It’s no secret anymore that for the past 5 weeks I have been living with my parents in Jersey. While it’s not the time or the place to get into why I am living here with Ivy, I felt the need to blog about something other than Ivy’s Physical therapy which let’s face it is getting bor-ring. (Though she continues to make improvements so yay!)
So I just wanted to share a few observations I have made about suburban life over these past few weeks. Now, mind you I grew up in the suburbs but moved out at 19, so there’s a lot in my adult life to get used to in regard to living here.
The first is the driving. Oh holy hell, the driving. I used to have driver guilt in Brooklyn. Like when I’d take the car to the grocery store or to go pick up Ivy I always felt like a fool for wasting gas. But here I drive freaking everywhere. It’s so annoying. Like, the grocery store that is close by. It might be a reasonable walk except that there is a highway and no adequate sidewalks to get me there. It kills me because it’s literally like a 3 minute drive and I am there all the time. I should interject here to say that in Brooklyn I totally drove to the middle of nowhere on the waterfront fancy grocery store to do a big weekly shop, but – BUT! if I needed milk I could always go around the corner or walk 3 blocks to get some. Now it requires a drive. There are several places I can walk to, like the post office or the drugstore but really how often am I going to the post office?!?
The other driving thing that kills me here is the school children and their bus stop. There is a bus stop to the local elementary school at the top of the road here. I would like to point out here that this school is closer to my house than the grocery store and when I was young I used to walk there. Ahem. But the lazy kids getting the bus to school is not really the point here. The thing that annoys the living crap outta me is this: parents that live like 1 block away from the bus stop drive their freaking children one block to the bus stop then drive back home after dropping them off. I see that some of the kids are young, and sometimes it’s raining but for fucks sake people, really?!?! Walk your damn kid one block to the bus.
Luckily there are several parks and a nice walking trail close by that I can my walking fix in. My friend actually keeps making fun of me because he says I walk to fast and look suspicious like I just stole the kid in the stroller I’m pushing way too fast. I’m working on my suburban stride but damn it’s hard. As a person who used to pretty much walk to get everywhere I am used to walking with a purpose not just strolling along enjoying the day. I really need to do more of that.
A Baby Grows in Brooklyn 