thoughtless

Driving back to work today, I realized, for the second time in two days, that I hadn't had to think about where to turn. I didn't check street signs. I didn't watch for that one store. I just turned, without thought, onto the right street.

I think I do that automatically in my hometown in Michigan. Very rarely do I have to look for street signs. I did it automatically in Rwanda. Most of the time, I even do it automatically when I'm driving back in Gone West, except for those three streets downtown whose order I never will get right, no matter how many years I spend here. But in Universe City, a new town and one in which so much of the town is made up of neighborhoods, just house after house after house, I still have to check the signs, even on a couple of the turns on my drive to work.

I felt almost affectionate about Universe City for a few minutes after that. I don't mind the place, really. It's only when I come to Gone West, when I remember what I'm missing, that I want to leave it. Mostly it's work and FIGHT class and friends and home, and actually I haven't spent a weekend there alone since the weekend that I moved and then three weeks before that. I'm too busy not to like the place where I live.