2nd 30 Day Letter Challenge: Day 14--Letter to Your Favorite City

Dear Chicago,

I have to be honest, I was worried about meeting you. Before I left I wondered who I had become, how I could agree to spend so much time with you before I even knew you. I'd had bad experiences with cities before and didn't think I could grow to be that kind of girl. I'll admit it, I used to discriminate against cities; I talked shit about y'all all the time.
And then I met you...and for the first two weeks or so, I hated you. I was scared and I was lonely and I thought all my stereotypes about places like you were coming true. Then I stopped being a little bitch and decided to get out of my comfort zone of home and work, even if that meant exploring by myself, which was a RADICAL concept at the time. 
And a few weeks later, you had totally and completely enchanted me. Suddenly I was using Google Maps to take a series of trains and buses like you were my turf, exploring your countless festivals and street fairs and museums on free days. I went to your parks and swam in your lake--which, btw, totally revolutionized everything I thought of lakes as being--and made a bucket list I didn't come close to finishing. You gave me friendships like I'd never had before, showed me what happens when you play along with random somewhat sketchy guys you meet in public places, taught me to be entirely comfortable with public transportation (who knew you could like standing on the subway? It reminds me of what I imagine surfing would feel like...), gave me my first club experience, got me to experience art, and taught me to be less afraid of the dark. KO told me once about his "DC-face," a serious look he had to put on to ride the train to work in that city, and I guess you inspired something similar in me, Chicago: you taught me to look uncertainty in the face bravely. You taught me to make short-term plans and act on them. You taught me how not to look lost and how to understand North, South, East, and West finally. You taught me to be okay doing things by myself, which is invaluable. You also gave me the second experience of my life in which I was surrounded entirely by strangers and had to make friends. You introduced me to artisan jewelers, Arts Districts, FARMERS MARKETS, and taught me to make earrings and bracelets and to belly dance and to salsa and opened me to the fact that naturals had a real-world community off the internet. You gave me free concerts and strange pizza and Greek, Indian, and African foods for the first time. Oh and brie! You gave me a rich mentor who had a part-time apartment bigger than my house in NJ, along with my first country club experience and a VIP pass to visit the Natural History museum after-hours. You made me stop giving a shit about rain. You introduced me to BLACK schools with black teachers and staff, a concept that blew my mind. You got me to talk to high school kids without feeling totally awkward. You gave me my first real-world work experiences. For the first time in my life, I felt totally independent, and I will always treasure you for that.  You made me feel GROWN.
I can't wait to see you again, Chicago. I was so jealous when KO got to visit you. Perks of living in corn-country, I suppose. We will meet again. Maybe for grad school if I can build up a tolerance for snow...

Affectionately,

Maya

PS: Don't tell New Brunswick, but it just can't compare to you. 
PPS: Oh, how I wish I had been 21 when we were together... 

2nd 30 Day Letter Challenge--Day Eight: Letter to a Food You've Been Craving Recently

Dear Home-Cooked Meals,

I suppose you're technically a bending of the rules for this letter, because you aren't a particular food, but nevertheless I've been craving you recently. It's not that I particularly enjoy cooking, because I don't (no offense), but a) I'd like to show the skeptics that I can make you, that I have the ability to make real meals from ingredients instead of from bags in a freezer, b) I want the satisfaction that comes with eating something that I spent the time making, as opposed to a-glorified-version-of-defrosting-ing, and c) because I somehow forgot to purchase much frozen food when T and I were at ShopRite yesterday (possibly a function of how much of a rush she was in to get off the frozen food aisle because she was cold due to a lack of appropriate clothing, which happens to her often, haha) which means I need to start actually making you or I will starve.
And so I came home last night, took a quick shower followed by a leisurely bath (don't judge me), and once I was feeling all clean and pampered, I made my way to the kitchen to cook you. And I got out a pot and a lid and began searching the cabinets for a measuring cup to measure out the water to boil to make my rice. I found more pots and pans than I can ever imagine needing, a George Forman grill, a colander, a mixing bowl, lots of ice trays, a blender, a cookie sheet (which was good since I bought cookie dough yesterday), lots of solid measuring cups, etc....but a liquid measuring cup was nowhere to be found. It was a disaster! My basic understanding of cooking is of it as a science (sadly, I am neither skilled nor interested enough to view it as an art), and science needs measurement. I hung my head in disappointment, and ate a sandwich.
Then today I embarked on a mission to find a dollar store, from which I could purchase a measuring cup and maybe some other make-my-life-easier household objects. I wrote down my walking directions from Google maps and set out to walk a mile in the near 80 degree weather, determined to find a measuring cup and cook you at last, dear home cooked meals! On the way there, my had-been-dying-for-about-a-week-now headphones finally gave out, which I should have taken as a bad omen. I got to step five of my directions and was perplexed because I didn't remember thinking that there would be much distance between steps 5 and 6. I persisted, I was on a mission to find what I needed to have you at last! Then I eventually realized I'd been walking for about half an hour, on a trip that should have taken 18 minutes, and I relented and admitted defeat. I hung my head again, and turned around to go home, comforted by the boyfriend's desire for me not to get lost. 
It turns out I had forgotten to write down a step, and had been walking parallel to the street I needed to end up on for about 15 minutes. THE MEASURING CUP WAS WITHIN A BLOCK OF ME AND I NEVER FOUND IT. But now I know where I made my mistake, and tomorrow, MEASURING CUP WILL BE MINE. AND THEN SO WILL YOU.

So simple, yet soooooo elusive.

That's a promise.

Maya   

So I Probably Should Have Realized this Sooner...

...but there are hella black people in Chicago! The high school my company is based in is 94% African-American. It kind of just hit me today that every student who wanders into my office during the day is black! As a person who barely even talked to any other black people during high school, this is CRAZY WEIRD. 

You know what else is weird? Catching the bus in the morning alongside little like, 12 year olds on their way to middle school, when they're soooo much more comfortable and confident in where they're going than I am.

This kind of makes me wonder who I would be if I'd grown up in a city...and who I'll be after Chicago leaves its mark on me...

P.S.--Hella black folks includes hella fine-ass black men, at least from what I saw on the train today! I might hafta go out on the prowl, haha!