Atrophy...

The other day we were driving happily along, on our way to go hiking. We had to make a stop on the way, and as we were pulling out of the parking lot, The Good.Sport says, "When we move back to the mainland, we're going to have to learn to parallel park all over again!"

It is true. I have parallel parked approximately twice in the last six months.

Not that I was ever a parallel parking rockstar to begin with, mind you.

Oh man am I ever going to be in serious trouble back in DC.

So, along with the atrophy of my parallel park muscles, I've been thinking about what else has changed since I've moved here. You see, I am a City Girl.

At least, I was.

With the exception of a blissful year in Eastern North Carolina, I have always lived in a major metropolitan area. I did spend 6 years in what is TECHNICALLY a suburb of DC, but I was two metro stops outside the actual "city" and the area was pretty hoppin' itself, so I still consider that "urban."

Our car-sharing, dog-walking, walk-to-the-grocery-stor-ing ways were normal.

Here we're straight up anomalies. People shudder a little when they learn we share a car. They look at me like I have 4 heads when I mention walking to the grocery store. Because the area we live in what is probably known elsewhere as a "suburb." I prefer to think of it as a town all its own, but it's odd here. I've rejected the suburban lifestyle my entire life. And yet, here I am, happy as a clam in a land without parallel parking.

I think that part of it is that we can still walk to the grocery store. And Starbucks. Phew, we're not without civilization here! And I can walk to a bus that will get me to work in under an hour. That's not too shabby, considering that when I lived IN DC, my 9-mile commute could take 90 minutes by public transportation if I had bad timing that day. From our home we can also walk to two drugstores, a post office, a small mall that has a few decent stores and a movie theater, and a bunch of local eateries. To me, living in walking distance of these modern-day perks means we're still "urban" - I guess because in my head "The Suburbs" is a mythical place where everyone has a garage (uh oh - check) and you have to drive at least 15 minutes to get to anything that isn't a housing subdivision. In The Suburbs, there aren't any sidewalks, and the only "local" eatery is a chain restaurant smack in the middle of the parking lot where you can also find a shopping center full of shiny new big-box stores.

But really it's a 20-minute drive "into town" without traffic. We live in the suburbs. And recently I've begun to think, "You know, moving out of the city and into a slightly larger home when we move back to the mainland might not be so bad..."


WHO AM I AND WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH ME???


So I guess my city muscles are beginning to atrophy along with my parallel parking muscles. I suppose they are an opposing pair, each needing the other to function. I think I'm also losing tone in my subway-riding, somber-commuting, accept-of-tiny-condo-ing and umbrella-dodging muscles.

Is this how it happens? One minute you're blissfully living in a teeny apartment, being forced to suit up to go walk your dog (because in the city you don't have a yard to let her out in), grumbling when you get home after 7 and can't find street parking, and being lulled to sleep by the sweet sounds of car horns and sirens.

The next you live in a complex with a pool, you have a garage to store things in and a reserved parking spot, and while you still have to physically walk your dog, you are awoken by roosters (yes. roosters.) and the occasional C-17 doing pattern work.

And suddenly you can no longer parallel park.

Holy crap.