part 39 of 365

Things that keep Melissa alive

Part 39: The Ugly

Now that I have been a housewife (wife to my house) for a little while, I finally find myself wondering what to do with my time.  Blogging it is!  Today at least.  A week of winter weather in the spring will do that to me.

If you know me well, you know that there are lots of unconventional things that I find beautiful.  This post is not about them.  I have lived in Orem my whole life so I will be the first one to defend its value, but I have to admit, it's kind of an ugly place.  Every other utah valley town has a cute historic downtown area.  Orem doesn't.  It has a city center that was built in the height of the ugly building era (60's-70s?).  Many of its houses were built during that same time, which means they are ugly split-level and split-entry houses.  Seriously.  UGLY.  There are some definitely cute houses in Orem that were built earlier, but it feels like a larger percentage of houses here are the ugly.

There are some uglies that keep me alive, however.  Sometimes, it's an ugly that causes righteous indignation.  Sometimes, it's an ugly that fuels disappointment and sadness.  But, my favorite is ugly that makes me laugh.  Not that I think it's pretty, but more that it's awesome.

Here are samples of those 3 Uglies in Orem.  Those of you that live here, will recognize two of them, sadly.

Remember this?

What is more classy than a cinderblock building with guns and the words "GET SOME" plastered on the front?

And this is my favorite ugly thing right now.

Nature rarely produces true ugly, it seems.  But this tree... I'm not even sure the picture does it justice.  I think it's much worse than the picture.  I've never seen branches that go in completely wrong directions.  I pass this tree often and it makes my day a little better every time I do.  It's so ugly, it makes me happy.

The trees on the rest of the street are either pine trees or these:

It makes me wonder what went wrong with this one.  What tragic past have I not been privy too?  What will it look like with leaves?  Will it just get uglier as it gets older?  These are questions that keep this unemployed housewife going day to day.