Minnesota

I'm back in Minnesota for the weekend. Whenever I come back I'm always struck by how organic the air smells and how dark green everything is here. Contrary to what much of the country thinks about New York -- and Brooklyn specifically -- it's not all pavement and bricks. But that is much of it. And what there is of foliage isn't nearly so lush and foresty as it is in Minnesota. The trees here are literally many shades darker green.

I woke up yesterday to the sounds of lawnmowers, the occasional freight train, a construction crew, and a Bobcat backing up and shaking out its bucket. That instead of pile drivers, rush hour traffic, a neighboring day care, and frequent sirens.

After months of subways and apartments, it's always strange to ride in a car and walk up the private interior stairs of a large single-family dwelling. Seeing houses isn't strange; we have plenty of those in Brooklyn -- even on my street. Being inside of houses is strange.

I'm always excited to be here for the first couple of days. I always think about how nice it would be to own a car again, to drive for pleasure. Maybe to buy a small house with a yard and a garage. But then I settle into how I used to be here, and I get complacent. I stop noticing little things and I start thinking about how quiet it is here. How sparsely populated it is. I moved to New York for a lot of reasons, but one of the simplest was this: there's a lot going on there, and I felt left out. I didn't want to miss anything.

I don't feel like I'm missing anything here in Minnesota. Sure I miss my people, but with mobile phones and the Internet, I can keep up with them just fine. And I have two friends who have visited me at least twice. That's the advantage of being in the place that everything happens -- your friends will always want to visit.

I go back tomorrow morning, but then I'm back next weekend for a wedding.