When I woke up this morning, I made a pot of coffee.  Out of habit I stepped outside with my hot coffee to take a gander at the outside world.  I was reminded of something that I miss about living in an ultra urban environment.

At 7:00am a city is waking up with the introduction of daylight.  The sun peaks over the horizon and through the gaps in buildings.  The sound of car horns and delivery trucks accelerating down thoroughfares create the urban sound scape that I find myself missing these days.  People flowing in and out of coffee shops, riding trains and buses, all determined to arrive at their destinations on time, awake and ready for the day.  Taxi drivers weaving around on the verge of a catastrophic accident.  Oh, I miss it!

Admittedly, I am a morning person.  I am also a night person.  Since I have been in Cincinnati for over a year, I am beginning to realize that this city lacks so many of the things that I took for granted in Chicago.  Well, it actually lacks everything that I liked about Chicago, and I have known this for a while now.  Sorry Cincinnati but you suck.  Actually, I am not sorry.  You should be sorry for sucking so much.

Anyway…I have attempted to wake up and hit a coffee shop here in the suburbs of Cincinnati.  I wake up and have to hop in my car to go anywhere.  That in itself is one of those things that I miss…I miss walking.  I drive to the nearest coffee shop.  I find myself in the company of women with minivans, dressed in workout clothes chatting about having just dropping their children off at school.  Men in suits preparing to yell at their little workers.

Where are the creative early risers going out for coffee and inspiration?  Oh yeah, they don’t live here.

I miss people starting the day with a purpose.  Their purpose being personal growth, knowledge, experimentation in the world…True productivity.  I miss the mixture of people, characters, and events.  I just feel like everyone here only has one purpose: Get married, have kids, go to Disney World, and call it a life.  Pardon my ignorance, I just cannot relate.

In case you didn’t know, I’m ridiculous.

I am pretty sure the lesson here is this: When the simplest and most mundane things irritate you about where you live, it is time to move on.  Minneapolis has my name on it (but you knew that already, didn’t you?).

(Photo: Downtown Cincinnati around noon on a Saturday.  Notice that the streets are nearly empty.)