A reply to Mary's contentions about New Jersey vs. the Midwest, from a fellow East-Coast transplant (although granted, I'm from Delaware, which is a little different.)

• No longer living in the Midwest. ... There is also absolutely nothing outside of the Chicago metropolitan area. If you drive an hour west, you’re already in farm country. Keep going and you won’t go through anything resembling a city until you hit Denver.
  I hear you, sister. The one great thing about Delaware is that it's close to so much -- three hours from New York, two hours from DC, half an hour to Philly... While I do count Minneapolis and St. Louis as cities, you still have to drive five to seven hours to get here from there, which is just silly. No quick day trips around here. (Yes, Madison is cool, but let's face it, it's not New York or DC -- or even Philly.)
  


• Being in a place where everyone has an attitude. I believe I have been falsely categorized as a cold-hearted bitch. These corn-fed Midwesterners are simply too bland to understand the subtle irony that underlies my sardonic wit. It’s easier to label me “scary” and “confrontational” than to peel back my toughened outer personality layers and get to know the shy and vulnerable woman underneath. I feel. I yearn. I cry. Okay, it was a Brit and not a Midwesterner who called me “scary” but you understand my point nonetheless.
  When I first got out here, I was the cold east-coast bitch for a while but it's been supplanted by at least a degree of Midwestern niceness. I gotta say, that's something I like about Chicago -- you ask for directions here, and you'll probably get them. Try that in New York, and you'll get hostility, more often than not.
  


• Going down the shore.... how anyone swims in Lake Michigan is beyond me because it is filthy and smells like dead fish. Just last week, a billion gallons of sewage got dumped into it from the Chicago River as a result of heavy rain. All of which ended up on the beaches and in our drinking water. Blech. Ocean and boardwalks and saltwater taffy and carnival games and big hair here I come.
  OK, here I've got to take issue: I've been to the Jersey shore, I remember the Jersey shore well, and while you can say many things about it -- it's lots of fun, there are actual waves, the boardwalks, etc. are cool, blah blah blah, you really, really cannot hold the Jersey Shore up as a paragon of cleanliness. I mean, come one -- I remember the news stories about medical waste -- used syringes and god knows what else -- washing up in South Jersey on some really great beaches. So, um, try again, that argument won't wash.
  


• Getting my accent back. Say what you will about Jersey speak, but I miss it. When I first moved here, I had to drop the accent quickly because everyone laughed at me. They also found it extremely amusing to repeat whatever I said. It was difficult to learn to say “go with me” instead of “go wit me” and “I’m from Newark” instead of “I’m from Nork.” However, I still say “wauter” rather than “wahter” and “tour-nament” rather than “ter-nament” and “rooof” rather than “ruf.” I don’t think it will take too long to slide back into old habits.
  I've never really kept an east-coast accent of my own (thank God -- the Delaware accent is pretty horrid -- my parents say when I was about 2 years old I used to hide behind the couch and jump out to scare my dad, yelling "Be-eww!" which is apparently the Delaware version of "Boo." I did, however, pick up a Minnesota "O" by mocking my college roommate from Minneapolis, who, by the way, did not talk like that at all. Sigh.

What I miss about the East Coast: hills, the ocean, being close to so much, feeling like you were in the center of everything, the history, my family and friends, fall on the hillsides. What I don't miss: being in a the suburbs (where I grew up was pretty damn suburban), that particular brand of suburban sprawl we get out there, old money snobbery, feeling like I'm still in high school, dealing with New Yorkers. What I love about Chicago: the people for the most part, the attitudes, the neighborhoods, the parks, the lake (still not the ocean, but it'll do), the flexibility, the crazy politics, the restaurants and theaters, my friends here. I'll leave what I miss about Hong Kong for another day.

It's starting to rain here, so I feel I must go look at my ceiling to see if there are any drips. I warned the tenants in the basement that there may still be some leakage, as we haven't fixed the problem yet. I'm thinking we're going to go with the fill-in-the-dip strategy, but I want to check with the city first.