Saying Goodbye to the City

I've never liked city life shall we say. To me, the city was always crowed, dirty, and full of ridiculously fashionable intellectuals. I was fine only venturing into its evil clutches maybe once a year or so for the occasional friend's birthday dinner or a possible museum visit but that was about it. There were probably stretches of a year or more where I hadn't set foot anywhere near downtown. Of course I had no idea where anything was located, yet I'd be the first person tourists would stare down with their sad, lost puppy dog eyes asking for directions.

Tourist: "Do you know where...is?"
Me: "I have no idea where that is or even what it is."
Tourist: "Oh you're not from around here."
Me: "Um..well technically I am but..."
Tourist: Stares at me like I am a useless human being for being an admitted "townie" but knowing nothing.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up right there. The simplistic explanation is I am a suburban girl through and through. Quiet streets, strip malls, community centers, off street parking...that's the life for me.

However one day, all of my suburban girl dreams came screeching to a halt when I finally gave in after months of applying for jobs in the good old burbs and did the unthinkable...applied for jobs downtown. I guess part of me thought it was necessary to get the statistics of the application process in order. If I apply to this many jobs then, therefore I should eventually get a job so I figured the odds would be better. I just had no idea that the job I would end up getting would actually be....horror of horrors...downtown. I have complained about the miseries of working downtown before and let me tell you after two months they are indeed still extremely relevant only now I have had the pleasure of adding being coughed on, creeped out, and waiting for long stretches of time for trains. I've walked in the freezing rain, gotten lost, and had to listen to more intellectuals bragging about where they reside than I care to recall. I've successfully continued to stick out like a soar thumb the entire time thanks to my lack of fashion sense. And yet now that I have been given the green light to hightail it out of here, I find myself pausing.

All of the reasons for leaving are still relevant, but there have been moments I have really enjoyed working in the city and there are somethings I am going to miss. Here are a few:

The food:
WAAAAY better selection than the lone cafeteria at my old building. Right outside of my office is a designated "lunch truck stop." If you are unfamiliar, it is where a bunch of potentially unhygienic trucks filled with delicious hot foods park. It smells like amazing carnival food on a warm day as soon as I step foot outside of my office. The line of lunch trucks stretches as far as the eye can see and I have sampled many a delicacy from those trucks. In fact, I don't think there was a bad lunch among them. This was just a small sampling of the culinary wonders of downtown as just blocks away were more amazing restaurants. Oh food.

The scenery:
My old building is located in an awkward area where you have to drive if you want to get anywhere (oh right it's in the suburbs). Anyways I really enjoy my nearly daily walks around the surrounding areas of my current building. There is so much history and culture downtown that you don't get in the suburbs. Amazing architecture, monuments, and parks are all within walking distance.

The smell of the pavement:
I know this one sounds really weird but I've been to a few cities in my day and the one I work in, in particular has a smell to it, like old concrete that has weathered a thousand rain storms and baked in the sun over hundreds of hot summer days. I can't really bring the smell to life through words any other way. Just microwave a damp piece of concrete and maybe you might get the smell I'm referring to.

The culture:
I read the free paper everyday on my way to work which introduced me to some new music venues as well as some great events I might not have heard of otherwise. The city has its own little secret cultural world that I got to be a part of if only for a moment.

Don't get me wrong I am really looking forward to my short commute from the warmth of my car where I won't have to worry about someone coughing all over me, giving me the bubonic plague and I will be going back to joining in on conversations about kids and after school activities rather than political drudgery, but the tiny adventurous, hip, funky, artist, foodie in me will always belong to those damp, sun baked sidewalks.