Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood

I am just beginning to appreciate that as I age, I am becoming increasingly aware of my preferences as well as my non negotiables. Those things that I cannot, or will not settle without, as well as those that after years of trial and error I have grown to realize do not have a place in the contented niche I am steadily creating for myself.

Some of these may seem insignificant to others: for example, mushrooms are unacceptable vegetables unless accompanied, even tangentially, by steak; if I'm ever lucky enough to get engaged, I sure would really like me one of those rul purty pricess-cut diamonds; boy short underwear has no place on this body.

Others are more substantial: you will never be a part of my true inner circle should you not adhere to the basics of the Human Handbook. Chapter 1, Saying Thank You is the Appropriate Response to Receiving a Gift/Generous Offer/Compliment. Oh, and Chapter 2, Step Outside of Yourself and Think About How Your Words and Actions Affect Those Around You, with a section devoted specifically to Asshat, How Did You End Up Lacking the Empathy Gene? Please don't get me started on forgetting on more than one occasion that we've been introduced, fat jokes, never fully paying your portion of the tab, or homophobia. It doesn't take that much thought to do the right thing, people.

Confirmed again on Sunday was my non negotiable to live in or near a major city. While out walking I simply turned a corner and happened upon a street fair in DC, and was overhwelmed by just how thrilled my each and every sense was. Smells of jerk chicken and freshly-cut orchids and funnel cake traded places in the air. The sounds of a band competed with laughter, a vendor praising the virtues of his Lo Mein, and the occasional police siren. The colors of the faces in the crowd were too numerous to count. There was hardly any room to move between tables, and I brushed nearly every second against a stroller (I know) or a newly-purchased bouquet or an political volunteer with a flyer sure to sway me. And so I sat in the last patch of remaining pavement and soaked in a bbq pulled pork sandwich, a book, and a little bit of the beauty of my city.

For many years, I lived the alternative, and for a combination of reasons, I find the prospect of living in a place where people don't lock their doors much more frightening than Option A. I cannot imagine looking into the night and not seeing a neighboring house or hearing a car coming down the street. I cringe when I think of the extent of my local news once being "cutting" coverage of the county meeting and teen vandals and the groundbreaking for the new Shoney's. I don't appreciate continuous quiet and I surely don't know how to stroll. I know that such a life would suck the very life out of me.

And so I will choose for life a non negotiable of staying in a city, with my sirens and street parking and $400,000 for a one bedroom??? And let's not forget traffic and is it legal for corner stores to mark up Laughing Cow/Yellow Tail/Playtex by 50%?

Days like yesterday make it all worth it.