Holy Toledo

When I left Toledo, it was just one big smelly city with a lot of negative aspects to it. Now, oddly enough, I kind of miss it.
What on earth is there to miss about a pothole-laden, poor, riot-starting city? Well, now that you asked ... I miss knowing where places are. I miss feeling superior to the freshmen at the University of Toledo because I didn't get lost downtown.
I miss the grace periods of my school loans. All $20,000 of them. Make that $28,000 with interest. Dang.
I miss knowing about Toledo politics, and being a small part of that network.
I miss some of the people, like the people with whom I worked at the Independent Collegian. Oddly enough, I don't miss the newspaper like I thought I would. When I was there, I lived there. I had a toothbrush, facewash and pajamas in my drawer. I'm not even kidding. Maybe I don't miss it because I have a new newspaper job. Perhaps I don't miss it because I'm glad I can keep my toothbrush at home.
I don't miss the reminders of stupid decisions I made - and I made a lot of them. I stayed in a four-year relationship because I was scared of hurting him - and ended up hurting him anyway. Got really drunk one time outside of Rob's house. Not real proud of that night. Got into bicker-ments with friends. Got chased by a raging lunatic who followed us off I-75 in his red(neck) truck to try to kill Dave, Rob and I because we weren't driving fast enough for him. I don't miss that.
College seemed to take FOR-EV-ER when I was in it. Now it seems to have gone fast. No, that's a lie. It seems to have gone by not so slow as I thought. Not fast. It didn't go fast.
When I think of Toledo, I get the same feeling as someone who broke up with someone -- when I hear about it, my heart races and my ears perk up. Then I remember I'm not supposed to have such strong feelings about it anymore. Dang.