Long absence. By now all of my two dedicated readers I'm sure have found other blogs and thus other people's strange worlds to peer into and thus feel better about themselves and their own lives. But I'm back, so now the schadenfreude* can continue here.
My neighbor (one of the two dedicated readers) says that living in Logan Square in Chicago was nice because the strange people who lived there made her feel less strange about herself. This is the reason I would never make it in Naperville. Matt and I are simply too weird for Naperville. We would implode when we didn't cut our lawn when it was 1 1/2 inches high, people would stop talking to me when they realized that sticking my foot in my mouth happens on a weekly basis, and I'm certain I would burn in hell if I admitted my fondness for the Buddhist way of life. I seem to be very mean towards Naperville. I'm sorry, dear town of my childhood, you gave me many great memories. Swim team, wide sidewalks for bike rides, and a beautiful church where my love of God was born. Naperville is perfect...so perfect that you can't possibly be friends with it anymore, much less stay in a committed relationship with it. It is as perfect as a friend who only shops at whole foods, exercises daily, has no pimples or wrinkles, is impossibly cheerful, and whose kids are perfectly behaved and clean at all times. A better person would admire and emulate such a person and feel blessed to call them a friend. Alas, I am not always a better person.
Maybe Naperville was right for me, as evidenced by my love for Pottery Barn and Zoloft and my hatred of insects and mice. Yet I know in my heart that it's not good for me to live in a bubble. We only learn and grow when we are challenged. Oak Park challenges me often. But I must admit that it also helps me to not feel so bad about myself when I can see other people who stick their feet in their mouths more frequently, act spacier than I do, or have kids and lawns messier than mine. I am only human, a Catholic/Buddhist/Humanist/Neurotic woman in progress.
*Schadenfreude:pleasure derived from another person's misfortune
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1 comment:
ok i laughed out loud at this. we had basically the same childhood but we came out in different places about it. i love how you would fear the wrath of neighbors if the grass is > 1.5 inches. so true! (but yet so un-thought about by me to this point). anyway, for another conversation.
keep writing PLEASE! don't make us wait another month, OK?
Annie's latest notes?
Johnny's latest quotes?
your latest votes? j/k - why didn't you write about your obama trip?
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