Things I Miss About Pennsylvania

Yes, in fact, there are a few things I miss about my former life in a semi-rural area of northwestern Pennsylvania.  Here they are:

The post office.  No kidding.  I love almost everything about life in the city, but the post office is not so wonderful.  It has long lines, impatient employees, and very different ways of doing things.

I miss the man at the post office in the tiny town where I used to live, who’d chat with me while he rang up my purchases and whipped some packing tape on my boxes.  In Chicago, I didn’t expect the same level of friendliness, but I did understand the packing tape as just something that goes with the territory: you bring in a box (or buy a box), you fill it, you label it, and the cashier puts tape on it.

Sadly, in Chicago, you must purchase a roll of tape in order to receive approximately a foot and a half of it for your package.

I was not aware of this.  Live and learn, I guess.

My cats.  Okay, they aren’t really mine, they’re my dad’s, but I’ve been around them since they were kittens, over 13 years ago. 

Here’s Baltimore, rolling in a puzzle I did over the summer:

What a weirdo.

And here’s Ottawa, being unusually calm:



Mrrow.



They’re named for the Baltimore Orioles and the Ottawa Senators, two of my dad’s favorite sports teams.

Baltimore is fat, cranky, loud, and needy.  Ottawa is skittish and shy and never learned to meow properly.  I can’t really describe the noise she makes.  It’s sort of like the sound of a small door with rusty hinges opening very slowly.

Ottawa normally stays away from everyone, but when I was living with my dad last year she became friendly with me at night.  As soon as I went to my room to go to bed, she’d zip in there and curl up on the bed. 

If she had extra energy she’d make rusty door hinge noises at me for a while.  So comforting.

And finally, I do miss certain aspects of privacy and solitude.  As much as I like the hustle and bustle of this city, people do get close and it makes a person cranky.  This morning a man was rapping very loudly next to me on the train and there was no way to avoid it. 

These guys can appreciate a quiet summer night in the country:

There are interesting smells, too…not always bad ones, but I mean, you can usually tell what your seatmate on the train had for lunch.  And it often involves ketchup.

That is all.