chicago

no offense to all that love this city, but chicago stinks. no, seriously, it smells bad, like urine, sewer lines and traffic.
i don’t like it. i’m not good with crowds, and this is a crowded city. sidewalks are wide enough to drive on, but there’s still a crush of people. it’s noisy, too, loud at all hours with trains and car horns and sirens. i’m not cut out for big cities.
i think my favorite place i’ve lived was in willis, virginia, twenty-something miles from a taco bell or a shopping mall. i loved stopping by the library in the bigger town on my way home from work for a stack of books to read that weekend because once i got home, i wasn’t going back out anywhere until time for work again. i liked to take naps in the shade on my front porch when the weather was nice.
here, i can’t imagine having a porch large enough for napping. riding the train from the airport, i saw all kinds of neighborhoods…even the nice ones only had yards the size of doormats and the houses were so close you could butter your neighbor’s toast.
asheville is even sometimes too big and bustling for me, too noisy, too crowded in recent years, but it is home, and i can’t wait to get back there tomorrow.