I went for a long walk this morning, Terce in the Snugli. I wished I had brought the camera with me as I seemed to see lots of things I wanted to share….because my life is so enthralling…
I first walked up to the polling station and voted. I voted for the Green Party mayoral candidate because I just could not bring myself to vote for the Democratic candidate who is sure to win in a landslide, perpetuating the political machine that has been running and ruining the city for years. As far as judges go – anybody but Tom Flaherty, who has never actually practiced law, is not recommended by the PA bar, and is running solely on name recognition for judge. Kathryn Hens-Greco is my favored judge candidate, and I went to vote really just to vote for her.
My parents never would tell me who they voted for, I never understood that. If you are voting for someone, you should have good reasons, and probably good reasons for who you are not voting for, so why not be open about it? I didn’t understand it then and I don’t understand it now.
I ran into my mailman while I was out walking. He will be retiring soon and I will miss him. He’s such a nice cheerful guy and I adore getting mail anyway. I love paper and envelopes and stamps, recognizing someone’s handwriting, opening a package, even if I know what’s in it. The potential of the catalogs, the efficiency of paying bills – it’s all encompassed in the daily mail and I love it.
I passed several gingko trees on my way from the polling station to the coffee shop (skim mocha latte, no whip). Who thought these were good city trees? They reek, and the little ball thingeys squish underfoot and make the sidewalk and your shoes all slimy. My brother told me the city of New York is plagued with them as well. They must grow well under city conditions. Sorta like the cockroaches of the tree world, I guess.
Dan is tired of living in the city. He wants to move, to someplace where there are no renters, where there are no loud car radios, where there is not trash in the street. I want to stay here – I love the excitement and the potential of renovating our beautiful old house, of being part of rejuvenating and revitalizing this beautiful and vibrant neighborhood. I love walking to the coffee shop, to the bakery, to the little convenience store. I love that I can walk Primo to preschool. I love that I run into people that I know, even if only to say hello to, everywhere I walk around here. I love looking at other people’s old houses they are renovating and seeing what they are doing. I love being involved in the community, trying to make it a better, cleaner, safer place, making a difference however small. I am nervous about the public schools, yes; I get tired of having to ask people to turn down their radios, yes. However, I love the life here and I don’t ever want to move. But we might have to, solely for Dan’s sanity. It may turn out to be the single biggest sacrifice I make in my married life, to leave this house and neighborhood I adore for the quiet and cleanliness - the stultification and sterility - of the suburbs.
12 comments:
I would find it hard to leave a place I really loved so much.
It took me this long to figure out where you got "Terce." Duh.
Voting... I'm a registered Green out of the two-party, same ol' same ol' frustration.
I loved living in Brooklyn for many of the reasons you describe (except I rented). Now I'm in the sticks, which I vastly prefer to the suburbs. But we have our share of "Otter Brook Estates," or whatever such crap, where they name the development after the wildlife they made homeless.
BB,
Growing up in the govt, everyone expects that our dinner conversations were all about politics: they weren't. I'm not a very political person, I mean, I vote, and I try to make good decisions, but it's just my civic duty, like paying taxes. I think people in our parent's era were taught to not talk about sex, politics or religion. Yep, my household passed that test!! Plus the whole thing of it's okay to not tell who you voted for: which I think came from my grandparents who disagreed on Roosevelt. I think also it comes from the fact that we are free as Americans to be private: in so many countries, you have to "vote" for the right person, or tell who you voted for. Of course, US Politics on the local level didn't affect me until 7th grade--up til that point, living overseas, it was really only the President that I was aware of. And if I took a civics class in jr. high or high school, I've forgotten it all.
I hope you don't move too soon. I'd miss you too much. Also, Gingko trees are very good for city living b/c they don't mind the pollution. I love ghingko trees b/c my grandmother always mailed them to me--I saw the leaves long before I ever saw a ghingko tree in all it's fall glory--the yellow ones she'd mail me existed only in the fall, when I was in school. I got to see green ghingko leaves in the summer when I visited, but I think right now they truly are in their glory. I've never lived near one of the stinky variety, so I can't fairly assess the horrible smell, I just know I love ghingko trees because of my Grandma.
Baby, please don't go! I don't see you enough as it is. It's like my suburban friends live in other states, for all I see of them!
Dan would find a number of (tangible and/or audible things) things to hate about the suburbs, like kit houses with walls so thin you can hear someone filling the bath tub a floor above you. Tell me that the drone of people's riding mowers wouldn't freak him out on a regular basis.
Does he want to have to cross a bridge and drive through a tunnel every time he wants to play guitars? Because the middle-aged guys aren't really rocking the suburbs.
Does he really want to raise the boys in a place where they can't walk anywhere except in the circle of the cul-de-sac?
(And speaking of Primo and Terce [and I assume there's a Segundo in there], have you seen Big Night?)
As much as I rail against it, we are liking our house in the suburbs.
Actually from what I grew up as knowing as suburbs, this aint really it.
And it turns out the over a bridge, through a tunnel thing isn't as big a deal as one might think it is, just need to learn where to get on and off the highways and when to go. Dull, boring, and true none the less.
We do miss our walk to forbes/murray. Don't miss Pittsburgh city income tax.
You live where you want to live. Everywhere will have ups and downs, and to a certain extent the grass will always be greener...
As someone who was born and grew up in the Snow Belt and now live in the very buckle of the Sun Belt, I am amazed at the differences in suburbia.
Up North, suburbs tend to be homogeneous, rather sterile places. Down Here there are NO (zip, zero, zilch) cities in the Northern sense. This is why mass transit will never work efficiently...it's ALL sprawl. Taxis and apartment buildings, as the fauna and flora of the place, simply do not exist.
My own suburb is more like a REALLY sophisticated micro-city than anything else. There is an ethnic mishmash in the population, it holds a university and is close to another, has musea and galleries and an amazing public library and a gazillion homes in the National Historic Homes list (or WTF it's called).
And from now until May the weather will be GLORIOUS.
Which is nice.
-J.
Gina,
Is that why I've been thinking I wanted to watch Big Night? It's been in the back of my mind the past coupla days.
uhjzesig: uh, jest zigzag...
gina has hit the nail square on the head, sadly.
All you have to do is convince Dan of that--or make it seem like those conculsions are *his*--and sit back and enjoy Highland Park.
SL--Yes! The brothers are Primo and Segundo. :-) Hey Mambo! Mambo Italiano!
I love you guys!!
znbxgsnw: zig zag obnoxious snow
(it must be a reference to where in the world is matt lauer, which is currently innsbruck, austria, land of the eternal snow.)
I was raised, and currently live, in the 'burbs and it has all the stuff Dan says he doesn't like about the city. Loud radios, traffic noise from the main drag in/out of the neighborhood, renters, asshole neighbors who do weird shit to their yards, and right now someone has been burning mesquite (a wood that is quite odiferous) day and night for weeks. We can't figure that out -- it's too warm for a fireplace or outdoor fire pit, and who barbecues day and night for weeks? We can only assume someone is smoking large quantities of meat (venison, maybe?) or something. At any rate, we can't even sit on the porch without going into asthma attacks and migraines and whatnot, and the smoke is thick enough that there's a haze between the houses in the mornings and evenings.
So yeah, the suburbs have drawbacks of their own. BIG TIME.
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