City Mouse vs Country Mouse.

Alright, so I'm not REALLY living in the country, but sometimes I feel like I'm one of these characters. One day, roamin' the streets of Minneapolis and hanging out at Atlantis, the next, chillin' in my quiet bedroom, hearing only crickets outside. Yes, it's the suburbs, not the country, but action-wise, stark differences are going on.

I was noting this as I walked through Dinkytown today on my way back from work. See, outside my apartment there, you could sit yourself down and stare at a street sign across the road, and the number of people who passed that street sign within five minutes would be pretty substantial. In cars, in buses, in weird lawn care vehicles, with bicycles, longboards, on foot. You name it, it goes by within five minutes.

Here? Well, you'd be considered weird if you sat and stared at a street sign, number one. Number two: no action for you. In five minutes you might get...and ant. And you can't even see an ant from across the street. Oh, maybe a bird. Maybe. And if you're REALLY lucky, a soccer mom walking a golden retriever.

But here's the other weird thing about living out here---you say 'hi' to people you pass on walks. Seems normal enough for those of us who walk the suburbs or go on hikes in the north woods all the time, but for those who live in the inner city....why the heck would you do that? If I said 'hi' to every person I passed on the way to class, I'd have laryngitis by the time I got there. And it'd also be weird, and like every other person has their earbuds in. So it's just not practical to say hello to every person you come within a few feet of.

Another difference? Scenery. I know, I know, that seems really obvious, but it's more complex than just more cars + tall, frequent buildings = city. No no. It's about how those living there treat their neighborhood, and what the demographic is.

See, the area where I live is probably a bit of an exception, but I don't really know that it is. Yes, Dinkytown is going to have the highest percentage of broken beer bottles and bottle caps of any area around, I'm sure. But as far as houses go, besides being a lil' more run-down form partying and negligent landlords, it looks a lot like most of Minneapolis: little, similar houses smushed pretty close together,sometime looking like Queens, with steep yards, and where the greenery consists mostly of crabgrass and dandelions.

Suburbia?

One word:

Manicured.

Dandelions? Few, and soon annihilated. Trash? Also few and far between. Graffiti? Nearly unheard of. Buses? What?

So, yes, even though they are only 20ish minutes apart, my two homes have enough differing visual stimuli that it gets a bit overwhelming going back and forth. There, I see people. Here, wildlife. And that's ok, it's just...different.

Alright, well, I'm going to finish enjoying my day in suburbia.

Peas.

Songs of the Day:

Cars Trucks Buses by Phish

No Cars Go by Maxence Cyrin

(haha. I'm funny.)