1. Arizona residents are the WORST drivers I've ever encountered, and I've driven in many states across the country. They are, hands down, terrible. There are two speeds here - 55mph and 90mph - nothing in between. People think it's perfectly acceptable to go slower than the speed limit in the fast lane and they refuse to move. They have zero concept of "merging", and I've nearly been run off the road more times than I can remember because someone refuses to let me in.
And forget it if it rains...........all hell breaks loose on the roads. People seriously forget how to drive. They go 20mph below the speed limit and hit the breaks for every little puddle. They don't turn on their lights - they use their high beams (no joke).
2. Shorts are acceptable attire on every female body shape and type. And not just bermuda/longer length shorts, we're talking SHORT shorts. I've seen more cellulite and butt cheek than I ever cared to see out here.
Same goes for tank tops - apparently the tighter the better here, and it doesn't matter what you look like in it, girls just go for it. Combine that with shorts so tight they look light boy-short undies, and that's the Arizona summer uniform.
I know that this may be an issue in other areas of the US, but I've never seen it to the extent that I see it in Arizona. Yikes, and yuck.
3. The weather is SO crazy in the summer. It's called Monsoon Season. It can be hotter than hell one day - hottest day this year was 114 - then the next day it's 105 and pouring rain, with 40% humidity. I'm used to 90-100 degree days, with mild humidity. The heat is actually bearable when it's pretty hot, because it's so dry. But when it's hot and humid, forget it. We hole up in the house with the AC blasting (our bill got up to $280 one month).
And we also have this weather phenomenon called a "haboob". It's basically a giant dust storm, several thousand feet high and up to 20 miles wide. They form ahead of a storm, typically, and just cover everything in it's path in dust. I had the pleasure to drive through one last week, and it was like driving in fog - so weird.
The haboob I encountered in Gilbert, AZ.
4. People are SO rude. It depends on the area, but I've never encountered the sort of rudeness I see out here. It's not blatant, but it's rude in the sense that people really don't think about others. Some examples:
-In stores, people will park their carts in the middle of the aisle, and then not move when you want to go by.
-In store parking lots, people unload their carts and then leave them right behind someone's parked car. Seriously. I see this all the time. And they do it even if the cart return is 20 feet away.
-If you try to cross a driveway in a parking lot, you'll wait for awhile before a car stops to let you walk across. You pretty much have to step out in front of a car to walk across and hope they stop for you - sometimes they don't.
5. The lack of fresh produce is such a disappointment. One of the first things I did when I moved here was find a nearby farmer's market. I went, and learned what an Arizona farmer's market is - booths of salsa, dip mixes, dog treats, bread, jams, etc, and if you're lucky, 1-3 produce stands. And the produce they sell is sorta uninteresting - carrots, lettuce, onions. No fruit, no seasonal items. It was such a change from the weekly farmer's market I'd hit up in Elk Grove that had an abundance of seasonal produce.
The produce sold in grocery stores is never very fresh - peaches spoil in 2 days, tomatoes spoil in 3 - you pretty much have to buy produce every 2-3 days for as close to fresh as you can get out here. Everything sold in the grocery stores is from California or Mexico, so you know those things have been sitting on a truck for days.
6. The bugs. The disgusting, weird bugs.
Cicadas - giant beetle things (seriously, they're 2-3 inches long) that make an annoying shrill sound and live in trees. You never see them, you just can hear them all.night.long.
Crickets - the ones out here are brown and they jump. Their chirp is also different than that of the crickets I'm used to - it's more shrill and much louder. I have one that lives in our garage, I've named him Larry. He chirps when I turn on the garage light. I never see him, but I can hear him.
Lizards - little lizards/geckos are like squirrels out here. They're about 4-5 inches long and scurry around in bushes. We've got a few that hang out by our trash cans.
Scorpions - these are nasty little things. They just look evil, with their claws and turned-up tail. Ick. We found one in our house (thanks to Bubbs, he was playing with it) that was about 2.5 inches long. I made Mike kill it - I wouldn't get near that thing. Luckily, they're rare to find inside homes, so we think he was lost.
Random other bugs - we've encountered what looked to be a flying pincher bug, miscellaneous spiders I've never seen before, and cockroaches (not in our house, but some of my stores had an issue with them).
To be fair, I am also planning on a blog post regarding the best things about Arizona. Don't get me wrong, I like it out here. I do. But there are things that I am just not used to, and that's what's above. :-)
Have you ever been to AZ? What did you not like about it?
I enjoyed reading this blog on so many levels. I loved the part of shorts and tanks.
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