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How Returning to Universe City Goes With No Car:

Take train to downtown Gone West City. Wait for bus. Line up to get on bus. Sit on overly-airfreshened bus for two and a half hours, listening to iPod because reading makes me sick, as if the overly-airfreshened air did not already make everyone sick. Watch little towns go by, resenting them for causing the bus to get off the highway and detour through them to their bus stations. Get off bus in Universe City. Get a cab because the buses either 1. aren't running or 2. are too far away to walk to in the dark alone. Pay cabbie $11. Lug everything into house. Realize I have no milk for breakfast tomorrow. Curse this town.

How Returning to Universe City Goes With A Car:

Hug S. and N. Get in car. Drive two hours while talking on phone with sister and/or listening to music. Get off highway. Stop at Trader Joe's to pick up milk and butter. Drive home in the warm car. Take everything out of the car and carry it inside. Feel surprisingly charitable toward this town.