I say all of this, because we've officially been in Salt Lake City for a year now. Yep... it's been a year! And in that year, I find myself noticing less and less of the LDS influence. Oh... don't get me wrong, the city hasn't changed a bit. But, I've grown acclimated to the oh-so-obvious Mormon influence in this town. Everything. Is. Mormon. Both our newspapers are owned by the LDS church, both of our local news stations are LDS owned. Our parks have LDS names. There are wards, stake centers and temples in every neighborhood. Shoot... our streets are based on the alignment of the stars, which stems from the Free Masons, who by no coincidence had a HUGE part in starting the LDS church. So yea... you can't get away from it.

I can see how I've grown accustomed to this place and what seemed so unordinary and spectacular before is now just a part of the way we live. We live in a city that is hugely run by and determined by a religion (some would say a cult)... more specifically, by an organization that controls the way their people live their lives. To sweeten that statement, I've grown to appreciate the people here and I will never waver in my thought that this is by far, the nicest town we've ever been in.

Anyway... I'm rambling. It strikes me funny when things stick out and grasp my attention suddenly. The "Latter Day Saints" section in Barnes and Nobles definitely hit home the fact that this is now home. We don't talk about the weirdness or ass-backwardness of this town anymore. We mostly appreciate the cleanliness, the kindness and the fact that we live in a town full of people living their lives to the best of their ability. And I can't blame them for that.