A dude who lives in the suburbs asked me what its like living in my city now that everyone has moved away. (?) I was like, what, who? Does he mean to be with loved ones for pandemic? Or? To wait out the virus on a beach in Hawaii to avoid catching covid from their five roommates who work in the food industry since they're performers and can't work here right now anyway? A lot of people I know expatriated to foreign countries because Trump, is that what he means? Or is he referring to our apparent rival city who recently wrote an article titled something like "THEY CAN'T MOVE AWAY FROM ____ FAST ENOUGH." I laughed when I saw that headline, it was so dramatic, and everyone I know who has left here only ever complains about the place they moved and long to move back as soon as they're able. That's just been my experience in the arts community, but maybe the ones who flooded our city just for money are the ones who "couldn't get away fast enough" when their company relocated lol.
People who don't live here love to shit on us because they think we're pretentious liberals because we live in a city. (We are liberals, but what's the deal with calling us pretentious just because they don't care to understand us?) Now and then a dude messages me to specifically to drop comments that seem... weirdly competitive. I never shit on their towns. I like their towns too! Testosterone is so annoying. I swear men think everything is a competitive sport. Just be happy and leave us alone, fuck.
Like yo, I'm really sorry that their county has the highest number of covid deaths, and that no one followed the rules and now the hospitals are full. That's very tragic, and I won't bring that up because it would be extremely tasteless to kick them while they're down. And I'm sorry if it angers them that we're doing okay covid-wise compared to most of the country despite having one of the highest population densities. They should be happy they live near a city that will transfer them to our hospitals when theirs gets full instead of shitting on us maybe. Sorry we're responsible? Sorry I live in a place with free healthcare for all residents regardless of immigration status. We voted for it! We pay taxes for it. We moved here because we wanted those things. If they wanna live here they can too! No one is stopping them from leaving their towns. We're not some walled medieval city. All are welcome!
I have plenty of complaints about living in the city, as I would in any city, mostly to do with noise. But man I sure wouldn't trade places with the people trying to slight my city all the time because they're mad they don't live here or whatever. If they were happy with where they are, they wouldn't act so childish. Maybe they should address the problems in their own towns before making assumptions about mine to make them feel better about themselves.
My small town friend did the same thing at the start of covid, sending me an article from their county accusing my mayor of copying their mayor's idea of how to reduce covid deaths.
1. That's petty, and
2. if she is saving lives, why would anyone be angry or competitive about that? She never was like "This is my idea I came up with it all by myself." No, she and other politicians communicated with each other about it like goddamn adults and both decided xyz was the smarter plan to save lives. We're neighboring cities -- so it's important to be on the same page. Who fucking cares who thought of it first. If it saves lives, shut up and DO IT.
I think about whether to move all the time, mainly because I am from a rural town and I miss raising chickens and having a garden somewhere quiet. But leaving the city would be HARD because I built a whole community here and that takes a long time for an introvert, and I would miss it after probably four days. I love the convenience of any delivery I could possibly want. I love having the world at my fingertips and that we're in a very cosmopolitan place while also being so close to nature. My city is beautiful with a climate that agrees with me, we have very high ethical standards, quality of life, diversity, and other things that make this place an agreeable match for who I am as a person. Which is why I moved here 15 years ago and haven't been able to leave since.
We'll see. Maybe someday I'll move somewhere not far away so I can do all my favorite things here on weekends. Or move to a more sparsely populated place somewhere similar to here in spirit. But every time I think of it I panic a little. Because I know as soon as I leave I'll want to come running back and get all nostalgic and sentimental like I do about basically everything.
Whenever someone from either of my previous towns tries to talk shit on my city it really makes me want to stay, because this is what I'd have to go back to, if I ever went back home. I'd forever be the person from the city, hahaha she cares about the environment, you should eat more GMOs, or whatever the fuck. They say you can never go back home. It's true, in that I changed, but they didn't. Which is fine, I love where I'm from till the day I die, but, my worldview has expanded in ways that can make it challenging to have a comfortable conversation with people who might for example make racist comments or gay jokes and think that's okay.
I moved because this was my Jerusalem in terms of politics and individual expression. I learned sooo much here and such a wide variety of interesting experiences that I feel like I lived 100 lifetimes, good and bad, but mostly so good. I've taken this city for granted so much when really I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to be able to live here. Maybe I'm easily offended when my city is criticized because I have a whole history here going back a few generations. When I walk these streets it's not even just about politics or living somewhere cool because it's also about how I feel the ghosts of my ancestors in these streets. I hear the stories my grandpa told me about the day he saved his cousin's life at that pier, or how my great great grandma was a working actress. I visit their graves here at least twice a year and I need to, because I don't have a mom to go to for support or any living family here. My family are ghosts on my street and under the earth.
I 99.9% believe that quantum physics thing that says that all of time, past, present and future, all coexist simultaneously. They are here with me and I am with them and this is and was our Jerusalem and if you even think about talking shit on my home which is sacred to me and many other people, I'll.... I don't know what I'll do but I have a lot of scorpio in my astrological chart lol do you really wanna test me? :D
3:37 p.m. - 2021-01-19