We have moved out of the quirky little section of the city we were living in and funny thing is it had grown on me. I had become one of the neighborhood characters. This occurred to me after a particularly harrowing day. It was a long day at school, no detail even needed, I hopped in my car and was ready to be home for some R and R. Sure enough I hit bumper to bumper traffic. After spending over an hour in this I realized that I was almost out of gas. I managed to get out of the creeping mess, get gas, and merge back into the mess. Over two hours later I had made it to the apartment. I ran in the building and up the stairs as nature had been calling over an hour ago and DRATS there was no toilet paper. I had not bought any because we were moving soon and I didn’t want to have to pack extra stuff. Also, it’s tough when you have to carry your groceries home to lug paper products around. I had tried to ration this last roll. I grabbed my apartment keys and bolted to the Safeway a block down the road. I grabbed my quilted six-pack, checked out and started the sprint back. As I was running full speed down the street in nice teaching attire with my junked running shoes on lugging a six-pack of Charmin, I realized I’m fitting into the craziness of this neighborhood. I am the person that just weeks ago I would have seen and thought “What in the world?!“ When living in the city and having to carry all of your groceries back home things are not bought in bulk. It’s not like back home when you open your garage door to find that your mother has built a pyramid stockpile of toilet paper and paper towels in your garage as a housewarming gift. The spaces are so tight there’s no extra storage and you can’t lug extra stuff around. Thus you see people carrying weird stuff around because that’s the only way to transport things. It’s funny how places and things you cannot stand end up having a soft spot after you have experienced them or learned to appreciate it for what it is. Now that I am in the burbs I am missing the constant excitement of opening my door to discover clowns and pirates, being able to walk to the store, taking Baker for a walk and running into every breed of dog. There is something very fun about city life. Now that school has started I am taking my time in the burbs to relax and enjoy the shorter commute but during my weekends I find I’m longing to take a trip to the funky side of life just over the 1-90 bridge.