I made the long drive to America’s heartland to begin my job in Peoria. It was fall and a beautiful, warm, sunny day when I moved into my 3rd floor brownstone apartment in a suburb of Peoria. I chose to live outside the city because I prefer a quieter, presumably safer suburb, than living within a city. Peoria is a small city (population less than 200,000) and is surrounded by farmland as far as the eye can see, once outside the city borders. This is my comfort zone. I would not call myself a city girl – nor a country girl – but something in between. I feel very at home in a city that has things to offer, but one that is not so large that you have to pay to park everywhere you go, drive three times in a loop to find a parking spot, or rely on public transportation to get around. That is not my cup of tea and pretty much a deal breaker when choosing my next job. So, size-wise, Peoria was just right! And the midwest, which to people living on America’s east or west borders may seem so remote and isolated, actually has it’s own charm to someone like me who is not a big city girl. I love the midwest countryside – driving a long country road and seeing cornfields on both sides for as far as the eye can see – almost like driving through a tunnel of corn and then when harvested, being able to see for miles in any direction, with barely any traffic on the road. Life is a little bit slower here, people take the time to smile and make eye contact, hold a door for you, or say “hi” – complete strangers, that is. The southeastern U.S. certainly has some of that same warmth and hospitality, however there is something about midwesterners that feels even warmer and extremely genuine. “Midwest nice” is a real thing I’ve been told – and I too, can safely say that from personal experience. So getting another chance to return to the midwest for work was something I was excited about.
After moving in and unpacking on the warm early fall day, and filling my fridge and cupboards with groceries for the week or two ahead, I drove around to explore my new surroundings, as I usually do. I like to have a buffer day between arriving/unpacking and the first day at work…so that Sunday, I discovered The Peoria Art Guild Fine Art Fair along the banks of the Illinois River. Side note: Interesting fact that I never really thought about til now, many of America’s cities are formed in their locale because of the proximity to a river – so that goods could be shipped into and out of that city before modern transportation gave us other ways to transport goods (Louisville = Ohio River, Kansas City = Missouri River, Leesburg = Potamac River, etc). Anyway, back to the topic at hand – this art fair was huge, located at the Riverfront on Water Street in downtown Peoria and offered an opportunity to browse the works of various artist’s paintings, sculptures, jewelry, etc and purchase if so inclined, an area for kids to design art projects, food and drink vendors, and live music, all while taking in the sights of the riverfront area, which is where a lot of the fun stuff in Peoria takes place.
The next day I began my job in a beautiful hospital. This was one of the largest departments I have worked in and met a lot of nice sonographers. It was a challenging job due to different department protocols than I have experienced before in the course of my 20+ years in the field, reporting software that I had little experience with, and a combination of two manufacturers’ ultrasound machines in the same department, which can cause button confusion when bouncing among them from exam to exam. This made me far from efficient in my role, and along with other departmental challenges, made it difficult for me to excel in this environment. I do give credit to the sonographers in this department for their upbeat personalities, patience and tolerance and being able to work past these challenges which they inevitably must have endured themselves in their early days there.
My days were long in this assignment, and my nights possibly even longer, being awoken to the sound of the nearby trains that seemed to go by regularly throughout the night blowing their horn. However despite the fatigue, I managed to fit in a ton of fun in this area. In the next post or two, I will elaborate on some of the things I discovered recreationally in and around Peoria. Stay tuned!