so it's not really a secret right now that I've fallen for Boston - for living in the city, running by the river, hearing the train going past fourteen floors below my window every night, public transportation, two hockey rinks within four blocks of each other, seeing Fenway from my window, Dunkin Donuts everywhere, being around people who for the most part are not from around here. I love it.

but. I still want to go everywhere. I want my car and I want to drive west. I have spent twenty days of my life west of Chicago, and while that's pretty damn good, and I know I've been lucky, it really just means that as much as I love it here in Red Sox Nation (because this is a baseball town even in the winter, the Bruins get no love compared to the Pens), of course I want to go back west. I spent a grand total of three days in New Mexico, yet I'm managing to miss it. New Mexico, Colorado, California, Oregon, I'm telling you, all I want next summer is to go back. and drive back so I can really see what's in between, and not just as neat little Midwestern squares as I fly over.

I've seen the Northeast. I've seen every blue state east of Illinois and north of Virginia (except, I think, Vermont), and I want a change of scenery. if only to make me miss home again (and whether I mean home in Boston or home in Greensburg I don't rightly know).